Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters Part 24

You are very kind in mentioning old Mrs. Williams so often. Poor creature! I cannot help hoping that each letter may tell of her suffering being over.

If she wants sugar I should like to supply her with it.

I give you all joy of Frank's return, which happens in the true sailor way, just after our being told not to expect him for some weeks. The wind has been very much against him, but I suppose he must be in our neighbourhood by this time. f.a.n.n.y is in hourly expectation of him here.

Mary's visit in the island is probably shortened by this event. Make our kind love and congratulations to her.

James and Edward are gone to Sandling to-day--a nice scheme for James, as it will show him a new and fine country. Edward certainly excels in doing the honours to his visitors, and providing for their amus.e.m.e.nt. They come back this evening.

It is pleasant to be among people who know one's connections and care about them, and it amuses me to hear John Bridges talk of 'Frank.' I have thought a little of writing to the Downs, but I shall not, it is so very certain that he would be somewhere else when my letter got there.

_Friday, July 1._--It will be two years to-morrow since we left Bath for Clifton, with what happy feelings of escape!

In another week I shall be at home, and there, my having been at G.o.dmersham will seem like a dream, as my visit to Brompton seems already.

The orange wine will want our care soon. But in the meantime, for elegance and ease and luxury, the Hattons and the Milles' dine here to-day, and I shall eat ice and drink French wine, and be above vulgar economy. Luckily the pleasures of friends.h.i.+p, of unreserved conversation, of similarity of taste and opinions, will make good amends for orange wine.

Little Edward is quite well again.

Yours affectionately, with love from all, J. A.

FOOTNOTES:

[146] George (Hatton) was afterwards Earl of Winchilsea; Daniel was Rector of Great Weldon and Chaplain to Queen Victoria.

[147] Henry's banking premises were then in Albany, Piccadilly.

[148] At Ushant, after the chase of Villeneuve.

[149] The cricket dinner seems to have come at the end of the play, as it did in the celebrated match played at a somewhat later date in the same county between All-Muggleton and Dingley Dell (_Pickwick Papers_, chapter vii.).

[150] A letter from Mrs. Austen is extant, dated 'April 1806, Trim Street _still_.' Most writers state that the Austens went to Southampton towards the end of 1805--a year too early.

[151] Jane afterwards asked Frank's leave to introduce the names of some of his s.h.i.+ps (one of which was the _Canopus_) into _Mansfield Park_.

[152] This order is said to have been given to each squadron in succession; and it is evident that the s.h.i.+ps of Admiral Louis's squadron were especially likely to be in need of supplies, as they had taken their part in Nelson's chase of Villeneuve.

[153] _Sailor Brothers_, chaps. ix, x, and xi.

[154] See p. 208.

[155] See p. 70.

[156] Probably Joseph Hill--the frequent correspondent of the poet Cowper.

[157] Miss Mary Leigh left her property--in so far as she had any right to do so--in trust for (_a_) the Rev. Thomas Leigh; (_b_) James Leigh Perrot; (_c_) William Henry Leigh.

[158] Not to be confused with his uncle, Thomas Leigh, Rector of Harpsden and father of Mrs. Austen.

[159] See p. 201.

[160] This letter is quoted by Miss Hill, pp. 163-7.

[161] Unfortunately, Jane appears to date her letters merely 'Southampton,' until she moved to Castle Square.

[162] _Alphonsine_, by Madame de Genlis; _The Female Quixote_, published 1752, by Mrs. Charlotte Lennox, author of the phrase: 'A thought strikes me: let us swear an eternal friends.h.i.+p.'

[163] Miss Hill supplies us with the line from _The Task_, 'The Winter Walk at Noon,' ll. 149-50:--

'Laburnum rich In streaming gold; syringa, ivory pure.'

[164] The Austens were about to become Lord Lansdowne's tenants in Castle Square.

[165] Johnson to Boswell, July 4, 1774.--Birkbeck Hill's _Boswell_, ii.

279.

[166] Mr. John Austen of Broadford, under whose will the property at Horsmonden came into the possession of the family of 'Uncle Frank' on the failure of his own direct heirs. See Chapter I.

[167] _Letters from the Mountains: being the real Correspondence of a Lady, between 1773 and 1807_, by Mrs. Grant of Laggan.

[168] Probably _An Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy, etc._ London, 1768-9.

[169] _Memoir_, p. 77.

[170] _Ibid._ p. 140.

[171] _Brabourne_, vol. ii. p. 116.

[172] The Henry Austens were then living at 16 Michael's Place, Brompton--a row of houses on the site of the present Egerton Mansions.

[173] James having arrived by the coach before the others.

[174] Son and daughter of James.

[175] Mr. W. Fowle speaks of a visit to Steventon, when Jane read 'very sweetly' the first canto of _Marmion_. By that time she was no doubt a warm admirer of the poem.