Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters Part 38

FOOTNOTES:

[257] 'Pengird' in _Brabourne_, but surely a misprint. Cf. _Brabourne_, ii. pp. 199, 266. Mme. Perigord and Mme. Bigeon were two of Eliza's French servants who stayed on with Henry until he moved to Hans Place.

[258] Lady Robert Kerr, whom Henry met in Scotland, and to whom he divulged the secret of his sister's authors.h.i.+p.

[259] Lizzie and Marianne Knight.

[260] Part of his duties as Receiver of Oxfords.h.i.+re.

[261] These sisters were daughters of the Master of Balliol; and Mrs.

Leigh was married to her first cousin, the Rev. Thomas Leigh, who succeeded to Stoneleigh. (See Leigh pedigree.)

[262] Madame d'Arblay to Dr. Burney, June 18, 1795.

[263] The keeper at Chawton.

[264] The Rector of G.o.dmersham.

[265] _The Wanderer._

[266] _Sailor Brothers_, p. 243.

[267] To be allowed to use the names of some of his s.h.i.+ps in _Mansfield Park_.

[268] The old nurse at G.o.dmersham.

[269] Stephen Rumbold Lus.h.i.+ngton, M.P. for Rye, 1807-12, and for Canterbury, 1812-30, and 1835-37; Privy Councillor; Governor of Madras.

[270] At Ashford; 'she' is f.a.n.n.y.

[271] Charles and his party. He was now on the _Namur_ as flag-captain to Sir Thomas Williams, and his wife and two small children were living with him on board.

[272] See p. 238. Mrs. Crabbe did not die until October 31, 1813 according to the _Dictionary of National Biography_.

[273] Afterwards Earl of Winchilsea.

[274] Sister to Mrs. Lefroy.

[275] Probably, of _Pride and Prejudice_.

[276] Probably Miss Elizabeth Hamilton (1758-1816), author of _The Cottagers of Glenburnie_, &c.

[277] (?) Battle of Leipzig, October 16-19, 1813.

[278] Also, one of _Pride and Prejudice_.

[279] Begun about Feb. 1811.

[280] Quoted by Miss Hill, p. 202.

[281] _The Heroine, or the Adventures of Cherubina_, by E. S. Barrett (2nd ed. 1814): a satire on Mrs. Radcliffe, in which a conspicuous part is played by an impostor called 'Whylome Eftsoons.'

[282] It is said to have been the hardest winter known for twenty years (_Brabourne_, vol. ii. p. 218).

[283] Kean had made his first appearance at Drury Lane on January 26, 1814, and had immediately taken the town by storm.

[284] Edward Knight and his daughter f.a.n.n.y were to arrive that day.

[285] See p. 311.

[286] No doubt there were other cases in which particular traits of character were taken from those around her. Her brother Francis certainly thought that the domestic industry of Captain Harville (in _Persuasion_) was copied from himself. (Addenda to _Sailor Brothers_.)

[287] The _Memoir_ calls it 'one pound.' The difference is not material, but Mrs. Norris would probably not be above giving herself the benefit of the doubt.

CHAPTER XVII

_EMMA_

1814-1815

The last letter but one of the foregoing chapter contains two sentences mentioning the writer's brother, Mr. Knight, which will help us to carry on our story.

Writing on March 5, 1814, Jane says: 'It is a nasty day for everybody.

Edward's spirits will be wanting suns.h.i.+ne, and here is nothing but thickness and sleet'; and towards the conclusion of the same letter we find the following: 'Perhaps you have not heard that Edward has a good chance of escaping his lawsuit. His opponent "knocks under." The terms of agreement are not quite settled.'

There can, we think, be little doubt that both pa.s.sages--the depressed and the hopeful--refer to a claim over Edward's Hamps.h.i.+re property made by some of the heirs-at-law of the former Knight family whom the Brodnaxes of G.o.dmersham had succeeded. Unfortunately, the cheerful forecast contained in the second pa.s.sage did not prove to be in accordance with the facts. The lawsuit hung on for three years and was then compromised by Mr. Knight's paying a large sum of money.[288]

Perhaps the claim also had its influence in producing the one unflattering estimate of Jane which we shall have to lay before the reader.

Miss Mitford was a convinced--but apparently a reluctant--admirer of her genius; and she dwells without disguise on what she considers the want of taste in _Pride and Prejudice_, though even here she adds that Miss Austen 'wants nothing but the _beau ideal_ of the female character to be a perfect novel writer.'

In another letter she refers to her mother's unfavourable reminiscences of Jane Austen as a husband-hunter; although Mrs. Mitford's remark must (as we have already pointed out[289]) have been based on an entire misrepresentation, owing to Jane's youthful age at the time when that lady could have known her.

She proceeds thus:--

A friend of mine who visits her now, says that she has stiffened into the most perpendicular, precise, taciturn piece of 'single blessedness'

that ever existed, and that, till _Pride and Prejudice_ showed what a precious gem was hidden in that unbending case, she was no more regarded in society than a poker or a fire-screen, or any other thin, upright piece of wood or iron that fills the corner in peace and quietness. The case is very different now: she is still a poker--but a poker of whom every one is afraid. It must be confessed that this silent observation from such an observer is rather formidable. Most writers are good-humoured chatterers--neither very wise nor very witty; but nine times out of ten (at least in the few that I have known) unaffected and pleasant, and quite removing by their conversation any fear that may have been excited by their works. But a wit, a delineator of character, who does not talk, is terrific indeed!

Miss Mitford has, however, the candour to add a qualification which diminishes the force of her earlier remarks, and bears upon our present subject. She says:--

After all, I do not know that I can quite vouch for this account, though the friend from whom I received it is truth itself; but her family connexions must render her disagreeable to Miss Austen, since she is the sister-in-law of a gentleman who is at law with Miss A.'s brother for the greater part of his fortune. You must have remarked how much her stories hinge upon entailed estates--doubtless she has learnt to dislike entails. Her brother was adopted by a Mr. Knight, who left him his name and two much better legacies in an estate of five thousand a year in Kent, and another of nearly double the value in Hamps.h.i.+re; but it seems he forgot some ceremony--pa.s.sing a fine, I think they call it--with regard to the Hamps.h.i.+re property, which Mr. Baverstock has claimed in right of his mother, together with the mesne rents, and is likely to be successful.[290]

Miss Mitford, indeed, could hardly have done less, after repeating this somewhat spiteful gossip, than mention the hostile quarter from which it arose. We have considered it right to quote part of it, as the writer is an author of some note: but we venture to think that those readers who have accompanied us so far will believe that Jane was guilty of nothing worse than being shy, and talking but little among strangers; and that such strangers as knew something of her literary ability believed, but were quite wrong in believing, that she was taking stock of their peculiarities with a view to introducing them into her next novel.