Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters Part 33

The events of yesterday were, our going to Belgrave Chapel in the morning, our being prevented by the rain from going to evening service at St. James, Mr. Hampson's calling, Messrs. Barlow and Phillips[251] dining here, and Mr. and Mrs. Tilson's[252] coming in the evening _a l'ordinaire_. _She_ drank tea with us both Thursday and Sat.u.r.day; _he_ dined out each day, and on Friday we were with them, and they wish us to go to them to-morrow evening to meet Miss Burdett, but I do not know how it will end. Henry talks of a drive to Hampstead, which may interfere with it.

I should like to see Miss Burdett very well, but that I am rather frightened by hearing that she wishes to be introduced to _me_. If I _am_ a wild beast I cannot help it. It is not my own fault.

Get us the best weather you can for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We are to go to Windsor in our way to Henley, which will be a great delight.

We shall be leaving Sloane Street about 12, two or three hours after Charles's party have begun their journey. You will miss them, but the comfort of getting back into your own room will be great. And then the tea and sugar!

I am very much obliged to f.a.n.n.y for her letter; it made me laugh heartily, but I cannot pretend to answer it. Even had I more time, I should not feel at all sure of the sort of letter that Miss D.[253] would write. I hope Miss Benn is got well again, and will have a comfortable dinner with you to-day.

_Monday Evening._--We have been both to the exhibition and Sir J. Reynolds's, and I am disappointed, for there was nothing like Mrs. D.

at either. I can only imagine that Mr. D. prizes any picture of her too much to like it should be exposed to the public eye. I can imagine he would have that sort of feeling--that mixture of love, pride, and delicacy.

Setting aside this disappointment, I had great amus.e.m.e.nt among the pictures; and the driving about, the carriage being open, was very pleasant.

I liked my solitary elegance very much, and was ready to laugh all the time at my being where I was. I could not but feel that I had naturally small right to be parading about London in a barouche.

I should not wonder if we got no farther than Reading on Thursday evening, and so reach Steventon only to a reasonable dinner hour the next day; but whatever I may write or you may imagine we know it will be something different. I shall be quiet to-morrow morning; all my business is done, and I shall only call again upon Mrs.

Hoblyn, &c.

Yours affectionately, J. AUSTEN.

Miss Austen, Chawton.

A very happy summer awaited the cottage party. G.o.dmersham wanted painting, and its owner moved his family for some months to Chawton.

There were almost daily meetings between the two houses, and the friendship between f.a.n.n.y Knight and her Aunt Jane became still closer as they spent 'delicious mornings' together.

Meanwhile, Frank, in command of the _Elephant_, was stationed in the Baltic, and engaged sometimes in convoying small vessels backwards and forwards, sometimes in protecting the transports which took Bernadotte's Swedish troops to the seat of war.

The following letter from his sister Jane reached him no doubt in due course.

Chawton: [July 3, 1813].[254]

MY DEAREST FRANK,--Behold me going to write you as handsome a letter as I can! Wish me good luck. We have had the pleasure of hearing from you lately through Mary, who sent us some of the particulars of yours of June 18 (I think), written off Rugen, and we enter into the delight of your having so good a pilot. Why are you like Queen Elizabeth?

Because you know how to chuse wise ministers. Does not this prove you as great a Captain as she was a Queen? This may serve as a riddle for you to put forth among your officers, by way of increasing your proper consequence. It must be a real enjoyment to you, since you are obliged to leave England, to be where you are, seeing something of a new country and one which has been so distinguished as Sweden. You must have great pleasure in it. I hope you may have gone to Carlscroon. Your profession has its _douceurs_ to recompense for some of its privations; to an enquiring and observing mind like yours such _douceurs_ must be considerable. Gustavus Vasa, and Charles XII., and Cristina and Linneus. Do their ghosts rise up before you? I have a great respect for former Sweden, so zealous as it was for Protestantism. And I have always fancied it more like England than other countries; and, according to the map, many of the names have a strong resemblance to the English. July begins unpleasantly with us, cold and showery, but it is often a baddish month. We had some fine dry weather preceding it, which was very acceptable to the Holders of Hay, and the Masters of Meadows. In general it must have been a good hay-making season. Edward has got in all his in excellent order; I speak only of Chawton, but here he has better luck than Mr. Middleton ever had in the five years that he was tenant. Good encouragement for him to come again, and I really hope he will do so another year. The pleasure to us of having them here is so great that if we were not the best creatures in the world we should not deserve it.

We go on in the most comfortable way, very frequently dining together, and always meeting in some part of every day. Edward is very well, and enjoys himself as thoroughly as any Hampshire-born Austen can desire. Chawton is not thrown away upon him.

He will soon have all his children about him.

Edward, George and Charles are collected already, and another week brings Henry and William.

We are in hopes of another visit from our true lawful Henry very soon; he is to be our guest this time. He is quite well, I am happy to say, and does not leave it to my pen, I am sure, to communicate to you the joyful news of his being Deputy Receiver no longer. It is a promotion which he thoroughly enjoys, as well he may; the work of his own mind. He sends you all his own plans of course. The scheme for Scotland we think an excellent one both for himself and his nephew.[255] Upon the whole his spirits are very much recovered. If I may so express myself his mind is not a mind for affliction; he is too busy, too active, too sanguine. Sincerely as he was attached to poor Eliza moreover, and excellently as he behaved to her, he was always so used to be away from her at times, that her loss is not felt as that of many a beloved wife might be, especially when all the circ.u.mstances of her long and dreadful illness are taken into the account.

He very long knew that she must die, and it was indeed a release at last. Our mourning for her is not over, or we should be putting it on again for Mr. Thomas Leigh, who has just closed a good life at the age of seventy-nine.

Poor Mrs. L. P. [Leigh Perrot] would now have been mistress of Stoneleigh had there been none of the vile compromise, which in good truth has never been allowed to be of much use to them. It will be a hard trial.

You will be glad to hear that every copy of _S.

and S._ is sold, and that it has brought me 140, besides the copyright, if that should ever be of any value. I have now, therefore, written myself into 250,[256] which only makes me long for more.

I have something in hand which I hope the credit of _P. and P._ will sell well, though not half so entertaining, and by the bye shall you object to my mentioning the _Elephant_ in it, and two or three other old ships? I _have_ done it, but it shall not stay to make you angry. They are only just mentioned.

I hope you continue well and brush your hair, but not all off.

Yours very affectionately, J. A.

On September 14, Jane left Chawton for London and G.o.dmersham, travelling as one of her brother Edward's large family party.

FOOTNOTES:

[232] The publisher was a Mr. T. Egerton, described as of the Military Library, Whitehall. He was therefore not the same as Henry Egerton who called in Sloane St. (p. 247) _pace_ Mr. Austin Dobson in his Introduction to _Sense and Sensibility_ (Macmillan, 1896).

[233] _Sailor Brothers_, p. 237 (letter from Jane to Frank). See p. 272.

[234] We shall in future describe Jane's brother Edward as 'Mr. Knight,'

and his children as 'Knight' with the Christian name prefixed; while the name 'Edward Austen' will be reserved for the author of the _Memoir_ (James's eldest son), as he was always known in the family by that name.

[235] _Memoir_, p. 11.

[236] Ca.s.sandra was now staying at Steventon; these letters to her are mainly in the _Memoir_, but are supplemented and re-arranged from family MSS.

[237] Authors of the _Rejected Addresses_ (1812).

[238] _Mansfield Park_, chapter xxiv.

[239] _Mansfield Park_, chapter xxv.

[240] _Mansfield Park_ was also published at 18_s._, _Emma_ at 1 1_s._, whereas the first edition of _Sense and Sensibility_ had cost only 15_s._

[241] I.e. typographical.

[242] 'I do not rhyme to that dull elf Who cannot image to himself.'--_Marmion_, vi. 38.

[243] In _Mansfield Park_ (the scene of which is laid in Northamptonshire), a good deal turns on the steadfast determination of Edmund Bertram to be ordained.

[244] The caution observed at Steventon in preserving the secret of the authorship of the novels is shown in a little ma.n.u.script poem addressed by young Edward Austen to his aunt, when (at the age of fifteen or sixteen) he was at last informed that the two novels, which he already knew well, were by her.

[245] This pa.s.sage occurs at the end of chapter liv. For a long time the publishers tried to put matters right by making _three_ sentences into one. Mr. Brimley Johnson's was the first edition to break up the sentences properly. See _Appendix_, p. 409-10.