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Memoir of Jane Austen - James Edward Austen-Leigh · Non-Fiction Library

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  Speaker 1: Memoir of Jane Austen by James Edward Austen Lee preface,
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  Speaker 1: The Memoir of my Aunt Jane Austen has been received
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  Speaker 1: with more favor than I had ventured to expect. The
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  Speaker 1: notice is taken of it in the periodical press, as
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  Speaker 1: well as letters addressed to me by many with whom
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  Speaker 1: I am not personally acquainted, show that an unabated interest
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  Speaker 1: is still taken in every particular that can be told
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  Speaker 1: about her. I am thus encouraged not only to offer
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  Speaker 1: a second edition of the memoir, but also to enlarge
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  Speaker 1: it with some additional matter, which I might have scrupled
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  Speaker 1: to intrude on the public, if they had not thus
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  Speaker 1: seemed to call for it. In the present edition, the
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  Speaker 1: narrative is somewhat enlarged, and a few more letters are added,
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  Speaker 1: with a short specimen of her childish stories. The canceled
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  Speaker 1: chapter of Persuasion is given, and compliance with wishes both
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  Speaker 1: publicly and privately expressed. A fragment of a story unentitled
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  Speaker 1: the Watsons is printed, and extracts are given from a
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  Speaker 1: novel which she had begun a few months before her death.
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  Speaker 1: But the chief edition is a short tale never before
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  Speaker 1: public called Lady Susan. I regret that the little which
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  Speaker 1: I've been able to add cannot appear in my first edition,
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  Speaker 1: as much of it was either unknown to me or
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  Speaker 1: not my command when I first published. And I hope
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  Speaker 1: that I may claim some indulgent allowance for the difficulty
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  Speaker 1: of recovering little facts and feelings which had been merged
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  Speaker 1: half a century deep in oblivion. November seventeenth, eighteen seventy,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter one. Jane Austin was born in December sixteenth, seventeen
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  Speaker 1: seventy five, at the parsonage house of Steventon in Hampshire.
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  Speaker 1: Her father, the Reverend George Austin, was of a family
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  Speaker 1: long established in the neighborhood of Tendon and Seven Oaks
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  Speaker 1: in Kent. I believe that early in the seventeenth century
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  Speaker 1: they were clothiers. Hasted in its History of Kent says
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  Speaker 1: quote the clothing business was exercised by persons who possessed
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  Speaker 1: most of the landed property in the whale, and so
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  Speaker 1: much that almost all of the ancient families of these
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  Speaker 1: parts now of large estates in genteel rank in life,
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  Speaker 1: and some of them ennobled by titles are sprung from
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  Speaker 1: ancestors who have used this great staple manufacture, now almost unknown.
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  Speaker 1: Here in his list of families hasted places at Austin's
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  Speaker 1: and he adds that these clothiers were usually called the
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  Speaker 1: gray Coats of Kent, and were a body so numerous
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  Speaker 1: and united that at county elections, whoever had their vote
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  Speaker 1: and interest was almost certain of being elected. The family
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  Speaker 1: still retains a badge of this origin, for their livery
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  Speaker 1: is of that peculiar mixture of light blue and white
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  Speaker 1: called Kentish gray, which forms the facings of the Kentish militia.
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  Speaker 1: Mister George Austin had lost both his parents before he
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  Speaker 1: was nine years old. He inherited no property from them,
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  Speaker 1: but was happy in having a kind uncle, mister Francis Austen,
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  Speaker 1: a successful lawyer at Tunbridge, the ancestor of the Austins
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  Speaker 1: of Kippington, who, though he had children of his own,
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  Speaker 1: yet made liberal provision for his orphan nephew. The boy
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  Speaker 1: received a good education at Tunbridge School, where he obtained
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  Speaker 1: a scholarship and subsequently a fellowship at Saint John's College, Oxford.
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  Speaker 1: In seventeen sixty four he came into possession of the
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  Speaker 1: two adjoining rectories of Dean and Steventon in Hampshire, the
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  Speaker 1: former purchased for him by his generous uncle Francis, the
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  Speaker 1: latter given by his cousin mister Knight. This was no
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  Speaker 1: very gross case of plurality, according to the ideas of
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  Speaker 1: that time, for the two villages were low more than
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  Speaker 1: a mal apart, and their united populations scarcely amounted to
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  Speaker 1: three hundred. In the same year he married Cassandra, the
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  Speaker 1: youngest daughter of the Reverend Thomas Lee, of the family
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  Speaker 1: of Leeds of Warwickshire, who, having been a fellow of
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  Speaker 1: all souls, held the college living of Harpston, near Henley
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  Speaker 1: upon Thames. Mister Thomas Lee was the younger brother of
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  Speaker 1: doctor Theophilius Lee, a personage well known at Oxford in
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  Speaker 1: his day, and his day was not a short one,
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  Speaker 1: for he lived to be ninety and held the mastership
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  Speaker 1: of Balliol College for above half a century. He was
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  Speaker 1: a man more famous for his sayings than his doings,
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  Speaker 1: overflowing with puns and witticisms and sharp retort, but his
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  Speaker 1: most serious joke was his practical one, of living much
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  Speaker 1: longer than had been expected or intended. He was a
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  Speaker 1: fellow of Corpus, and the story is that the Balliol men,
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  Speaker 1: unable to agree in electing one of their own number
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  Speaker 1: to the mastership, chose him partly under the idea that
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  Speaker 1: he was in weak health and likely soon to cause
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  Speaker 1: another vacancy. It was afterwards said that his long incumbency
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  Speaker 1: had been a judgment on the society for having elected
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  Speaker 1: an out college man. I imagined that the front of
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  Speaker 1: Balliol towards Broad Street, which had recently been pulled down,
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  Speaker 1: must have been built, or at least restored, while he
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  Speaker 1: was master, for the Lee Arms were placed under the
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  Speaker 1: cornice at the corner nearest to Trinity Gates. The beautiful
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  Speaker 1: building lately erected has destroyed this record, and thus monuments
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  Speaker 1: themselves memorials need his fame for witty and agreeable conversation
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  Speaker 1: extended beyond the bounds of the university. Missus Thrale, in
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  Speaker 1: a letter to doctor Johnson, writes, thus are you acquainted
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  Speaker 1: with doctor Lee, the Master of Balliol College? And are
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  Speaker 1: you not delighted with his gaiety of manners and youthful vivacity,
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  Speaker 1: now that he is eighty six years of age. I
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  Speaker 1: never heard a more perfect or excellent pun than his
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  Speaker 1: when some one told him how, in a late dispute
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  Speaker 1: among the Privy Councilors, the Lord Chancellor struck the table
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  Speaker 1: with such violence that he split it. No, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: replied the master. I can hardly persuade myself that he
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  Speaker 1: split the table, though I believe he divided the board.
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  Speaker 1: Some of his sayings, of course, survive in family tradition.
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  Speaker 1: He was once calling on a gentleman notorious for never
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  Speaker 1: opening a book, who took him into a room overlooking
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  Speaker 1: the bath Road, which was then a great thoroughfare for
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  Speaker 1: travelers of every class, saying, rather pompously, this doctor, I
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  Speaker 1: call my study. The doctor, glancing his eye around the
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  Speaker 1: room in which no books were to be seen, replied
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  Speaker 1: and very well named too, sir, For you know, Pope
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  Speaker 1: tells us the proper study of mankind is man. When
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  Speaker 1: my father went to Oxford, he was honored with an
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  Speaker 1: invitation to dine with this dignified cousin. Being a raw undergraduate,
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  Speaker 1: unaccustomed to the habits of the university, he was about
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  Speaker 1: to take off his gown as if it were a
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  Speaker 1: great coat, when the old man, then considerably turned eighty, said,
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  Speaker 1: with a grim smile, young man, you need not strip.
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  Speaker 1: We are not going to fight. This humor remained in
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  Speaker 1: him so strongly till the last that he might almost
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  Speaker 1: have supplied Pope with another instance of the ruling passion
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  Speaker 1: strong in death for only three days before he expired,
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  Speaker 1: being told that an old acquaintance was lately married, having
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  Speaker 1: recovered from a long illness by eating eggs, and that
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  Speaker 1: the wits said that had been egged on to matrimony,
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  Speaker 1: he immediately trumped the joke, saying they made the yoke
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  Speaker 1: sit easy on him. I do not know from what
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  Speaker 1: common ancestor the Master of Balliol and his great niece
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  Speaker 1: Jane Austen, with some others of the family, may have
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  Speaker 1: derived the keen sense of humor, which they certainly possessed.
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  Speaker 1: Mister and Missus George Austin resided first at Dean, but
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  Speaker 1: removed in seventeen seventy one to Steventon, which was their
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  Speaker 1: residence for about thirty years. They commenced their married life
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  Speaker 1: with the charge of a little child, a son of
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  Speaker 1: the celebrated Warren Hastings, who had been committed to the
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  Speaker 1: care of mister Austin before his marriage, probably through the
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  Speaker 1: influence of his sister Missus Hancock, whose husband at that
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  Speaker 1: time held some office under Hastings in India. Mister Gleig,
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  Speaker 1: in his Life of Hastings, says that his son George,
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  Speaker 1: the offspring of his first marriage, was sent to England
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  Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty one for his education, but that he
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  Speaker 1: had never been able to ascertain to whom his precious
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  Speaker 1: charge was entrusted, nor what became of him. I am
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  Speaker 1: able to state from family tradition that he died young
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  Speaker 1: of what was then called putrid sore throat, and that
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  Speaker 1: Missus Austen had become so much attached to him that
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  Speaker 1: she always declared that his death had been as great
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  Speaker 1: a grief to her as if he had been a
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  Speaker 1: child of her own. About this time, the grandfather of
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  Speaker 1: Mary Russell Mitford, doctor Russell, was rector of the adjoining
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  Speaker 1: parish of Ashe, so that the parents of two popular
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  Speaker 1: female writers must have been intimately acquainted with each other.
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  Speaker 1: As my subject carries me back about a hundred years,
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  Speaker 1: it will afford occasions for absorbing many changes gradually affected
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  Speaker 1: in the manners and habits of society, which I may
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  Speaker 1: think it worth while to mention. They may be little things,
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  Speaker 1: But time gives a certain importance even to trifles, as
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  Speaker 1: it imparts a peculiar flavor of wine. The most ordinary
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  Speaker 1: article of domestic life are looked on with some interest
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  Speaker 1: if they are brought to light after being long buried,
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  Speaker 1: and we feel a natural curiosity to know what was
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  Speaker 1: done and said by our forefathers, even though it may
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  Speaker 1: be nothing wiser or better than what we are daily
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  Speaker 1: doing or saying ourselves. Some of this generation may be
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  Speaker 1: little aware how many conveniences now considered to be necessities
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  Speaker 1: and matters of course, were unknown to their grandfathers and grandmothers.
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  Speaker 1: The lane between Dean and Steventon has long been as
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  Speaker 1: smooth as the best turnpike road, but when the family
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  Speaker 1: removed from the one residence to the other in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: seventy one, it was a mere cart track, so cut
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  Speaker 1: up by deep ruts as to be impassable for a
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  Speaker 1: light carriage. Missus Austen, who was not then in strong health,
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  Speaker 1: performed the long journey on a feather bed placed upon
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  Speaker 1: some soft articles of furniture in the wagon which held
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  Speaker 1: their household goods. In those days, it was not unusual
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  Speaker 1: to set men to work with shovel and pickaxe to
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  Speaker 1: fill up the ruts and holes and roads seldom used
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  Speaker 1: by carriages on such special occasions as a funeral or
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  Speaker 1: a wedding. Ignorance and coarseness of language also were still lingering,
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  Speaker 1: even upon higher levels of society than might have been
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  Speaker 1: expected to retain such mists. About this time, a neighboring squire,
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  Speaker 1: a man of many acres, referred the following difficulty to
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  Speaker 1: mister Austin's decision. Quote, you know all of these sorts
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  Speaker 1: of things, do tell us as Paris and France, or
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  Speaker 1: France in Paris? For my wife has been disputing with
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  Speaker 1: me about it. The same gentleman, narrating some conversation which
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  Speaker 1: he had heard between the rector and his wife, represented
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  Speaker 1: the latter as being her reply to her husband with
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  Speaker 1: a round oath. And when his daughter called him to task,
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  Speaker 1: reminding him that missus Austin never swore, he replied, now, Betty,
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  Speaker 1: why do you pull me up for nothing that's neither
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  Speaker 1: here nor there. You know very well that's only my
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  Speaker 1: way of telling the story. Attention has lately been called
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  Speaker 1: by a celebrated writer to the inferiority of the clergy,
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  Speaker 1: to the laity of England two centuries ago. The charge,
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  Speaker 1: no doubt is true if the rural clergy are to
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  Speaker 1: be compared with the higher section of country gentlemen, who
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  Speaker 1: went into Parliament and mixed in London society, and took
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  Speaker 1: the lead in their several counties. But it might be
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  Speaker 1: found less true if they were to be compared, as
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  Speaker 1: in all fairness they ought to be with that lower
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  Speaker 1: section with whom they usually associated. The smaller landed proprietors,
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  Speaker 1: who seldom went farther from their home than their county town.
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  Speaker 1: From the squire with his thousand acres to the yaleman
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  Speaker 1: who cultivated his hereditary property of one or two hundred,
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  Speaker 1: then formed a numerous class, each of the aristocrat of
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  Speaker 1: his own parish. And there was probably a greater difference
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  Speaker 1: in manner and refinement between this class and that immediately
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  Speaker 1: above them, than can now be found between any two
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  Speaker 1: persons who rank as gentlemen. For in the progress of civilization,
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  Speaker 1: though all orders may make some progress, yet it is
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  Speaker 1: most perceptible in the lower It is a process of
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  Speaker 1: leveling up the rear rank, dressing up, as it were,
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  Speaker 1: close to the front rank. When Hamlet mentions as something
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  Speaker 1: which he had for three years taken note of that
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  Speaker 1: the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel
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  Speaker 1: of the courtier. It is probably intended by Shakespeare as
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  Speaker 1: a satire on his own times, but it expressed a
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  Speaker 1: principle which is working at all times, in which society
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  Speaker 1: makes any progress. I believe that a century ago the
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  Speaker 1: improvement in most county parishes began with the clergy, and
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  Speaker 1: in those days, as director, who chanced to be a
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  Speaker 1: gentleman and a scholar, found himself superior to his chief
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  Speaker 1: parishioners in information and manners, and became a sort of
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  Speaker 1: center of refinement and politeness. Mister Austin was a remarkably
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  Speaker 1: good looking man, both in his youth and his old age.
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  Speaker 1: During his life of office at Oxford he had been
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  Speaker 1: called the handsome Proctor, and at Bath, when more than
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  Speaker 1: seventy years old, he attracted observations by his fine features
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  Speaker 1: and abundance of snow white hair. Being a good scholar,
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  Speaker 1: he was able to prepare two of his sons for
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  Speaker 1: the university, and to direct the studies of his other children,
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  Speaker 1: whether sons or daughters, as well as to increase his
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  Speaker 1: income by taking pupils and Missus Austin also was to
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  Speaker 1: be found the germ of much of the ability which
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  Speaker 1: was concentrated in Jane, but of which others of her
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  Speaker 1: children had a share. She united strong common sense with
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  Speaker 1: a lively imagination, and often expressed herself both in writing
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  Speaker 1: and in conversation, with epic, grammatic force and point. She lived,
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  Speaker 1: like many of her family, to an advanced age. During
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  Speaker 1: the last years of her life, she endured continual pain,
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  Speaker 1: not only patiently but with characteristic cheerfulness. She once said
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  Speaker 1: to me, quote, ah my dear, you find me just
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  Speaker 1: where you left me on the sofa. I sometimes think
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  Speaker 1: that God Almighty must have forgotten me, but I dare
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  Speaker 1: say he will come for me in his own good
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  Speaker 1: time and quote. She died and was buried at Chawton
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  Speaker 1: January eighteen twenty seven, aged eighty eight. Her own family
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  Speaker 1: were so much in the rest of the world so
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  Speaker 1: little to Jane Austen, that some brief mention of her
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  Speaker 1: brothers and sisters is necessary in order to give any
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  Speaker 1: idea of the objects which principally occupied her thoughts and
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  Speaker 1: filled her heart, especially as some of them, from their
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  Speaker 1: characters or professions in life, may be supposed to have
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: had more or less influence on her writings, though I
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  Speaker 1: feel some reluctance in bringing before public notice persons and
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  Speaker 1: circumstances essentially private. Her eldest brother, James, my own father, had,
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  Speaker 1: when a very young man at Saint John's College, Oxford,
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  Speaker 1: been the originator and chief supporter of a periodical paper
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  Speaker 1: called The Loiterer, written somewhat on the plan of The
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Spectator and its successors, but nearly confined to subjects connected
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  Speaker 1: with the university and after life. He used to speak
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  Speaker 1: very slightingly of his early work, which he had the
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  Speaker 1: better right to do, as whatever may have been the
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  Speaker 1: degree of their merits, the best papers had certainly been
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  Speaker 1: written by himself. He was well read in English literature,
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  Speaker 1: had a correct taste, and wrote readily and happily, both
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  Speaker 1: in prose and verse. He was more than ten years
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  Speaker 1: older than Jane, and had, I believe, a large share
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  Speaker 1: in directing her reading and forming her taste. Her second brother, Edward,
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  Speaker 1: had been a good deal separated from the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the family, as he was early adopted by his cousin,
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  Speaker 1: mister Knight, of god Mersham Park in Kent and Chawton
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  Speaker 1: House in Hampshire and finally came into possession both of
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  Speaker 1: the property and the name. But though a good deal
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  Speaker 1: separated in childhood, they were much together and after life,
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  Speaker 1: and Jane gave a large share of her affections to
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  Speaker 1: him and his children. Mister Knight was not only a
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  Speaker 1: very amiable man, kind and indulgent to all connected with him,
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  Speaker 1: but possessed also a spirit of fun and liveliness, which
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  Speaker 1: made him especially delightful to all young people. Her third brother, Henry,
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  Speaker 1: had great conversational powers and inherited from his father an
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  Speaker 1: eager and sanguine disposition. He was a very entertaining companion,
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  Speaker 1: but had perhaps less steadiness of purpose, certainly less success
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  Speaker 1: in life than his brothers. He became a clergyman a
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  Speaker 1: middle aged and an allusion to his sermons will be
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  Speaker 1: found in one of Jane's letters. At one time he
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  Speaker 1: resided in London and was useful in transacting his sister's
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: business with her publishers. Her two youngest brothers, Francis and Charles,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: were sailors during that glorious period of the British Navy
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  Speaker 1: which comprises the close of the last in the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of the present century, when it was impossible for an
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  Speaker 1: officer to be almost always a foe, as these brothers were,
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  Speaker 1: without seeing service which in these days would be considered distinguished. Accordingly,
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  Speaker 1: they were continually engaged in actions of more or less importance,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes gained promotion by their success. Both rose to
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  Speaker 1: the rank of admiral and carried out their flags to
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  Speaker 1: distant stations. Francis lived to attain the very summit of
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  Speaker 1: his professional having lived in his ninety third year g
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  Speaker 1: c b and Senior Admiral of the Fleet in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty five. He possessed great firmness of character, with a
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  Speaker 1: strong sense of duty, whether due from himself to others
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  Speaker 1: or from others to himself. He was consequently a strict displenarian,
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  Speaker 1: but as he was a very religious man, it was
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  Speaker 1: remarked of him, for in those days at least it
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  Speaker 1: was remarkable that he maintained this discipline without ever uttering
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  Speaker 1: an oath or permitting one in his presence. On one occasion,
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  Speaker 1: when ashore in the seas side town, he was spoken
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  Speaker 1: of as the officer who kneeled at church, a custom
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  Speaker 1: which now happily would not be thought peculiar. Charles was
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  Speaker 1: generally serving in frigates or sloops, blockading harbors, driving the
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  Speaker 1: ships of the enemy ashore, boarding gunboats, and frequently making
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  Speaker 1: small prizes. At one time he was absent from England
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  Speaker 1: on such services for seven years together. In later life,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: he commanded the Bellerophon at the bombardment of Saint Jean
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  Speaker 1: Diacre in eighteen forty. In eighteen fifty he went out
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  Speaker 1: in the Hastings in command of the East India and
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  Speaker 1: China Station, but on the breaking out of the Burmese War,
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  Speaker 1: he transferred his flag to a steam sloop for the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: purpose of getting up the shallow waters of the Arrawadi,
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  Speaker 1: on board of which he died of cholera in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: fifty two, and the seventy fourth year of his age.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: His sweet temper and affectionate disposition, in which he resembled
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  Speaker 1: his sister Jane, has secured him an unusual portion of attachment,
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  Speaker 1: not only from his own family, but from all the
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  Speaker 1: officers and common sailors who served under him. One who
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  Speaker 1: was with him at his death has left this record
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  Speaker 1: of him. Our good Admiral won the hearts of all
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  Speaker 1: by his liad gentleness and kindness, until he was struggling
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  Speaker 1: with disease and endeavoring to do his duty as Commander
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: in chief of the British Naval forces in these waters.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: His death was a great grief to the whole fleet.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I know that I cried bitterly when I found he
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: was dead. The Order and Council of the Governor General
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: of India, Lord Dalhousie expresses admiration of the staunch, high
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: spirit which, notwithstanding his age and previous sufferings, had led
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: the Admiral to take his part in the trying service
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: which has closed his career. These two brothers have been
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: dwelt on longer than the others because their honorable career
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: accounts for Jane Austen's partiality for the navy, as well
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: as for the readiness and accuracy with which she wrote
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: about it. She was always very careful not to meddle
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: with matters which she did not thoroughly understand. She never
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: touched upon politics, law, or medicine, subjects which some novel
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: writers have ventured on rather too boldly and have treated,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: perhaps with more brilliancy than accuracy. But with ships and sailors,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: she felt herself at home, or at least could always
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: trust to a brotherly critic to keep her right. I
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: believe that no flaw has ever been found in her seamanship,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: either in Mansfield Park or in persuasion. But dearest of
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: all to the heart of Jane was her sister Cassandra,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: about three years her senior. Their sisterly affection for each
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: other could scarcely be exceeded. Perhaps it began on Jane's
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: side with the feeling of deference natural to a loving
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: child towards a kind elder sister. Something of this feeling
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: always remained, and even the maturity of her powers, and
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: in the enjoyment of increasing success, she would still speak
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: of Cassandra as of one wiser and better than herself.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: In childhood, when the elder was sent to the school
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: of Missus Lauturnal in the fore Brewery at Reading, the
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: younger went with her, not because she was thought old
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: enough to profit much by the instruction there imparted, but
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: because she would have been miserable without her sister, her
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: mother observing that if Cassandra were going to have her
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: head cut off, Jane would insist on sharing her fate.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: This attachment was never interrupted or weakened. They lived in
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: the same house and shared the same bedroom till separated
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: by death. They were not exactly alike. Cassandra's was the
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: colder and calmer disposition. She was always prudent and well judging,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: but with less outward demonstration of feeling and less sunniness
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: of temper than Jane possessed. It was remarked in her
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: family that Cassandra had the merit of having her temper
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: always under command, but that Jane had the happiness of
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: a temper that never required to be commanded. When sense
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: and sensibility came out, some persons who knew the family
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: slightly surmised that the two elder miss Dashwoods were intended
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: by the author for her sister and herself, But this
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: could not be the case. Cassandra's character might indeed represent
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: the sense of Eleanor, but Jane's had little in common
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: with the sensibility of Marianne. The young woman who, before
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the age of twenty could so clearly discern the failings
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: of marian Dashwood could hardly have been subject to them herself.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: This was the small circle continually enlarged, however, by the
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: increasing families of four of her brothers, within which Jane
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Austen found her wholesome pleasures, duties and interests, and beyond
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: which she went very little into society during the last
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: ten years of her life. There is so much that
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: was agreeable and attractive in this party that its members
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: may be excused if they were inclined to live somewhat
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: too exclusively within it. They might see in each other
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: much to love and esteem, and something to admire. The
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: family talk had abundance of spirit and vivacity, and was
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: never troubled by disagreements, even in little matters, for it
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: was not their habit to dispute or argue with each other.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Above all, there was strong family affection and firm union,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: never be broken but by death. It cannot be doubted
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: that all this had its influence on the author in
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the construction of her stories, and which a family party
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: usually supplies the narrow stage, while the interest is made
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: to revolve around a few actors. It will be seen
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: also that though her circle society was small, yet she
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: found in her neighborhood persons of good taste and cultivate minds.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Her acquaintance, in fact constituted the very class from which
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: she took her imaginary characters, ranging from the member of
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: parliament or large landed proprietor, to the young curate or
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: younger midshipmen of equally good family. And I think the
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: influence of these early associations may be traced in her writings,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: especially in two particulars. First, that she was entirely free
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: from the vulgarity which is so offensive in some novels,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: of dwelling on the outward appendages of wealth or rank,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: as if they were things to which the writer was unaccustomed. Secondly,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: that she deals as little with very low as with
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: very high stations of life. She does not go lower
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: than the mis steals Missus Elton and John Thorpe, people
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: of bad taste in underbred manners, such as are actually
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: found sometimes mingling with better society. She has nothing resembling
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the Bringtons, or mister Debster and his friend Tom Hicks,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: with whom Madame de Arblay left to season her stories
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: and to produce striking contract trust to her well bred characters.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: End of chapter one.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Chapter two description of Steventon. Life at Steventon, changes of
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: habits and customs in the last century as the first
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: twenty five years. More than half of the brief life
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: of Jane Austen were spent in the parsonage of Steventon.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: Some description of that place ought to be given. Steventon
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: is a small rural village upon the Chalk Hills of
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: North Haunts, situated in a winding valley about seven miles
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: from Basingstoke. The Southwestern Railway crosses it by a short embankment,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: and as it curves around, presents a good view of
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: it on the left hand to those who are traveling
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: down the line about three miles before entering the tunnel
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: under Popham Beacon. It may be known to some sportsmen
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: as lying in one of the best portions of the
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: vine Hunt. It is certainly not a picturesque country. It
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: presents no grand or extensive views, but the features are
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: small rather than plain. The surface continually swells and sinks,
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: but the hills are not bold or the valleys deep.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: And though it is sufficiently well clothed with woods and hedgerows,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: yet the poverty of the soil in most places prevents
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: the timber from attaining a large size. Still, it has
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: its beauties. The lanes wind along in a natural curve,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: continually fringed with irregular borders of native turf and lead
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: to pleasant nooks and corners. One who knew and loved
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: it well very happily expressed its quiet charms when he wrote,
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: true taste is not fastidious nor rejects, because they may
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: not come within the rule of composition. Pure and picturesque, unnumbered,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: simple scenes which fill the leaves of nature's sketchbook. Of
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: this somewhat tame country steventon, from the fall of the
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: ground and the abundance of its timber, is certainly one
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: of the prettiest spots. Yet one cannot be surprised when
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Jane's mother, a little before her marriage, was shown the
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: scenery of her future home, she should have thought it
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: an attractive compared with the broad river, the rich valley,
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: and the noble hills which she had been accustomed to
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: behold at her native home near Henley. Upon time. The
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: house itself stood in a shallow valley surrounded by sloping meadows,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: well sprinkled with elm trees, at the end of a
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: small village of cottages, each well provided with the garden
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: scattered about prettily on either side of the road. It
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: was sufficiently commodious to hold pupils. In addition, to a
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: growing family, and was in those times considered to be
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: above the average of parsonages. But the rooms were furnished
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: with less elegance than would now be found in the
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: most ordinary dwellings. No cornice marked the junction of wall
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: and ceiling, while the beams which supported the upper floors
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: projected into the rooms below in all their naked simplicity,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: covered only by a coat of paint or whitewash. Accordingly,
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: it has since been considered unworthy of being the rectory
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: house of a family living, and about forty five years
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: ago it was pulled down for the purpose of erecting
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: a new house in a far better situation. On the
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: opposite side of the valley. North of the house, the
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: road from Dean to Popham Lane ran at a sufficient
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: distance from the front to allow a carriage drive through
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: turf and trees. On the south side, the ground rose
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: gently and was occupied by one of those old fashioned
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: gardens in which vegetables and flowers are combined, flanked and
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: protected on the east by one of the thatched mud
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: walls common in that country, and overshadowed by fine elms.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Along the upper or southern side of this garden, ran
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: a terrace of the finest turf, which must have been
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: in the Right's thoughts when she described Catherine Morland's childish
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: delight in rolling down the green slope at the back
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: of her house. But the chief beauty of Steventon consisted
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: in its hedgerows. A hedgerow in that country does not
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: mean a thin formal line of quickset, but an irregular
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: border of copsewood and timber, often wide enough to contain
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: within it a winding footpath or a rough cart track.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Under its shelter, the earliest primroses and emones and wild
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: hyacinths were to be found, sometimes first Bird's Nest and
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: now and then the unwelcome Adder. Two such hedgerows radiated,
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: as it were, from the parsonage garden. One, a continuation
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: of the turf terrace, proceeded westward, forming the southern boundary
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: of the home meadows, and was formed into a rustic
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: shrubbery with occasional seats, entitled the wood Walk. The other
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: ran straight up the hill, under the name of the
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Church Walk, because it led to the parish church as
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: well as to a fine old manor house of Henry
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: the Eighth's time occupied by a family named Digweed, who
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: have for more than a century rented it, together with
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: the chief farm in the parish. The church itself, I
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: speak of it as it then was, before the improvements
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: made by the present rector. A spireless fine just seen
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: above the woody lane might have appeared mean and uninteresting
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: to an ordinary observer, but the adept in church architecture
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: would have known that it must have stood there some
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: seven centuries, and would have found beauty in the very
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: narrow early English windows, as well as in the general
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: proportions of its little chancel. While its solitary position, far
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: from the hum of the village and within sight of
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: no habitation except a glimpse of the gray manor house
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: through its circling screen of sycamores, has in it something
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: solemn and appropriate. The last resting place of the silent dead.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Sweet violets, both purple and white, grow in abundance beneath
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: its south wall. One may imagine for how many centuries
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: the ancestors of those little flowers have occupied that undisturbed
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: sunny nook, and may think how few living families can
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: boast of as ancient a tenure of their land. Large
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: elms protrude their rough branches. Old hawthorns shed their annual
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: blossoms over the graves, and the hollow yew tree must
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: be at least coeval with the church. But whatever may
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: be the beauties or defects of the surrounding scenery. This
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: was the residence of Jane Austen for twenty five years.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: This was the cradle of her genius. These were the
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: first objects which inspired her young heart with the sense
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: of the beauties of nature. In strolls along those wood walks,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: thick coming fancies rose in her mind and gradually assumed
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: the forms in which they came forth to the world.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: In that simple church, she brought them all into subjection
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: to the piety which ruled her in life and supported
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: her in death. The home at Steventon must have been,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: for many years a pleasant and prosperous one. The family
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: was unbroken by death and seldom visited by sorrow. Their
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: situation had some peculiar advantages beyond those of ordinary rectories.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Steventon was a family living. Mister Knight, the patron, was
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: also a proprietor of nearly the whole parish. He never
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: resided there, and consequently the rector and his children came
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: to be regarded in the neighborhood as kind of representatives
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: of the family. They shared with the principal tenant the
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: command of an excellent manner, and enjoyed, in this reflected
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: way some of the consideration usually awarded to landed proprietors.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: They were not rich, but aided by mister Austin's power
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: of teaching, they had enough to afford a good education
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: to their sons and daughters, to mix in the best
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: society of the neighborhood, and to exercise a liberal hospitality
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: to their own relations and friends. A carriage and a
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: pair of horses were kept. This might imply a higher
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: style of living in our days than a in theirs.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: There were then no assessed taxes, the carriage, once bought,
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: entailed little further expense, and the horses, probably like mister Bennett's,
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: were often employed on farm work. Moreover, it should be
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: remembered that a pair of horses in those days were
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: almost necessary if ladies were to move about at all,
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: for neither the condition of the roads nor the style
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: of carriage building admitted of any comfortable vehicle being drawn
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: by a single horse. When one looks at the few
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: specimens still remaining of coach building in the last century,
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: it strikes one that the chief object of the builders
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: must have been to combine the greatest possible weight with
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: the least possible amount of accommodation. The family lived in
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: close intimacy with two cousins, Edward and Jane Cooper, the
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: children of Missus Austen's eldest sister, and doctor Cooper, the
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: vicar of Sonning, near Reading. The Coopers lived for some
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: years at Bath, which seems to have been much frequented
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: in those days by clergymen retiring from work. I believe
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: that Cassandra and Jane sometimes visited them there, and that
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: Jane thus acquired the intimate knowledge of the topography and
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: customs of Bath, which enabled her to write Northanger Abbey
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: long before she resided there herself. After the death of
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: their own parents, the two young Coopers paid long visits
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: at Steventon. Edward Cooper did not live undistinguished. When an
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: undergraduate at Oxford, he gained the prize for Latin hexameters
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: on Hortus Anglicus in seventeen ninety one, and in later
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: life he was known by a work on prophecy called
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: The Crisis, and other religious publications, especially for several volumes
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: of sermons much preached in many pulpits in my youth.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Jane Cooper was married from her uncle's house at Steventon
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: to Captain afterwards Sir Thomas Williams, under whom Charles Austen
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: served in several ships. She was a dear friend of
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: her namesake, but was fated to become a cause of
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: great sorrow to her for a few years after the
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: marriage she was set at killed by an accident to
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: her carriage. There was another cousin closely associated with them
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: at Steventon, who must have introduced greater variety into the
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: family circle. This was the daughter of mister Austen's only sister,
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Missus Hancock. This cousin had been educated in Paris and
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: married to a count of the Foyade, of whom I
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: know little more than that he perished by the guillotine
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: during the French Revolution. Perhaps his chief offense was his rank,
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: but it was said that the charge of incivism under
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: which he suffered rested on the fact of his having
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: laid down some arable land into pasture, a sign of
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: his intention to embarrass the Republican government by producing a famine.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: His wife escaped through the dangers and difficulties to England,
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: was received for some time into her uncle's family, and
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: finally married her cousin, Henry Austen. During the short piece
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: of Amia, she and her second husband went to France
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: in the hope of recovering some of the count's property,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: and there narrowly escaped, being included amongst the detenus. Orders
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: had been given by Buonaparte's government to detain all English travelers,
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: but at the post houses, Missus Henry Austen gave the
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: necessary orders herself, and her French was so perfect that
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: she passed everywhere for a native, and her husband escaped
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: under this protection. She was the clever woman and highly
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: accomplished after the French rather than the English mode. And
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: in those days when intercourse with the continent was long
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: interrupted by a war, such an element in the society
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: of a country parsonage must have been a rare acquisition.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: The sisters may have been more indebted to this cousin
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: than to Missus Latournelle's teaching, for the considerable knowledge of
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: French which they possessed. She also took the principal parts
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: in the private theatricals in which the family several times indulged,
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: having their summer theater in the barn and their winter
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: one within the narrow limits of the dining room, where
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: the number of the audience must have been very limited.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: On these occasions. The prologs and epilogs were written by
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: Jane's eldest brother, and some of them are very vigorous
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: and amusing. Jane was only twelve years old at the
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: time of the earliest of these representations, and not more
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: than fifteen when the last took place. She was, however,
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: an early observer, and it may be reasonably supposed that
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: some of the incidents and feelings which were so vividly
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: painted in the Mansfield Park theatricals are due to her
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: recollections of these entertainments. Some time before they left Steventon,
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: one great affliction came upon the family. Cassandra was engaged
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: to be married to a young clergyman. He had not
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: sufficient private fortune to permit an immediate union, but the
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: engagement was not likely to be a hopeless or a
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: protracted one, for he had the prospect of an early
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: preferment from a nobleman with whom he was conducted both
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: by birth and by personal friendship. He accompanied this friend
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: to the West Indies as chaplain to his regiment, and
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: there died of yellow fever, to the great concern of
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: his friend and patron, who afterwards declared that if he
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: had known of the engagement, he would not have permitted
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: him to go out to such a climate. This little
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: domestic tragedy caused great and lasting grief to the principal sufferer,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: and could not but cast a gloom over the whole party.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: The sympathy of Jane was probably from her age and
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: her peculiar attachment to her sister. The deepest of all
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: of Jane herself, I know of no such definite tale
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: of love to relate her reviewer in the Quarterly of
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: January eighteen twenty one observes concerning the attachment of Fanny
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Price to Edmund Bertram, the silence in which this passion
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: is cherished, the slender hopes and enjoyments by which it
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: is fed, the restlessness and jealousy with which it fills
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: a mind naturally active, contented, and unsuspicious, The manner in
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: which it tinges every event and every reflection are painted
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: with a vividness and a detail of which we can
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: scarcely conceive anyone but a female. And we should almost
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: add a female writing from recollection capable. This conjecture, however probable,
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: was wide of the mark. The picture was drawn from
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: the intuitive perceptions of genius, not from personal experience. In
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: no circumstance of her life was there any similarity between
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: herself and her heroine in Mansfield Park. She did not, indeed,
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: pass through life without being the subject of warm affection.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: In her youth she had declined the addresses of a
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: gentleman who had the recommendations of good character and connections
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: and position of life, of everything, in fact, except the
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: subtle power of touching her heart. There is, however, one
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: passage of romance in her history with which I am
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: imperfectly acquainted, and to which I am unable to assign
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: name or date or place, though I have it on
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: sufficient authority. Many years after her death, some circumstances induced
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: her sister Cassandra to break through her habitual reticence and
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: to speak of it. She said that, whilst staying at
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: some seaside place, they became acquainted with a gentleman whose
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: charm of person, mind, and manners was such that Ca
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: Sondra thought him worthy to possess and likely to win
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: her sister's love. When they parted, he expressed his intention
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: of soon seeing them again, and Cassandra felt no doubt
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: as to his motives. But they never again met. Within
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: a short time they heard of his sudden death. I
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: believe that if Jane ever loved it was this unnamed gentleman.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: But the acquaintance had been short, and I am unable
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: to say whether her feelings were such of a nature
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: as to affect her happiness. Any description that I might
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: attempt of the family life at Steventon, which closed soon
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: after I was born, could be little better than a
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: fancy piece. There is no doubt that if we could
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: look into the households of the clergy in the small
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: gentry of that period, we should see some things which
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: would seem strange to us, and should miss many more
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: to which we are accustomed. Every hundred years, and especially
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: a century like the last, marked by an extraordinary advance
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: in wealth, luxury, and refinement of taste, as well as
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: in the mechanical arts which embellish our houses, must produce
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: a great change in their aspect. These changes are always
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: at work. They are going on now, but so silently
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: that we take no note of them. Men soon forget
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: the small objects which they leave behind them as they
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: drift down the stream of life. As Pope says, nor
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: does life's stream for observation stay. It hurries all too
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: fast to mark their way. Important inventions, such as the
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: applications of steam, gas, and electricity, may find their places
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: in history, but not so the alterations, great as they
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: may be, which have taken place in the appearance of
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: our dining and drawing rooms. Who can now record the
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: degrees by which the custom prevalent in my youth of
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: asking each other to take wine together at dinner became obsolete?
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: Who will be able to fix twenty years, hence the
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: date when our dinners begin to be carved and handed
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: round by servants, instead of smoking before our eyes and
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: noses on the table. To record such little manners would
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: indeed be to chronicle smaller. But in a slight memoir
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: like this, I may be allowed to note some of
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: those changes in social habits which give a color to history,
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: but which the historian has the greatest difficulty in recovering.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: At that time, the dinner table presented a far less
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: splendid appearance than it does now. It was appropriated to
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: solid food rather than to flowers, fruits, and decorations, nor
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: was there much glitter of plate upon it. For the
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: early dinner hour rendered candlesticks unnecessary, and silver forks had
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: not come into general use, while the broad rounded end
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: of the knives indicated the substitute generally used instead of them.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: The dinners, too were more homely, though not less plentiful
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: and savory, and the bill of fare in one house
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: would not be so like that in another, as it
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: is now. For family receipts were held in high estimation.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: A grandmother of culinary talent could bequeath to her descend
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: and fame for some particular dish, and might influence the
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: family dinner for many generations dos estomagna parentium vertus. One
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: house would pride itself on its ham, another on its
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: game pie, and a third on its superior firmity or
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: tansey pudding. Beer and home made wines, especially mead, were
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: more largely consumed. Vegetables were less plentiful, and less various.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: Potatoes were used, but not so abundantly as now, and
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: there was an idea that they were to be eaten
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: only with roast meat. There were novelties to a tenant's
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: wife who was entertained at Steventon Parsonage, certainly less than
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: a hundred years ago, and when Missus Austen advised her
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: to plant them in her own garden, she replied, no, no,
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: they are very well for you, gentry, but they must
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: be terribly costly to rear. But a still greater difference
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: would be found in the furniture of the rooms, which
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: would appear to us lamentably scanty. There was a general
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: deficiency of carpeting and sitting rooms, bedrooms and passages. A pianoforte,
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: or rather a spinnet or hopsichord, was by no means
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: a necessary appendage. It was to be found only where
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: there was a decided taste for music. Not so common
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: then as now, or in such great houses as would
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: probably contain a billiard table, There would often be but
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: one sofa in the house, and that a stiff, angular,
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: uncomfortable article. There were no deep easy chairs nor other
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: appliances for lounging. For to lie down or even to
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: lean back was a luxury permitted only to old persons
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: or invalids. It was said of a nobleman, a personal
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: friend of George the third, and a model gentleman of
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: his day, that he would have made the tour of
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Europe without ever touching the back of his traveling carriage.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: But perhaps we should be most struck with the total
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: absence of those elegant little articles which now embellish and
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: encumber our drawing room tables. We should miss the sliding
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: bookcases and picture stands, the letter weighing machines and envelope cases,
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: the periodicals and illustrated newspapers, above all the countless swarm
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: of photograph books which now threaten to swallow up all
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: that space. A small writing desk with a smaller work
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: box or netting case was all that each young lady
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: contributed to occupy the table for the large family work basket,
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: though often produced in the parlor, lived in the closet.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: There must have been more dancing throughout the country in
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: those days than there is now, and it seems to
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: have sprung up more spontaneously, as if it were a
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: natural production, with less fastidiousness as to the quality of music,
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: lights and floor. Many country towns had a monthly ball
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: throughout the winter, in some of which the same apartment
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: served for dancing and tea room. Dinner parties more frequently
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: ended with an extempore dancing on the carpet to the
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: music of a harpsichord in the house or a fiddle
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: from the village. This was always supposed to be for
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: the entertainment of the young people, but many who had
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: little pretension to youth were very ready to join in.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: There can be no doubt that Jane herself enjoyed dancing,
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: for she attributes this taste to her favorite heroines. In
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: most of her works, a ball or a private dance
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: is mentioned and made of importance. Many things connected with
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: the ball rooms of those days have now passed into oblivion.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: The barbarous law which confined the lady to one partner
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: throughout the evening must indeed have been abolished before Jane
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: went to balls. It must be observed, however, that this
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: custom was in one respect advantageous to the gentleman, inasmuch
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: as it rendered his duties more practicable. He was bound
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: to call upon his partner the next morning, and it
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: must have been convenient to have only one lady, for
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: whom he was obliged to gallop all the country over
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: the last night's partner, to behold and humbly hope she
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: caught no cold. But the stately minuet still reigned supreme,
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: and every regular ball commenced with it. It was a
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: slow and solemn movement, expressive of grace and dignity rather
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: than of merriment. It abounded in formal bows and courtesies,
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: with measured paces forwards, backwards and sideways, and many complicated gyrations.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: It was executed by one lady and gentleman, amidst the
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: admiration or the criticism of surrounding spectators. In its early
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: and most palmy days, as when Sir Charles and Lady
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: Grandison delighted the company by dancing it at their own wedding,
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: the gentlemen wore a dress sword, and the lady was
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: armed with a fan of nearly equal dimensions. Addison observes
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: that women are armed with fans as men with swords,
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: and sometimes do more execution with them. The graceful carriage
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: of each weapon was considered the test of high breeding.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: The clownish man was in danger of being tripped up
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: by his sword getting between his legs. The fan held
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: clumsily looked more of a burden than an ornament, while
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: in the hands of an adept it could be made
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: to speak a language of its own. It was not
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: everyone who felt qualified to make this public excit ambition,
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: and I have been told that those ladies who intended
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: to dance minuets used to distinguish themselves from others by
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: wearing a particular kind of lappet on their head dress.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: I have heard also of another curious proof of their
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: respect in which this dance was held. Gloves immaculately clean
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: were considered requisite for its due performance, while gloves a
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: little soiled were thought good enough for a country dance,
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: And accordingly some prudent ladies provided themselves with two pairs
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: for their several purposes. The minuet expired with the last century,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: but long after it had ceased to be danced publicly,
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: it was taught to boys and girls in order to
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: give them a graceful carriage. Hornpipes, cotillions, and reels were
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: occasionally danced, but the chief occupation of the evening was
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: the interminable country dance, in which all could join. This
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: dance presented a great show of enjoyment, but it was
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: not without its peculiar troubles. The ladies and gentlemen were
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: ranged apart from each other in opposite rows, so that
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: the facilities for flirtation or interesting and were not so
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: great as might have been desired by both parties. Much
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: heart burning and discontent sometimes arose as to who should
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: stand above whom, and especially as to who was entitled
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: to the high privilege of calling and leading off the
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: first dance. And no little indignation was felt at the
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: lower end of the room when any of the leading
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: couples retired prematurely from their duties and did not condescend
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: to dance up and down the whole set. We may
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: rejoice that these causes of irritation no longer exist, and
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: that of such feelings as jealousy, rivalry, and discontent ever
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: touched celestial bosoms in the modern ballroom, they must arise
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: from different and more recondit sources. I am tempted to
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: add a little about the difference of personal habits. It
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: may be asserted as a general truth that less was
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: left to the charge and discretion of servants, and more
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: was done or superintended by the masters and mistresses. With
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: regard to the mistresses, it is I believe generally understood
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: that at the time to which I refer one hundred
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: years ago, they took a personal part in the higher
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: branches of cookery, as well as in the concoction of
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: home made wines and distilling of herbs for domestic medicines,
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: which are nearly allied to the same art. Ladies did
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: not disdain to spin the thread of which the household
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: linen was woven. Some ladies liked to wash with their
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: own hands their choice china after breakfast or tea. In
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: one of my earliest child's books, a little girl, the
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: daughter of a gentleman, was taught by her mother to
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: make her own bed before leaving her chamber. It was
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: not so much that they had not servants to do
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: all these things for them, as that they took an
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: interest in such occupations. And it must be borne in
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: mind how many sources of interest enjoyed by this generation
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: were then closed or very scantily opened to ladies. A
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: very small minority of them cared much for literature or science.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: Music was not very common, and drawing was still rarer accomplishment.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: Needlework in some other form or other. It was their
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: chief sedentary employment. But I doubt whether the rising generation
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: are equally aware how much gentlemen also did for themselves
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: in those times, and whether some things that I can
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: mention will not be a surprise for them. Two homely
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: proverbs were held in high estimation in my earliest days
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: than they are now. The master's eye makes the horse fat.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: And if you would be well served, serve yourself. Some
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: gentlemen took pleasure in being their own gardeners, performing all
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: the scientific and some of the manual work themselves. Well
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: dressed young men of my acquaintance, who had their coat
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: from a London tailor, would always brush their evening suit themselves,
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: rather than entrust it to the carelessness of a rough
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: servant and to the risks of dirt and grease in
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: the kitchen. For in those days servants halls were not
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: common in the houses of the clergy in the smaller
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: country gentry. It was quite natural that Catherine Morland should
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: have contrasted the magnificence of the offices at Northanger Abbey
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: with a few shapeless pantries in her father's parsonage.
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: A young man.
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: Who expected to have as things packed or unpacked for
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: him by a servant when he traveled have been thought
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: exceptionally fine or exceptionally lazy. When my uncle undertook to
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: teach me to shoot, his first lesson was had to
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: clean my gun. It was thought meritorious on the evening
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: of a hunting day to turn out after dinner, lanthorn
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: in hand and visit the stable to ascertain that the
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: horse had been well cared for. This was of the
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: more importance because, previous to the introduction of clipping about
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: the year eighteen twenty, it was a difficult and tedious
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: work to make a long coated hunter dry and comfortable,
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: and was often very imperfectly done. Of course, such things
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: were not practiced by those who had gamekeepers and stud
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: grooms and plenty of well trained servants. But they were
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: practiced by many who were equivocally gentlemen, and whose grandsons,
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: occupying the same position in life, may perhaps be astonished
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: at being told that such things were. I have drawn
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: pictures for which my own experience, or what I heard
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: from others in my youth, have supplied the materials. Of course,
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: they cannot be universally act applicable such details varied in
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: various circles, and were changed very gradually. Nor can I
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: pretend to tell how much of what I have said
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: is descriptive of the family life at Steventon in Jane
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Austen's youth. I am sure that the ladies there had
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: nothing to do with the mysteries of the stupot or
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: the preserving pan. But it is probable that their way
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: of life differed a little from ours, and would have
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: been appeared to us more homely. It may be that
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: useful articles which would not now be produced in drawing
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: rooms were hemmed and marked and darned in the old
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: fashioned parlor, But all of this concerned only the outer life.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: There was as much cultivation and refinement of mind as now,
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: with probably more studied courtesy and ceremony of manner to
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: visitors will. Certainly, in that family, literary pursuits were not neglected.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: I remember to have heard of only two little things
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: different from modern customs. One was that on hunting mornings
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: the young men usually took to their hasty breakfast in
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: the kitchen. The early hour at which hounds then met
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: may account for this, and probably the custom began, if
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: did not end when they were boys, for they hunted
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: at an early age in a scrambling sort of way,
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: upon any pony or donkey that they could procure, or
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: in default of such luxuries on foot. I have been
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: told that Sir Francis Austen, when seven years old, bought
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: on his own account, and must be supposed, with his
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: father's permission, a pony for a guinea and a half,
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: and after riding him with great success for two seasons,
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: sold him for a guinea more. One may wonder how
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: the child could have so much money, and how the
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: animal could have been obtained for so little. The same
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: authority informs me that his first cloth suit was made
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: from a scarlet habit, which, according to the fashion of
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: the times, had been his mother's usual morning dress. If
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: all this is true, the future Admiral of the British
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: Fleet must have cut a conspicuous figure in the hunting field.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: The other peculiarity was that when the roads were dirty,
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: the sisters took long walk in pattens. This defiance against
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: wet and dirt is now seldom seen. The few that
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: remain are banished from good society and employed only in
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: menial work. But one hundred and fifty years ago they
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: were celebrated in poetry and considered so clever a contrivance
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: that Gay in his trivia, ascribes the invention to a
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: god stimulated by his passion for a mortal damsel, and
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: derives the name Patten from Patty. The patten now supports
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: each frugal dame, which from the blue eyed Patty takes
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: the name. But mortal damsels have long ago discarded the
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: clumsy implement. First it dropped its iron ring and became
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: a clog. Afterwards it was fined down into the pliant galosh,
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: lighter to wear and more effectual to protect. A no
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: less manifest instance of gradual improvement than Cowper indicates when
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: he traces through eighty lines of poetry his accomplished sofa
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: back to the original three legged stool. As an illustration
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: of the purposes which a patent was intended to serve.
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: I add the following epigram written by Jane Austen's uncle,
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: mister Leigh Perrot, on reading in a newspaper the marriage
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: of Captain Foot to Miss Patten. Through the rough paths
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: of life, with the patten in your guard, may you
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: safely and pleasantly jog. May the knot never slip, nor
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: the ring pressed too hard, nor the foot find the
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: patten a clog. At the time when Jane Austen lived
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: at Steventon, a work was carried on in the neighboring cottages,
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: which ought to be recorded because it has long ceased
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: to exist. Up to the beginning of the present century,
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: poor women found profitable employment in spinning flax or wool.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: This was a better occupation for them than straw plaiting,
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: inasmuch as it was carried out at the family hearth
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: and did not admit of gadding and gossiping about the village.
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: The implement used was the long, narrow machine of wood,
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: raised on legs, furnished at one end with a large
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: wheel and at the other with a spindle, on which
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: the flax or wool was loosely wrapped, connected together by
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: a loop of string. One hand turned the wheel while
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: the other formed the thread. The outstretched arms, the advanced foot,
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: the sway of the whole figure backwards and forwards produced
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: picturesque attitudes and displayed whatever of grace or beauty the
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: workwoman might possess. Some ladies were fond of spinning, but
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: they worked in quieter manner, sitting at a neat little
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: machine of varnished wood like turnbridge ware, generally turned by
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: the foot, with a basin of water at hand to
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: supply the moisture required for forming the thread, which the
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: cottager took by a more direct and natural process from
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: her own mouth. I remember too, such elegant little wheels
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: in our own family. It may be observed that this
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: hand spinning is the most primitive of female accomplishments, and
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: can be traced back to the earliest times. Ballad, poetry,
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: and fairy tales are full of allusions to it. The
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: term spinster still testifies to its having been the ordinary
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: enjoyment of the English young woman. It was the labor
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: assigned to the ejected nuns by the rough earl, who said,
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: go spin, ye jades, go spin. It was the enjoyment
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: at which Roman matrons and Grecian princesses presus amongst their handmaids.
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: Heathen mythology celebrated it in the Three Fates, spinning and
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: measuring out the thread of human life. Holy scripture honors
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: it in those wise hearted women who did spin with
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: their hands and brought that which they had spun for
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: the construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness, and an
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: old English proverb carries it still farther back to the
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: time when Adam delved and Eve span But at last
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: this time honored domestic manufacturers, quite extinct amongst us, crushed
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: by the power of steam, overborne by countless host of
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: spinning Jenny's and I can only just remember some of
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: its last struggles for the existence in the Steventon cottages.
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: End of chapter two.
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: Chapter three, Early Compositions, Friends at Ash, A very old
• 55:48
  Speaker 4: letter lines on the death of Missus Lefroy, observations on
• 55:52
  Speaker 4: Jane Austen's letter writing letters. I know little of Jane
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: Austen's childhood. Her mother followed a custom not unws usual
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: in those days, though it seemed strange to us, of
• 56:03
  Speaker 4: putting out her babies to be nursed in a cottage.
• 56:05
  Speaker 4: In the village. The infant was daily visited by one
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: or both of its parents, and frequently brought to them
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: at the parsonage. But the cottage was its home, and
• 56:15
  Speaker 4: must have remained so till it was old enough to
• 56:17
  Speaker 4: run about and talk. For I know that one of
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: them in after life used to speak of his foster mother,
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: as movie the name by which he had called her
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: in his infancy. It may be that the contrast between
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: the parsonage house and the best class of cottages was
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: not quite so extreme then as it would be now,
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: that the one was somewhat less luxurious and the other
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: less squalid. It would certainly seem from the results that
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: it was a wholesome and invigorating system, for the children
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: were all strong and healthy. Jane was probably treated like
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: the rest in this respect. In childhood, every available opportunity
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: of instruction was made use of according to the ideas
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: of the time. She was well educated, though not highly accomplished,
• 56:58
  Speaker 4: and she certainly enjoyed them important element of mental training
• 57:02
  Speaker 4: associating at home with persons of cultivated intellect. It cannot
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: be doubted that her early years were bright and happy,
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: living as she did with indulgent parents in a cheerful home,
• 57:13
  Speaker 4: not without agreeable variety of society. To these sources of
• 57:17
  Speaker 4: enjoyment must be added the first stirrings of talent within her,
• 57:21
  Speaker 4: and the absorbing interest of original composition. It is impossible
• 57:25
  Speaker 4: to say at how early an age she began to write.
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: There are copy books extant containing tales, some of which
• 57:31
  Speaker 4: must have been composed while she was a young girl,
• 57:34
  Speaker 4: as they had amounted to a considerable number by the
• 57:36
  Speaker 4: time she was sixteen. Her earliest stories are of a
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: slight and flimsy texture, and are generally intended to be nonsensical,
• 57:44
  Speaker 4: but the nonsense has much spirit in it. They are
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: usually preceded by a dedication of mock solemnity to some
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: one of her family. It would seem that the grand
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: eloquent dedications prevalent in those days had not escaped her
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: youthful penetration. Perhaps the most characteristic feature in these early
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: productions is that, however puerile the matter, they are always
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: composed in pure, simple English, quite free from the over
• 58:09
  Speaker 4: ornamented style which might be expected from so young a writer.
• 58:13
  Speaker 4: One of her juvenile effusions is given as a specimen
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: of the kind of transitory amusement which Jane was continually
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: supplying to the family party. The Mystery an unfinished comedy
• 58:25
  Speaker 4: dedication to the Reverend George Austen, Sir, I humbly solicit
• 58:30
  Speaker 4: your patronage to the following comedy, which, though an unfinished one,
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: is I flatter myself as complete a mystery as any
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: of its kind. I am, sir, your most humble servant,
• 58:41
  Speaker 4: the author the mystery A comedy dramatis persona men Colonel Eliot,
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: Old Humbug, Young Humbug, Sir Edward Spangle and Coridon. Women
• 58:55
  Speaker 4: Fanny Elliott, Missus Humbug and Daphney act one seen one
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: a garden, Enter cordon cordon, but Hush, I am interrupted,
• 59:06
  Speaker 4: exit cordon. Enter Old Humbug and his son talking, Old Hum.
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: It is for that reason that I wish you to
• 59:13
  Speaker 4: follow my advice. Are you convinced of its propriety? Young Hum?
• 59:18
  Speaker 4: I am sir, and will certainly act in the manner
• 59:20
  Speaker 4: you have pointed out to me, Old Hum. Then let
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: us return to the house. Excellent scene too, a parlor
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: in Humbug's house. Missus Humbug and Fanny discovered at work.
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: Missus Hum, you understand me, my love Fanny perfectly, ma'am.
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: Pray continue your narration, Missus hum, alas it is nearly concluded,
• 59:41
  Speaker 4: for I have nothing more to say on the subject. Fanny. Ah,
• 59:45
  Speaker 4: here is Daphne. Enter Daphne, Daphne, my dear Missus Humbug.
• 59:50
  Speaker 4: How do you do? Oh Fanny? It is all over Fanny,
• 59:54
  Speaker 4: is it indeed, Missus Hum, I'm very sorry to hear it. Fanny.
• 59:59
  Speaker 4: Then there's no purpose that I Daphne, none upon earth,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: Missus Hum. And what is to become of Daphne? Oh
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 4: tis all settles? Whispers to missus Humbug, Fanny, And how
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 4: is it determined? Daphne, I'll tell you, whispers Fanny, Missus Hum.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 4: And easy to Daphney, I'll tell you all I know
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 4: of the matter, whispers missus Humbug and Fanny. Fanny, Well,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 4: now I know everything about it. I'll go away, missus
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 4: Hum and Daphne, and so will I. Exit Scene three.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 4: The curtain rises and discovers Sir Edward Spangle, reclined in
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 4: an elegant attitude on a sofa, fast asleep. Enter Colonel Elliott.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 4: Colonel E. My daughter is not here. I see there
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: lies Sir Edward. Shall I tell him the secret? No,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 4: he'll certainly blab it, but he's asleep and won't hear me.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 4: So I'll adventure. Goes up to Sir Edward, whispers to him,
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 4: and exits. End of the first act. Finny her own
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 4: mature opinion of the desirableness of such an early habit
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 4: of composition, as given in the following words of a niece.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 4: As I grew older, my aunt would talk to me
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 4: more seriously of my reading and my amusements. I had
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 4: taken early to writing verses and stories, and I am
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 4: sorry to think how I troubled her with reading them.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 4: She was very kind about it, and always had some
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 4: praise to besteau. But at last she warned me against
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: spending too much time upon them. She said, how well
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 4: I recollected that she knew writing stories was a great amusement,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 4: and she thought a harmless one, though many people she
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 4: was aware thought otherwise, but that at my age it
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 4: would be bad for me to be much taken up
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 4: with my own compositions. Later, still, it was after she
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 4: had gone to Winchester she sent me a message to
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 4: this effect that if I would take her advice, I
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 4: should cease writing till I was sixteen, that she herself
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 4: often wished she had read more and written less in
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 4: the corresponding years of her own life. As this Neith
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 4: was only twelve years old at the time of her
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 4: aunt's death, these words seemed to imply that the juvenile
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 4: tales to which have referred had some of them at
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 4: least been written in her childhood. But between these childish
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 4: effusions and the composition of her living works there intervened
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 4: another stage of her progress, during which she produced some
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 4: stories not without merit, but which she never considered worthy
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 4: of publication. During this preparatory period, her mind seems to
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 4: have been working in a very different direction from that
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 4: into which it ultimately settled. Instead of presenting faithful copies
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 4: of nature, these tales were generally burlesque, ridiculing the improbable
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 4: events and exaggerated sentiments which she had met with in
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 4: sundry silly romances. Something of this fancy is to be
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 4: found in Northender Abbey, but she soon left it far behind.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 4: In her subsequent course. It would seem as if she
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 4: were first taking note of all the faults to be avoided,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 4: and curiously considering how she ought not to write, before
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 4: she attempted to put forth her strength in the right direction.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 4: The family have rightly, i think, declined to let these
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 4: early works be published. Mister short Reid observed very pithly
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 4: of Walter Scott's early rambles on the borders. He was
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 4: making himsel at the time, but he did not know
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 4: maybe what he was about till years had passed. At
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 4: first he thought of little, I dare say, but the
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 4: queerness and the fun. And so in a humbler way,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 4: Jane Austen was making herself little, thinking of future fame,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 4: but caring only for the queerness and the fun. And
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 4: it would be as unfair to expose this preliminary process
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 4: to the world as it would be to display all
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 4: that goes on behind the curtain of the theater before
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 4: it is drawn up. It was, however, at Steventon, that
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 4: the real foundations of her fame were laid there. Some
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 4: of her most successful writing was composed at such an
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 4: early age as to make it surprising that so young
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 4: a woman could have acquired the insight into character and
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 4: the nice observation of manners which they display. Pride and prejudice,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 4: which some consider the most brilliant of her novels, was
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: the first finished, if not the first begun. She began
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 4: it in October seventeen ninety six, before she was twenty
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 4: one years old, and completed it in about ten months
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 4: in August seventeen ninety seven. The title then intended for
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 4: it was First Impressions, Sense and Sensibility was begun in
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 4: its present form immediately after the completion of the former
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 4: in November seventeen ninety seven. But something similar in story
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 4: and character had been written earlier under the title of
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 4: Eleanor and Marianne, and if, as is probable, a good
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 4: deal of this earlier production was retained, it must form
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 4: the earliest specimen of her writing that has been given
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 4: to the world. Northendier Abbey, though not prepared for the
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 4: press till eighteen o three, was certainly first composed in
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 4: seventeen ninety eight. Amongst the most valuable neighbors of the
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 4: Austins were mister and Missus Lefroy and their family. He
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 4: was rector of the adjoining parish of Ashe. She was
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 4: sister to Sir Edgarton Bridges, to whom we are indebted
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 4: for the earliest notice of Jane Austen that exists in
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 4: his autobiography. Speaking of his visits at Ashe, he writes,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 4: thus the nearest neighbors of the Lefroys were the Austins
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: of Steventon. I remember Jane Austen the novelist as a
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 4: little child. She was very intimate with Missus Lefroy, and
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 4: much encouraged by her. Her mother was a miss Lee,
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 4: whose paternal grandmother was a sister to the first Duke
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 4: of Chandos. Mister Austen was of a Kentish family, of
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 4: which several branches have been settled in the wild of Kent,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 4: and some are still remaining there. When I knew Jane Austen,
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 4: I never suspected that she was an authoress. But my
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 4: eyes told me that she was fair and handsome, slight
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 4: and elegant, but with cheeks a little too full. One
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 4: may wish that Sir Edgarton had dwelt rather longer on
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 4: the subject of these memories, instead of being drawn away
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 4: by his extreme love for genealogies to her great grandmother
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: and ancestors. That great grandmother, however, lives in the family
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 4: records as Mary Bridges, a daughter of Lord Chandos, married
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 4: in Winchester Abbey to a Theophilus Lee of Adelestrop in
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 4: sixteen ninety eight. When a girl, she had received a
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 4: curious letter of advice and reproof written by her mother
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 4: from Constantinople. Mary or Paul was remaining in England with
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 4: her grandmother, Lady Bernard, who seems to have been wealthy
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 4: and inclined to be too indulgent to her granddaughter. This
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 4: letter is given. Any such authentic document two hundred years
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 4: old dealing with domestic details must possess some interest. This
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: is remarkable not only as a specimen of the homely
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 4: language in which ladies of rank then expressed themselves, but
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 4: from the sound sense which it contains. Forms of expression vary,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 4: but good sense and right principles are the same in
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 4: the nineteenth century than they were in the seventeenth century.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 4: My dearest Paul, your letters by cousin Robert Searle arrived
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 4: here not before the twenty seventh of April. Yet were
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 4: they heartily welcomed to us, bringing ye joyful news which
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 4: a great while we had longed for. Of my most
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 4: dear mother and all other relations and friends. Good health,
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 4: which I beseech God continue to you all, and as
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 4: I observe in yours, to your sister Betty, your extraordinary
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 4: kindness of as I may truly say, the best mother
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 4: and grandmother in the world, in pinching herself to make
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 4: you so fine, I cannot but admire her great good housewifery,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 4: in affording you so very plentiful an allowance, and yet
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 4: to increase her stock at the rate I find she
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 4: hath done. And I think I can never sufficiently mind
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 4: you how very much it is your duty, on all
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 4: occasions to pay her your gratitude in all humble submissions
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 4: and obedience to her commands. So long as you live.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 4: I must tell you tis her bounty and care in
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 4: your greatest measure that you are likely to owe your
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 4: well living in this world. And as you cannot help
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 4: but be very sensible, you are an extraordinary charged to her.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 4: So it behooves you to take particular heed that in
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 4: the whole course of your life you render her a
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 4: proportional comfort. Especially tis your best way you can ever
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 4: hope to make her such amends as God requires of
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 4: your hands. But Paul, it grieves me a little. Yet
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 4: I am forced to take notice and reprove you for
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 4: some vain expressions in your letters to your sister. You say,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 4: concerning your allowance, you aim to bring your bread and cheese.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 4: Even in this I do not discommend you for a
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 4: foul shame. Indeed, it would be should you run out
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 4: the constable, having so liberal a provision made you for
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 4: your maintenance. But your reason you give for your resolution,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 4: I cannot at all approve for you to say to
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 4: spend more than you can't. That's because you have it
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 4: not to spend, otherwise it seems you would so. Yet
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 4: tis your grandmother's discretion and not yours, that keeps you
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 4: from extravagancy, which plainly appears in you close of your
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 4: sentence saying, yet you think it's simple covetousness to save
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 4: out of yours. But tis my opinion, if you lay
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 4: all on your back, tis ten times a greater sin
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 4: and shame than to save somewhat out of so large
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 4: an allowance in your purse to help you at a
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 4: dead lift. Child, We all know our beginning, but who
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 4: knows his end. The best use that can be made
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 4: out of fair weather is to provide against fowl, And
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 4: tis great discretion and of no small commendations for a
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 4: young woman betimes to show herself half wifely and frugal.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 4: Your mother neither maid nor wife ever yet bestowed forty
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 4: pounds a year on herself. And yet if you never
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 4: fall under a worse reputation in the world than she,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 4: I thank God for it. Hath hitherto done you need
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 4: not repine at it, and you cannot be ignorant of
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 4: the difference that was between my fortune and what you
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 4: are to expect. You ought, likewise to consider that you
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 4: have seven brothers and sisters, and you are all one
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 4: man's children, And therefore it is very unreasonable that one
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 4: should expect to be preferred in fineries so much above
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 4: all the rest, for 'tis impossible you should so much
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 4: mistake your father's condition as to fancy he is able
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 4: to allow every one of you forty pounds a year apiece.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 4: For such an allowance, with the charge of their diet
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 4: over and above, will amount to at least five hundred
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 4: pounds a year, a sum your poor father can ill spare. Besides,
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 4: do but think yourself, what a ridiculous sight it will
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 4: be when your grandmother and you come to us to
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 4: have no less than seven waiting gentlewomen in one house.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 4: For what reason can you give why every one of
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 4: your sisters should not have every one of them a
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 4: maid as well as you. And though you may spare
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 4: to pay your maid's wages out of your allowance, yet
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 4: you take no care of the unnecessary charge you put
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 4: your father to in your increase of his family. Whereas
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 4: if it were not a piece of pride to have
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 4: the name of keeping your maid, she yet waits on.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 4: Your good grandmother might easily do as formerly you know
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 4: she hath done all the business you have for a maid,
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 4: unless as you grow older you grow a arier fool,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 4: which God forbid. Paul, you live in a place where
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 4: you see great plenty and splendor. But let not the
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 4: allurements of earthly pleasures tempt you to forget or neglect
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 4: the duty of a good Christian in dressing your better part,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 4: which is your soul, as will best please God. I
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 4: am not against your going decent and neat, as becomes
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 4: your father's daughter. But to clothe yourself rich and be
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 4: running into every gaudy fashion can never become your circumstances.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 4: And instead of doing you credit and getting you a
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 4: good preferment, it is the readiest way you can take
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 4: to fright all sober men from ever thinking of matching
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 4: themselves with women that live above their fortune. And if
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 4: this be a wise way of spending money, judge you,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 4: and besides, do but reflect what an odd sight it
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 4: will be to a stranger that comes to our house
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 4: to see your grandmother, your mother, and all your sisters
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 4: in a plain dress, and you only tricked up like
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 4: a Bartholomew baby. You know what sort of people those
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 4: are that can't farewell but they must cry roast meat.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 4: Now what effect could you imagine your writing in such
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 4: a high strain to your sisters could have but either
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 4: to provoke them to envy you or murmur against us.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 4: I must tell you neither of your sisters have ever
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 4: had twenty pounds a year allowance from us yet, and
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 4: yet their dress hath not disparaged neither them nor us
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 4: without incurring the censure of simple covetousness. They will have
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 4: some what to show out of their savings that will
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 4: do them credit. And I expect yet you that their
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 4: elder sister should rather set them examples of the like
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 4: nature than tempt them from treading in the steps of
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 4: their good grandmother and poor mother. This is not half
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 4: what might be said on this occasion. But believing thee
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 4: to be a very good natured, dutiful child, I should
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 4: have thought it a great deal too much much. But yet,
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 4: having in my coming hither passed through many most desperate dangers,
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 4: I cannot forbear thinking and preparing myself for all events,
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 4: and therefore not knowing how it may please God to
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 4: dispose of us, I conclude it my duty to God
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 4: and THEE, my dear child, to lay this matter as
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 4: home to THEE as I could, assuring you my daily
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 4: prayers are not nor shall be wanting, that God may
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 4: give you grace always to remember to make a right
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 4: use of this truly affectionate counsel of your poor mother.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 4: And though I speak very plain, downrite English to you,
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 4: yet I would not have you doubt but that I
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 4: love you as heartily as any child I have. And
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 4: if you serve God and take good courses, I promise
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 4: you my kindness to you shall be according to your
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 4: own heart's desire. For you may be certain I can
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 4: aim at nothing in what I have now writ but
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 4: your real good, which to promote, shall be the study
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 4: and care day and night of my dear Paul, thy
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 4: truly affectionate mother, Eliza chandas Para of Galata. May the sixth,
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 4: sixteen eighty six PostScript, Thy father and I send THEE
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 4: our blessing, and all thy brothers and sisters their service,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 4: our hearty and affectionate service to my brother and sister child,
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 4: and all my dear cousins. When you see my Lady
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 4: Worcester and cousin, Howland's pray present them my most humble service.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 4: This letter shows that the wealth acquired by trade was
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 4: already manifesting itself, in contrast with the straitened circumstances of
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 4: some of the nobility. Mary Bridges's poor father, in whose
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 4: household economy was necessary, was the King of England's ambassador
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 4: at Constantinople. The grandmother, who lived in great plenty and splendor,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 4: was the widow of a Turkey merchant. But then, as
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 4: now it would seem, rank had the power of attracting
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 4: and absorbing wealth. At ash also, Jane became a que
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 4: painted with a member of the Lefroy family, who was
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 4: still living when I began these memoirs a few months ago,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 4: the right Honorable Thomas Lefroy, the late Chief Justice of Ireland.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 4: One must look back more than seventy years to reach
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 4: the time when these two bright young persons were, for
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 4: a short time intimately acquainted with each other, and then
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 4: separated on their several courses, never to meet again. Both
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 4: destined to attain some distinction in their different ways, one
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 4: to survive the other for more than half a century,
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 4: yet in his extreme old age, to remember and speak,
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 4: as he sometimes did, of his former companion, as one
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 4: to be much admired and not easily forgotten by those
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 4: who had ever known her. Missus Lefroy herself was a
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 4: remarkable person. Her rare endowments of goodness, talents, graceful person
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 4: and engaging manners were sufficient to secure her a prominent
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 4: place in any society into which she was thrown, while
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 4: her enthusiastic eagerness of disposition rendered her a specially attractive
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 4: to a clever and lively girl. She was killed by
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 4: a fall from her horse on Jane's birthday, December sixteenth,
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 4: eighteen o four. The following lines to her memory were
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 4: written by Jane four years afterwards, when she was thirty
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 4: three years old. They are given not for their merits
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 4: as poetry, but to show how deep and lasting was
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 4: the impression made by the elder friend on the mind
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 4: of the younger to the memory of Missus Lefroy. The
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 4: day returns again, my natal day. What mixed emotions in
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 4: my mind, arise, beloved friend. Four years have passed away
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 4: since thou wert snatched forever from our eyes. The day
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 4: commemorative of my birth, bestowing life and light and hope
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 4: to me, brings back the hour which was thy last
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 4: on earth. Oh bitter pang of torturing memory. Angelic woman
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 4: passed my power to praise in language, Meet thy talents, temper, mind,
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 4: thy solid worth, thy captivating gray, Thou, friend and ornament
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 4: of human kind. But come fond fancy thou. Indulgent power,
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 4: hope is desponding, chill, severe to thee Bless thou this
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 4: little portion of an hour. Let me behold her as
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 4: she used to be. I see her here with all
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 4: her smiles, benign, her looks of eager love, her accents sweet,
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 4: that voice and countenance almost divine expression, harmony alike complete. Listen.
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 4: It is not sound alone. Tis sense, tis genius, taste
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 4: and tenderness of soul, Tis genuine warmth of heart without pretense,
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 4: and purity of mind that crowns the whole. She speaks,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 4: tis eloquence, that grace of tongue, so rare, so lovely,
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 4: never misapplied by her to palliate vice or decor wrong.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 4: She speaks and argues, But on virtue's side. Hers is
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 4: the energy of soul. Sincere her Christian spirit, ignorant to feign,
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 4: seeks but to comfort, heal, enlighten, cheer, confer a place, leasure,
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 4: or prevent a pain. Can aught enhance such goodness? Yes
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 4: to me her partial favor from my earliest years consummates
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 4: all Ah give me, but to see her smile of love.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 4: The vision disappears, tis past and gone. We meet no more.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 4: Below short is the cheat of fancy or the tomb.
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 4: Oh might I hope to equal bliss, to go to
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 4: meet thee angel in thy future home. Fain would I
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 4: feel and union with thy fate? Fain would I seek
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 4: to draw an omen fare from this connection in our
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 4: earthly date? Indulge the harmless weakness reason spare. The loss
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 4: of their first home is generally a great grief to
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 4: young persons of strong feeling and lively imagination, and Jane
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 4: was exceedingly unhappy when she was told that her father,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 4: now seventy years of age, had determined to resign his
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 4: duties to his eldest son, who was to be his
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 4: successor in the rectory of Steventon, and to remove with
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 4: his wife and daughters to Bath. Jane had been absent
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 4: from her home when this resolution was taken, and as
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 4: her father was always rapid both informing his resolutions and
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 4: enacting on them, she had little time to reconcile herself
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 4: to the change. A wish has sometimes been expressed that
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 4: some of Jane Austen's letters should be published. Some entire
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 4: letters and many extracts will be given in this memoir,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 4: but the reader must be warned not to expect too
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 4: much from them with regard to accuracy of language. Indeed,
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 4: every word of them might be printed without correction. The
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 4: style is always clear and generally animated, while a vain
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 4: of humor continually gleams through the whole. But the materials
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 4: may be thought inferior to the execution, for they treat
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 4: only of the details of domestic life. There is in
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 4: them no notice of politics or public events, scarcely any
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 4: discussions on literature or other subjects of general interest. They
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 4: may be said to resemble the nest which some little
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 4: bird builds of the materials nearest at hand, of the
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 4: twigs and mosses supplied by the tree in which it
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 4: is placed. Curiously constructed out of the simplest matters, her
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 4: letters have seldomed the date of the year or the
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 4: signature of her Christian name at full length, but it
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 4: has been easy to ascertain their dates, either from the
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 4: postmark or from their contents. The two following letters are
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 4: the earliest that I have seen. They were both written
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 4: in November eighteen hundred, before the family removed from Steventon.
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 4: Some of the same circumstances are referred to in both.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 4: The first is to her sister Cassandra, who was then
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 4: staying with their brother Edward at Gonersham Park, Kent, steventon
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 4: Saturday evening November eighth. My dear Cassandra, I thank you
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 4: for so speedy a return to my two last, and
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 4: particularly thank you for your anecdote of Charlotte Graham and
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 4: her cousin Harriet Bailey, which has very much amused both
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 4: my mother and myself. If you can learn anything farther
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 4: of that interesting affair, I hope you will mention it.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 4: I have two messages. Let me get rid of them,
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 4: and then my paper will be my Mary fully intended
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 4: writing to you by mister Shute's frank and only happened
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 4: entirely to forget it, but will write soon. And my
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 4: father wishes Edward to send him a memorandum of the
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 4: price of the hops. The tables are come and give
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 4: general contentment. I had not expected that they would so
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 4: perfectly suit the fancy of us all three, or that
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 4: we should so well agree in the disposition of them.
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 4: But nothing except their own surface can have been smoother.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 4: The two ends put together form one constant table for everything,
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 4: and the centerpiece stands most exceedingly well under the glass,
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 4: and holds a great deal most commodiously without looking awkwardly.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 4: They are both covered with green baize, and send their
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 4: best love. The pembroke has got its destination by the sideboard,
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 4: and my mother has great delight in keeping her money
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 4: and papers locked up. The little table which used to
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 4: stand there has most conveniently taken itself off into the
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 4: best bed room, and we are now in want only
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 4: of the chiffonniere, which is neither finished, nor come so
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 4: much for that subject. I now come to another of
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 4: a very different nature, as other subjects are very apt
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 4: to be. Earl Harwood has been again giving uneasiness to
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 4: his family, and talked to the neighborhood. In the present instance, however,
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 4: he is only unfortunate and not in fault. About ten
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 4: days ago, in cocking a pistol in the guard room
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 4: at Marseilles, he accidentally shot himself through the thigh. Two
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 4: young Scotch surgeons in the island were polite enough to
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 4: propose taking off the thigh at once, but to that
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 4: he would not consent, and accordingly, in his wounded state,
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 4: was put on board a cutter and conveyed to Hasler
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 4: Hospital at Gosport, where the bullet was extracted, and where
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 4: he now is, I hope in a fair way of
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 4: doing well. The surgeon of the hospital wrote to the
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 4: family on the occasion, and John Harwood went down to
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 4: him immediately, attended by James, whose object in going was
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 4: to be the means of bringing back the earliest intelligence
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 4: to mister and Missus Harwood, whose anxious sufferings, particularly those
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 4: of the latter, have of course been dreadful. They went
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 4: down on Tuesday, and James came back the next day,
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 4: bringing such favorable accounts as greatly to lessen the distress
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 4: of the family. A dean though it will probably be
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 4: a long while before Missus Hardwood can be quite at ease.
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 4: One most material comfort, however, they have the assurance of
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 4: its being really an accidental wound, which is not only
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 4: positively declared by Earl himself, but is likewise testified by
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 4: the particular direction of the bullet. Such a wound could
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 4: not have been received in a duel. At present he
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 4: is going on very well, but the surgeon will not
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 4: declare him to be in no danger. Mister Heathcote met
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 4: with a genteel little accident the other day in hunting.
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 4: He got off to lead his horse over a hedge
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 4: or a house or something, and his horse, in his haste,
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 4: trod upon his leg, or rather ankle, I believe, and
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 4: it is not certain whether the small bone is not broke.
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 4: Martha has accepted Mary's imitation for Lord Portsmouth's ball. He
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 4: has not yet sent out his own invitations. But that
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 4: does not signify Martha comes and a ball there is
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 4: to be. I think it will be too early, in
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 4: her mother's absence, for me to return with her. Sunday evening.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 4: We have had a dreadful storm of wind in the
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 4: forepart of this day, which has done a great deal
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 4: of mischief among our trees. I was sitting alone in
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 4: the dining room when an odd kind of crash startled
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 4: me in a moment. Afterwards it was repeated. I then
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 4: went to the window, which I reached just in time
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 4: to see the last of our two highly valued elms
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 4: to send into the sweep. The other, which had fallen
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 4: I supposed in the first crash, and which was the
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 4: nearest to the pond, taking a more easterly direction, sunk
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 4: among our screen of chestnuts and furs, knocking down one
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 4: bruce fir, beating off the head of another, and stripping
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 4: the two corner chestnuts of several branches in its fall.
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 4: This is not all one large elm out of the
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 4: two on the left hand side as you enter, what
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 4: I call the elm W was likewise blown down. The
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 4: maple bearing the weather crook was broken too. And what
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 4: I regret more than all the rest, is that the
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 4: three elms which grew in Hall's Meadow and gave such
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 4: ornament to it, are gone, two blown down, and the
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 4: other so much injured that it cannot stand. I am
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 4: happy to add, however, that no greater evil than the
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 4: loss of trees has been the consequence of the storm.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 4: In this place, or in our immediate neighborhood. We grieve
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 4: therefore in some comfort, I am yours ever, j A.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 4: The next letter, written four days later than the former,
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 4: was addressed to Miss Lloyd, an intimate friend whose sister
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 4: my mother was married to Jane's eldest brother, steventon Wednesday
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 4: evening November twelfth, My dear Martha, I did not receive
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 4: your note yesterday till after Charlotte had left Dean, or
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 4: I would have sent my answer by her, instead of
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 4: being the means as I now must be, of lessening
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 4: the elegance of your new dress for the Hearst horn
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 4: Ball by the value of the threepence. You are very
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 4: good in wishing to see me at Ibthorpe so soon,
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 4: and I am equally good in wishing to come to you.
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 4: I believe our merit in that respect is much upon
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 4: a par our self denial mutually strong. Having paid this
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 4: tribute of praise to the virtue of both, I shall
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 4: here have done with a panegyric and proceed to plain
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 4: matter of fact, in about a fortnight's time I hope
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 4: to be with you. I have two reasons for not
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 4: being able to come before. I wish to so arrange
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 4: my visit as to spend some days with you after
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 4: your mother's return, in the first place, that I may
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 4: have the pleasure of seeing her, and in the second
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 4: that I may have a better chance of bringing you
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 4: back with me. Your promise in my favor was not
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 4: quite absolute. But if your will is not perverse, you
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 4: and I will do all in our power to overcome
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 4: your scruples of conscience. I hope we shall meet next
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 4: week to talk this all over, till we have tired
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 4: ourselves with the very idea of my visit. Before my
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 4: visit begins, our invitations for the nineteenth arrived, and very
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 4: curiously are they worded. Mary mentioned you yesterday poor Earl's
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 4: unfortunate accident. I dare say he does not seem to
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 4: be going on very well. The two or three last
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 4: posts have brought less and less favorable accounts of him.
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 4: John Harwood has gone to Gosport again to day. We
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 4: have two families of friends now who are in a
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 4: most anxious state. For though, by a note from Catherine
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 4: this morning, there seems now to be a revival of
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 4: hope at manydown, its continuous may be too reasonably doubted.
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 4: Mister Heathcote, however, who has broken the small bone of
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 4: his leg is so good as to be going on
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 4: very well. It would be really too much to have
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 4: three people to care for you. Distress me cruelly by
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 4: your request about books. I cannot think of any to
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 4: bring with me, nor have I any idea of our
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 4: wanting them. I come to you to be talked to,
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 4: not to read or hear reading. I can do that
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 4: at home, And indeed I am now laying in a
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 4: stock of intelligence to pour out on you as my
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 4: share of the conversation. I am reading Henry's History of England,
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 4: which I will repeat to you in any manner you
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 4: may prefer, either in a loose, dulcatory, unconnected stream, or
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 4: dividing my recitals as the historian divides it himself into
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 4: seven parts, the civil and military, Religion, constitution, learning and
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 4: learned men, arts and sciences, Commerce, coins and shipping, and manners,
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 4: so that for every evening in the week there will
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 4: be a different subject. The friday's lot commerce coins and
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 4: shipping you will find the least entertaining, but the next
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 4: evening's portion will make amends with such a provision on
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 4: my part, if you will do yours by repeating the
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 4: French Grammar and missus Stent will now and then ejaculate
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 4: some wonder about the cocks and hens. What can we want?
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 4: Farewell for a short time we all unite in best love,
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 4: and I am your very affectionate j A. The two
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 4: letters must have been written early in eighteen o one,
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 4: after the removal from Steventon had been decided on, but
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 4: before it had taken place. They refer to the two
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 4: brothers who were at sea, and give some idea of
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 4: the kind of anxieties and uncertainties to which sisters are
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 4: seldom subject in these days of peace. Steamers and electric telegraphs.
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 4: At that time ships were often wind bound, or becalmed,
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 4: or driven wide of their destination, and sometimes they had
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 4: orders to alter their course for some secret service. Not
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 4: to mention the chance of conflict with a vessel of
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 4: superior power no improbable occurrence. Before the Battle of Trafalgar,
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 4: information about relatives on board men of war was scarce
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 4: and scanty, and often picked up by hearsay or chance means,
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 4: and every scrap of intelligence was proportionably valuable. My dear Cassandra,
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 4: I should not have thought it necessary to write to
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 4: you so soon, but for the arrival of a letter
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 4: from Charles to myself. It was written last Saturday from
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 4: off the Start, and conveyed to Popham Lane by Captain
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 4: Boyle on his way to Midgem. He came from Lisbon.
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 4: In the endymion, I will call up Charles at account
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 4: of his conjectures about Frank. He has not seen my
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 4: brother lately, nor does he expect to find him arrived
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 4: as he met Captain Inglis at Rhodes going up to
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 4: take command of the petrol as he was coming down.
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 4: But supposes he will arrive in less than a fortnight
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 4: from this time in some ship which is expected to
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 4: reach England about that time, with dispatches from Sir Ralph Abercarbie.
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 4: The event must show what sort of a conjuror Captain
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 4: Boyle is. The indemion has not been played with any
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 4: more prizes. Charles spent three pleasant days in Lisbon. They
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 4: were very well satisfied with their royal passenger, whom they
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 4: found jolly and affable, who talks of Lady Augusta as
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 4: his wife and seems much attached to her. When this
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 4: letter was written, the indemion was becalmed, but Charles hoped
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 4: to reach Portsmouth by Monday or Tuesday. He received my
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 4: letter communicating our plans before he left England. Was much surprised,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 4: of course, but is quite reconciled to them, and means
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 4: to come to Steventon once more. While Steventon is ours.
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 4: From a letter written later in the same year, Charles
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 4: has received thirty pounds for his share of the Privateer,
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 4: and expects ten pounds more. But of what avail is
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 4: it to take prizes if he lays out the produce
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 4: in presents to his sisters. He has been buying gold
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 4: chains and topaz crosses for us. He must be well scolded.
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 4: The Endemion has already received orders for taking troops to Egypt,
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 4: which I should not at all like if I did
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 4: not trust to Charles being removed from her somehow or
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 4: other before she sails. He knows nothing of his own destination,
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 4: he says, but desires me to write directly, as the
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 4: Endemion will probably sail in three or four days. He
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 4: will receive my yesterday's letter, and I shall write again
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 4: by this post to thank and reproach him. We shall
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 4: be unbearably fine. End of Chapter three. Chapter four Removal
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 4: from Steventon residences at Bath and at Southampton. Settling at Chowtam,
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 4: the family removed to Bath in the spring of eighteen
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 4: o one, where they resided first at number four Sidney
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 4: Terrace and afterwards in Green Park buildings. I do not
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 4: know whether they were at all attracted to Bath by
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 4: the circumstance that Missus Austen's only brother, mister Lee Parrott,
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 4: spent part of every year there. The name of Parrot,
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 4: together with a small estate at Northley in Oxfordshire, had
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 4: been bequeathed to him by a great uncle. I must
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 4: devote a few sentences to this very old and now
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 4: extinct branch of the Parrott family, for one of the
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 4: last survivors, Jane Parrott, married to a Walker, was Jane
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 4: Austen's great grandmother, from whom she derived her Christian name.
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 4: The Parrots were settled in Pembrokeshire at least as early
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 4: as the thirteenth century. They were probably some of the
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 4: settlers whom the policy of our Plantagenet kings placed in
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 4: that county, which thence acquired the name of England Beyond Wales,
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 4: for the double purpose of keeping open a communication with
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 4: Ireland from Milford Haven, and of overawing the Welsh. One
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 4: of the family seems to have carried out this latter
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 4: purpose very vigorously, for it is recorded of him that
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 4: he slew twenty six men of Kemes, a district of Wales,
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 4: and one wolf. The manner in which the two kinds
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 4: of game are classed together and the disproportion of numbers
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 4: are remarkable, but probably at that time the wolves had
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 4: been so closely killed down that lupicide was become a
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 4: more rare and distinguished exploit than homicide. The last of
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 4: this family died about seventeen eighty eight and their property
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 4: was divided between Lee's and Musgraves, the larger portion going
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 4: to the latter. Mister Leigh Parrott pulled down the mansion
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 4: and sold the estate to the Duke of Marlborough, and
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 4: the name of these Parrots is now to be found
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 4: only on some monuments in the Church of Northley. Mister
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 4: Lee Parott was also one of several cousins to whom
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 4: a life interest in the Stoneleigh property in Warwickshire was
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 4: left after the extinction of the earlier Lee peerage, but
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 4: he compromised his cli to the secession in his lifetime.
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 4: He married a niece of Sir Montague Chealmley of Lincolnshire.
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 4: He was a man of considerable natural power, with much
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 4: of the wit of his uncle, the Master of Balliol,
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 4: and wrote clever epigrams and riddles, some of which, though
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 4: without his name, found their way into print. But he
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 4: lived a very retired life, dividing his time between Bath
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 4: and his place in Berkshire called Scarlett's. Jane's Letters from
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 4: Bath make frequent mention of this uncle and aunt. The
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 4: unfinished story now published under the title of the Watsons
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 4: must have been written during the author's residence in Bath.
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 4: In the autumn of eighteen o four, she spent some
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 4: weeks at Lyme and became acquainted with the cob which
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 4: the afterwards made memorable for the fall of Louisa Musgrove.
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 4: In February eighteen o five, her father died at Bath
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 4: and was buried at Walcotte Church. The widow and daughters
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 4: went into lodgings for a few months, and then removed
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 4: to Southampton. The only records that I can find about
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 4: her during these four years are the three following letters
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 4: to her sister, one from Lyme, the others from Bath.
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 4: They show that she went a good deal into society
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 4: in a quiet way, chiefly with ladies, and that her
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 4: eyes were always open to minute traits of character in
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 4: those with whom she associated. Extract from a letter from
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 4: Jane Austen to her sister Lyme, Friday, September fourteenth, eighteen
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 4: o four. My dear Cassandra, I take the first sheet
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 4: of fine striped paper to thank you for your letter
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 4: from Weymouth and express my hopes of your being at
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 4: Ibthorpe before this time. I expect to hear that you
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 4: reached it yesterday evening, being able to get as far
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 4: as Blandford on Wednesday. Your account of Weymouth contains nothing
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 4: which strikes me so forcibly as there being no ice
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 4: in the town for every other vexation. I was in
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 4: some measure prepared, and particularly for your disappointment in not
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 4: seeing the royal family go on board on Tuesday, having
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 4: already heard from mister Crawford that he had seen you
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 4: in the very active being too late, But for there
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 4: being no eyes, what could prepare me? You found my
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 4: letter at andover I hoped yesterday, and have now for
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 4: many hours been satisfied that your kind anxiety on my
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 4: behalf was as much thrown away as kind anxiety usually is.
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 4: I continue quite well, in proof of which I have
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 4: bathed again this morning. It was absolutely necessary that I
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 4: should have the little fever and indisposition which I had.
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 4: It has been all the fashion this week. In line.
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 4: We are quite settled in our lodgings by this time,
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 4: as you may suppose, and everything goes on in the
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 4: usual order. The servants behave very well and make no difficulties.
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 4: Though nothing certainly can exceed the inconvenience of the offices,
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 4: except the general dirtiness of the house and furniture and
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 4: all its inhabitants. I endeavor as far as I can
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 4: to supply your place, and be useful and keep things
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 4: in order. I detect dirt in the water decanters as
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 4: fast as I can, and keep everything as it was
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 4: under your administration. The ball last night was pleasant, but
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 4: not full For Thursday. My father stayed contentedly till half
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 4: past nine. We went a little after eight, and then
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 4: walked home with James and a lantern, though I believed
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 4: the lantern was not lit as the moon was up.
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 4: But sometimes this lantern may be a great convenience to him.
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 4: My mother and I stayed about an hour later. Nobody
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 4: asked me the first two dances. The next two I
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 4: danced with mister Crawford, and had I chosen to stay longer,
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 4: might have danced with mister Granville, Missus Granville's son, whom
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 4: my dear friend. Miss A introduced me, or with a
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 4: new odd looking man who had been eyeing me for
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 4: some time, and at last, without any introduction, asked me
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 4: if I meant to dance again. I think he must
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 4: be Irish by his ease, and because I imagine him to
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 4: belong to the honorable Bees, who are son and son's
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 4: wife of an Irish viscount. Bold, queer looking people just
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 4: fit to be quality at lime. I call old yesterday morning,
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 4: ought it not in strict propriety, be be termed yester
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 4: morning on miss A, and was introduced to her father
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 4: and mother. Like other young ladies, she is considerably genteeler
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 4: than her parents. Missus A sat darning a pair of
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 4: stockings the whole of my visit, But do not mention
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 4: this at home, lest a warning should act as an example.
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 4: We afterwards walk together for an hour on the cobb.
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 4: She is very conversible in a common way. I do
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 4: not perceive wit or genius, but she has some sense
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 4: and some degree of taste, and her manners are very engaging.
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 4: She seems to like people rather too easily. Yours affectionately,
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 4: Jane Austen. Letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 4: at Ibthorpe, alluding to the sudden death of Missus Lloyd
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 4: at that place, twenty five Gay Street, Bath, Monday, April eight,
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 4: eighteen o five. My dear Cassandra, here is a day
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 4: for you, did Bath or Ibthorpe, ever see such an
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 4: eighth of April? It is March and April to g
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 4: other the glare of the one in the warmth of
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 4: the other. We do nothing but walk about as far
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 4: as your means will admit. I hope you profit by
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 4: such weather too. I dare say you are already the
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 4: better for a change of pace. We were out again
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 4: last night. Miss Irvine invited us, when I meant her
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 4: in the Crescent, to drink tea with them, but I
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 4: rather declined it, having no idea that my mother would
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 4: be disposed for another evening visit there so soon. But
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 4: when I gave her the message. I found her very
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 4: well inclined to go, and accordingly, on leaving chapel, we
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 4: walked to Lansdowne. This morning we have been to see
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 4: Miss Chamberlaine look hot on horseback. Seven years and four
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 4: months ago we went to the same riding house to
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 4: see Miss Lefroy's performance. What a different set we are
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 4: now moving in. But seven years, I suppose, are enough
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 4: to change every pore of one's skin and every feeling
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 4: of one's mind. We did not walk long in the
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 4: crescent yesterday. It was hot and not crowded enough, so
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 4: we went into the field and passed close by S.
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 4: T and Miss s Again. I have not yet seen
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 4: her face, but neither her dress nor air have anything
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 4: of the dash or stylishness which the Browns talked of.
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 4: Quite the contrary. Indeed, her dress is not even smart,
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 4: and her appearance very quiet. Miss Irvine says she is
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 4: never speaking a word, poor wretch. I am afraid she
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 4: is en pennetence. Here has been the excellent missus Colthart
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 4: calling while my mother was out, and I was believed
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 4: to be so. I always respected her as a good hearted,
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 4: friendly woman, and the Browns have been here I find
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 4: their affidavits on the table. The Ambuscad reached Gibraltar on
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 4: the ninth of March and found all well, so say
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 4: the papers. We have had no letters from anybody, but
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 4: we expect to hear from Edward tomorrow and from you
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 4: soon afterwards. How happy they are at Gottersham. Now I
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 4: shall be very glad of a letter from Ibthorpe, that
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 4: I may know how you all are, but particularly yourself.
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 4: This is nice weather for missus j Austin's going to Spain,
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 4: and I hope she will have a pleasant visit there.
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 4: I expect a prodigious account of the Christening dinner. Perhaps
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 4: it brought you at last into the company of Miss
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 4: Dundas again Tuesday. I received your letter last night and
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 4: wish it may be soon followed by another to say
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 4: that all is over. But I cannot help thinking that
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 4: nature will struggle again and produce a revival. Poor woman.
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 4: May her end be peaceful and easy as the exit
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 4: we have witnessed, and I dare say it will. If
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 4: there is no revival, suffering must be all over. Even
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 4: the consciousness of existence I suppose was gone when you
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 4: wrote the nonsense I have been writing in this and
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 4: in my last letter seems out of place at such
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 4: a time, but I will not mind it. It will
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 4: do you no harm, and nobody else will be attacked
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 4: by it. I am heartily glad that you can speak
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 4: so comfortably of your own health and looks, though I
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 4: can scarcely comprehend the latter being really improved. Could traveling
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 4: fifty miles produce such an immediate change? You were looking
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 4: very poorly here, and everybody seemed sensible of it. Is
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 4: there a charm in a hack post chaise? But if
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 4: there were, Missus Craven's carriage might have undone it all.
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 4: I am much obliged to you for the time and
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 4: trouble you have bestowed on Mary's cap, and I am
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 4: glad it pleases her, but it will prove a useless
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 4: gift at present. I suppose will she not leave Ibthorpe
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 4: on her mother's death As a companion. You are all
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 4: that Martha can be supposed to want, and in that light,
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 4: under these circumstances, your visit will indeed have been well timed.
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 4: Thursday I was not able to go on yesterday. All
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 4: my wit and leisure were bestowed on letters to Charles
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 4: and Henry. In the former, I wrote in consequence of
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 4: my mother's having seen in the papers that the Urania
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 4: was waiting at Portsmouth for the convoy for Halifax. This
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 4: is nice, as it is only three weeks ago that
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 4: you wrote by the Camilla. I wrote to Henry because
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 4: I had a letter from him in which he desired
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 4: to hear from me very soon. His to me was
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 4: most affectionate and kind, as well as inaing there is
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 4: no merit to him in that he cannot help being amusing.
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 4: He offers to meet us on the sea coast if
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 4: the plan of which Edward gave him some hint takes place.
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 4: Will not this be making the execution of such a
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 4: plan more desirable and delightful than ever? He talks of
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 4: the rambles we took together last summer with pleasing affection,
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 4: Yours ever, Jane Austen, from the same to the same
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 4: Gay Street, Sunday evening, April twenty first, eighteen o five.
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 4: My dear Cassandra, I am much obliged to you for
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 4: writing to me again so soon. Your letter yesterday was
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 4: quite an unexpected pleasure. Poor missus Stent. It has been
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 4: her lot to be always in the way, but we
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 4: must be merciful, for perhaps in time we may come
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 4: to be missus stents, ourselves unequal to anything and unwelcome
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 4: to everybody. My morning engagement was with the cooks, and
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 4: our party consisted of George and Mary, a, mister L,
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 4: Miss B, who had been with us at the concert,
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 4: and the youngest Miss W. Not Julia. We have done
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 4: with her. She is very ill, But Mary Mary W's
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 4: turn is actually come to be grown up and have
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 4: a fine complexion and wear great square muslin shawls. I
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 4: have not expressly enumerated myself among the party, but there
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 4: I was, and my cousin George was very kind and
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 4: talked sense to me every now and then in the
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 4: intervals of his more animated fooleries with Miss B, who
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 4: is very young and rather handsome, and whose gracious manners,
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 4: ready wit and solid remarks put me somewhat in mind
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 4: of my old acquaintance L. L. There was a monstrous
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 4: deal of stupid quizzing and commonplace nonsense talked, but scarcely
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 4: any wit all that bordered on it or on sense,
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 4: came from my cousin George, whom altogether I like very well.
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 4: Mister b seems nothing more than a tall young man.
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 4: My evening engagement and walk was with miss A, who
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 4: had called on me the day before and gently upbraided
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 4: me in her turn with a change of manners to her,
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 4: since she had been in or at least of late,
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 4: unlucky me that my notice should be of such consequence
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 4: and my manners so bad. She was so well disposed
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 4: and so reasonable that I soon forgave her and made
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 4: this engagement with her in proof of it. She is
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 4: really an agreeable girl, so I think I may like her.
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 4: And her great want of a companion at home, which
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 4: may well make any tolerable acquaintance important to her, gives
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 4: her another claim on my attention. I shall endeavor as
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 4: much as possible to keep my intimacies in their proper
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 4: place and prevent their clashing among so many friends. It
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 4: will be well if I do not get into a scrape.
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 4: And now here is miss Blashford. Come. I should have
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 4: gone distracted if the bullets had stayed. When I tell
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 4: you I have been visiting a countess this morning, you will, immediately,
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 4: with great justice but no truth, guess it to be
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 4: Lady Rowdin. No, it is Lady Levin, the mother of
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 4: Lord balgony On. Receiving a message from Lord and Lady
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 4: Levin through the Mackays declaring their intention of waiting on,
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 4: we thought it right to go to them. I hope
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 4: we have not done too much, but the friends and
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 4: admirers of Charles must be attended to. They seem very reasonable,
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 4: good sort of people, very civil, and full of his praise.
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 4: We were shown at first into an empty drawing room,
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 4: and presently in came his lordship, not knowing who we were,
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 4: to apologize for the servant's mistake, and to say himself
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 4: what was untrue that Lady Levin was not within. He
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 4: is a tall, gentlemanlike looking man, with spectacles and rather deaf.
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 4: After sitting with him ten minutes, we walked away, but
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 4: Lady Levin coming out of the dining parlor as we
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 4: passed the door, we were obliged to attend her back
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 4: to it and pay our visit over again. She is
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 4: a stout woman with a very handsome face. By this
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 4: means we had the pleasure of hearing Charles's praises twice over.
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 4: They think themselves excessively obliged to him and estimate him
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 4: so highly as to wish Lord Balgany when he is
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 4: quite recovered to go out to him. There is a
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 4: pretty little lady Marian of the party to be shaken
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 4: hands with, and asked if she remembered mister Austin, I
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 4: shall write to Charles by the next packet, unless you
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 4: tell me in the meantime of your intending to do it.
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 4: Believe me if you choose your affectionate Sister Jane did
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 4: not estimate too highly the cousin George mentioned in the
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 4: foregoing letter, who might easily have been superior in sense
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 4: and wit to the west of the party. He was
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 4: the Reverend George Lee Cook, long known and respected at Oxford,
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 4: where he held important offices and had the privilege of
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 4: helping to form the minds of men more eminent than himself.
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 4: As tutor in Corpus Christi College, he became instructor to
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 4: some of the most distinguished undergraduates of that time, amongst others,
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 4: to Doctor Arnold, the Reverend John Keble, and Sir John Coleridge.
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 4: The latter has mentioned him in terms of affectionate regard,
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 4: both in his memoir of Keble and in a letter
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 4: which appears in Dean Stanley's Life of Arnold. Mister Cook
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 4: was also an impressive preacher of earnest awakening sermons. I
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 4: remember to have heard it observed by some of my
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 4: undergraduate friends that, after all, there was more good to
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 4: be got from George Cook's plain sermons than from much
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 4: of the more labored oratory of the university pulpit. He
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 4: was frequently examiner in the schools, and occupied the chair
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 4: of the Sedleyan Professor of Natural Philosophy from eighteen ten
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 4: to eighteen fifty three. Before the end of eighteen o five,
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 4: the little family party removed to Southampton. They resided in
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 4: a commodious, old fashioned house in a corner of Castle Square.
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 4: I have no letters of my aunt, nor any other
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 4: record of her during her four years residence at Southampton.
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 4: And though I now began to know and what was
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 4: the same thing to love her myself, yet my observations
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 4: were only those of a young boy, and were not
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 4: capable of penetrating her character or estimating her powers. I have, however,
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 4: a lively recollection of some local circumstances at Sains Southampton,
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 4: and as they refer chiefly to things which have been
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 4: long ago swept away, I will record them. My grandmother's
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 4: house had a pleasant garden bounded on one side by
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 4: the old city walls. The top of this wall was
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 4: sufficiently wide to afford a pleasant walk with an extensive view,
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 4: easily accessible to ladies by steps. This must have been
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 4: a part of the identical walls which witnessed the embarkation
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 4: of Henry the Fifth before the Battle of Agincour, and
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 4: the detection of the conspiracy of Cambridge, Scroup and Gray,
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 4: which Shakespeare has made so picturesque, when, according to the
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 4: chorus in Henry the Fifth, the citizens saw the well
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 4: appointed king at Hampton Pier embark his royalty. Among the
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 4: records of the town of Southampton they have a minute
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 4: and authentic count drawn up at that time of the
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 4: encampment of Henry the Fifth near the town before his
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 4: embarkment for France. It is remarkable that the place where
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 4: the army was encamped, then a low level plain, is
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 4: now entirely covered by the sea and is called Westport.
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 4: At that time, Castle Square was occupied by a fantastic
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 4: edifice too large for the space in which it stood,
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 4: though too small to accord well with its castellated style,
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 4: erected by the second Marquis of Lansdowne, half brother to
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 4: the well known statesman who succeeded him in the title.
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 4: The marchioness had a light phaeton, drawn by six and
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 4: sometimes by eight little ponies, each pair decreasing in size
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 4: and becoming lighter in color through all the shades of
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 4: dark brown, light, brown, bay, and chestnut. As it was
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 4: placed farther away from the carriage. The two leading pears
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 4: were managed by two boyish postilions. The two pairs nearest
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 4: to the carriage were driven in hand. It was a
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 4: delight to me to look down from the window and
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 4: see this fairy equipage put together. For the premises of
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 4: this castle were so contracted that the whole process went
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 4: on in the little space that remained of the open square.
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 4: Like other fairy works, however, it all proved of vanessent,
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 4: not only carriage and ponies, but castle itself soon vanished
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 4: away like the baseless fabric of a vision. On the
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 4: death of the marquis in eighteen o nine, the castle
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 4: was pulled down. Few probably remember its existence, and anyone
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 4: who might visit the place now would wonder how it
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 4: ever could have stood there In eighteen o nine, mister
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 4: Knight was able to offer his mother the choice of
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 4: two houses on his property, one near his usual residence
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 4: at Godmersham Park in Kent, the other near Chawton House,
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 4: his occasional residence in Hampshire. The latter was chosen, and
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 4: in that year the mother and daughters, together with Miss Lloyd,
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 4: a near connection who lived with them, settled themselves at
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 4: Chawton College. Chawton may be called the second as well
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 4: as the last home of Jane Austen, for during the
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 4: temporary residences of the party at Bath in Southampton, she
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 4: was only a sojourner in a strange land, but here
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 4: she found a real home amongst her own people. It
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 4: so happened that during her residence at Chawton, circumstances brought
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 4: several of her brother and their families with an easy
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 4: distance of the house. Chaunton must also be considered the
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 4: place most closely connected with her career as a writer,
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 4: for there it was that, in the maturity of her mind,
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 4: she either wrote or rearranged and prepared for publication the
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 4: books by which she has become known to the world.
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 4: This was the home where, after a few years, while
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 4: still in the prime of life she began to droop
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 4: and wither away, and which she left only in the
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 4: last stage of her illness, yielding to the persuasion of
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 4: friends hoping against hope. This house stood in the village
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 4: of Chawton, about a mile from Alton, on the right
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 4: hand side, just where the road to Winchester branches off
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 4: from that to Gosport. It was so close to the
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 4: road that the front door opened upon it, while a
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 4: very narrow enclosure paled in on each side protected the
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 4: building from danger of collision with any runaway vehicle. I
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 4: believe it had been originally built for an inn, for
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 4: which purpose it was certainly well situated. Afterwards it had
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 4: been outcccupied by mister Knight's steward. But by some additions
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 4: to the house and some judicious planting and screening, it
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 4: was made a pleasant and commodious abode. Mister Knight was
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 4: experienced and adroid at such arrangements, and this was a
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 4: labor of love to him. A good sized entrance and
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 4: two sitting rooms made the length of the house, all
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 4: intended originally to look upon the road, but the large
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 4: drawing room window was blocked up and turned into a
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 4: bookcase and another opened at the side, which gave to
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 4: view only turf and trees. As a high wooden fence
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 4: and horn beam hedge shut out the Winchester Road, which
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 4: skirted the whole length of the little domain. Trees were
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 4: planted to each side to form a shrubbery walk carried
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 4: round the enclosure, which gave a sufficient space for ladies exercise.
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 4: There was a pleasant irregular mixture of hedgerow and gravel walk,
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 4: and orchard and long grass for mowing, arising from two
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 4: or three little enclosures having been thrown together. The house
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 4: itself was quite as good as the generality of parsonage
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 4: houses then were, and much in the same style, and
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 4: was capable of receiving other members of the family as
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 4: frequent visitors. It was sufficiently well furnished, Everything inside and
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 4: out was kept in good repair, and it was altogether
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 4: a comfortable and ladylike establishment, though the means which supported
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 4: it were not large. I give this description because some
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 4: interest is generally taken in the residence of a popular writer.
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 4: Cowper's unattractive house in the street of Olny has been
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 4: pointed out to visitors, and has even attained the honor
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 4: of an engraving in Southey's edition of his works. But
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 4: I cannot recommend any admirer of Jane Austen to undertake
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 4: a pilgrimage to this spot. The building indeed still stands,
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 4: but it has lost all that gave it its character.
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 4: After the death of missus Cassandra Austen in eighteen forty five,
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 4: it was divided into tenements for laborers, and the grounds
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 4: reverted to ordinary uses. End of chapter four, Chapter five
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 4: description of Jane Austen's person, character, and tastes. As my
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 4: memoir has now reached the period when I saw a
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 4: great deal of my aunt and was old enough to
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 4: understand something of her value, I will here attempt a
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 4: description of her person, mind, and habits. In person, she
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 4: was very attractive. Her figure was rather tall and slender,
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 4: her step light and firm, and her whole appearance expressive
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 4: of health and animation. In complexion, she was a clear
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 4: brunette with a rich color. She had full round cheeks
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 4: with mouth and nose, small and well formed, bright hazel eyes,
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 4: and brown hair forming natural curls close round her face.
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 4: If not so regularly handsome as her sister, yet her
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 4: countenance had a peculiar charm of its own to the
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 4: eyes of most beholders at the time of which I
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 4: am now writing. She never was seen, either morning or
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 4: evening without a cap. I believe that she and her
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 4: sister were generally thought to have taken to the garb
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 4: of middle age earlier than their years or their looks required,
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 4: and that though remarkably neat in their dress, as in
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 4: all their ways, they were scarcely sufficiently regardful of the
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 4: fashionable or the becoming. She was not highly accomplished according
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 4: to the present standard. Her sister drew well, and it
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 4: is from a drawing of hers that the likeness prefix
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 4: to this volume has been taken. Jane herself was fond
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 4: of music, and had a sweet voice, both in singing
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 4: and in conversation. In her youth she had received some
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 4: instruction on the pianoforte, and at Chawton she practiced daily,
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 4: chiefly before breakfast. I believe she did so partly that
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 4: she might not disturb the rest of the party, who
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 4: were less fond of music. In the evening, she would
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 4: sometimes sing to her own accompaniment some simple old songs,
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 4: the words and airs of which now never heard, still
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 4: linger in my memory. She read French with facility and
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 4: knew something of Italian. In those days, German was no
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 4: more thought of than Hindostani. As part of a lady's
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 4: education in history, she followed the old guides Goldsmith, Hume,
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 4: and Robertson. Critical inquiry into the usually received statements of
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 4: the old historians was scarcely begun. The history of the
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 4: early kings of Rome had not yet been dissolved into legend.
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 4: Historic characters lay before the reader's eyes in broad light
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 4: or shade, not much broken up by details. The virtues
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 4: of King Henry the eighth were yet undiscovered, nor had
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 4: much light been thrown on the inconsistencies of Queen Elizabeth.
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 4: The one was held to be an unmitigated tyrant and
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 4: an embodied old Bluebeard, the other a perfect model of
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 4: wisdom and policy. Jane, when a girl, had strong political opinions,
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 4: especially about the affairs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 4: she was a vehement defender of Charles the First and
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 4: his grandmother Mary. But I think it was rather from
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 4: an impulsive feeling than from any inquiry into the evidences
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 4: by which they must be condemned or acquitted. As she
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 4: grew up. The politics of the day occupied very little
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 4: of her attention, but she probably shared the feeling of
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 4: moderate tory which prevailed in her family. She was well
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 4: acquainted with the old periodicals, from the Spectator downwards. Her
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 4: knowledge of Richardson's works was such as no one is
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 4: likely again to acquire now that the multitude and the
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 4: merits of our light literature have called off the attention
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 4: of readers from that great master. Every circumstance narrated in
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 4: Sir Charles Grandison, all that was ever said or done
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 4: in the cedar parlor was familiar to her, and the
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 4: wedding days of Lady l and Lady g were as
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 4: well remembered as if they had been living friends. Amongst
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 4: her favorite writers, Johnson in prose, Crab in verse, and
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 4: Cowper in both stood high. It is well that the
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 4: native good taste of herself and of those with whom
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 4: she lived, saved her from the snare into which a
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 4: sister novelist had fallen of imitating the grand, eloquent style
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 4: of Johnson. She thoroughly enjoyed Crab, perhaps on account of
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 4: a certain resemblance to herself in minute and highly finished detail,
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 4: and would sometime say in jest that if she ever
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 4: married at all, she could fancy being Missus Crabbe, looking
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 4: on the author quite as an abstract idea and ignorant,
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 4: and regardless what manner of man he might be. Scott's
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 4: poetry gave her great pleasure. She did not live to
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 4: make much acquaintance with his novels, only three of them
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 4: were published before her death. But it will be seen
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 4: by the following extract from one of her letters that
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 4: she was quite prepared to admit the merits of Waverley.
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 4: And it is remarkable that, living as she did, far
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 4: apart from the gossip of the literary world, she should
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 4: even then have spoken so confidently of his being the
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 4: author of it. Walter Scott has no business to write novels,
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 4: especially good ones. It is not fair. He has fame
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 4: and prophet enough as a poet, and ought not be
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 4: taking the bread out of other people's mouths. I do
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 4: not mean to like Waverley if I can help it,
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 4: but I fear I must. I am quite determined, however,
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 4: not to be pleased with Missus S's should I ever
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 4: meet with it, which I hope I may not. I
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 4: think I can be stout against anything written by her.
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 4: I have made up my mind to like no novels, really,
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 4: but miss Edworth's ease and my own. It was, not, however,
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 4: what she knew, but what she was that distinguished her
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 4: from others. I cannot better describe the fascination which she
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 4: exercised over children than by quoting the words of two
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 4: of her nieces. One says, as a very little girl,
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 4: I was always creeping up to Aunt Jane and following
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 4: her whenever I could, in the house and out of it.
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 4: I might not have remembered this but for the recollection
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 4: of my mother's telling me privately that I must not
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 4: be troublesome to my aunt. Her first charm to children
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 4: was great sweetness of manner. She seemed to love you,
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 4: and you loved her in return. This, as well as
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 4: I can now recollect, was what I felt in my
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 4: early days, before I was old enough to be amused
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 4: by her cleverness. But soon came the delight of her
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 4: playful talk. She could make everything amusing to a child. Then,
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 4: as I got older, when cousins came to share the entertainment,
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 4: she would tell us the most delightful stories, chiefly of
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 4: Fairyland and her fairies all had characters of their own.
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 4: The tale was invented, I am sure at the moment,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 4: and was continued for two or three days if occasion served. Again,
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 4: when staying at Chawton with two of her other nieces,
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 4: we often had amusements in which my aunt was very helpful.
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 4: She was the one to whom we always looked for help.
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 4: She would furnish us with what we wanted from her wardrobe.
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 4: She would be the entertaining visitor in our make believe house.
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 4: She amused us in various ways. Once I remember in
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 4: giving a conversation as between myself and my two cousins,
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 4: supposing we were all grown up, the day after a ball.
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 4: Very similar is the testimony of another niece. Aunt Jane
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 4: was a general favorite with children, her ways with them
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 4: being so playful, and her long circumstantial stories so delightful.
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 4: These were continued for time to time, and were begged
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 4: for on all possible and impossible occasions. Woven as she
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 4: proceeded out of nothing but her own happy talent for invention,
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 4: ah if but one of them could be recovered, And
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 4: again as I grew older, when the original seventeen years
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 4: between our ages seemed to shrink to seven or to nothing.
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 4: It comes back to me now, how strangely I missed her.
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 4: It had become so much a habit with me to
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 4: put by things in my mind with a reference to her,
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 4: and say to myself, I shall keep this for Aunt Jane.
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 4: A nephew of hers used to observe that his visit
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 4: to Chawton after the death of his Aunt Jane were
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 4: always a disappointment to him. From old associations. He could
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 4: not help expecting to be particularly happy in that house,
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 4: and never till he got there could he realize to
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 4: himself how all its peculiar charm was gone. It was
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 4: not only that the chief light in the house was quenched,
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 4: but that the loss of it had cast a shade
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 4: over the spirits of the survivors. Enough has been said
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 4: to show her love for chillildren, and her wonderful power
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 4: of entertaining them, But her friends of all ages felt
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 4: her enlivening influence. Her unusually quick sense of the ridiculous
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 4: led her to play with all the commonplaces of everyday life,
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 4: whether as regarded persons or things, But she never played
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 4: with its serious duties or responsibilities, nor did she ever
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 4: turn individuals into ridicule. With all her neighbors in the
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 4: village she was unfriendly, though not on intimate terms. She
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 4: took a kindly interest in all their proceedings and liked
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 4: to hear about them. They often served for her amusement,
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 4: but it was her own nonsense that gave zest to
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 4: the gossip. She was as far from possible from being
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 4: censorious or satirical. She never abused or quizzed them. That
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 4: was the word of the day, an ugly word now obsolete,
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 4: and the ugly practice which it expressed is much less
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 4: prevalent now than it was then. The laugh which she
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 4: occasionally raised was imagined for her neighbors, as she was
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 4: equally ready to imagine for her friends or herself impossible contingents,
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 4: or by relating in prose or verse some trifling anecdote
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 4: colored to her own fancy, or in writing a fictitious
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 4: history of what they were supposed to have said or done,
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 4: which could deceive nobody. The following specimens may be given
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 4: of the liveliness of mind, which imparted an agreeable flavor
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 4: both to her correspondence and her conversation on reading in
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 4: the newspapers the marriage of mister Gell to Miss Gill
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 4: of Eastbourne. At Eastbourne, mister Gell, from being perfectly well
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 4: became dreadfully ill for love of Miss Gill. So he said,
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 4: with some sighs, I'm the slave of your eyes. Oh
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 4: restore if you please by accepting my ease on the
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 4: marriage of a middle aged flirt with a mister Wake,
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 4: whom it was supposed she would scarcely have accepted in
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 4: her youth. Maria, good humored and handsome and tall for
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 4: a husband, was at her last stake, and having in
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 4: vain danced at many a ball, is now happy to jump.
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 3: At a wake.
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 4: We're all at the play last night to see Miss
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 4: O'Neill and Isabella. I do not think she was quite
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 4: equal to my expectation. I fancy I want something more
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 4: that can be. Acting seldom satisfies me. I took two
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 4: pocket handkerchiefs, but had very little occasion for either. She
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 4: is an elegant creature, however, and hugs mister Young delightfully.
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 4: So Miss b is actually married, but I never have
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 4: seen it in the papers, and one may as well
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 4: be single if the wedding is not to be in print.
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 4: Once too, she took it into her head to write
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 4: the following mock panegyric on a young friend who really
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 4: was clever and handsome. One in measured verse, I'll now
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 4: rehearse the charms of lovely Anna. And First, her mind
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 4: is unconfined, like any vast Savannah. Two, Ontario's lake may
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 4: fitly speak her fancy's ample bound, Its circuit may, on
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 4: strict survey five hundred miles be found. Three, Her wit
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 4: descends on foes and friends like famed niagaras fall and
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 4: travelers gaze in wild, amaze and listen one and all. Four.
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 4: Her judgment sound thick, black, profound, like Transatlantic grooves, dispenses
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 4: aid and friendly shade to all that in it robes. Five.
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 4: If thus her mind to be defined, America exhausts and
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 4: all that's grand in that great land in similes, it
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 4: costs six. Oh, how can I her person try to
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 4: image and portray, How paint the face, the form, how
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 4: trace in which those virtues lay? Seven? Another world must
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 4: be unfurled. Another language known ere tongue or sound can
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 4: publish round her charms of flesh and bone. I believe
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 4: that all this nonsense was nearly extempore, and that the
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 4: fancy of drawing the images from America arose at the
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 4: moment from the obvious rhyme which presented itself in the
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 4: first stand. The following extracts are from letters addressed to
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 4: a niece who was at that time amusing herself by
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 4: attempting a novel, probably never finished, certainly never published, and
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 4: of which I know nothing. But what these extracts tell.
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 4: They show the good natured sympathy and encouragement which the aunt,
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 4: then herself occupied in writing Emma, could give to the
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 4: less matured powers of the niece. They bring out, incidentally,
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 4: some of her opinions concerning compositions of that kind. Extracts Chawton,
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 4: August tenth, eighteen fourteen. Your aunt's seed is not like
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 4: dulcatory novels, and is rather fearful that yours will be
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 4: too much so that there will be too frequent a
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 4: change from one set of people to another, and that
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 4: circumstances will be sometimes introduced of apparent consequence, which will
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 4: lead to nothing. It will not be so great an
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 4: objection to me. I allow much more latitude than she does,
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 4: and think nature and spirit cover many sins of a
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 4: wandering story, and people in general do not care much
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 4: about it. For your comfort September ninth, you are now
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 4: collecting your people, delightfully, getting them exactly into such a
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 4: spot as is the delight of my life. Three or
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 4: four families in a country village is the very thing
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 4: to work on, and I hope you will write a
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 4: great deal more and make full use of them while
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 4: they are so favorably arranged. September twenty eighth. Devereux Forrester
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 4: being ruined by his vanity is very good, but I
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 4: wish you would not let him plunge into a vortex
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 4: of dissipation. I do not object the thing, but I
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 4: cannot bear the expression. It is such a thorough novel
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 4: slang and so old that I dare say Adam met
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 4: with it in the first novel that he opened, Hans Place,
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 4: November eighteen fourteen. I have been very far from finding
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 4: your book in evil. I assure you I read it immediately,
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 4: and with great pleasure. Indeed, I do think you get
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 4: on very fast. I I wish other people of my
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 4: acquaintance could compose as rapidly. Julian's history was quite a
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 4: surprise to me. You had not very long known it yourself,
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 4: I suspect, but I have no objection to make to
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 4: the circumstance. It is very well told, and his having
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 4: been in love with the aunt gives Cecilia an additional
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 4: interest with him. I like the idea a very proper
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 4: compliment to an aunt. I rather imagine, indeed, that nieces
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 4: are seldom chosen but in compliment to some aunt or other.
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 4: I dare say your husband was in love with me once,
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 4: and would never have thought of you if he had
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 4: not supposed me dead of a scarlet fever. Jane Austen
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 4: was successful in everything that she attempted with her fingers.
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 4: None of us could throw spilikans in so perfect a circle,
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 4: or take them off with so steady a hand. Her
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 4: performances with cup and ball were marvelous. The one used
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 4: at Chawton was an easy one, and she has been
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 4: known to catch it on the point above a hundred
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 4: times at secession till her hand was weary. She she
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 4: sometimes found a resource in that simple game when unable
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 4: from weakness in her eyes to read or write long together.
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 4: A specimen of her clear, strong handwriting is here given.
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 4: Happy would the compositors for the press be if they
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 4: had always so legible a manuscript to work from. But
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 4: the writing was not the only part of her letters
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 4: which showed superior handiwork. In those days there was an
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 4: art in folding and ceiling. No adhesive envelopes made all easy.
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 4: Some people's letters always looked loose and untidy, but her
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 4: paper was sure to take the right folds, and her
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 4: sealing wax to drop into the right place. Her needlework,
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 4: both plain and ornamental, was excellent, and might almost have
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 4: put a sewing machine to shame. She was considered especially
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 4: great in satin stitch. She spent much time in these occupations,
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 4: and some of her merriest talk was overclosed which she
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 4: and her companions were making, sometimes for themselves and sometimes
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 4: for the poor. There still were made. D's a curious
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 4: specimen of her needlework, made for a sister in law,
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 4: my mother, in a very small bag, is deposited a
• 2:11:06
  Speaker 4: little rolled up housewife, furnished with minnekin needles and fine thread.
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 4: In the housewife is a tiny pocket, and in the
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 4: pocket is enclosed a slip of paper on which, written
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 4: as with a crow quill, are the lines. This little
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 4: bag I hope will prove to be not vainly made,
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 4: for should you thread and needles want, it will afford
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 4: you aid. And as we are about to part, twill
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 4: serve another end, for when you look upon this bag,
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 4: you'll recollect your friend. It is the kind of article
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 4: that some benevolent fairy might be supposed to give as
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 4: a reward to a diligent little girl. The whole is
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 4: a flowered silk, and having been never used and carefully preserved,
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 4: it is as fresh and bright as when it was
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 4: first made seventy years ago, and shows that the same
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 4: hand which painted so exquisitely with the pen, could work
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 4: as delicately with the needle. I have collected some of
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 4: the bright qualities which shone, as it were, on the
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 4: surface of Jane Austen's character and attracted most notice. But
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 4: underneath them there lay the strong foundations of sound sense
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 4: and judgment, rectitude of principle, and delicacy of feeling, qualifying
• 2:12:17
  Speaker 4: her equally to advise, assist, or amuse. She was, in
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 4: fact as ready to comfort the unhappy or to nurse
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 4: the sick, as she was to laugh and jest with
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 4: the light hearted two of her nieces were grown up,
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 4: and one of them was married before she was taken
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 4: away from them. As their minds became more matured, they
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 4: were admitted into closer intimacy with her and learned more
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 4: of her graver thoughts. They know what a sympathizing friend
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 4: and judicious adviser they found her to be in many
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 4: little difficulties and doubts of early womanhood. I do not
• 2:12:51
  Speaker 4: venture to speak of her religious principles. That is a
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 4: subject on which she herself was more inclined to think
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 4: and act than to talk. And I shall imitate her
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 4: satisfied to have shown how much of Christian love and
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 4: humility abounded in her heart, without presuming to lay bare
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 4: the roots. Whence those graces grew some little insight. However,
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 4: into these deeper recesses of the heart, must be given
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 4: when we come to speak of her death. End of
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 4: Chapter five.
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 5: Chapter six. Habits of composition resumed after a long interval
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 5: first publication. The interest taken by the author in the
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 5: success of her works read by Chloe Winters, April two
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 5: thousand and eight. It may seem extraordinary that Jane Austen
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 5: should have written so little during the years that elapsed
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 5: between leaving Steventon and settling at Chaunton, Especially when this
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 5: cessation from work is contrasted with her literary activity both
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 5: before and after that period. It might rather have been
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 5: expected that fresh scenes and new acquaintance would have called
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 5: forth her powers, while the quiet life which the family
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 5: led both that Bath and Southampton must have afforded abundant
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 5: leisure for composition. But so it was that nothing which
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 5: I know of, certainly nothing which the public have seen,
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 5: was completed in either of those places. I can only
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 5: state the fact without assigning any cause for it. But
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 5: as soon as she was fixed in her second home,
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 5: she resumed the habits of composition which had been formed
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 5: in her first, and continued them to the end of
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 5: her life. The first year of her residence at Tauton
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 5: seems to have been devoted to revising and preparing for
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 5: the press, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice. But
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 5: between February eighteen eleven and August eighteen sixteen she began
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 5: and completed Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion, so that the
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 5: last five years of her life produced the same number
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 5: of novels with those which had been written in her
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 5: early youth. How she was able to effect all this
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 5: is surprising, for she had no separate study to retire to,
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 5: and most of the work must have been done in
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 5: the general sitting room, subject to all kinds of casual interruptions.
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 5: She was careful that her OCU patients should not be
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 5: suspected by servants or visitors, or any persons beyond her
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 5: own family party. She wrote upon small sheets of paper,
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 5: which could easily be put away or covered with a
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 5: piece of blotting paper. There was between the front door
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 5: and the offices a swing door, which creaked when it
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 5: was opened, but she objected to having this little inconvenience remedied,
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 5: because it gave her notice when anyone was coming. She
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 5: was not, however, troubled with companions like her own, Missus
• 2:15:27
  Speaker 5: Allen in Northanger Abbey, whose vacancy of mind and incapacity
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 5: for thinking were such that as she never talked a
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 5: great deal, so she could never be entirely silent. And
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 5: therefore while she sat at work, if she lost her needle,
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 5: or broke her thread, or saw a speck of dirt
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 5: on her gown, she must observe it. Whether there were
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 5: any one at leisure to answer her or not. In
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 5: that well occupied female party, there must have been many
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 5: precious hours of silence during which the pen was busy
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 5: at the little Mahogany writing desk, while Fanny Price, or
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 5: Emma Woodhouse or Anne Elliott was growing into beauty and interest.
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 5: I have no doubt that I and my sisters and cousins,
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 5: in our visits to Chawton, frequently disturbed this mystic process
• 2:16:08
  Speaker 5: without having any idea of the mischief that we were doing.
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 5: Certainly we never should have guessed it by any signs
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 5: of impatience or irritability in the writer, as so much
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 5: had been previously prepared. When once she began to publish,
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 5: her works came out in quick succession. Sense and Sensibility
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 5: was published in eighteen eleven, Pride and Prejudice at the
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 5: beginning of eighteen thirteen, Mansfield Park in eighteen fourteen, Emma
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 5: Early in eighteen sixteen. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion did not
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 5: appear till after her death in eighteen eighteen. It will
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 5: be shown farther on why Northanger Abbey, though amongst the
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 5: first written, was one of the last published. Her first
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 5: three novels were published by Egerton, her last three by Murray.
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 5: The profits of the four which had been printed before
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 5: her death had not at that time amounted to seven
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 5: hundred pounds. I have no record of the publication of
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 5: Sense and Sensibility, nor of the authour's feelings at this
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 5: her first appearance before the public, but the following extracts
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 5: from three letters to her sister give a lively picture
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 5: of the interest with which she watched the reception of
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 5: Pride and Prejudice, and show the carefulness with which she
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 5: corrected her compositions and rejected much that had been written. Chawton, Friday,
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 5: January twenty ninth, eighteen thirteen. I hope you received my
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 5: little parcel by Jay Bond on Wednesday evening, my dear Cassandra,
• 2:17:29
  Speaker 5: and that you will be ready to hear from me
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 5: again on Sunday, for I feel that I must write
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 5: to you to day. I want to tell you that
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 5: I have got my own darling child from London. On
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 5: Wednesday I received one copy sent down by Faulkner, with
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 5: three lines from Henry to say that he had given
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 5: another to Charles, and sent a third by the Coach
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 5: to Godmisham. The advertisement is in our paper to day
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 5: for the first time eighteen shillings, he shall ask one
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 5: pound one shilling for my two next, and one pound
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 5: eight shillings for my stupidest of all. Miss b dined
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 5: with us on the very day of the books coming,
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 5: and in the evening we fairly sat at it, and
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 5: with half the first volume to her, prefacing that, having
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 5: intelligence from Henry that such a work would soon appear,
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 5: we had desired him to send it whenever it came out,
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 5: And I believe it passed with her unsuspected. She was amused,
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 5: boss all that she could not help, you know, with
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 5: two such people to lead the way. But she really
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 5: does seem to admire Elizabeth. I must confess that I
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 5: think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print.
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 5: And how I shall be able to tolerate those who do
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 5: not like her? At least I do not know. There
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 5: are a few typical errors, and A said he, or
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 5: A said she would sometimes make the dialog more immediately clear.
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 5: But I do not write for such dull elves as
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 5: have not a great deal of ingenuity themselves. The second
• 2:18:45
  Speaker 5: volume is shorter than I could wish, but the difference
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 5: is not so much in reality as in look, there
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 5: being a larger proportion of narrative in that part. I
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 5: have lopped and cropped so successfully, however, that I imagine it
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 5: must be rather shorter than sense and sensibility altogether. Now
• 2:19:00
  Speaker 5: I will try and write of something else. Chawton, Thursday,
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 5: February fourth, eighteen thirteen. My dear Cassandra, your letter was
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 5: truly welcome, and I am much obliged to you for
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 5: all your praise. It came at a right time, for
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 5: I had had some fits of disgust. Our second evening's
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 5: reading to Miss b had not pleased me so well.
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 5: But I believe something must be attributed to my mother's
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 5: too rapid way of getting on. Though she perfectly understands
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 5: the characters herself, she cannot speak as they ought upon
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 5: the whole. However, I am quite vain enough and well
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 5: satisfied enough. The work is rather too light and bright
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 5: and sparkling. It wants shade. It wants to be stretched
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 5: out here and there with a long chapter of sense
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 5: if it could be had, if not of solemn, specious
• 2:19:47
  Speaker 5: nonsense about something unconnected with the story. An Essay on
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 5: writing a critique on Walter Scott, or the history of Buonaparte,
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 5: or something that would form a contrast and bring the
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 5: reader with increased delight to the latefulness and epigrammatism of
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 5: the general style. The greatest blunder in the printing that
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 5: I have met with is in page two hundred and twenty,
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 5: volume three, where two speeches are made into one. That
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 5: might as well be no supposit longborne, but I suppose
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 5: it was the remains of Missus Bennett's old Meriton habits.
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 5: The following letter seems to have been written soon after
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 5: the last two, in February eighteen thirteen. This will be
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 5: a quick return for yours, my dear Cassandra. I doubt
• 2:20:30
  Speaker 5: it's having much else to recommend it, but there is
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 5: no saying. It may turn out to be a very
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 5: long and delightful letter. I am exceedingly pleased that you
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 5: can say what you do after having gone through the
• 2:20:40
  Speaker 5: whole work, and Fanny's praise is very gratifying. My hopes
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 5: were tolerably strong of her, but nothing like a certainty.
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 5: Her liking Darcyine Elizabeth is enough. She might hate all
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 5: the others if she would, I have her opinion under
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 5: her own hand. This morning. But your transcript of it,
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 5: which I read first, was not and is not. The
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 5: less acceptable to me is of course all praise. But
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 5: the more exact truth which she sends you was good enough.
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 5: Our party on Wednesday was not unagreeable, though we wanted
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 5: a master of the house, less anxious and fidgety, and
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 5: more conversible. Upon Missus's mention that she had sent the
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 5: rejected addresses to Missus h I began talking to her
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 5: a little about them and expressed my hope of Verra.
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 5: Having amused her. Her answer was, oh, dear, yes, very much,
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 5: very droll. Indeed the opening of the house and the
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 5: striking up of the fiddles what she meant? Poor woman
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 5: who shall say? I sought no farther. As soon as
• 2:21:34
  Speaker 5: a whist party was formed and a round table threatened,
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 5: I made my mother an excuse and came away, leaving
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 5: just as many for their round table as there were
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 5: at Missus Grant's. I wish they might be as agreeable
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 5: a set. My mother is very well and finds great
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 5: amusement and glove knitting, and at present wants no other work.
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 5: We quite run over with books she has got Sir
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 5: John Carr's travels in Spain, and I am reading a
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 5: Society Octovo, an essay on from the Military, Police and
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 5: Institutions of the British Empire by Captain Pasley of the Engineers,
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 5: a book which I protested against it at first, but which
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 5: upon trial I find delightfully written and highly entertaining. I
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 5: am as much in love with the author as I
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 5: ever was with Clarkson of Buchanan, or even the two
• 2:22:16
  Speaker 5: mister Smiths of the city, the first soldier I ever
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 5: sighed for. But he does write with extraordinary force and spirit.
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 5: Yesterday moreover brought us Missus Grant's letters with mister White's compliments.
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 5: But I have disposed of them compliments and all to
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 5: miss p And amongst so many readers or retainers of
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 5: the books as we have in charten, I dare say
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 5: there will be no difficulty in getting rid of them
• 2:22:39
  Speaker 5: for another fortnight if necessary. I have disposed of Missus
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 5: Grant for the second fortnight to missus it can make
• 2:22:45
  Speaker 5: no difference to her which of the twenty six fortnights
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 5: in the year the three volumes lie on her table.
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 5: I have been applied to for information as to the
• 2:22:52
  Speaker 5: oath taken in former times of bell, book and candle,
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 5: but have none to give. Perhaps you may be able
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 5: to learn something of its origin. Where you now are
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 5: ladies who read those enormous, great, stupid, thick quarter volumes
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 5: which one always sees in the breakfast parlor. There must
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 5: be acquainted with everything in the world. I detest a quarto.
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 5: Captain Pasley's book is too good for their society. They
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 5: will not understand a man who condenses his thoughts into
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 5: an octavo. I have learned from Sir je A Carr
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 5: that there is no government house at Gibraltar. I must
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 5: alter it to the commissioners. The following letter belongs to
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 5: the same year, but treats of a different subject. It
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 5: describes a journey from Chotton to London in her brother's curricle,
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 5: and shows how much could be seen and enjoyed in
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 5: course of a long summer's day by leisurely traveling amongst
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 5: scenery which the traveler in an express train now rushes
• 2:23:45
  Speaker 5: through in little more than an hour, but scarcely sees
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 5: at all. Sloane Street, Thursday May twenty, eighteen thirteen, My
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 5: dear Cassandra. Before I say anything else, I claim a
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 5: paper full of halfpence on the drawing room mantel piece.
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 5: I put them there myself and forgot to bring them
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 5: with me. I cannot say that I have yet been
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 5: in any distress for money, but I choose to have
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 5: my do as well as the devil. How lucky we
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 5: were on our weather yesterday. This wet morning makes one
• 2:24:13
  Speaker 5: more sensible of it. We had no rain of any consequence.
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 5: The head of the curricle was put half up three
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 5: or four times, but our share of the showers was
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 5: very trifling, though they seemed to be heavy all round
• 2:24:25
  Speaker 5: us when we were on the hog's back, and I
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 5: fancied it might then be raining so hard at Sharton
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 5: as to make you feel for us much more than
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 5: we deserved. Three hours and a quarter took us to Guildford,
• 2:24:35
  Speaker 5: where we stayed barely two hours and had only just
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 5: time enough for all we had to do there, that is,
• 2:24:41
  Speaker 5: eating a long and comfortable breakfast, watching the carriages, paying
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 5: mister Harrington, and taking a little stroll afterwards. From some
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 5: views which that stroll gave us, I think most highly
• 2:24:52
  Speaker 5: of the situation of Guildford. We wanted all our brothers
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 5: and sisters to be standing with us in the Bowling
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 5: Green and looking towards Horsham. I was very lucky in
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 5: my gloves, got them at the first shop I went to,
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 5: though I went into it rather because it was near
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 5: than because it looked at all like a glove shop,
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 5: and gave only four shillings for them, after which everybody
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 5: at Chotton will be hoping and predicting that they cannot
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 5: be good for anything, and their worth certainly remained to
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 5: be proved. But I think they look very well. We
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 5: left Guildford at twenty minutes before twelve. I hope somebody
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 5: cares for these minutia, and were at Esher in about
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 5: two hours more. I was very much pleased with the
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 5: country in general. Between Guildford and Ripley. I thought it
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 5: particularly pretty. Also about Paines Hill, and from a mister
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 5: Spicer's grounds at Esher, which we walked into before dinner.
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 5: The views were beautiful. I cannot say what we did
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 5: not see, but I should think there could not be
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 5: a wood or a meadow, or palace or remarkable spot
• 2:25:50
  Speaker 5: in England that was not spread out before us on
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 5: one side or another. Claremont is going to be sold, ah,
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 5: mister Ellis has it now? It is a house that
• 2:25:58
  Speaker 5: seems never to have prospered. After dinner, we walked forward
• 2:26:01
  Speaker 5: to be overtaken at the coachman's time, and before he
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 5: did overtake us, we were very near Kingston. I fancy
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 5: it was about half past six when we reached this house,
• 2:26:11
  Speaker 5: a twelve hours business, and the horses did not appear
• 2:26:14
  Speaker 5: more than reasonably tired. I was very tired too, and
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 5: glad to get to bed early, but am quite well
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 5: to day. I am very snug in the front drawing
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 5: room all to myself, and would not say thank you
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 5: for any company, but to the quietness of a does
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 5: me good. I have contrived to pay my two visits,
• 2:26:30
  Speaker 5: though the weather made me a great while about it,
• 2:26:33
  Speaker 5: and left me only a few minutes to sit with
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 5: Charlotte Craven. She looks very well, and her hair is
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 5: done up with an elegance to do credit to her education.
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 5: Her manners are as unaffected and pleasing as ever she
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 5: had heard from her mother. To day, Missus Craven spends
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 5: another fortnight at Chilton. I saw nobody but Charlotte, which
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 5: pleased me best. I was shown upstairs into a drawing room,
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 5: where she came to me and the appearance of the
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 5: room so totally unschoolike amused me very much. It was
• 2:26:59
  Speaker 5: full of my modern elegancies, yours very effectually. Ja. The
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 5: next letter, written in the following year, contains an account
• 2:27:09
  Speaker 5: of another journey to London with her brother Henry and
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 5: reading with him the manuscript of Mansfield Park, Henrietta Street, Wednesday,
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 5: March twoh eighteen fourteen. My dear Cassandra, you were wrong
• 2:27:23
  Speaker 5: in thinking of us at Guildful. Last night. We were
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 5: at Cobham, and reaching g we found that John and
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 5: the horses were gone on. We therefore did no more
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 5: than we had done at Farnham, sit in the carriage
• 2:27:35
  Speaker 5: while fresh horses were put in, and proceeded directly to Cobham,
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 5: which we reached by seven and about eight were sitting
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 5: down to a very nice roast fowl. We had altogether
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 5: a very good journey, and everything at Cobham was comfortable.
• 2:27:48
  Speaker 5: I could not pay mister Harrington. That was the only
• 2:27:51
  Speaker 5: alas of the business. I shall therefore return his bill
• 2:27:54
  Speaker 5: and my mother's to l that you may try your luck.
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 5: We did not begin reading till Bentley Green. Henry's approbation
• 2:28:02
  Speaker 5: is hitherto even equal to my wishes. He says it
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 5: is different from the other two, but does not appear
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 5: to think it at all inferior. He has only married
• 2:28:11
  Speaker 5: Missus R. I am afraid he has gone through the
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 5: most entertaining part. He took to Lady B and Missus
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 5: N most kindly and gives great praise to the drawing
• 2:28:19
  Speaker 5: of the characters. He understands them all, likes Fanny, and
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 5: I think foresees how it will all be. I finished
• 2:28:27
  Speaker 5: the Heroine last night and was very much amused by it.
• 2:28:31
  Speaker 5: I wonder James did not like it better. It diverted
• 2:28:33
  Speaker 5: me exceedingly. We went to bed at ten. I was
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 5: very tired, but slept to a miracle and am lovely
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 5: to day, and at present Henry seems to have no complaint.
• 2:28:43
  Speaker 5: We left Cobham at half past eight, stopped to bait
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 5: and breakfast at Kingston, and were in this house considerably
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 5: before too. Nice smiling mister Barlow met us at the door, and,
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 5: in reply to inquiries after news, said that peace was
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 5: generally expected. I have taken possession of my bedroom, unpacked
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 5: my bandbox, sent Miss PA's two letters to the two
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 5: penny post, then visited by mister b and am now
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 5: writing by myself at the new table in the front room.
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 5: It is snowing. We had some snowstorms yesterday and a
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 5: smart frost at night, which gave us a hard road
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 5: from Cobham to Kingston. But as it was then getting
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 5: dirty and heavy, Henry had a pair of leaders put
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 5: on to the bottom of Sloane Street. His own horses
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 5: therefore cannot have had hard work. I watched for vales
• 2:29:28
  Speaker 5: as we drove through the streets, and had the pleasure
• 2:29:30
  Speaker 5: of seeing several upon vulgar heads. And now how do
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 5: you all do you? In particular after the worry of
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 5: yesterday and the day before. I hope Martha had a
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 5: pleasant visit again, and that you and my mother could
• 2:29:42
  Speaker 5: eat your beef pudding depend upon my thinking of the
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 5: chimney sweeper as soon as I wake tomorrow. Places are
• 2:29:48
  Speaker 5: secured at Drury Lane for Saturday. But so great is
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 5: the rage for seeing Keen that only a third and
• 2:29:53
  Speaker 5: fourth row could be got, as it is in a
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 5: front box. However, I hope we shall do pretty well.
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 5: Shylock a good place for Fanny. She cannot be much affected.
• 2:30:02
  Speaker 5: I think missus Perrigan has just been there she tells
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 5: me that we owe her Master for the silk dying.
• 2:30:09
  Speaker 5: My poor muslin has never been died, yet it has
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 5: been promised to be done several times. What wicked people
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 5: die as are they begin with dipping their own souls
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 5: in scarlet sin. It is evening we have drank tea,
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 5: and to have torn through the third volume of the Heroine.
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 5: I do not think it falls off. It is a
• 2:30:28
  Speaker 5: delightful burlesque, particularly on the Radcliffe style. Henry is going
• 2:30:32
  Speaker 5: on with Mansfield Park. He admires h Crawford. I mean properly,
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 5: as a clever, pleasant man. I tell you all the
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 5: good I can, as I know how much you will
• 2:30:42
  Speaker 5: enjoy it. We hear that mister Kean is more admired
• 2:30:45
  Speaker 5: than ever. There are no good places to be got
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 5: in dry Lane for the next fortnight, but Henry means
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 5: to secure some for Saturday fortnight, when you are reckoned upon.
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 5: Give my love to little Cass. I hope she found
• 2:30:56
  Speaker 5: my bed comfortable last night. I have seen nobody in
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 5: life lond and yet with such a long chin as
• 2:31:01
  Speaker 5: doctor Syntax, nor anybody quite so large as gog Maculachus.
• 2:31:06
  Speaker 5: Yours affectly j Austen end of chapter.
• 2:31:11
  Speaker 6: Six, Chapter seven seclusion from the literary world noticed from
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 6: the Prince Regent correspondence with mister Clark suggestions to alter
• 2:31:23
  Speaker 6: her style of writing. Jane Austen lived in entire seclusion
• 2:31:29
  Speaker 6: from the literary world. Neither by correspondence nor by personal
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 6: intercourse was she known to any contemporary authors. It is
• 2:31:39
  Speaker 6: probable that she never was in company with any person
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 6: whose talents or whose celebrity equalled her own, so that
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 6: her powers never could have been sharpened by collision with
• 2:31:50
  Speaker 6: superior intellects, nor her imagination aided by their casual suggestions.
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 6: Whatever she produced was a genuine, homemade article. Even during
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 6: the last two or three years of her life, when
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 6: her works were rising in the estimation of the public,
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 6: they did not enlarge the circle of her acquaintance. Few
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 6: of her readers knew even her name, and none knew
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 6: more of her than her name. I doubt whether it
• 2:32:19
  Speaker 6: would be possible to mention any other author of note
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 6: whose personal obscurity was so complete. I can't think of
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 6: none like her, but of many to contrast with her
• 2:32:29
  Speaker 6: in this respect. Fanny Burney. Afterwards, Madame d'ablair was at
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 6: an early age, petted by Doctor Johnson and introduced to
• 2:32:39
  Speaker 6: the wits and scholars of the day at the tables
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 6: of Missus Rail and Sir Joshua Reynolds. Anna Silward, in
• 2:32:48
  Speaker 6: herself constituted shrine at Litchfield, would have been miserable had
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 6: she not trusted that the eyes of all lovers of
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 6: poetry were devoutly fixed on her. Johanna Bailey and Maria
• 2:32:59
  Speaker 6: Edgeworth were indeed far from curting publicity. They loved the
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 6: privacy of their own families, one with their brother and
• 2:33:07
  Speaker 6: sister in their Hampstead villa, the other in her more
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 6: distant retreat in Ireland. But fame pursued them, and they
• 2:33:15
  Speaker 6: were the favorite correspondents of Sir Walter Scott Crabbe, who
• 2:33:20
  Speaker 6: was usually buried in a country parish, yet sometimes visited
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 6: London and dined at Holland House, and was received as
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 6: a fellow poet by Campbell, Moore and Rogers, And on
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 6: one memorial occasion he was Scot's guests at Edinburgh and
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 6: gazed with wondering eyes on the incongruous pageantry with which
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 6: George the Fourth was entertained in that city. Even those
• 2:33:44
  Speaker 6: great writers who hid themselves amongst lakes and mountains, associated
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 6: with each other, and though little seeing by the world,
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 6: was so much in its thoughts that a new term
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 6: lacers was coined to designate them. The chief part of
• 2:34:01
  Speaker 6: Charlotte's Bronte's life was spent in a wild solitude compared
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 6: with which Stevenson and Chawton might be considered to be
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 6: in the gay world. And yet she attained to personal
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 6: distinction which never fought Jane's lot. When she visited her
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 6: kind publisher in London, literary men and women were invited
• 2:34:21
  Speaker 6: purposely to meet her. Thacker Ay bestowed upon her the
• 2:34:26
  Speaker 6: honor of his notice, and once in Willis's rooms, she
• 2:34:30
  Speaker 6: had to walk, shy and trembling through an avenue of
• 2:34:33
  Speaker 6: lords and ladies drawn up for the purpose of gazing
• 2:34:37
  Speaker 6: at the author of Jane Eyre. Miss Mitford too lived
• 2:34:41
  Speaker 6: quietly in our village, devoting her time and talents to
• 2:34:45
  Speaker 6: the benefit of her father, scarcely worthy of her, but
• 2:34:48
  Speaker 6: she did not live there unknown. Her strategies gave her
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 6: a name on London. She numbered Milman and Teuford amongst
• 2:34:56
  Speaker 6: her correspondents, and her works were the passport the Society
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 6: of many who would not otherwise have sought her. Hundreds
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 6: admired Miss Midford on account of her writings. For one
• 2:35:08
  Speaker 6: who ever connected the idea of Miss Austen with the press.
• 2:35:12
  Speaker 6: A few years ago, a gentleman visiting Winchester Cathedral desired
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 6: to be shown Miss Austen's grave. The Verger, as he
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 6: pointed it out, asked, pray, sir, can you tell me
• 2:35:24
  Speaker 6: whether there was anything particular about that lady? So many
• 2:35:27
  Speaker 6: people want to know where she was buried. During her life,
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 6: the ignorance of the verger was shared by most people.
• 2:35:35
  Speaker 6: Few knew that there was anything particular about that lady.
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 6: It was not till towards the close of her life,
• 2:35:43
  Speaker 6: when the last of the works that she saw published
• 2:35:45
  Speaker 6: was in the press, that she received the only mark
• 2:35:48
  Speaker 6: of distinction ever bestowed upon her, And that was remarkable
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 6: for the High Quarter whence it emanated, rather than for
• 2:35:57
  Speaker 6: any actual increase of fame that it conferred. It happened thus,
• 2:36:03
  Speaker 6: in the autumn of eighteen fifteen, she nursed her brother
• 2:36:06
  Speaker 6: Henry through a dangerous fever and slow convalescence at his
• 2:36:10
  Speaker 6: house in Hans's Place. He was attended by one of
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 6: the Prince Regard's physicians. All attempts to keep her name
• 2:36:18
  Speaker 6: secret had at this time seized, and though it had
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 6: never appeared on a title page, all who cared to
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 6: know might easily learn it. And the friendly physician was
• 2:36:29
  Speaker 6: aware that his patience nurse was the author of Pride
• 2:36:33
  Speaker 6: and Prejudice. Accordingly, he informed her one day that the
• 2:36:37
  Speaker 6: Prince was a great admirer of her novels, that he
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 6: read a muffin and kept her set in every one
• 2:36:43
  Speaker 6: of his residences. That he himself therefore had thought it,
• 2:36:47
  Speaker 6: writing from his Royal Highness, that Miss Austen was staying
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 6: in London, and that the Prince had desired mister Clarke,
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 6: the librarian of Carton Halls, to wait upon her. The
• 2:36:59
  Speaker 6: next day mister Clark made his appearance and invited her
• 2:37:03
  Speaker 6: to Calton House, saying that he had the Prince's instructions
• 2:37:06
  Speaker 6: to show her the library and other apartments, and to
• 2:37:10
  Speaker 6: pay her every possible attention. The invitation was of course accepted,
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 6: and during the visit to Carlton House, mister Clark declared
• 2:37:18
  Speaker 6: himself commissioned to say that if Miss Austen had any
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 6: other novel forthcoming, she was at liberty to dedicate it
• 2:37:26
  Speaker 6: to the Prince. Accordingly, such a dedication was immediately prefixed
• 2:37:31
  Speaker 6: to Emma, which was at the time in the press.
• 2:37:35
  Speaker 6: Mister Clark was the brother of Doctor Clark, the traveler
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 6: and mineralogist, whose life has been written by Bishop Otter.
• 2:37:44
  Speaker 6: Jane found him not only a very courteous gentleman, but
• 2:37:47
  Speaker 6: also a warm admirer of her talents, though it would
• 2:37:51
  Speaker 6: be seen by his letters that he did not clearly
• 2:37:53
  Speaker 6: apprehend the limits of her powers or the proper feud
• 2:37:56
  Speaker 6: for their exercise. The following correspondents took place between them.
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 6: Feeling some apprehension lest she should make a mistake in
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 6: acting on the verbal permission which I had received from
• 2:38:08
  Speaker 6: the Prince, Jane addressed the following letter to mister Clark
• 2:38:14
  Speaker 6: November fifteenth, eighteen fifteen. Sir, I must take the liberty
• 2:38:21
  Speaker 6: of asking you a question. Among the many flattering attentions
• 2:38:25
  Speaker 6: which I received from you were Carlton House on Monday,
• 2:38:28
  Speaker 6: lest was an information of my being at liberty to
• 2:38:32
  Speaker 6: dedicate any future work to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent,
• 2:38:36
  Speaker 6: without the necessity of any soltitation on my part. Such
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 6: at least I believed to be your words. But as
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 6: I am very anxious to be quite certain of what
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 6: was intended, I entreated to have the goodness to inform
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 6: me how such a permission to be understood, and whether
• 2:38:53
  Speaker 6: it is incumbent on me to show my sense of
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 6: the honor by inscribing the work now in the press
• 2:38:59
  Speaker 6: to His Royal Highness. I should be equally concerned to
• 2:39:02
  Speaker 6: appear either presumptors or ungrateful. The following Gracial's answer was
• 2:39:09
  Speaker 6: returned by mister Clark, together with the suggestion, which must
• 2:39:12
  Speaker 6: have been received to some surprise. Carlton House, November sixteenth,
• 2:39:19
  Speaker 6: eighteen fifteen. Dear Madam, it is certainly not incumbent on
• 2:39:24
  Speaker 6: you to dedicate your work now in the press to
• 2:39:27
  Speaker 6: His Royal Highness, But if you wish to do the
• 2:39:30
  Speaker 6: regend that honor, either now or at any future period,
• 2:39:34
  Speaker 6: I am happy to send you that permission, which did
• 2:39:37
  Speaker 6: not require any more trouble or solicitation on our part.
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 6: Your late works, Madam, and in particular Mansfield Park, reflect
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 6: the highest honor on your genius and your principles. In
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 6: every new work, your mind seems to increase its energy
• 2:39:52
  Speaker 6: and power of discrimination. The regend has read and admired
• 2:39:57
  Speaker 6: all your publications, except my best thanks for the pleasure
• 2:40:02
  Speaker 6: your volumes had given me. In the perusal of them,
• 2:40:06
  Speaker 6: I felt a great inclination to write and say so.
• 2:40:09
  Speaker 6: And I also, dear Madam, wished to be allowed to
• 2:40:12
  Speaker 6: ask you to delineate in some future work, the habits
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 6: of life and character and enthusiasm of a clergyman who
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 6: should pass his time between the metropolis and the country,
• 2:40:23
  Speaker 6: who should be something like Pidde's Manstrow, silent when glad factionate,
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 6: though shy and in his looks, was most demurely said,
• 2:40:33
  Speaker 6: and now he left aloud he had none knew why.
• 2:40:37
  Speaker 6: Neither Goldsmith nor la Fontaine, in his stabloody for me,
• 2:40:41
  Speaker 6: have in my mind quite delineated an English clergyman, at
• 2:40:45
  Speaker 6: least of the present day, fond of and entirely engaged
• 2:40:48
  Speaker 6: in literature. No man's enemy but his own pray, Dear Madam,
• 2:40:54
  Speaker 6: think of these things. Believe me at all times with
• 2:40:57
  Speaker 6: sincerity and respect, your faith full and obliged servant. J. S. Clark, Librarian.
• 2:41:05
  Speaker 6: The following letter written in reply will show how unequal
• 2:41:09
  Speaker 6: the author of Pride and Prejudice felt herself to delineating
• 2:41:13
  Speaker 6: an enthusiastic clergyman of the present day who should resemble
• 2:41:17
  Speaker 6: Betty's minstrel. December eleventh, Dear Sir, my Emma is now
• 2:41:25
  Speaker 6: so near a publication that I feel it right to
• 2:41:27
  Speaker 6: assure you of my not having forgotten your kind recommendation
• 2:41:31
  Speaker 6: of an early copy for Carlton House, and that I
• 2:41:34
  Speaker 6: have mister Murray's promise of its being sent to His
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 6: Royal Highness under cover to you three days previous to
• 2:41:41
  Speaker 6: the work being really out. I must make use of
• 2:41:45
  Speaker 6: this opportunity to thank you, dear Sir, for the very
• 2:41:48
  Speaker 6: high praise bestow on my other novels. I am too
• 2:41:52
  Speaker 6: vain to wish to convince you that you have praised
• 2:41:55
  Speaker 6: them beyond their merits. My greatest anxiety at present is
• 2:41:59
  Speaker 6: that this oath work should not disgrace what was good
• 2:42:02
  Speaker 6: in the others. But on this point I would do
• 2:42:05
  Speaker 6: myself the justice to declare that whatever may be my
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 6: wishes for his success, I am strongly haunted with the
• 2:42:12
  Speaker 6: idea that to those readers who have preferred pride and prejudice,
• 2:42:17
  Speaker 6: it will appear inferior in wit, and to those who
• 2:42:20
  Speaker 6: have preferred Mansfield Park inferior in good sense, such as
• 2:42:26
  Speaker 6: it is. However, I hope you will do me the
• 2:42:28
  Speaker 6: favor of accepting a copy. Mister Murray will have directions
• 2:42:33
  Speaker 6: for sending one. I am quite honored by your thinking
• 2:42:36
  Speaker 6: me capable of drawing such a clergyman as you give
• 2:42:39
  Speaker 6: the sketch off in your note of November sixteenth. But
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 6: I assure you I am not the common part of
• 2:42:46
  Speaker 6: the character. I may be equal to, but not the good,
• 2:42:49
  Speaker 6: the enthusiastic, the literary. Such a man's conversation must at
• 2:42:54
  Speaker 6: times be on subjects of science and philosophy on which
• 2:42:58
  Speaker 6: I know nothing, or at least be occasionally abundant in
• 2:43:02
  Speaker 6: quotations and allusions which a woman who like me knows
• 2:43:06
  Speaker 6: only her own mother tongue and has read little in
• 2:43:10
  Speaker 6: that would be totally without the power of giving a
• 2:43:14
  Speaker 6: classical education, or at any rate, a very extensive acquaintance
• 2:43:18
  Speaker 6: with English literature, ancient and modern. Appears to be quite
• 2:43:23
  Speaker 6: indispensable for the person who would do any justice to
• 2:43:26
  Speaker 6: your clergyman. And I think I may boast myself to be,
• 2:43:30
  Speaker 6: with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female
• 2:43:34
  Speaker 6: who ever dared to be an authoress. Believe me, dear Sir,
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 6: your obliged and faithful, humble servant, Jane Austen. Mister Clark, however,
• 2:43:47
  Speaker 6: was not to be discouraged from proposing another subject. He
• 2:43:51
  Speaker 6: had recently been appointed Chaplain in private English Secretary to
• 2:43:55
  Speaker 6: Prince Leopold, who was then about to be united to
• 2:43:58
  Speaker 6: the Princess Charlotte. And when he again wrote to express
• 2:44:02
  Speaker 6: the gracious thanks of the Prince Regent for the copy
• 2:44:05
  Speaker 6: of Emma which had been presented, he suggests that an
• 2:44:08
  Speaker 6: historical romance illustrative at the August House of Cobourg would
• 2:44:13
  Speaker 6: just now be very interesting and might very properly be
• 2:44:17
  Speaker 6: dedicated to Prince Leopold. This was much as if Sir
• 2:44:22
  Speaker 6: William Ross had been set to paint a great battle piece,
• 2:44:25
  Speaker 6: and it is amusing to see with what great civility
• 2:44:28
  Speaker 6: she declined, a proposal which must have struck her as
• 2:44:31
  Speaker 6: ludicrous in the following letter, My dear Sir, I am
• 2:44:38
  Speaker 6: honored by the Prince's thanks and very much obliged to
• 2:44:41
  Speaker 6: yourself for the kind manner in which you mention the work.
• 2:44:46
  Speaker 6: I have also to acknowledge a formal letter forwarded to
• 2:44:49
  Speaker 6: me from Hans's place. I assure you I felt very
• 2:44:53
  Speaker 6: grateful for the friendly tenor of it, and hope my
• 2:44:56
  Speaker 6: silence will have been considered as it was truly to
• 2:45:01
  Speaker 6: proceed only from an unwillingness to tax your time with
• 2:45:04
  Speaker 6: idle thanks under every interesting circumstance which your own talents
• 2:45:10
  Speaker 6: and literary labors have placed you in, or the favor
• 2:45:13
  Speaker 6: of the Rege, and bestowed you have my best wishes.
• 2:45:18
  Speaker 6: Your recent appointments, I hope are a step to something
• 2:45:21
  Speaker 6: still better. In my opinion, the service of a court
• 2:45:25
  Speaker 6: can hardly be too well paid for. Immense must be
• 2:45:28
  Speaker 6: the sacrifice of time and feeling required by it. You
• 2:45:33
  Speaker 6: are very kind in your hands as to the sort
• 2:45:36
  Speaker 6: of composition which might recommend me at present, And I
• 2:45:40
  Speaker 6: am fully sensible that an historical romance founded on the
• 2:45:43
  Speaker 6: house of Sexe Cobourg may be much more to the
• 2:45:46
  Speaker 6: purpose of profit and popularity than such pictures of domestic
• 2:45:51
  Speaker 6: life and country villages as I deal in. But I
• 2:45:55
  Speaker 6: could no more write a romance than an epic poem.
• 2:45:59
  Speaker 6: I couldnot sit seriously down to write a serious romance
• 2:46:03
  Speaker 6: under any other motive than to save my life. And
• 2:46:07
  Speaker 6: if it were indispensable for me to keep it up,
• 2:46:10
  Speaker 6: and never relaxed into laughing at myself at other people.
• 2:46:14
  Speaker 6: I am sure I should be hung before I had
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 6: finished the first chapter. No, I must keep to my
• 2:46:20
  Speaker 6: own style and go on in my own way. And
• 2:46:24
  Speaker 6: though I may never succeed again in that, I am
• 2:46:27
  Speaker 6: convinced that I should totally fail in any other, I
• 2:46:31
  Speaker 6: remain my dear sir, you are very much obliged and
• 2:46:35
  Speaker 6: sincere Friend. J. Austen Chawton, near Alton, April first, eighteen sixteen.
• 2:46:44
  Speaker 6: Mister Clark should have recollected the warning of the wise man,
• 2:46:49
  Speaker 6: force not the course of the river. If you diverted
• 2:46:53
  Speaker 6: from the channel in which nature taught it to flow,
• 2:46:56
  Speaker 6: and force it into one habit charldly cut by yourself,
• 2:47:00
  Speaker 6: you will lose its grace and beauty. But when his
• 2:47:03
  Speaker 6: free course is not hindered, he makes sweet music with
• 2:47:07
  Speaker 6: the animal stones, giving a gentle kiss to every search.
• 2:47:12
  Speaker 6: He overtaketh in his pilgrimage. And so by many winding
• 2:47:16
  Speaker 6: nuoksies trays with willing sport, all writers of fiction who
• 2:47:21
  Speaker 6: have geniuses strong enough to work out a course of
• 2:47:24
  Speaker 6: their own, resist every attempt to interfere with its direction.
• 2:47:30
  Speaker 6: Not two writers could be more unlike each other than
• 2:47:32
  Speaker 6: Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, so much so that the
• 2:47:36
  Speaker 6: letter was unable to understand why the former was admired,
• 2:47:40
  Speaker 6: and confessed that she herself should hardly like to live
• 2:47:44
  Speaker 6: with her ladies and gentlemen in their elegant but confined houses.
• 2:47:49
  Speaker 6: But each writer equally resisted interference with their own natural
• 2:47:53
  Speaker 6: style of composition. Miss Bronte, in reply to a friendly
• 2:47:58
  Speaker 6: critic who had her against being too melodramatic and had
• 2:48:03
  Speaker 6: ventured to propose Miss Austen's works to her as a study, writes, thus,
• 2:48:10
  Speaker 6: whenever I do write another book, I think I will
• 2:48:13
  Speaker 6: have nothing of what you call melodrama. I think so,
• 2:48:18
  Speaker 6: but I am not sure. I think too, I will
• 2:48:22
  Speaker 6: endeavor to follow the council which shines out of Miss
• 2:48:25
  Speaker 6: Austen's mild eyes, to finish more and be more subdued.
• 2:48:30
  Speaker 6: But neither am I sure of that when authors write best,
• 2:48:35
  Speaker 6: or at least when they write most fluently, an influence
• 2:48:38
  Speaker 6: seems to awaken in them, which becomes their master, which
• 2:48:42
  Speaker 6: will have its way putting out of you all beheas
• 2:48:45
  Speaker 6: but its own, dictating certain words and insisting on their
• 2:48:49
  Speaker 6: being used, whether a vehement or measured in their nature,
• 2:48:53
  Speaker 6: new moding characters, giving a thought of terms of incidents,
• 2:48:58
  Speaker 6: rejecting carefully elaborate old ideas, in suddenly creating and adopting
• 2:49:03
  Speaker 6: new ones. Is it not so? And should we try
• 2:49:07
  Speaker 6: to counteract this influence? Can you indeed contact it? The play,
• 2:49:13
  Speaker 6: for rarely with which the one peris an attack on
• 2:49:16
  Speaker 6: her liberty, and the vehement eloquence of the other in
• 2:49:20
  Speaker 6: pleading the same cause and maintaining the independence of genius,
• 2:49:24
  Speaker 6: are very characteristic at the minds of the respective writers.
• 2:49:29
  Speaker 6: The suggestions which Jane received as to the sort of
• 2:49:32
  Speaker 6: story that she ought to write, were, however, an amusement
• 2:49:35
  Speaker 6: to her, though they were not likely to prove useful,
• 2:49:39
  Speaker 6: and she has left amongst her papers when entitled plan
• 2:49:43
  Speaker 6: of a novel according to hints from various quarters. The
• 2:49:47
  Speaker 6: names of some of those advisers are written on the
• 2:49:50
  Speaker 6: margin of the manuscript, opposite to their respective suggestions. Heroin
• 2:49:56
  Speaker 6: to be the daughter of a clergyman who, after having
• 2:49:59
  Speaker 6: lived much in the world, had retired from it and
• 2:50:02
  Speaker 6: settled on accuracy with a very small fortune of his
• 2:50:05
  Speaker 6: own the most excellent man that can be imagined, perfect
• 2:50:10
  Speaker 6: in character, temper, and manner, without the smallest drawback or
• 2:50:14
  Speaker 6: peculiarity to prevent his being the most delightful companion to
• 2:50:18
  Speaker 6: his daughter from one year's end to the other, herring
• 2:50:23
  Speaker 6: thoughtless in character, beautiful in person, and possessing every possible accomplishment.
• 2:50:29
  Speaker 6: Booked to open with father and daughter conversing in long speeches,
• 2:50:33
  Speaker 6: elegant language and a tone of high serious sentiment. The
• 2:50:39
  Speaker 6: father induced, at his daughter's ernest request to relate to
• 2:50:44
  Speaker 6: her the past events of his life. Narrative to reach
• 2:50:47
  Speaker 6: through the greater part of the first volume, as besides
• 2:50:51
  Speaker 6: all the circumstances of his attachment to her mother and
• 2:50:54
  Speaker 6: their marriage, it would comprehends his going to see as
• 2:50:57
  Speaker 6: chaplain to a distinguished neighbor character the court, and is
• 2:51:01
  Speaker 6: going afterwards to court himself, which involved him in many
• 2:51:05
  Speaker 6: interesting situations, concluding with his opinion of the benefits of
• 2:51:10
  Speaker 6: tithes being done away with. From this outset, the story
• 2:51:14
  Speaker 6: will proceed and contain a striking variety of adventures. Father
• 2:51:21
  Speaker 6: an exemplary perish priest and devoted to literature, but heroin
• 2:51:26
  Speaker 6: and father never above a fortnight in one place, he
• 2:51:29
  Speaker 6: being driven from his curacy by the vile arts of
• 2:51:32
  Speaker 6: some totally and principled and heartlet young men desperately in
• 2:51:37
  Speaker 6: love with the heroine and pursuing her with the unrelenting passion.
• 2:51:43
  Speaker 6: No sooner setient in one country of Europe than they
• 2:51:47
  Speaker 6: are compelled to quit it and retire to another, always
• 2:51:50
  Speaker 6: making new acquaintance, and always obliged to leave them. This will,
• 2:51:55
  Speaker 6: of course exhibit the wide variety of character. The scene
• 2:51:59
  Speaker 6: will be forever shifting froments out of people to another,
• 2:52:03
  Speaker 6: but there will be no mixture. All the good will
• 2:52:06
  Speaker 6: be unexceptionable in every respect, there will be no fibles
• 2:52:12
  Speaker 6: or weaknesses, but with the wicked, who will be completely
• 2:52:16
  Speaker 6: depraved and infamous, hardly resemblance of humanity left in them.
• 2:52:23
  Speaker 6: Early in her career, the heroine must meet with the
• 2:52:26
  Speaker 6: hero all perfection, of course, and only prevented from paying
• 2:52:31
  Speaker 6: his addresses to her by some excess of refinement. Wherever
• 2:52:36
  Speaker 6: she goes, somebody falls in love with her, and she
• 2:52:39
  Speaker 6: receives repeated offers of marriage, which she refers wholly to
• 2:52:44
  Speaker 6: her father, exceedingly angry that he should not be the
• 2:52:48
  Speaker 6: first applied to often carried away by the anti hero,
• 2:52:53
  Speaker 6: by rescued either by her father or the hero, often
• 2:52:58
  Speaker 6: reduced to support herself in a by her talents and
• 2:53:02
  Speaker 6: work for her bread, continually cheated and refouded of her hire,
• 2:53:08
  Speaker 6: one down to skeleton and now and then starved death.
• 2:53:12
  Speaker 6: At last, hunted out of civilized society, Denied the poor
• 2:53:17
  Speaker 6: shelter of the humblest cottage, they are compelled to retreat
• 2:53:21
  Speaker 6: in the camp's chactka, where the poor father, quiet won down,
• 2:53:26
  Speaker 6: finding his end approaching, throws himself from the ground, and
• 2:53:30
  Speaker 6: after four or five hours of tender advice and parental
• 2:53:34
  Speaker 6: admonition to his miserable child, expires in a fine burst
• 2:53:39
  Speaker 6: of literary enthusiasm intermingled with invectives against the holders of
• 2:53:45
  Speaker 6: tithes heroin inconsolable for some time, but afterwards crawls back
• 2:53:52
  Speaker 6: towards her former country, having at least twenty narrow escapes
• 2:53:56
  Speaker 6: of falling to the hands of anti hero, and at last,
• 2:54:00
  Speaker 6: in the very nick of time, turning a corner to
• 2:54:05
  Speaker 6: avoid him, runs into the arms of the hero himself, who,
• 2:54:10
  Speaker 6: having just shaken off these scruples which fettered him before,
• 2:54:15
  Speaker 6: was at the very moment setting off in pursuit of
• 2:54:18
  Speaker 6: her the tenderest and completed, Sir Claricisman takes place, and
• 2:54:23
  Speaker 6: they are happily united throughout the whole work, hering to
• 2:54:28
  Speaker 6: being the most elegant society and living in high style.
• 2:54:34
  Speaker 6: Since the first publication of this memoir, mister Murray of
• 2:54:38
  Speaker 6: Albermarle Street has very kindly sent to me copies of
• 2:54:41
  Speaker 6: the following letters which his father received from Jane Austen
• 2:54:46
  Speaker 6: when engaged in the publication of Emma. The increasing cordiality
• 2:54:50
  Speaker 6: of the letter shows that the author felt that her
• 2:54:53
  Speaker 6: interests were duly cared for, and was glad to find
• 2:54:56
  Speaker 6: herself in the hands of a publisher whom she could
• 2:54:59
  Speaker 6: consider as a friend. Her brother had addressed to mister
• 2:55:04
  Speaker 6: Murray a strong complaint of the tardiness of the printer
• 2:55:09
  Speaker 6: twenty three hands Plays, Thursday, November twenty third, eighteen fifteen. Sir,
• 2:55:17
  Speaker 6: my brother's note last Monday has been so fruitless that
• 2:55:21
  Speaker 6: I am afraid there can be but little chance of
• 2:55:24
  Speaker 6: my writing to any good effect. But yet I am
• 2:55:28
  Speaker 6: so very much disappointed and vexed by the delays of
• 2:55:30
  Speaker 6: the printers, that I cannot help begging to know whether
• 2:55:33
  Speaker 6: there is no hope of their being quickened. Instead of
• 2:55:37
  Speaker 6: the work being ready by the end of the present month,
• 2:55:40
  Speaker 6: it will hardly ad written, will now proceed be finished
• 2:55:43
  Speaker 6: by the end of the next And as I expect
• 2:55:46
  Speaker 6: to leave London early in December, it is of consequence
• 2:55:50
  Speaker 6: that no more time should be lost. Is it likely
• 2:55:54
  Speaker 6: that the printers will be influenced to greater dispatch and
• 2:55:58
  Speaker 6: punctuality by knowing that the work is to be dedicated
• 2:56:01
  Speaker 6: by permission to the Prince Regent? If you can make
• 2:56:05
  Speaker 6: that circumstance operate, I shall be very glad. My brother
• 2:56:09
  Speaker 6: returns waterly with many thanks for the loan of it.
• 2:56:13
  Speaker 6: We have heard much of Scott's account of Paris. If
• 2:56:17
  Speaker 6: it be not incompatible with other arrangements, would you favor
• 2:56:20
  Speaker 6: us with it? Supposing you have any set already opened,
• 2:56:24
  Speaker 6: you may depend upon its being careful hands. I remain, sir,
• 2:56:30
  Speaker 6: your obstinate, humble servant. J. Austen Hans Place, December eleventh,
• 2:56:39
  Speaker 6: eighteen fifteen. Dear Sir, as I find that Emma is
• 2:56:44
  Speaker 6: advertised for publication as early as Saturday next, I think
• 2:56:48
  Speaker 6: it best to lose no time in settling all that
• 2:56:50
  Speaker 6: remains to be settled on the subject, and adopt this
• 2:56:54
  Speaker 6: method as involving the smallest tax on your time. In
• 2:56:58
  Speaker 6: the first place, I beg you to understand and that
• 2:57:01
  Speaker 6: I leave the terms on which the trade should be
• 2:57:03
  Speaker 6: supplied with the work entirely to your judgment, entreating you
• 2:57:07
  Speaker 6: to be guided in every such arrangement by your own
• 2:57:11
  Speaker 6: experience of what is most likely to clear off the
• 2:57:14
  Speaker 6: edition rapidly. I shall be satisfied with whatever you feel
• 2:57:18
  Speaker 6: to be best. The title page must be EMMA dedicated
• 2:57:24
  Speaker 6: by permission to His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent. And
• 2:57:29
  Speaker 6: it is my particular wish that one set should be
• 2:57:32
  Speaker 6: completed and sent to His Royal Highness two or three
• 2:57:36
  Speaker 6: days before the work is generally public. It should be
• 2:57:40
  Speaker 6: sent under cover to Reverend J. S. Clark, Librarian Carlton House.
• 2:57:46
  Speaker 6: I shall subjoin a list of those persons to whom
• 2:57:48
  Speaker 6: I must trouble you to forward also set each when
• 2:57:52
  Speaker 6: the work is out, all unbound with from the authoress
• 2:57:57
  Speaker 6: and the first page return you with very many thanks
• 2:58:02
  Speaker 6: the books you have so obligingly supplied me with. I
• 2:58:06
  Speaker 6: am very sensible. I assure you of the attention you
• 2:58:09
  Speaker 6: have paid to my convenience and amusement. I return also
• 2:58:14
  Speaker 6: Mansfield Park as ready for a second edition. I believe
• 2:58:17
  Speaker 6: as I can make it. I am in Hans's Place
• 2:58:21
  Speaker 6: till the sixteenth. From that day inclusive, my direction will
• 2:58:25
  Speaker 6: be Chelton, Alton Hans. I remain dear Sir, your faithful,
• 2:58:31
  Speaker 6: humble servant, J. Austen, I wish you would have the
• 2:58:35
  Speaker 6: goodness to send the line by the bearer stating the
• 2:58:38
  Speaker 6: day on which the set will be ready for the
• 2:58:40
  Speaker 6: Prince Regent Hen's Place. December eleventh, eighteen fifteen. Dear Sir,
• 2:58:50
  Speaker 6: I am much obliged by yours and very happy to
• 2:58:53
  Speaker 6: feel everything arranged to our mutual satisfaction. As to my
• 2:58:58
  Speaker 6: direction about the title page, it was arising from my
• 2:59:01
  Speaker 6: ignorance only, and from my having never noticed the proper
• 2:59:05
  Speaker 6: place for dedication. I thank you for putting me right.
• 2:59:10
  Speaker 6: Any deviation from what is usually done in such cases
• 2:59:13
  Speaker 6: is the last thing I should wish for. I feel
• 2:59:17
  Speaker 6: happy in having a friend to save me from the
• 2:59:19
  Speaker 6: ill effect of my own blunder. Yours, Dear Sir, et cetera. J.
• 2:59:24
  Speaker 6: Austen Thornton, April first, eighteen sixteen, Dear Sir, I return
• 2:59:35
  Speaker 6: you the quarterly review with many thanks. The authoress of
• 2:59:39
  Speaker 6: Emma has no reason a thing to complain of her
• 2:59:41
  Speaker 6: treatment in it, except in the total omission of Mansfield Park.
• 2:59:47
  Speaker 6: I cannot but be sorry that so clever a man
• 2:59:49
  Speaker 6: as the reviewer of Emma, should consider it as unworthy
• 2:59:53
  Speaker 6: of being noticed. You will be pleased to hear that
• 2:59:56
  Speaker 6: I have received the Prince's thanks for the handsome coup
• 3:00:00
  Speaker 6: I sent him of Emma. Whatever you may think of
• 3:00:04
  Speaker 6: my share of the work, yours seem to have been
• 3:00:07
  Speaker 6: quite right. In consequence of the late event in Henrietta Street.
• 3:00:12
  Speaker 6: I must request that if you should, at any time
• 3:00:15
  Speaker 6: have anything to communicate by letter, you will be so
• 3:00:18
  Speaker 6: good as to write by the posts directing to me
• 3:00:21
  Speaker 6: Miss J. Austen, Chawton, near Alton, And that for anything
• 3:00:27
  Speaker 6: of a larger book you will lead to the same
• 3:00:29
  Speaker 6: direction by Collier's Sampton Coach. I remain dear, Sir, yours
• 3:00:37
  Speaker 6: very faithfully, J. Austen. About the same time the following
• 3:00:42
  Speaker 6: letters passed between the Countess of Morley and the writer
• 3:00:45
  Speaker 6: of Emma. I do not know whether they were personally
• 3:00:48
  Speaker 6: acquainted with each other, nor in what this interchange of
• 3:00:52
  Speaker 6: civilities originated the Countess of Morley to Miss j Austen,
• 3:01:00
  Speaker 6: Autumn December twenty seventh, eighteen fifteen. Madam, I have been
• 3:01:06
  Speaker 6: most anxiously waiting for an introduction to Emma, and I
• 3:01:10
  Speaker 6: am infinitely obliged to you for a kind recollection of
• 3:01:14
  Speaker 6: me which will procure me the pleasure of her acquaintance
• 3:01:17
  Speaker 6: some day sooner than I should otherwise have had it.
• 3:01:22
  Speaker 6: I am already become intimate with the Woodhouse family and
• 3:01:26
  Speaker 6: feel that they will not amuse and interest me less
• 3:01:29
  Speaker 6: than the Bennetts, Bechanms, Nurises, and all their admirable predecessors.
• 3:01:34
  Speaker 6: I can give them no higher praise, I am, Madam,
• 3:01:38
  Speaker 6: you are much obliged f Molly. Miss j Austen to
• 3:01:44
  Speaker 6: the Countess of Molly, Madam, accept my thanks for the
• 3:01:49
  Speaker 6: honor of your note and for a kind disposition in
• 3:01:52
  Speaker 6: favor of Emma. In my present state of doubt as
• 3:01:56
  Speaker 6: to her reception in the world, it is particularly gratifying
• 3:02:01
  Speaker 6: to me to receive so early an assurance of her
• 3:02:04
  Speaker 6: Ladyship's approbation. It encourages me to depend on the same
• 3:02:08
  Speaker 6: share of general a good opinion which Emma's predecessors have experienced,
• 3:02:13
  Speaker 6: and to believe that I have not yet, as almost
• 3:02:16
  Speaker 6: every writer of fancy this sooner or later of a
• 3:02:20
  Speaker 6: written myself. I am Madam, your obliged and faithful servant,
• 3:02:26
  Speaker 6: j Austen, December thirty first, eighteen fifteen, and of chapter seven.
• 3:02:35
  Speaker 7: Chapter eight. Slow growth of her fame, ill success of
• 3:02:40
  Speaker 7: first attempts at publication. Two reviews of her works contrasted.
• 3:02:47
  Speaker 7: Seldom has any literary reputation been of such slow growth
• 3:02:51
  Speaker 7: as that of Jane Austen. Readers of the present day
• 3:02:54
  Speaker 7: know the rank that is generally assigned to her. They
• 3:02:57
  Speaker 7: have been told by Archbishop Whatley in his review of
• 3:03:00
  Speaker 7: her works, and by Lord macaulay in his review of
• 3:03:03
  Speaker 7: Madame d'arblay's the reason why the highest place is to
• 3:03:06
  Speaker 7: be awarded to Jane Austen as a truthful drawer of character,
• 3:03:11
  Speaker 7: and why she is to be classed with those who
• 3:03:13
  Speaker 7: have approached nearest in that respect to the great Master Shakespeare.
• 3:03:18
  Speaker 7: They see her safely placed by such authorities in her
• 3:03:21
  Speaker 7: niche not indeed amongst the highest orders of genius, but
• 3:03:25
  Speaker 7: in one confessedly her own and our British temple of
• 3:03:28
  Speaker 7: literary fame, and it may be difficult to make them
• 3:03:32
  Speaker 7: believe how coldly her works were at first received, and
• 3:03:35
  Speaker 7: how few readers had any appreciation of their peculiar merits.
• 3:03:39
  Speaker 7: Sometimes a friend or neighbor who chanced to know of
• 3:03:42
  Speaker 7: our connection with the author would condescend to speak with
• 3:03:45
  Speaker 7: moderate approbation of sense and sensibility, or pride and prejudice.
• 3:03:50
  Speaker 7: But if they had known that we and our secret
• 3:03:52
  Speaker 7: thoughts classed her with Madame D'Arblay or miss Edgeworth, or
• 3:03:57
  Speaker 7: even with some other novel writers of the day whose
• 3:03:59
  Speaker 7: name are now scarcely remembered, they would have considered it
• 3:04:03
  Speaker 7: an amusing instance of family Conceit, to the multitude, her
• 3:04:07
  Speaker 7: works appeared tame in commonplace, poor and coloring, and sadly deficient,
• 3:04:12
  Speaker 7: and incident and interest. It is true that we were
• 3:04:15
  Speaker 7: sometimes cheered by hearing that a different verdict had been
• 3:04:18
  Speaker 7: pronounced by more competent judges. We were told how some
• 3:04:22
  Speaker 7: great statesmen or distinguished poet held these works in high estimation.
• 3:04:27
  Speaker 7: We had the satisfaction of believing that they were most
• 3:04:29
  Speaker 7: admired by the best judges, and comforted ourselves with Horace's
• 3:04:33
  Speaker 7: sadus as equitum mihi plaudier. So much was this the
• 3:04:39
  Speaker 7: case that one of the ablest men of my acquaintance said,
• 3:04:43
  Speaker 7: in that kind of jest which is made earnest in it,
• 3:04:46
  Speaker 7: that he had established it in his own mind as
• 3:04:49
  Speaker 7: a new test of ability whether people could or could
• 3:04:52
  Speaker 7: not appreciate Miss Austen's merits. But though such golden opinions
• 3:04:58
  Speaker 7: were now and then gathered in, yet the wide field
• 3:05:01
  Speaker 7: of public taste yielded no adequate return, either in praise
• 3:05:04
  Speaker 7: or profit. Her reward was not to be the quick
• 3:05:08
  Speaker 7: return of the cornfield, but the slow growth of the tree,
• 3:05:11
  Speaker 7: which is to endure to another generation. Her first attempts
• 3:05:15
  Speaker 7: at publication were very discouraging. In November seventeen ninety seven,
• 3:05:20
  Speaker 7: her father wrote the following letter to mister Cadell, Sir,
• 3:05:25
  Speaker 7: I have in my possession a manuscript novel comprising three
• 3:05:29
  Speaker 7: volumes about the length of Miss Burney's Evelina. As I
• 3:05:33
  Speaker 7: am well aware of what consequence it is that a
• 3:05:35
  Speaker 7: work of this sort should make its first appearance under
• 3:05:38
  Speaker 7: a respectable name I apply to you. I shall be
• 3:05:42
  Speaker 7: much obliged therefore, if you will inform me whether you
• 3:05:45
  Speaker 7: choose to be concerned in it, what will be the
• 3:05:47
  Speaker 7: expense of publishing it at the author's risk, and what
• 3:05:51
  Speaker 7: you will venture to advance for the property of it,
• 3:05:53
  Speaker 7: if on perusal it is approved of. Should you give
• 3:05:56
  Speaker 7: any encouragement, I will send you the work. I am, sir,
• 3:06:01
  Speaker 7: your humble servant, George Austen, Steventon, near Overton, Hants, first
• 3:06:07
  Speaker 7: November seventeen ninety seven. This proposal was declined by return
• 3:06:13
  Speaker 7: of post. The work, thus summarily rejected, must have been
• 3:06:17
  Speaker 7: pride and prejudice. The fate of Northanger Abbey was still
• 3:06:22
  Speaker 7: more humiliating. It was sold in eighteen o three to
• 3:06:26
  Speaker 7: a publisher in Bath for ten pounds, but it found
• 3:06:29
  Speaker 7: so little favor in his eyes that he chose to
• 3:06:32
  Speaker 7: abide by his first loss rather than risk farther expense
• 3:06:35
  Speaker 7: by publishing such a work. It seems to have lain
• 3:06:39
  Speaker 7: for many years unnoticed in his drawers, somewhat as the
• 3:06:42
  Speaker 7: first chapters of Waverley looked forgotten amongst the old fishing
• 3:06:45
  Speaker 7: tackle in Scott's cabinet, Tilney's, Thorpe's and Morland's consigned apparently
• 3:06:51
  Speaker 7: to eternal oblivion. But when four novels of steadily increasing
• 3:06:55
  Speaker 7: success had given the writer some confidence in herself. She
• 3:06:59
  Speaker 7: wished to recover the copyright of this early work. One
• 3:07:02
  Speaker 7: of her brothers undertook the negotiation. He found the purchaser
• 3:07:06
  Speaker 7: very willing to receive back his money and to resign
• 3:07:09
  Speaker 7: all claim to the copyright when the bargain was concluded
• 3:07:13
  Speaker 7: and the money paid, But not till then the negotiator
• 3:07:17
  Speaker 7: had the satisfaction of informing him that the work which
• 3:07:19
  Speaker 7: had been so lightly esteemed was by the author of
• 3:07:22
  Speaker 7: pride and prejudice. I do not think that she was
• 3:07:25
  Speaker 7: herself much mortified by the want of early success. She
• 3:07:28
  Speaker 7: wrote for her own amusement. Money, though acceptable, was not
• 3:07:32
  Speaker 7: necessary for the moderate expenses of her quiet home. Above all,
• 3:07:37
  Speaker 7: she was blessed with a cheerful, contented disposition and a
• 3:07:40
  Speaker 7: humble mind. And so lowly did she esteem her own
• 3:07:44
  Speaker 7: claims that when she received one hundred fifty pounds from
• 3:07:47
  Speaker 7: the sale of Sense and Sensibility, she considered it a
• 3:07:51
  Speaker 7: prodigious recompence for that which should cost her nothing. It
• 3:07:55
  Speaker 7: cannot be supposed, however, that she was altogether insensible to
• 3:07:59
  Speaker 7: the superiority of her own workmanship over that of some
• 3:08:01
  Speaker 7: contemporaries who are then enjoying a brief popularity. Indeed, a
• 3:08:06
  Speaker 7: few touches in the following extracts from two of her
• 3:08:08
  Speaker 7: letters show that she was as quick sighted to absurdities
• 3:08:12
  Speaker 7: and composition as to those in living persons. Mister C's
• 3:08:16
  Speaker 7: opinion is gone down in my list, But as my
• 3:08:19
  Speaker 7: paper relates only to Mansfield Park, I may fortunately excuse
• 3:08:23
  Speaker 7: myself from entering mister D's I will redeem my credit
• 3:08:27
  Speaker 7: with him by writing a close imitation of self control.
• 3:08:30
  Speaker 7: As soon as I can, I will improve upon it.
• 3:08:34
  Speaker 7: My heroine shall not only be wafted down an American
• 3:08:37
  Speaker 7: river in a boat by herself. She shall cross the
• 3:08:40
  Speaker 7: Atlantic in the same way, and never stop till she
• 3:08:43
  Speaker 7: reaches Gravesend. We have got Rosanne in our society, and
• 3:08:47
  Speaker 7: find it, much as you describe it, very good and clever,
• 3:08:50
  Speaker 7: but tedious. Missus Hawkins's great excellence is on serious subjects.
• 3:08:56
  Speaker 7: There are some very delightful conversations and reflections on religion,
• 3:09:00
  Speaker 7: but on lighter topics I think she falls into many absurdities,
• 3:09:03
  Speaker 7: and as to love her heroine has very comical feelings.
• 3:09:07
  Speaker 7: There are a thousand improbabilities in the story do you
• 3:09:10
  Speaker 7: remember the two miss Ormstons introduced just at last? Very
• 3:09:14
  Speaker 7: flat and unnatural. Mademoiselle Casart is rather my passion. Two
• 3:09:21
  Speaker 7: notices of her works appeared in the Quarterly Review, one
• 3:09:25
  Speaker 7: in October eighteen fifteen, and another more than three years
• 3:09:29
  Speaker 7: after her death, in January eighteen twenty one. The latter
• 3:09:33
  Speaker 7: article is known to have been from the pen of Whatley,
• 3:09:35
  Speaker 7: afterwards Archbishop of Dublin. They differ much from each other
• 3:09:40
  Speaker 7: in the degree of praise which they award, and I
• 3:09:42
  Speaker 7: think also, it may be said, and the ability with
• 3:09:45
  Speaker 7: which they are written. The first bestows some approval, but
• 3:09:49
  Speaker 7: the other expresses the warmest admiration. One can scarcely be
• 3:09:53
  Speaker 7: satisfied with the critical acumen of the former writer, who,
• 3:09:57
  Speaker 7: in treating of sense and Sensibility, takes no notice whatever
• 3:10:01
  Speaker 7: of the vigor with which many of the characters are drawn,
• 3:10:04
  Speaker 7: but declares that the interest and merit of the piece
• 3:10:07
  Speaker 7: depends altogether upon the behavior of the elder sister. Nor
• 3:10:12
  Speaker 7: is he fair when, in pride and prejudice he represents
• 3:10:15
  Speaker 7: Elizabeth's change of sentiments towards Darcy as caused by the
• 3:10:18
  Speaker 7: side of his house and grounds. But the chief discrepancy
• 3:10:22
  Speaker 7: between the two reviewers is to be found in their
• 3:10:24
  Speaker 7: appreciation of the commonplace and silly characters to be found
• 3:10:28
  Speaker 7: in these novels. On this point, the difference almost amounts
• 3:10:32
  Speaker 7: to a contradiction, such as one sometimes sees drawn up
• 3:10:35
  Speaker 7: in parallel columns when it is desired to convict some
• 3:10:38
  Speaker 7: writer or some statesman of inconsistency. The reviewer in eighteen
• 3:10:43
  Speaker 7: fifteen says, the faults of these works arise from the
• 3:10:47
  Speaker 7: minute detail which the author's plan comprehends. Characters of folly
• 3:10:52
  Speaker 7: or simplicity, such as those of Old wood House and
• 3:10:54
  Speaker 7: Miss Bates, are ridiculous when first presented, but if too
• 3:10:58
  Speaker 7: often brought forward or too long dwelt on, their prosing
• 3:11:02
  Speaker 7: is apt to become as tiresome in fiction as in
• 3:11:04
  Speaker 7: real society. The reviewer in eighteen twenty one, on the contrary,
• 3:11:11
  Speaker 7: singles out the Fools as especial instances of the writer's abilities,
• 3:11:14
  Speaker 7: and declares that in this respect she shows a regard
• 3:11:17
  Speaker 7: to character hardly exceeded by Shakespeare himself. These are his words.
• 3:11:24
  Speaker 7: Like him Shakespeare, she shows as admirable a discrimination in
• 3:11:28
  Speaker 7: the character of fools as of people of sense, a merit,
• 3:11:31
  Speaker 7: which is far from common to invent. Indeed, a conversation
• 3:11:35
  Speaker 7: full of wisdom or of wit requires that the writer
• 3:11:38
  Speaker 7: should himself possess ability, but the converse does not hold good.
• 3:11:42
  Speaker 7: It is no fool that can describe fools well. And
• 3:11:46
  Speaker 7: many who have succeeded pretty well in painting superior characters
• 3:11:50
  Speaker 7: have failed in giving individuality to those weaker ones which
• 3:11:54
  Speaker 7: it is necessary to introduce in order to give a
• 3:11:56
  Speaker 7: faithful representation of real life. They exhibit to us mere
• 3:12:00
  Speaker 7: folly in the abstract, forgetting that to the eye of
• 3:12:03
  Speaker 7: the skillful naturalists, the insects on a leaf present as
• 3:12:06
  Speaker 7: wide differences as exist between the lion and the elephant,
• 3:12:10
  Speaker 7: slender and shallow and egg cheek, as Shakespeare has painted them.
• 3:12:14
  Speaker 7: Though equally, fools resemble one another no more than Richard
• 3:12:18
  Speaker 7: and Macbeth and Julius Caesar and Miss Sawson's Missus Bennett,
• 3:12:22
  Speaker 7: mister Rushworth and Miss Bates are no more alike than her,
• 3:12:26
  Speaker 7: Darcy Knightley and Edmund Bertram. Some have complained, indeed, of
• 3:12:31
  Speaker 7: finding her fools too much like nature and consequently tiresome.
• 3:12:35
  Speaker 7: There is no disputing about tastes. All we can say
• 3:12:38
  Speaker 7: is that such critics must, whatever deference they may outwardly
• 3:12:42
  Speaker 7: pay to received opinions, find the Merry Wives of Windsor
• 3:12:45
  Speaker 7: and Twelfth Night very tiresome, and that those who look
• 3:12:48
  Speaker 7: with pleasure at Wilkie's pictures or those of the Dutch school,
• 3:12:52
  Speaker 7: must admit that excellence of imitation making for attraction on
• 3:12:55
  Speaker 7: that which would be insipid or disagreeable in the reality.
• 3:13:00
  Speaker 7: Our minuteness of detail has also been found fault with.
• 3:13:03
  Speaker 7: But even where it produces at the time a degree
• 3:13:05
  Speaker 7: of tediousness, we know not whether that can justly be
• 3:13:09
  Speaker 7: reckoned a blemish which is absolutely essential to a very
• 3:13:12
  Speaker 7: high excellence. Now it is absolutely impossible without this to
• 3:13:17
  Speaker 7: produce that thorough acquaintance with the characters which is necessary
• 3:13:20
  Speaker 7: to make the reader heartily interested in them. Let any
• 3:13:24
  Speaker 7: one cut out from the Iliad or from Shakespeare's plays everything.
• 3:13:28
  Speaker 7: We are far from saying that either might not lose
• 3:13:30
  Speaker 7: some parts with advantage. But let him reject everything which
• 3:13:34
  Speaker 7: is absolutely devoid of importance and interest, and he will
• 3:13:37
  Speaker 7: find that what is left will have lost more than
• 3:13:39
  Speaker 7: half its charms. We are convinced that some writers have
• 3:13:43
  Speaker 7: diminished the effect of their works by being scrupulous to
• 3:13:46
  Speaker 7: admit nothing into them which had not some absolute and
• 3:13:48
  Speaker 7: independent merit. They have acted like those who strip off
• 3:13:52
  Speaker 7: the leaves of a fruit tree, as being of themselves
• 3:13:55
  Speaker 7: good for nothing, with the view of securing more nourishment
• 3:13:58
  Speaker 7: to the fruit, which in fact cannot attain its full
• 3:14:01
  Speaker 7: maturity and flavor without them. The world, I think, has
• 3:14:07
  Speaker 7: endorsed the opinion of the later writer, But it would
• 3:14:10
  Speaker 7: not be fair to set down the discrepancy between the
• 3:14:12
  Speaker 7: two entirely to the discredit of the former. The fact
• 3:14:16
  Speaker 7: is that in the course of the intervening five years,
• 3:14:19
  Speaker 7: these works have been read and re read by many
• 3:14:21
  Speaker 7: leaders in the literary world. The public taste was forming
• 3:14:25
  Speaker 7: itself all this time, and grew by what it fed on.
• 3:14:29
  Speaker 7: These novels belonged to a class which gain rather than
• 3:14:32
  Speaker 7: lose by frequent perusals, and it is probable that each
• 3:14:36
  Speaker 7: reviewer represented fairly enough the prevailing opinions of readers in
• 3:14:40
  Speaker 7: the year when each wrote. Since that time, the testimonies
• 3:14:45
  Speaker 7: in favor of Jane Austen's works have been continual and
• 3:14:47
  Speaker 7: almost unanimous. They are frequently referred to as models. Nor
• 3:14:52
  Speaker 7: had they lost their first distinction of being especially acceptable
• 3:14:55
  Speaker 7: to minds of the highest order. I shall indulge myself
• 3:14:59
  Speaker 7: by collecting into the the next chapter instances of the
• 3:15:01
  Speaker 7: homage paid to her by such persons.
• 3:15:05
  Speaker 8: End of chapter eight, Chapter nine, opinions expressed by eminent persons,
• 3:15:12
  Speaker 8: opinions of others of less eminence, opinion of American readers.
• 3:15:17
  Speaker 8: Into this list of the admirers of my aunt's works,
• 3:15:21
  Speaker 8: I admit those only whose eminence will be universally acknowledged.
• 3:15:26
  Speaker 8: No doubt the number might have been increased. Southey, in
• 3:15:30
  Speaker 8: a letter to Sir Egerton Bridges, says, you mentioned Miss Austen.
• 3:15:35
  Speaker 8: Her novels are more true to nature, and have for
• 3:15:38
  Speaker 8: my sympathies passages of finer feeling than any others of
• 3:15:43
  Speaker 8: this age. She was a person of whom I have
• 3:15:46
  Speaker 8: heard so well and thinks so highly, that I regret
• 3:15:49
  Speaker 8: not having had an opportunity of testifying to her the
• 3:15:53
  Speaker 8: respect which I felt for It may be observed that
• 3:15:58
  Speaker 8: Southey had probably heard from his own family connections of
• 3:16:01
  Speaker 8: the charm of her private character. A friend of us,
• 3:16:05
  Speaker 8: the daughter of mister big Wither of many Down Park,
• 3:16:08
  Speaker 8: near Basingstoke, was married to Southey's uncle, the Reverend Herbert Hill,
• 3:16:14
  Speaker 8: who had been useful to his nephew in many ways,
• 3:16:17
  Speaker 8: and especially in supplying him with the means of attaining
• 3:16:20
  Speaker 8: his extensive knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese literature. Mister Hill
• 3:16:25
  Speaker 8: had been chaplain to the British factory at Lisbon, where
• 3:16:29
  Speaker 8: Southy visited him, and had the use of a library
• 3:16:32
  Speaker 8: in those languages which his uncle had collected. Southey himself
• 3:16:37
  Speaker 8: continually mentions his uncle Hill in terms of respect and gratitude. St.
• 3:16:43
  Speaker 8: Coleridge would sometimes burst out into high encomiums of Miss
• 3:16:47
  Speaker 8: Austen's novels as being, in their way perfectly genuine and
• 3:16:52
  Speaker 8: individual productions. I remember Miss Mitford saying to me, I
• 3:16:57
  Speaker 8: would almost cut off one of my hands if it
• 3:17:00
  Speaker 8: would enable me to write like your aunt with the other.
• 3:17:03
  Speaker 8: The biographer of Sir J. Mackrindar says something recalled to
• 3:17:07
  Speaker 8: his mind the traits of character which are so delicately
• 3:17:10
  Speaker 8: touched in Miss Austen's novels. He said that there was
• 3:17:14
  Speaker 8: genius in sketching out that new kind of novel. He
• 3:17:17
  Speaker 8: was vexed for the credit of the Edinburgh Review that
• 3:17:21
  Speaker 8: it had left her unnoticed the quarterly had done her
• 3:17:24
  Speaker 8: more justice. It was impossible for a foreigner to understand
• 3:17:28
  Speaker 8: fully the merit of her works. Madame de Stall, to
• 3:17:32
  Speaker 8: whom he had recommended one of her novels, found no
• 3:17:36
  Speaker 8: interest in it, and in her note to him in
• 3:17:39
  Speaker 8: reply said it was vulgar. And yet he said nothing
• 3:17:44
  Speaker 8: could be more true than what he wrote in answer,
• 3:17:47
  Speaker 8: there is no book which that word would so little suit.
• 3:17:51
  Speaker 8: Every village could furnish matter for a novel. To Miss Austen,
• 3:17:54
  Speaker 8: she did not need the common materials for a novel
• 3:17:57
  Speaker 8: strong emotions or strong incident. It was not, however, quite
• 3:18:02
  Speaker 8: impossible for a foreigner to appreciate these works. For Massour
• 3:18:06
  Speaker 8: Ghiseau writes, thus, I am a great novel reader, and
• 3:18:11
  Speaker 8: I seldom read German all French novels. The characters are
• 3:18:14
  Speaker 8: too artificial. My delight is to read English novels, particularly
• 3:18:19
  Speaker 8: those written by women. Setur unqui de morul Miss Austen,
• 3:18:25
  Speaker 8: miss Ferrier, et cetera, from a school which, in the
• 3:18:28
  Speaker 8: excellence and profusion of its productions, resembles the cloud of
• 3:18:33
  Speaker 8: dramatic poets of the Great Athenian Age. In the keepsake
• 3:18:37
  Speaker 8: of eighteen twenty five, the following lines appeared, written by
• 3:18:41
  Speaker 8: Lord Morpeth afterwards, Seventh Earl of Carlisle and Lord Lieutenant
• 3:18:46
  Speaker 8: of Ireland, accompanying an illustration of a lady reading a
• 3:18:50
  Speaker 8: novel beats thy quick pulse or Ingebald's thrilling leaf, Brunton's
• 3:18:56
  Speaker 8: eye moral Opie's deep wrought grief has them. I'll chaperone
• 3:19:01
  Speaker 8: claim thy yielding art, Gerald's dark page to Valiant's gentle art.
• 3:19:07
  Speaker 8: Or is it thou all perfect Austin here, let one
• 3:19:10
  Speaker 8: poor wreath adorn thy early pair that scarce, allow thy
• 3:19:15
  Speaker 8: modest youth to claim its living portion of thy certain fame. Oh,
• 3:19:20
  Speaker 8: Missus Bennet, Missus Norris too, while memorys of eyes will
• 3:19:25
  Speaker 8: dream of you, And mister Woodhouse, whose substimious lip must
• 3:19:29
  Speaker 8: thin but not too thin. His gruel sip miss bates
• 3:19:34
  Speaker 8: our idol though the village bore and Missus Elton oughtn't
• 3:19:39
  Speaker 8: to explore, while the clear style flows on without pretense,
• 3:19:44
  Speaker 8: with unstained purity and unmad sense. Or if a sister
• 3:19:49
  Speaker 8: here approached the throne, she called the rich inheritance her own.
• 3:19:55
  Speaker 8: The admiration felt by Lord Macauley would probably have taken
• 3:19:58
  Speaker 8: a very practical fe wm if his life had been prolonged.
• 3:20:03
  Speaker 8: I have the authority of his sister, Lady Trevillian, for
• 3:20:06
  Speaker 8: stating that he had intended to undertake the task upon
• 3:20:10
  Speaker 8: which I have ventured. He purposed to write a memoir
• 3:20:13
  Speaker 8: of Miss Austen with criticisms of her works, to prefix
• 3:20:18
  Speaker 8: it to a new edition of her novels, and from
• 3:20:20
  Speaker 8: the proceeds of the sale, to erect a monument to
• 3:20:23
  Speaker 8: her memory in Winchester Castle. Oh that such an idea
• 3:20:27
  Speaker 8: had been realized, that portion of the plan which Lord
• 3:20:31
  Speaker 8: Macaulay's success would have been most certain, might have been
• 3:20:34
  Speaker 8: almost sufficient for his object. A memoir written by him
• 3:20:38
  Speaker 8: would have been a monument. I am kindly permitted by
• 3:20:41
  Speaker 8: Sir Henry Holland to give the following quotation from his
• 3:20:45
  Speaker 8: printed but unpublished recollections of his past life. I have
• 3:20:49
  Speaker 8: the picture still before me of Lord Holland lying on
• 3:20:52
  Speaker 8: his bed, when attacked with gout, his admirable sister Miss
• 3:20:57
  Speaker 8: Fox beside him, reading aloud, as he always did on
• 3:21:00
  Speaker 8: these occasions, some one of Miss Austen's novels, of which
• 3:21:05
  Speaker 8: he was never wearied. I well recollect the time when
• 3:21:09
  Speaker 8: these charming novels, almost unique in their style of humor,
• 3:21:13
  Speaker 8: burst suddenly on the world, it was sad that their
• 3:21:16
  Speaker 8: writer did not live to witness the growth of her fame.
• 3:21:20
  Speaker 8: My brother in law, Sir Denis Lemochamp, has supplied me
• 3:21:24
  Speaker 8: with the following anecdotes from his own recollections. When I
• 3:21:29
  Speaker 8: was a student at Drinity College, Cambridge, mister Whewell, then
• 3:21:33
  Speaker 8: a fellow and afterwards master of a college, often spoke
• 3:21:37
  Speaker 8: to me with admiration of Miss Austen's novels. On one
• 3:21:41
  Speaker 8: occasion I said that I had found Persuasion rather dull.
• 3:21:45
  Speaker 8: He quite fired up in defense of it, insisting that
• 3:21:49
  Speaker 8: it was the most beautiful of her works. This accomplished
• 3:21:53
  Speaker 8: philosopher was deeply versed in works of fiction. I recollect
• 3:21:57
  Speaker 8: his writing to me from Carnival, where he had the
• 3:22:00
  Speaker 8: charge of some pupils that he was weary of his stay,
• 3:22:04
  Speaker 8: for he had read the circulating library twice through. During
• 3:22:08
  Speaker 8: a visit I paid to Lord Lansdowne at Bowood in
• 3:22:12
  Speaker 8: eighteen hundred and forty six, one of Miss Austen's novels
• 3:22:15
  Speaker 8: became the subject of conversation and of praise, especially from
• 3:22:20
  Speaker 8: Lord Lansdowne, who observed that one of the circumstances of
• 3:22:24
  Speaker 8: his life, which he looked back upon with vexation, was
• 3:22:28
  Speaker 8: that Miss Austin should once have been living some weeks
• 3:22:30
  Speaker 8: in his neighborhood without his knowing it. I have heard
• 3:22:34
  Speaker 8: Sydney Smith more than once and well, with eloquence on
• 3:22:39
  Speaker 8: the merits of Miss Austen's novels. He told me he
• 3:22:42
  Speaker 8: should have enjoyed, giving how the pleasure of reading her
• 3:22:45
  Speaker 8: praises in the Edinburgh Review. Fanny Bryce was one of
• 3:22:49
  Speaker 8: his prime favorites. I close this list of testimonies this
• 3:22:54
  Speaker 8: long Coatina Potram with the remarkable words of Sir Walter Scott,
• 3:22:59
  Speaker 8: taken from his die for March fourteenth, eighteen hundred and
• 3:23:02
  Speaker 8: twenty six, read again for the third time at least
• 3:23:06
  Speaker 8: miss Aspen's finally written novel of Pride and Prejudice. That
• 3:23:10
  Speaker 8: young lady had a talent for describing the involvement and
• 3:23:13
  Speaker 8: feelings and characters of ordinary life, which is to me
• 3:23:17
  Speaker 8: the most wonderful I ever met. With the big barewell strain,
• 3:23:21
  Speaker 8: I can do myself like any now going, but the
• 3:23:24
  Speaker 8: exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting
• 3:23:31
  Speaker 8: from the truth of the description, and the sentiment is
• 3:23:34
  Speaker 8: denied to me. What a pity such a gifted creature
• 3:23:38
  Speaker 8: died so early. The well worn condition of Scott's own
• 3:23:41
  Speaker 8: copy of these works attests that they were much read
• 3:23:44
  Speaker 8: in his family. When I visited Abbotsford a few years
• 3:23:48
  Speaker 8: after Scott's death, I was permitted, as an unusual favor
• 3:23:53
  Speaker 8: to take one of these volumes in my hands. One
• 3:23:56
  Speaker 8: cannot suppress the wish that she had lived to know
• 3:23:59
  Speaker 8: what such men thought of her powers, and how gladly
• 3:24:02
  Speaker 8: they would have cultivated a personal acquaintance with her. I
• 3:24:05
  Speaker 8: do not think that it would at all have impaired
• 3:24:08
  Speaker 8: the modest simplicity of her character, or that we should
• 3:24:12
  Speaker 8: have lost our own dear aunt Jane in a blaze
• 3:24:15
  Speaker 8: of literary fame. It may be amusing to contrast with
• 3:24:18
  Speaker 8: these testimonies from the great the opinions expressed by other
• 3:24:22
  Speaker 8: readers of more ordinary intellect. The author herself has left
• 3:24:27
  Speaker 8: a list of criticisms, which it had been her amusement
• 3:24:30
  Speaker 8: to collect through means of her friends. This list contains
• 3:24:34
  Speaker 8: much of warm hearted, sympathizing praise, interspersed with some opinions
• 3:24:40
  Speaker 8: which may be considered surprising. One lady could say nothing
• 3:24:44
  Speaker 8: better of Mansfield Park than it was a mere novel.
• 3:24:47
  Speaker 8: Another owned that she thought sense and sensibility and brightened
• 3:24:52
  Speaker 8: prejudice downright nonsense, but expected to like Mansfield Park better,
• 3:24:58
  Speaker 8: and having finished the first Partilliam, hoped that she had
• 3:25:01
  Speaker 8: got through the worst. Another did not like Mansfield Park
• 3:25:05
  Speaker 8: nothing interesting in the characters language four. One gentleman read
• 3:25:10
  Speaker 8: the first and last chapters of Emma, but did not
• 3:25:13
  Speaker 8: look at the rest, because he had been told that
• 3:25:15
  Speaker 8: it was not interesting. The opinions of another gentleman about
• 3:25:19
  Speaker 8: Emma was so bad that they could not be reported
• 3:25:22
  Speaker 8: to the author Kwai Armand's Tats and Fincher. Thirty five
• 3:25:27
  Speaker 8: years after her death, there came also a voice of
• 3:25:31
  Speaker 8: praise from across the Atlantic in eighteen fifty five. The
• 3:25:34
  Speaker 8: following letter was received by her brothers of Francis Austen, Boston, Massachusetts, USA,
• 3:25:42
  Speaker 8: sixth January eighteen hundred and fifty two. Since high critical
• 3:25:46
  Speaker 8: authority has pronounced the delineations of character in the works
• 3:25:50
  Speaker 8: of Jane Austen second only to those of Shakespeare, transatmatic
• 3:25:55
  Speaker 8: admiration appears superfluous, Yet it may not be uninterested to
• 3:26:00
  Speaker 8: her family to receive an assurance that the influence of
• 3:26:03
  Speaker 8: her genius is extensively recognized in the American Republic, even
• 3:26:08
  Speaker 8: by the highest judicial authorities. The late mister Chief Justice
• 3:26:14
  Speaker 8: Marshall of the Supreme Court of the United States and
• 3:26:17
  Speaker 8: his associate Mister Justice's story highly estimated and admired Missus Austen,
• 3:26:23
  Speaker 8: and to them we owe our introduction to her society.
• 3:26:26
  Speaker 8: For many years, her talents have brightened our daily path,
• 3:26:30
  Speaker 8: and her name in those of her characters, are familiar
• 3:26:33
  Speaker 8: to us as household words. We have long wished to
• 3:26:37
  Speaker 8: express to some of her family the sentiments of gratitude
• 3:26:41
  Speaker 8: and affection she has inspired, and request more information relative
• 3:26:46
  Speaker 8: to her life than is given in the brief memoir
• 3:26:49
  Speaker 8: prefixed to her works. Having accidentally that a brother of
• 3:26:54
  Speaker 8: Jane Austen eld a high rank in the British Navy,
• 3:26:57
  Speaker 8: we have obtained his address from our friends and Admiral Wormly,
• 3:27:01
  Speaker 8: now resident in Boston, and we trust and this expression
• 3:27:05
  Speaker 8: of our feeling will be received by her relations with
• 3:27:08
  Speaker 8: the kindness and of vanity characteristic of admirals of her creation.
• 3:27:13
  Speaker 8: Sir Francis Austen or one of his family would confer
• 3:27:17
  Speaker 8: a great favor by complying with our request. The autograph
• 3:27:22
  Speaker 8: of his sister, or a few lines in her handwriting,
• 3:27:25
  Speaker 8: would be placed among our chief treasures. The family who
• 3:27:29
  Speaker 8: delight in the companionship of Jane Austen and who present
• 3:27:33
  Speaker 8: this petition are of English origin. Their ancestor held a
• 3:27:37
  Speaker 8: high rank among the first emigrants to New England, and
• 3:27:41
  Speaker 8: his name and character have been ably represented by his
• 3:27:44
  Speaker 8: descendants in various public stations of trust and responsibility. To
• 3:27:49
  Speaker 8: the present time in the colony and state of Massachusetts,
• 3:27:54
  Speaker 8: a letter addressed to Miss Quincey, care of the Honorable
• 3:27:57
  Speaker 8: Joshua Quincy, Boston, Massachusetts, would reach its destination. Sir Francis
• 3:28:03
  Speaker 8: Austin returned a suitable reply to this application and sent
• 3:28:07
  Speaker 8: a long letter of the sisters, which no doubt still
• 3:28:11
  Speaker 8: occupies the place of honor promised by the Quincy family.
• 3:28:16
  Speaker 8: End of Chapter.
• 3:28:17
  Speaker 4: Nine, Chapter ten observations on the novels. It is not
• 3:28:22
  Speaker 4: the object of these memoirs to attempt to criticism on
• 3:28:26
  Speaker 4: Jane Austen's novels. Those particulars only have been noticed which
• 3:28:31
  Speaker 4: could be illustrated by the circumstances of her own life.
• 3:28:35
  Speaker 4: But I now desire to offer a few observations on them,
• 3:28:39
  Speaker 4: and especially on one point on which my age renders
• 3:28:42
  Speaker 4: me a competent witness, the fidelity with which they represent
• 3:28:46
  Speaker 4: the opinions and manners of the class of society in
• 3:28:50
  Speaker 4: which the author lived early in this century. They do
• 3:28:53
  Speaker 4: this the more faithfully on account of the very deficiency
• 3:28:57
  Speaker 4: with which they have been sometimes charged, namely that they
• 3:29:01
  Speaker 4: make no attempt to raise the standard of human life,
• 3:29:04
  Speaker 4: but merely represent it as it was. They certainly were
• 3:29:08
  Speaker 4: not written to support any theory or inculcate any particular moral,
• 3:29:13
  Speaker 4: except indeed the great moral, which is to be equally
• 3:29:16
  Speaker 4: gathered from an observation of the course of actual life,
• 3:29:20
  Speaker 4: namely the superiority of high over low principles, and of
• 3:29:24
  Speaker 4: greatness over littleness of mind. These writings are like photographs
• 3:29:29
  Speaker 4: in which no feature is softened, no ideal expression is introduced.
• 3:29:34
  Speaker 4: All is the unadorned reflection of the natural object. And
• 3:29:38
  Speaker 4: the value of such a faithful likeness must increase as
• 3:29:42
  Speaker 4: time gradually works more and more changes in the face
• 3:29:45
  Speaker 4: of society itself. A remarkable instance of this is to
• 3:29:49
  Speaker 4: be found in her portraiture of the clergy. She was
• 3:29:52
  Speaker 4: the daughter and the sister of clergymen who certainly were
• 3:29:56
  Speaker 4: not low specimens of their order, and she has chosen
• 3:29:59
  Speaker 4: three of her heroes from that profession. But no one
• 3:30:03
  Speaker 4: in these days can think that either Edmund Bertram or
• 3:30:06
  Speaker 4: Henry Tilney had adequate ideas of the duties of a
• 3:30:10
  Speaker 4: parish minister. Such, however, were the opinions in practice then
• 3:30:14
  Speaker 4: prevalent among respectable and conscientious clergymen, before their minds had
• 3:30:19
  Speaker 4: been stirred first by evangelical and afterwards by the High
• 3:30:23
  Speaker 4: Church movement which this century has witnessed. The country may
• 3:30:28
  Speaker 4: be congratulated, which, on looking back to such a fixed landmark,
• 3:30:33
  Speaker 4: can find that it has been advancing instead of receding
• 3:30:36
  Speaker 4: from it. The long interval that elapsed between the completion
• 3:30:40
  Speaker 4: of Northender Abbey in seventeen ninety eight and the commencement
• 3:30:44
  Speaker 4: of Mansfield Park in eighteen eleven may sufficiently account for
• 3:30:48
  Speaker 4: any difference of style which may be perceived between her
• 3:30:51
  Speaker 4: three earlier and her three later productions. If the formers
• 3:30:56
  Speaker 4: showed quite as much originality and genius, they may perhaps
• 3:31:00
  Speaker 4: be thought to have less of the faultless finish and
• 3:31:03
  Speaker 4: high polish which distinguished the latter. The characters of the
• 3:31:07
  Speaker 4: John Dashwoods, Mister Collins, and the Thorpes stand out from
• 3:31:11
  Speaker 4: the canvas with a vigor and originality which cannot be surpassed.
• 3:31:16
  Speaker 4: But I think that in her last three works are
• 3:31:18
  Speaker 4: to be found a greater refinement of taste, a more
• 3:31:21
  Speaker 4: nice sense of propriety, and a deeper insight into the
• 3:31:25
  Speaker 4: delicate anatomy of the human heart, marking the difference between
• 3:31:29
  Speaker 4: the brilliant girl and the mature woman. Far from being
• 3:31:33
  Speaker 4: one of those who have overwritten themselves, it may be
• 3:31:37
  Speaker 4: affirmed that her fame would have stood on a narrower
• 3:31:40
  Speaker 4: and less firm basis if she had not lived to
• 3:31:43
  Speaker 4: resume her pen at Chawton. Some persons have surmised that
• 3:31:47
  Speaker 4: she took her characters from individuals with whom she had
• 3:31:50
  Speaker 4: been acquainted. They were so lifelike that it was assumed
• 3:31:54
  Speaker 4: that they must have once lived and have been transferred bodily,
• 3:31:58
  Speaker 4: as it were, into her pages. But surely such a
• 3:32:02
  Speaker 4: supposition betrays an ignorance of the high prerogative of genius
• 3:32:05
  Speaker 4: to create out of its own resources imaginary characters who
• 3:32:10
  Speaker 4: shall be true to nature and consistent in themselves. Perhaps, However,
• 3:32:15
  Speaker 4: the distinction between keeping true to nature and servilely copying
• 3:32:20
  Speaker 4: any one's specimen of it is not always clearly apprehended.
• 3:32:25
  Speaker 4: It is indeed true both of the writer and of
• 3:32:28
  Speaker 4: the painter, that he can use only such lineaments as
• 3:32:31
  Speaker 4: exist and as he has observed to exist in living objects.
• 3:32:36
  Speaker 4: Otherwise he would produce monsters instead of human beings. But
• 3:32:41
  Speaker 4: in both it is the office of high art to
• 3:32:43
  Speaker 4: mold these features into new combinations, and to place them
• 3:32:47
  Speaker 4: in the attitudes and impart to them the expressions which
• 3:32:50
  Speaker 4: may suit the purposes of the artist, so that they
• 3:32:53
  Speaker 4: are nature, but not exactly the same nature which had
• 3:32:57
  Speaker 4: to come before his eyes. Can be obtained only from
• 3:33:01
  Speaker 4: the natural flowers which the bee has sucked. Yet it
• 3:33:05
  Speaker 4: is not a reproduction of the odour or flavor of
• 3:33:07
  Speaker 4: any particular flower, but becomes something different when it has
• 3:33:11
  Speaker 4: gone through the process of transformation which that little insect
• 3:33:15
  Speaker 4: is able to effect. Hence, in the case of painters
• 3:33:19
  Speaker 4: arises the superiority of original compositions over portrait painting. Reynolds
• 3:33:24
  Speaker 4: was exercising a higher faculty when he designed comedy and
• 3:33:28
  Speaker 4: tragedy contending for Garrick, than when he merely took a
• 3:33:31
  Speaker 4: likeness of that actor. The same difference exists in writings
• 3:33:36
  Speaker 4: between the original conceptions of Shakespeare and some other creative
• 3:33:40
  Speaker 4: geniuses and such full length likenesses of individual persons. The
• 3:33:45
  Speaker 4: talking Gentleman, for instance, as are admirably drawn by Miss Mitford.
• 3:33:51
  Speaker 4: Jane Austen's powers, whatever may be the degree in which
• 3:33:54
  Speaker 4: she possessed them, were certainly of that higher order. She
• 3:33:58
  Speaker 4: did not copy individuals, but she invested her own creations
• 3:34:02
  Speaker 4: with individuality of character. A reviewer in the Quarterly speaks
• 3:34:07
  Speaker 4: of an acquaintance who ever since the publication of Pride
• 3:34:10
  Speaker 4: and Prejudice, had been called by his friends, mister Bennett,
• 3:34:14
  Speaker 4: but the author did not know him. Her own relations
• 3:34:18
  Speaker 4: never recognized any individual in her characters, and I can
• 3:34:22
  Speaker 4: call to mind several of her acquaintances whose peculiarities were
• 3:34:25
  Speaker 4: very tempting and easy to be caricatured, of whom there
• 3:34:29
  Speaker 4: are no traces in her pages. She herself, when questioned
• 3:34:34
  Speaker 4: on the subject by a friend, expressed a dread of
• 3:34:37
  Speaker 4: what she called such an invasion of social proprieties. She
• 3:34:41
  Speaker 4: said that she thought it quite fair to note peculiarities
• 3:34:44
  Speaker 4: and weaknesses, but that it was her desire to create,
• 3:34:48
  Speaker 4: not reproduce. Besides, she added, I am too proud of
• 3:34:52
  Speaker 4: my gentlemen to admit that they were only mister A
• 3:34:55
  Speaker 4: or Colonel B. She did not, however, suppose that her
• 3:34:59
  Speaker 4: imaginary care characters were of a higher order than are
• 3:35:02
  Speaker 4: to be found in nature, for she said, when speaking
• 3:35:05
  Speaker 4: of two of her great favorites, Edmund Bertram and mister Knightley,
• 3:35:09
  Speaker 4: they are very far from being what I know English
• 3:35:12
  Speaker 4: gentlemen often are. She certainly took a kind of parental
• 3:35:17
  Speaker 4: interest in the beings whom she had created, and did
• 3:35:20
  Speaker 4: not dismiss them from her thoughts when she had finished
• 3:35:22
  Speaker 4: her last chapter. We have seen in one of her
• 3:35:26
  Speaker 4: letters her personal affection for Darcy and Elizabeth, and when
• 3:35:30
  Speaker 4: sending a copy of Emma to a friend whose daughter
• 3:35:33
  Speaker 4: had been lately born, she wrote, thus, I trust you
• 3:35:36
  Speaker 4: will be as glad to see my Emma as I
• 3:35:39
  Speaker 4: shall be to see your Jemima. She was very fond
• 3:35:42
  Speaker 4: of Emma, but did not reckon on her being a
• 3:35:44
  Speaker 4: general favorite, for when commencing that work, she said, I
• 3:35:48
  Speaker 4: am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself, will,
• 3:35:52
  Speaker 4: much like she would, if asked, tell us many little
• 3:35:56
  Speaker 4: particulars about the subsequent career of some of her people.
• 3:36:00
  Speaker 4: In this traditionary way, we learned that miss Steele never
• 3:36:03
  Speaker 4: succeeded in catching the doctor, that Kitty Bennett was satisfactorily
• 3:36:08
  Speaker 4: married to a clergyman near Pemberley, while Mary obtained nothing
• 3:36:12
  Speaker 4: higher than one of her uncle Phillips's clerks, and was
• 3:36:16
  Speaker 4: content to be considered a star in the society of Meryton.
• 3:36:20
  Speaker 4: That the considerable sum given by Missus Norris to William
• 3:36:23
  Speaker 4: Price was one pound, that mister Woodhouse survived his daughter's
• 3:36:28
  Speaker 4: marriage and kept her in mister Knightley from settling at
• 3:36:31
  Speaker 4: Donwell about two years, and that the letters placed by
• 3:36:34
  Speaker 4: Frank Churchill before Jane Fairfax, which she swept away unread,
• 3:36:39
  Speaker 4: contained the word pardon of the good people in Northender
• 3:36:43
  Speaker 4: Abbey and persuasion. We know nothing more than what is written,
• 3:36:47
  Speaker 4: for before those works were published, their author had been
• 3:36:50
  Speaker 4: taken away from us, and all such amusing communications had
• 3:36:54
  Speaker 4: ceased forever.
• 3:36:57
  Speaker 9: End of Chapter ten, Chapter eleven, declining health of Jane Austen,
• 3:37:05
  Speaker 9: elasticity of her spirits, her resignation and humility. Her death.
• 3:37:13
  Speaker 9: Early in the year eighteen sixteen, some family troubles disturbed
• 3:37:17
  Speaker 9: the usually tranquil course of Jane Austin's life, and it's
• 3:37:20
  Speaker 9: probable that the inward malady which was to prove ultimately fatal,
• 3:37:25
  Speaker 9: was already felt by her. For some distant friends whom
• 3:37:28
  Speaker 9: she visited in the spring of that year, thought that
• 3:37:31
  Speaker 9: her health was somewhat impaired, and observed that she went
• 3:37:34
  Speaker 9: about her old haunts and recalled old recollections connected with
• 3:37:38
  Speaker 9: them in a particular manner, as if she did not
• 3:37:41
  Speaker 9: expect ever to see them again. It's not surprising that
• 3:37:46
  Speaker 9: under these circumstances some of her letters were of a
• 3:37:49
  Speaker 9: graver tone than had been customary with her, and expressed
• 3:37:52
  Speaker 9: resignation rather than cheerfulness in reference to these troubles. In
• 3:37:58
  Speaker 9: a letter to her brother Charles, after mentioning that she
• 3:38:00
  Speaker 9: had been laid up with an attack of bilious fever,
• 3:38:03
  Speaker 9: she says, I live upstairs for the present and am coddled.
• 3:38:08
  Speaker 9: I am the only one of the party who has
• 3:38:10
  Speaker 9: been so silly. But a weak body must excuse weak nerves.
• 3:38:14
  Speaker 9: And again to another correspondent, but I am getting too
• 3:38:17
  Speaker 9: near complaint. It has been the appointment of God. However,
• 3:38:21
  Speaker 9: secondary causes may have operated, but the elasticity of her
• 3:38:25
  Speaker 9: spirits soon recovered their tone. It was in the latter
• 3:38:29
  Speaker 9: half of that year when she addressed the two following
• 3:38:31
  Speaker 9: lively letters to a nephew, one while he was at
• 3:38:34
  Speaker 9: Winchester School, the other soon after he had left it. Chawton,
• 3:38:40
  Speaker 9: July ninth, eighteen sixteen. My dear e, many thanks a
• 3:38:47
  Speaker 9: thank for every line, and as many to mister w.
• 3:38:50
  Speaker 9: Digweed for coming. We have been wanting very much to
• 3:38:54
  Speaker 9: hear of your mother and are happy to find she
• 3:38:56
  Speaker 9: continues to mend. But her illness must have been of
• 3:39:00
  Speaker 9: very serious one. Indeed, when she is really recovered, she
• 3:39:04
  Speaker 9: ought to try change of air and come over to us.
• 3:39:08
  Speaker 9: Tell your father that I am very much obliged to
• 3:39:10
  Speaker 9: him for his share of your letter, and most sincerely
• 3:39:13
  Speaker 9: join in the hope of her being eventually much the
• 3:39:16
  Speaker 9: better for her present discipline. She has the comfort moreover
• 3:39:21
  Speaker 9: of being confined in such weather as gives one little
• 3:39:23
  Speaker 9: temptation to be out. It is really too bad, and
• 3:39:28
  Speaker 9: has been too bad for a long time, much worse
• 3:39:31
  Speaker 9: than anyone can bear. And I begin to think it
• 3:39:34
  Speaker 9: will never be fine again. This is a finesse of mine,
• 3:39:39
  Speaker 9: for I have often observed that if one writes about
• 3:39:41
  Speaker 9: the weather, it is generally completely changed before the letter
• 3:39:45
  Speaker 9: is read. I wish it may prove so now, and
• 3:39:48
  Speaker 9: that when mister W. Digweed reaches Steventon to morrow he
• 3:39:52
  Speaker 9: may find you have had a long series of hot,
• 3:39:55
  Speaker 9: dry weather. We are a small party at present, only Grandmamma, May, Mary, Jane,
• 3:40:00
  Speaker 9: and myself Yolden's coach cleared off the rest yesterday. I
• 3:40:05
  Speaker 9: am glad you recollected to mention your being come home.
• 3:40:08
  Speaker 9: My heart began to sink within me when I had
• 3:40:11
  Speaker 9: got so far through your letter without it being mentioned.
• 3:40:15
  Speaker 9: I was dreadfully afraid that you might be detained at
• 3:40:17
  Speaker 9: Winchester by severe illness, confined to your bed, perhaps and
• 3:40:21
  Speaker 9: quite unable to hold a pen, and only dating from
• 3:40:24
  Speaker 9: Steventon in order with a mistaken sort of tenderness to
• 3:40:28
  Speaker 9: deceive me. But now I have no doubt of your
• 3:40:31
  Speaker 9: being at home. I am sure you would not say
• 3:40:34
  Speaker 9: it so seriously unless it actually were so. We saw
• 3:40:38
  Speaker 9: a countless number of post chaises full of boys passed
• 3:40:41
  Speaker 9: by yesterday morning, full of future heroes, legislators, fools and villains.
• 3:40:48
  Speaker 9: You have never thanked me for my last letter, which
• 3:40:50
  Speaker 9: went by the cheese. I cannot bear not to be thanked.
• 3:40:54
  Speaker 9: You will not pay us a visit, yet, of course
• 3:40:57
  Speaker 9: we must not think of it. Your mother get well first,
• 3:41:01
  Speaker 9: and you must go to Oxford and not be elected.
• 3:41:05
  Speaker 9: After that. A little change of scene may be good
• 3:41:07
  Speaker 9: for you and your physician, I hope will order you
• 3:41:10
  Speaker 9: to the sea, or to a house by the side
• 3:41:12
  Speaker 9: of a very considerable pond. Oh, it rains again. It
• 3:41:17
  Speaker 9: beats against the window. Mary Jane and I have been
• 3:41:20
  Speaker 9: wet through once already. To day we set off in
• 3:41:23
  Speaker 9: the donkey carriage for Farringdon, as I wanted to see
• 3:41:26
  Speaker 9: the improvement mister Woolves is making. But we were obliged
• 3:41:30
  Speaker 9: to turn back before we got there, but not soon
• 3:41:33
  Speaker 9: enough to avoid a pelter. All the way home we
• 3:41:36
  Speaker 9: met mister wools. I talked of it being bad weather
• 3:41:39
  Speaker 9: for the hay, and he returned me the comfort of
• 3:41:42
  Speaker 9: its being much worse for the wheat. We hear that
• 3:41:45
  Speaker 9: missus s does not quit Tangier. Why and wherefore do
• 3:41:51
  Speaker 9: you know that our browning is gone? You must prepare
• 3:41:54
  Speaker 9: for a William when you come, a good looking lad,
• 3:41:57
  Speaker 9: civil and quiet and seemingly likely to do good bye.
• 3:42:02
  Speaker 9: I'm sure mister w d will be astonished at my
• 3:42:05
  Speaker 9: writing so much, for the paper is so thin that
• 3:42:08
  Speaker 9: he will be able to count the lines, if not
• 3:42:10
  Speaker 9: to read them. Yours affectionately, Jane Austen. In the next
• 3:42:17
  Speaker 9: letter will be found her description of her own style
• 3:42:20
  Speaker 9: of composition, which has already appeared in the notice prefixed
• 3:42:24
  Speaker 9: to Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, Chawton, Monday, December sixteenth, eighteen sixteen.
• 3:42:34
  Speaker 9: My dear e, one reason for my writing to you
• 3:42:37
  Speaker 9: now is that I may have the pleasure of directing
• 3:42:40
  Speaker 9: to you esquire. I give you joy of having left Winchester.
• 3:42:44
  Speaker 9: Now you may own how miserable you were there. Now
• 3:42:48
  Speaker 9: it will gradually all come out your crimes and your miseries.
• 3:42:51
  Speaker 9: How often you went up by the mail to London
• 3:42:54
  Speaker 9: and threw away fifty guineas at a tavern, and how
• 3:42:57
  Speaker 9: often you were on the point of hanging yourself, restrained
• 3:43:01
  Speaker 9: only as some ill natured aspersion upon poor old Winton
• 3:43:05
  Speaker 9: has it by the want of a tree within some
• 3:43:07
  Speaker 9: miles of the city. Charles Knight and his companions pass
• 3:43:11
  Speaker 9: through Chawton about nine this morning, later than it used
• 3:43:15
  Speaker 9: to be Uncle Henry, and I had a glimpse of
• 3:43:18
  Speaker 9: his handsome face, looking all health and good humor. I
• 3:43:22
  Speaker 9: wonder when you will come and see us. I know
• 3:43:25
  Speaker 9: what I rather speculate upon, but shall say nothing. We
• 3:43:29
  Speaker 9: think Uncle Henry in excellent looks. Look at him this moment,
• 3:43:34
  Speaker 9: and think so too, if you have not done it before.
• 3:43:38
  Speaker 9: And we have the great comfort of seeing decided improvement
• 3:43:41
  Speaker 9: in Uncle Charles, both as to health, spirits and appearance.
• 3:43:47
  Speaker 9: And they are each of them so agreeable in their
• 3:43:50
  Speaker 9: different way, and harmonize so well that their visit is
• 3:43:54
  Speaker 9: thorough enjoyment. Uncle Henry writes very superior sermons. You and
• 3:43:59
  Speaker 9: I must try to get hold of one or two
• 3:44:01
  Speaker 9: and put them into our novels. It would be a
• 3:44:04
  Speaker 9: fine help to a volume, and we could make our
• 3:44:06
  Speaker 9: heroine read it aloud on a Sunday evening, just as
• 3:44:09
  Speaker 9: well as Isabella Wardour in the Antiquary is made to
• 3:44:12
  Speaker 9: read History of the Hearts demon in the Ruins of
• 3:44:15
  Speaker 9: Saint Ruth. Though I believe on recollection Lovell is the reader.
• 3:44:20
  Speaker 9: By the bye, my dear E, I am quite concerned
• 3:44:23
  Speaker 9: for the loss. Your mother mentions in her letter two
• 3:44:26
  Speaker 9: chapters and a half to be missing is monstrous. It
• 3:44:30
  Speaker 9: is well that I have not been to Steventon lately,
• 3:44:32
  Speaker 9: and therefore cannot be suspected of purloining them. Two strong
• 3:44:37
  Speaker 9: twigs and a half towards a nest of my own
• 3:44:39
  Speaker 9: would have been something. I do not think, however, that
• 3:44:44
  Speaker 9: any theft of that sort would be really useful to me.
• 3:44:48
  Speaker 9: What should I do with your strong, manly, vigorous sketches,
• 3:44:51
  Speaker 9: full of variety and glow? How could I possibly join
• 3:44:54
  Speaker 9: them on to the little bit two inches wide of
• 3:44:57
  Speaker 9: ivory on which I work with so fine a brush
• 3:45:00
  Speaker 9: as produces little effect after much labor. You will hear
• 3:45:04
  Speaker 9: from Uncle Henry how well Anna is. She seems perfectly recovered.
• 3:45:09
  Speaker 9: Ben was here on Saturday to ask Uncle Charles and
• 3:45:11
  Speaker 9: me to dine with them as to morrow, but I
• 3:45:14
  Speaker 9: was forced to decline it. The walk is beyond my strength,
• 3:45:18
  Speaker 9: though I am otherwise very well, and this is not
• 3:45:21
  Speaker 9: a season for donkey carriages, and as we do not
• 3:45:24
  Speaker 9: like to spare Uncle Charles, he has declined it too. Tuesday, Ah,
• 3:45:30
  Speaker 9: mister e, I doubt your seeing Uncle Henry at steventon
• 3:45:33
  Speaker 9: to day. The weather will prevent your expecting him. I
• 3:45:36
  Speaker 9: think tell your father, with Aunt Cass's love and mine,
• 3:45:41
  Speaker 9: that the pickled cucumbers are extremely good, and tell him
• 3:45:44
  Speaker 9: also tell him what you will. No, don't tell him
• 3:45:48
  Speaker 9: what you will, but tell him that Grandmamma begs him
• 3:45:52
  Speaker 9: to make Joseph Hall pay his rent if he can.
• 3:45:56
  Speaker 9: You must not be tired of reading the word Uncle,
• 3:45:59
  Speaker 9: for I have not done with it. Uncle Charles, thanks
• 3:46:02
  Speaker 9: your mother for her letter. It was a great pleasure
• 3:46:05
  Speaker 9: to him to know that the parcel was received and
• 3:46:08
  Speaker 9: gave so much satisfaction. And he begs her to be
• 3:46:11
  Speaker 9: so good as to give three shillings for him to
• 3:46:14
  Speaker 9: Dame Staples, which shall be allowed for in the payment
• 3:46:18
  Speaker 9: of her debt. Here adieu, amiable. I hope Caroline behaves
• 3:46:22
  Speaker 9: well to you, yours affectionately, j Austen. I cannot tell
• 3:46:30
  Speaker 9: how soon she was aware of the serious nature of
• 3:46:32
  Speaker 9: her malady. By God's mercy, it was not attended with
• 3:46:36
  Speaker 9: much suffering, so that she was able to tell her
• 3:46:39
  Speaker 9: friends as in the foregoing letter, and perhaps sometimes to
• 3:46:42
  Speaker 9: persuade herself that, accepting want of strength, she was otherwise
• 3:46:47
  Speaker 9: very well, but the progress of the disease became more
• 3:46:52
  Speaker 9: and more manifest as the year advanced. The usual walk
• 3:46:56
  Speaker 9: was at first shortened and then discontinued, and there was
• 3:47:00
  Speaker 9: sought in a donkey carriage. Gradually, too, her habits of
• 3:47:04
  Speaker 9: activity within the house ceased, and she was obliged to
• 3:47:07
  Speaker 9: lie down much. The sitting room contained only one sofa,
• 3:47:12
  Speaker 9: which was frequently occupied by her mother, who was more
• 3:47:14
  Speaker 9: than seventy years old. Jane would never use it even
• 3:47:19
  Speaker 9: in her mother's absence, but she contrived a sort of
• 3:47:21
  Speaker 9: couch for herself with two or three chairs, and was
• 3:47:25
  Speaker 9: pleased to say that this arrangement was more comfortable to
• 3:47:28
  Speaker 9: her than a real sofa. Her reasons for this might
• 3:47:31
  Speaker 9: have been left to be guessed, but for the importunities
• 3:47:34
  Speaker 9: of a little niece, which obliged her to explain that
• 3:47:37
  Speaker 9: if she herself had shown any inclination to use the sofa,
• 3:47:41
  Speaker 9: her mother might have scrupled being on it so much
• 3:47:43
  Speaker 9: as was good for her. It is certain, however, that
• 3:47:46
  Speaker 9: the mind did not share in this decay of the
• 3:47:49
  Speaker 9: bodily strength. Persuasion was not finished before the middle of
• 3:47:53
  Speaker 9: August in that year, and the manner in which it
• 3:47:55
  Speaker 9: was then completed, affords proof that neither the critical nor
• 3:47:59
  Speaker 9: the cree creative powers of the author were at all impaired.
• 3:48:03
  Speaker 9: The book had been brought to an end in July,
• 3:48:06
  Speaker 9: and the re engagement of the hero and the heroine
• 3:48:09
  Speaker 9: effected in a totally different manner in a scene laid
• 3:48:12
  Speaker 9: at Admiral Croft's lodgings. But her performance did not satisfy her.
• 3:48:17
  Speaker 9: She thought it tame and flat, and was desirous of
• 3:48:20
  Speaker 9: producing something better. This weighed upon her mind, the more so,
• 3:48:25
  Speaker 9: probably on account of the weak state of her health,
• 3:48:28
  Speaker 9: so that one night she retired to rest in very
• 3:48:31
  Speaker 9: low spirits. But such depression was little in accordance with
• 3:48:36
  Speaker 9: her nature, and was soon shaken off. The next morning
• 3:48:40
  Speaker 9: she awoke to much cheerful views and brighter inspirations. The
• 3:48:44
  Speaker 9: sense of power revived, and imagination resumed its course. She
• 3:48:49
  Speaker 9: canceled the condemned chapter and wrote two others entirely different
• 3:48:53
  Speaker 9: in its stead. The result is what we possess, the
• 3:48:56
  Speaker 9: visit of the Musgrove party to bath the crowded an
• 3:48:59
  Speaker 9: animated scene at the white Hart Hotel, and the charming
• 3:49:02
  Speaker 9: conversation between Captain Harville and Anne Elliot, overheard by Captain Wentworth,
• 3:49:08
  Speaker 9: by which the two faithful lovers were at last led
• 3:49:11
  Speaker 9: to understand each other's feelings. The tenth and eleventh chapters
• 3:49:15
  Speaker 9: of Persuasion, then, rather than the actual winding up of
• 3:49:18
  Speaker 9: the story, contained the latest of her printed compositions, her
• 3:49:23
  Speaker 9: last contribution to the entertainment of the public. Perhaps it
• 3:49:27
  Speaker 9: may be thought that she has seldom written anything more brilliant,
• 3:49:31
  Speaker 9: and that, independent of the original manner in which the
• 3:49:33
  Speaker 9: denouement is brought about, the pictures of Charles Musgrove's good
• 3:49:37
  Speaker 9: natured boyishness and of his wife's jealous selfishness would have
• 3:49:41
  Speaker 9: been incomplete without these finishing strokes. The Cancil chapter exists
• 3:49:47
  Speaker 9: in manuscript. It's certainly inferior to the two which were
• 3:49:51
  Speaker 9: substituted for it, But it was such as some writers
• 3:49:54
  Speaker 9: and some readers might have been contented with, and it
• 3:49:57
  Speaker 9: contains touches which scarcely any other hand could have given,
• 3:50:01
  Speaker 9: the suppression of which may be almost a matter of regret.
• 3:50:06
  Speaker 9: The following letter was addressed to her friend, Miss Big,
• 3:50:09
  Speaker 9: then staying at Stretham with her sister, the wife of
• 3:50:12
  Speaker 9: the Reverend Herbert Hill, uncle of Robert Southey. It appears
• 3:50:16
  Speaker 9: to have been written three days before she began her
• 3:50:19
  Speaker 9: last work, which will be noticed in another chapter, and
• 3:50:22
  Speaker 9: shows that she was not at the time aware of
• 3:50:25
  Speaker 9: the serious nature of her malady. Chawton, January twenty fourth,
• 3:50:33
  Speaker 9: eighteen seventeen, My dear Alethea, I think it time there
• 3:50:39
  Speaker 9: should be a little writing between us, though I believe
• 3:50:42
  Speaker 9: the epistolary debt is on your side, and I hope
• 3:50:45
  Speaker 9: this will find all at Stretham Party well, neither carried
• 3:50:49
  Speaker 9: away by the flood, nor rheumatic through the damps. Such
• 3:50:53
  Speaker 9: mild weather is, you know, delightful to us, And though
• 3:50:56
  Speaker 9: we have a great many ponds and a fine running
• 3:50:59
  Speaker 9: stream through the meadows on the other side of the road,
• 3:51:02
  Speaker 9: it is nothing but what beautifies us and does to
• 3:51:05
  Speaker 9: talk of. I have certainly gained strength through the winter,
• 3:51:10
  Speaker 9: and am not far from being well, and I think
• 3:51:12
  Speaker 9: I understand my own case now so much better than
• 3:51:15
  Speaker 9: I did, as to be able by care to keep
• 3:51:18
  Speaker 9: off any serious return of illness. I am convinced that
• 3:51:22
  Speaker 9: bile is at the bottom of all I have suffered,
• 3:51:25
  Speaker 9: which makes it easy to know how to treat myself.
• 3:51:29
  Speaker 9: You'll be glad to hear thus much of me. I'm
• 3:51:32
  Speaker 9: sure we have just had a few days visit from Edward,
• 3:51:35
  Speaker 9: who brought us a good account of his father, and
• 3:51:38
  Speaker 9: the very circumstance of his coming at all, of his
• 3:51:40
  Speaker 9: father's being able to spare him, is itself a good account.
• 3:51:45
  Speaker 9: He grows still and still improves in appearance, at least
• 3:51:49
  Speaker 9: in the estimation of his aunt's, who love him better
• 3:51:51
  Speaker 9: and better as they see the sweet temper and warm
• 3:51:54
  Speaker 9: affections of the boy confirmed in the young man. I
• 3:51:58
  Speaker 9: tried hard to persuade him that he must have some
• 3:52:01
  Speaker 9: message for William. But in Vain this is not a
• 3:52:04
  Speaker 9: time of year for donkey carriages, and our donkeys are
• 3:52:07
  Speaker 9: necessarily having so long a run of luxurious idleness that
• 3:52:11
  Speaker 9: I suppose we shall find they have forgotten much of
• 3:52:13
  Speaker 9: their education when we use them again. We do not
• 3:52:16
  Speaker 9: use two at once, however, don't imagine such excesses. A
• 3:52:21
  Speaker 9: new clergyman is expected here very soon, perhaps in time
• 3:52:25
  Speaker 9: to assist mister Papillon on Sunday. I shall be very
• 3:52:28
  Speaker 9: glad when the first hearing is over. It will be
• 3:52:31
  Speaker 9: a nervous hour for our pew, though we hear that
• 3:52:34
  Speaker 9: he acquits himself with as much ease and collectedness as
• 3:52:38
  Speaker 9: if he had been used to it all his life.
• 3:52:40
  Speaker 9: We have no chance, we know, of seeing you between
• 3:52:43
  Speaker 9: Streatham and Winchester. You go the other road and are
• 3:52:46
  Speaker 9: engaged to two or three houses. If there should be
• 3:52:48
  Speaker 9: any change, however, you know how welcome you would be.
• 3:52:53
  Speaker 9: We have been reading the poet's Pilgrimage to Waterloo, and
• 3:52:56
  Speaker 9: generally with much approbation. Nothing will please all the world,
• 3:53:01
  Speaker 9: you know, but parts of it suit me better than
• 3:53:03
  Speaker 9: much that he has written. Before the opening the proem,
• 3:53:07
  Speaker 9: I believe he calls it is very beautiful. Poor man,
• 3:53:12
  Speaker 9: one cannot but grieve for the loss of the son
• 3:53:15
  Speaker 9: fondly described. Has he at all recovered it? What do
• 3:53:19
  Speaker 9: mister and missus Hale know about his present state? Yours affectionately, J. Austen.
• 3:53:26
  Speaker 9: The real object of this letter is to ask you
• 3:53:28
  Speaker 9: for a receipt, but I thought it genteel not to
• 3:53:31
  Speaker 9: let it appear early. We remember some excellent orange wine
• 3:53:34
  Speaker 9: at many down, made from civil oranges. Entirely or chiefly.
• 3:53:39
  Speaker 9: I should be very much obliged to you for the receipt,
• 3:53:42
  Speaker 9: if you can command it within a few weeks. On
• 3:53:45
  Speaker 9: the day before January twenty third, she had written to
• 3:53:48
  Speaker 9: her niece in the same hopeful tone. I feel myself
• 3:53:52
  Speaker 9: getting stronger than I was, and can so perfectly walk
• 3:53:55
  Speaker 9: to Alton or back again without fatigue, that I hope
• 3:53:59
  Speaker 9: to be able to do both when summer comes. Alas
• 3:54:03
  Speaker 9: summer came to her only on her deathbed. March the
• 3:54:07
  Speaker 9: seventeenth is the last date to be found in the
• 3:54:09
  Speaker 9: manuscript on which she was engaged. And as the watch
• 3:54:13
  Speaker 9: of the drowned man indicates the time of his death,
• 3:54:15
  Speaker 9: so does this final date seem to fix the period
• 3:54:18
  Speaker 9: when her mind could no longer pursue its accustomed course.
• 3:54:22
  Speaker 9: And here I cannot do better than quote the words
• 3:54:25
  Speaker 9: of the niece, to whose private records of her aunt's
• 3:54:28
  Speaker 9: life and character I have been so often indebted. I
• 3:54:33
  Speaker 9: do not know how early the alarming symptoms of her
• 3:54:35
  Speaker 9: malady came on. It was in the following March that
• 3:54:39
  Speaker 9: I had the first idea of her being seriously ill.
• 3:54:43
  Speaker 9: It had been settled that about the end of that
• 3:54:45
  Speaker 9: month or the beginning of April, I should spend a
• 3:54:48
  Speaker 9: few days at Chawton in the absence of my father
• 3:54:51
  Speaker 9: and mother, who were just then engaged with mister Leigh
• 3:54:53
  Speaker 9: Perrot in arranging her late husband's affairs. But Aunt Jane
• 3:54:58
  Speaker 9: became too ill to have me in the house, and
• 3:55:00
  Speaker 9: so I went instead to my sister, missus Lefroy at Wyards.
• 3:55:05
  Speaker 9: The next day we walked over to Chawton to make
• 3:55:07
  Speaker 9: inquiries after our aunt. She was then keeping her room,
• 3:55:11
  Speaker 9: but said she would see us, and we went up
• 3:55:14
  Speaker 9: to her. She was in her dressing gown and was
• 3:55:16
  Speaker 9: sitting quite like an invalid, in an arm chair. But
• 3:55:20
  Speaker 9: she got up and kindly greeted us, and then, pointing
• 3:55:23
  Speaker 9: to seats which had been arranged for us by the fire,
• 3:55:26
  Speaker 9: she said, there is a chair for the married lady
• 3:55:30
  Speaker 9: and a little stool for you, Caroline. It's strange, but
• 3:55:35
  Speaker 9: those trifling words were the last of hers that I
• 3:55:38
  Speaker 9: can remember, for I retain no recollection of what was
• 3:55:41
  Speaker 9: said by any one in the conversation that ensued. I
• 3:55:45
  Speaker 9: was struck by the alteration in herself. She was very pale,
• 3:55:50
  Speaker 9: her voice was weak and low, and there was about
• 3:55:53
  Speaker 9: her a general appearance of debility and suffering. But I
• 3:55:57
  Speaker 9: have been told that she never had much acute pain.
• 3:56:00
  Speaker 9: She was not equal to the exertion of talking to us,
• 3:56:04
  Speaker 9: and our visit to the sick room was a very
• 3:56:06
  Speaker 9: short one. Aunt Cassandra soon taking us away. I do
• 3:56:10
  Speaker 9: not suppose we stayed a quarter of an hour, and
• 3:56:13
  Speaker 9: I never saw Aunt Jane again. In May eighteen seventeen
• 3:56:19
  Speaker 9: she was persuaded to remove to Winchester for the sake
• 3:56:22
  Speaker 9: of medical advice from mister Lyford. The Lyfords have for
• 3:56:25
  Speaker 9: some generations maintained a high character in Winchester for medical skill,
• 3:56:30
  Speaker 9: and the mister Lyford of that day was a man
• 3:56:32
  Speaker 9: of more than provincial reputation in whom Great London practitioners
• 3:56:36
  Speaker 9: expressed confidence. Mister Lyford spoke encouragingly. It was, not, of
• 3:56:41
  Speaker 9: course his business to extinguish hope in his patient, but
• 3:56:45
  Speaker 9: I believed that he had from the first very little
• 3:56:48
  Speaker 9: expectation of a permanent cure. All that was gained by
• 3:56:52
  Speaker 9: the removal from home was the satisfaction of having done
• 3:56:54
  Speaker 9: the best that could be done, together with such alleviations
• 3:56:58
  Speaker 9: of suffering as superior medae skill could afford. Jane and
• 3:57:02
  Speaker 9: her sister Cassandra took lodgings in College Street. They had
• 3:57:06
  Speaker 9: two kind friends living in the close. Missus Heathcote and
• 3:57:10
  Speaker 9: Miss Bigg, the mother and aunt of the present Sir
• 3:57:13
  Speaker 9: William Heathcote of Hursley, between whose family and ours a
• 3:57:17
  Speaker 9: close friendship has existed for several generations. These friends did
• 3:57:21
  Speaker 9: all that they could to promote the comfort of the
• 3:57:24
  Speaker 9: sisters during the sad sojourn in Winchester, both by their
• 3:57:27
  Speaker 9: society and by supplying those little conveniences in which a
• 3:57:31
  Speaker 9: lodging house was likely to be deficient. It was shortly
• 3:57:35
  Speaker 9: after settling in these lodgings that she wrote to a
• 3:57:37
  Speaker 9: nephew the following characteristic letter, no longer alas in her
• 3:57:42
  Speaker 9: former strong, clear hand, missus David's College Street, Winton, Tuesday,
• 3:57:50
  Speaker 9: May twenty seventh. There is no better way, my dearest e,
• 3:57:55
  Speaker 9: of thanking you for your affectionate concern for me during
• 3:57:58
  Speaker 9: my illness, than by telling you myself, as soon as possible,
• 3:58:02
  Speaker 9: that I continue to get better. I will not boast
• 3:58:05
  Speaker 9: of my handwriting, neither that nor my face have yet
• 3:58:08
  Speaker 9: recovered their proper beauty. But in other respects I gain
• 3:58:12
  Speaker 9: strength very fast. I am now out of bed from
• 3:58:15
  Speaker 9: nine in the morning to ten at night upon the sofa.
• 3:58:18
  Speaker 9: It is true, but I eat my meals with Aunt
• 3:58:21
  Speaker 9: Cassandra in a rational way, and can employ myself and
• 3:58:24
  Speaker 9: walk from one room to another. Mister Lyford says he
• 3:58:29
  Speaker 9: will cure me, and if he fails, I shall draw
• 3:58:32
  Speaker 9: up a memorial and lay it before the Dean and Chapter,
• 3:58:35
  Speaker 9: and have no doubt of redress from that pious, learned
• 3:58:38
  Speaker 9: and disinterested body. Our lodgings are very comfortable. We have
• 3:58:43
  Speaker 9: a neat little drawing room with a bow window overlooking
• 3:58:46
  Speaker 9: doctor Gabelle's garden. Thanks to the kidenance of your father
• 3:58:50
  Speaker 9: and mother in sending me their carriage. My journey hither
• 3:58:54
  Speaker 9: on Saturday was performed with very little fatigue, and had
• 3:58:57
  Speaker 9: it been a fine day, I think I should have
• 3:59:00
  Speaker 9: felt none. But it distressed me to see Uncle Henry
• 3:59:03
  Speaker 9: and William Knight, who kindly attended us on horseback, riding
• 3:59:07
  Speaker 9: in the rain almost the whole way. We expect a
• 3:59:10
  Speaker 9: visit from them to morrow, and hope they will stay
• 3:59:13
  Speaker 9: the night. And on Thursday, which is a confirmation and
• 3:59:16
  Speaker 9: a holiday, we are to get Charles out to breakfast.
• 3:59:20
  Speaker 9: We have had but one visit from him, poor fellow,
• 3:59:24
  Speaker 9: as he is in sick room, but he hopes to
• 3:59:26
  Speaker 9: be out to night. We see missus Heathcote every day,
• 3:59:31
  Speaker 9: and William is to call upon us soon. God bless you,
• 3:59:35
  Speaker 9: my dear e. If ever you are ill. May you
• 3:59:38
  Speaker 9: be as tenderly nursed as I have been. May the
• 3:59:41
  Speaker 9: same blessed alleviations of anxious sympathizing friends be yours, And
• 3:59:46
  Speaker 9: may you possess, as I dare say you will, the
• 3:59:50
  Speaker 9: greatest blessing of all. In the consciousness of not being
• 3:59:53
  Speaker 9: unworthy of their love. I could not feel this, your
• 3:59:58
  Speaker 9: very affectionate aunt j A. The following extract from a
• 4:00:03
  Speaker 9: letter which has been before printed written soon after the
• 4:00:06
  Speaker 9: former breathes the same spirit of humility and thankfulness. I
• 4:00:12
  Speaker 9: will only say further that my dearest sister, my tender, watchful,
• 4:00:16
  Speaker 9: indefatigable nurse, has not been made ill by her exertions
• 4:00:21
  Speaker 9: as to what I owe her and the anxious affection
• 4:00:24
  Speaker 9: of all my beloved family. On this occasion I can
• 4:00:27
  Speaker 9: only cry over it and pray God to bless them
• 4:00:30
  Speaker 9: more and more. Throughout her illness, she was nursed by
• 4:00:35
  Speaker 9: her sister, and often assisted by her sister in law
• 4:00:38
  Speaker 9: my mother. Both were with her when she died. Two
• 4:00:42
  Speaker 9: of her brothers, who are clergymen lived near enough to
• 4:00:45
  Speaker 9: Winchester to be in frequent attendance and to administer the
• 4:00:48
  Speaker 9: services suitable for a Christian's death bed. While she used
• 4:00:52
  Speaker 9: the language of hope to her correspondence, she was fully
• 4:00:55
  Speaker 9: aware of her danger, though not appalled by it. Its
• 4:00:59
  Speaker 9: true true that there was much to attach her to life.
• 4:01:03
  Speaker 9: She was happy in her family, She was just beginning
• 4:01:05
  Speaker 9: to feel confidence in her own success, and no doubt
• 4:01:09
  Speaker 9: the exercise of her great talents was an enjoyment in itself.
• 4:01:14
  Speaker 9: We may well believe that she would gladly have lived longer,
• 4:01:17
  Speaker 9: but she was enabled, without dismay or complaint, to prepare
• 4:01:20
  Speaker 9: for death. She was a humble, believing Christian. Her life
• 4:01:25
  Speaker 9: had been passed in the performance of home duties and
• 4:01:27
  Speaker 9: the cultivation of domestic affections, without any self seeking or craving.
• 4:01:32
  Speaker 9: After applause, she had always sought, as it were, by instinct,
• 4:01:36
  Speaker 9: to promote the happiness of all who came within her influence,
• 4:01:39
  Speaker 9: And doubtless she had her reward in the peace of mind,
• 4:01:43
  Speaker 9: which was granted her in her last days. Her sweetness
• 4:01:46
  Speaker 9: of temper never failed. She was ever considerate and grateful
• 4:01:51
  Speaker 9: to those who attended on her. At times when she
• 4:01:54
  Speaker 9: felt rather better, her playfulness of spirit revived, and she
• 4:01:58
  Speaker 9: amused them even in their sadness. Once, when she thought
• 4:02:02
  Speaker 9: herself near her end, she said what she imagined might
• 4:02:05
  Speaker 9: be her last words to those around her, and particularly
• 4:02:08
  Speaker 9: thanked her sister in law for being with her, saying,
• 4:02:11
  Speaker 9: you have always been a kind sister to me. Mary.
• 4:02:16
  Speaker 9: When the end at last came, she sank rapidly, and
• 4:02:20
  Speaker 9: on being asked by her attendants whether there was anything
• 4:02:23
  Speaker 9: she wanted, her reply was nothing but death. These were
• 4:02:28
  Speaker 9: her last words. In quietness and peace. She breathed her
• 4:02:33
  Speaker 9: last on the morning of July eighteenth, eighteen seventeen. On
• 4:02:39
  Speaker 9: the twenty fourth of that month, she was buried in
• 4:02:42
  Speaker 9: Winchester Cathedral, near the center of the North Aisle, almost
• 4:02:45
  Speaker 9: opposite to the beautiful chantry tomb of William of Wickham.
• 4:02:49
  Speaker 9: A large slab of black marble in the pavement marks
• 4:02:52
  Speaker 9: the place. Her own family only attended the funeral. Her
• 4:02:57
  Speaker 9: sister returned to her desolated home. There to devote herself
• 4:03:01
  Speaker 9: for ten years to the care of her aged mother
• 4:03:04
  Speaker 9: and to live much on the memory of her lost
• 4:03:06
  Speaker 9: sister till called many years later to rejoin her. Her
• 4:03:11
  Speaker 9: brothers went back sorrowing to their several homes. They were
• 4:03:14
  Speaker 9: very fond and very proud of her. They were attached
• 4:03:17
  Speaker 9: to her by her talents, her virtues, and her engaging manners,
• 4:03:21
  Speaker 9: and each loved afterwards to fancy a resemblance in some
• 4:03:25
  Speaker 9: niece or daughter of his own, to the dear sister Jane,
• 4:03:28
  Speaker 9: whose perfect equal they yet never expected to see. End
• 4:03:35
  Speaker 9: of Chapter eleven.
• 4:03:37
  Speaker 3: The canceled chapter Chapter ten of Persuasion. With all this
• 4:03:44
  Speaker 3: knowledge of mister Elliot and this authority to impart it,
• 4:03:48
  Speaker 3: Anne left Westgate Buildings, her mind deeply busy in revolving
• 4:03:52
  Speaker 3: what she had heard, feeling, thinking, recalling, and foreseeing everything.
• 4:03:58
  Speaker 3: Shocked at mister Elliot, sighing over future Kellynch, and pained
• 4:04:03
  Speaker 3: for Lady Russell, whose confidence in him had been entire,
• 4:04:07
  Speaker 3: the embarrassment which must be felt from this hour in
• 4:04:10
  Speaker 3: his presence. How to behave to him, how to get
• 4:04:14
  Speaker 3: rid of him, what to do by any of the
• 4:04:17
  Speaker 3: party at home? Where to be blind, where to be active?
• 4:04:21
  Speaker 3: It was altogether a confusion of images and doubts, a perplexity,
• 4:04:26
  Speaker 3: an agitation, which she could not see the end of.
• 4:04:30
  Speaker 3: And she was in Gay Street, and still so much
• 4:04:33
  Speaker 3: engrossed that she started on being addressed by Admiral Croft
• 4:04:37
  Speaker 3: as if he were a person unlikely to be met there.
• 4:04:40
  Speaker 3: It was within a few steps of his own door.
• 4:04:44
  Speaker 3: You are going to call upon my wife, said he.
• 4:04:47
  Speaker 3: She will be very glad to see you. Anne denied it. No,
• 4:04:51
  Speaker 3: she really had not time. She was in her way home.
• 4:04:55
  Speaker 3: But while she spoke, the Admiral had stepped back and
• 4:04:58
  Speaker 3: knocked at the door, calling out, yes, yes, do go in.
• 4:05:01
  Speaker 3: She is all alone. Go in and rest yourself. Anne
• 4:05:05
  Speaker 3: felt so little disposed at this time to be in
• 4:05:08
  Speaker 3: company of any sort that it vexed her to be
• 4:05:10
  Speaker 3: thus constrained. But she was obliged to stop. Since you
• 4:05:15
  Speaker 3: are so very kind, said she. I will just ask
• 4:05:18
  Speaker 3: missus Croft how she does. But I really cannot stay
• 4:05:21
  Speaker 3: five minutes. You are sure she is quite alone? The
• 4:05:25
  Speaker 3: possibility of Captain Wentworth had occurred, and most fearfully anxious
• 4:05:30
  Speaker 3: was she to be assured either that he was within
• 4:05:33
  Speaker 3: or that he was not, which might have been a question. Oh, yes,
• 4:05:38
  Speaker 3: quite alone. Nobody but her mantua maker with her, and
• 4:05:41
  Speaker 3: they have been shut up together this half hour, so
• 4:05:44
  Speaker 3: it must be over soon. Her man to a maker
• 4:05:48
  Speaker 3: that I am sure my calling now would be most inconvenient. Indeed,
• 4:05:52
  Speaker 3: you must allow me to leave my card and be
• 4:05:54
  Speaker 3: so good as to explain it afterwards to missus Croft. No, No,
• 4:05:59
  Speaker 3: not at all, not at all. She will be very
• 4:06:01
  Speaker 3: happy to see you.
• 4:06:02
  Speaker 1: Mind.
• 4:06:02
  Speaker 3: I will not swear that she has not something particular
• 4:06:05
  Speaker 3: to say to you, but that will all come out
• 4:06:08
  Speaker 3: in the right place. I give no hints. Why, miss Elliot,
• 4:06:11
  Speaker 3: we begin to hear strange things of you smiling in
• 4:06:15
  Speaker 3: her face, but you have not much the look of
• 4:06:18
  Speaker 3: it as grave as a little judge. Anne blushed. Aye, Aye,
• 4:06:24
  Speaker 3: that will do now, It is all right. I thought
• 4:06:26
  Speaker 3: we were not mistaken. She was left to guess at
• 4:06:30
  Speaker 3: the direction of his suspicions. The first wild idea had
• 4:06:34
  Speaker 3: been of some disclosure from his brother in law, but
• 4:06:37
  Speaker 3: she was ashamed the next moment and felt how far
• 4:06:40
  Speaker 3: more probable it was that he should be meaning mister Elliot.
• 4:06:44
  Speaker 3: The door was opened, and the man evidently beginning to
• 4:06:47
  Speaker 3: deny his mistress when the sight of his master stopped him.
• 4:06:51
  Speaker 3: The admiral enjoyed the joke exceedingly. Anne thought his triumph
• 4:06:55
  Speaker 3: over Stephen rather too long. At last, however, he was
• 4:06:59
  Speaker 3: able to invite her upstairs, and, stepping before her, said
• 4:07:03
  Speaker 3: I will just go up with you myself and show
• 4:07:05
  Speaker 3: you in. I cannot stay because I must go to
• 4:07:08
  Speaker 3: the post office. But if you will only sit down
• 4:07:10
  Speaker 3: for five minutes, I am sure Sophie will come and
• 4:07:13
  Speaker 3: you will find nobody to disturb you. There is nobody
• 4:07:16
  Speaker 3: but Frederick here, opening the door as he spoke, such
• 4:07:21
  Speaker 3: a person to be passed over as nobody to her,
• 4:07:25
  Speaker 3: after being allowed to feel quite secure indifferent at her ease,
• 4:07:29
  Speaker 3: to have it burst on her that she was to
• 4:07:31
  Speaker 3: be the next moment in the same room with him.
• 4:07:34
  Speaker 3: No time for recollection, for planning behavior or regulating manners.
• 4:07:39
  Speaker 3: There was time only to turn pale before she had
• 4:07:42
  Speaker 3: passed through the door and met the astonished eyes of
• 4:07:45
  Speaker 3: Captain Wentworth, who was sitting by the fire, pretending to read,
• 4:07:48
  Speaker 3: and prepared for no greater surprise than the admiral's hasty return.
• 4:07:54
  Speaker 3: Equally unexpected was the meeting on each side. There was
• 4:07:58
  Speaker 3: nothing to be done, however, but to stifle feelings and
• 4:08:01
  Speaker 3: to be quietly polite, and the Admiral was too much
• 4:08:04
  Speaker 3: on the alert to leave any troublesome pause. He repeated
• 4:08:08
  Speaker 3: again what he had said before about his wife, and
• 4:08:11
  Speaker 3: everybody insisted on Anne's sitting down and being perfectly comfortable.
• 4:08:16
  Speaker 3: Was sorry he must leave her himself, but was sure
• 4:08:18
  Speaker 3: missus Croft would be down very soon and would go
• 4:08:21
  Speaker 3: upstairs and give her notice. Directly. Anne was sitting down,
• 4:08:26
  Speaker 3: but now she arose again to entreat him not to
• 4:08:29
  Speaker 3: interrupt missus Croft and re urge the wish of going
• 4:08:32
  Speaker 3: away and calling another time. But the Admiral would not
• 4:08:36
  Speaker 3: hear of it. And if she did not return to
• 4:08:39
  Speaker 3: the charge with unconquerable perseverance, or did not, with a
• 4:08:42
  Speaker 3: more passive determination, walk quietly out of the room, as
• 4:08:46
  Speaker 3: certainly she might have done, may she not be pardoned?
• 4:08:51
  Speaker 3: If she had no horror of a few minutes tete
• 4:08:53
  Speaker 3: a tete with Captain Wentworth. May she not be pardoned
• 4:08:56
  Speaker 3: for not wishing to give him the idea that she
• 4:08:58
  Speaker 3: had reseated herself. And the Admiral took leave, but on
• 4:09:03
  Speaker 3: reaching the door said Frederick, a word with you, if
• 4:09:07
  Speaker 3: you please. Captain Wentworth went to him, and instantly before
• 4:09:12
  Speaker 3: they were well out of the room, the Admiral continued,
• 4:09:15
  Speaker 3: as I am going to leave you together. It is
• 4:09:17
  Speaker 3: but fair I should give you something to talk of,
• 4:09:20
  Speaker 3: and so if you please here. The door was very
• 4:09:24
  Speaker 3: firmly closed. She could guess by which of the two,
• 4:09:28
  Speaker 3: and she lost entirely what immediately followed, but it was
• 4:09:32
  Speaker 3: impossible for her not to distinguish parts of the rest.
• 4:09:35
  Speaker 3: For the Admiral, on the strength of the doors being shut,
• 4:09:38
  Speaker 3: was speaking without any management of voice. Though she could
• 4:09:41
  Speaker 3: hear his companion trying to check him, she could not
• 4:09:45
  Speaker 3: doubt their being speaking of her. She heard her own
• 4:09:48
  Speaker 3: name and Kellynch repeatedly. She was very much disturbed. She
• 4:09:53
  Speaker 3: knew not what to do or what to expect, and,
• 4:09:56
  Speaker 3: among other agonies, felt the possibility of Captain Wentworth's not
• 4:09:59
  Speaker 3: reach turning into the room at all, which, after her
• 4:10:03
  Speaker 3: consenting to stay, would have been too bad. For language,
• 4:10:08
  Speaker 3: they seemed to be talking of the Admiral's lease of Kellynch.
• 4:10:12
  Speaker 3: She heard him say something of the lease being signed
• 4:10:15
  Speaker 3: or not signed. That was not likely to be a
• 4:10:18
  Speaker 3: very agitating subject, but then followed, I hate to be
• 4:10:22
  Speaker 3: at an uncertainty. I must know at once. Sophie thinks
• 4:10:25
  Speaker 3: the same. Then, in a lower tone, Captain Wentworth seemed remonstrating,
• 4:10:31
  Speaker 3: wanting to be excused, wanting to put something off. Foo
• 4:10:35
  Speaker 3: Foo answered the admiral, Now is the time. If you
• 4:10:38
  Speaker 3: will not speak, I will stop and speak myself. Very well, sir,
• 4:10:43
  Speaker 3: very well, sir followed with some impatience from his companion,
• 4:10:47
  Speaker 3: opening the door, as he spoke, you will, then you
• 4:10:50
  Speaker 3: promise you will, replied the admiral, in all the power
• 4:10:54
  Speaker 3: of his natural voice, unbroken even by one thin door. Yes, sir, yes,
• 4:11:01
  Speaker 3: and the Admiral was hastily left. The door was closed,
• 4:11:05
  Speaker 3: and the moment arrived in which Anne was alone with
• 4:11:08
  Speaker 3: Captain Wentworth. She could not attempt to see how he looked,
• 4:11:13
  Speaker 3: but he walked immediately to a window as if irresolute
• 4:11:16
  Speaker 3: and embarrassed, And for about the space of five seconds,
• 4:11:20
  Speaker 3: she repented what she had done, censured it as unwise,
• 4:11:24
  Speaker 3: blushed over it as indelicate. She longed to be able
• 4:11:28
  Speaker 3: to speak of the weather or the concert, but could
• 4:11:31
  Speaker 3: only compass the relief of taking a newspaper in her hand.
• 4:11:35
  Speaker 3: The distressing pause was over, however, he turned round in
• 4:11:39
  Speaker 3: half a minute, and, coming towards the table where she sat, said,
• 4:11:43
  Speaker 3: in a voice of effort and constraint, you must have
• 4:11:46
  Speaker 3: heard too much already, Madam, to be in any doubt
• 4:11:50
  Speaker 3: of my having promised Admiral Croft to speak to you
• 4:11:52
  Speaker 3: on a particular subject. And this conviction determines me to
• 4:11:56
  Speaker 3: do so, however repugnant to my to all my sense
• 4:12:00
  Speaker 3: of propriety, to be taking so great a liberty, you
• 4:12:04
  Speaker 3: will acquit me of impertinence, I trust by considering me
• 4:12:07
  Speaker 3: as speaking only for another, and speaking by necessity. And
• 4:12:11
  Speaker 3: the Admiral is a man who can never be thought
• 4:12:13
  Speaker 3: impertinent by anyone who knows him as you do. His
• 4:12:17
  Speaker 3: intentions are always the kindest and the best, and you
• 4:12:20
  Speaker 3: will perceive he is actuated by none other in the
• 4:12:23
  Speaker 3: application which I am now, with with very peculiar feelings,
• 4:12:28
  Speaker 3: obliged to make. He stopped, but merely to recover breath,
• 4:12:34
  Speaker 3: not seeming to expect any answer. Anne listened as if
• 4:12:38
  Speaker 3: her life depended on the issue of his speech. He
• 4:12:42
  Speaker 3: proceeded with a forced alacrity. The Admiral, Madam, was this
• 4:12:47
  Speaker 3: morning confidently informed that you were upon my soul. I
• 4:12:51
  Speaker 3: am quite at a loss, ashamed, breathing and speaking quickly.
• 4:12:56
  Speaker 3: The awkwardness of giving information of this kind to one
• 4:13:00
  Speaker 3: of the parties. You can be at no loss to
• 4:13:03
  Speaker 3: understand me. It was very confidently said that mister Elliot
• 4:13:07
  Speaker 3: that everything was settled in the family for a union
• 4:13:10
  Speaker 3: between mister Elliot and yourself. It was added that you
• 4:13:14
  Speaker 3: were to live at Kellynch, that Kellynch was to be
• 4:13:17
  Speaker 3: given up. This the Admiral knew could not be correct,
• 4:13:21
  Speaker 3: but it occurred to him that it might be the
• 4:13:23
  Speaker 3: wish of the parties, and my commission from him, Madam,
• 4:13:27
  Speaker 3: is to say that, if the family wish it such,
• 4:13:30
  Speaker 3: his lease of Kellynch shall be canceled, and he and
• 4:13:34
  Speaker 3: my sister will provide themselves with another home, without imagining
• 4:13:38
  Speaker 3: themselves to be doing anything which under similar circumstances would
• 4:13:42
  Speaker 3: not be done for them. This is all, Madam. A
• 4:13:45
  Speaker 3: very few words in reply from you will be sufficient
• 4:13:48
  Speaker 3: that I should be the person commissioned on this subject.
• 4:13:51
  Speaker 3: Is extraordinary, and believe me, Madam, it is no less painful.
• 4:13:56
  Speaker 3: A very few words, however, will put an end to
• 4:13:58
  Speaker 3: the awkwardness and distress we may both be feeling. Anne
• 4:14:04
  Speaker 3: spoke a word or two, but they were unintelligible, and
• 4:14:07
  Speaker 3: before she could command herself, he added, if you will
• 4:14:11
  Speaker 3: only tell me that the Admiral may address a line
• 4:14:14
  Speaker 3: to Sir Walter. It will be enough pronounce only the
• 4:14:17
  Speaker 3: words he may, and I shall immediately follow him with
• 4:14:21
  Speaker 3: your message. No, Sir, said Anne, there is no message
• 4:14:26
  Speaker 3: you are missin. The admiral is misinformed. I due justice
• 4:14:30
  Speaker 3: to the kindness of his intentions, but he is quite mistaken.
• 4:14:34
  Speaker 3: There is no truth in any such report. He was
• 4:14:39
  Speaker 3: a moment silent. She turned her eyes towards him for
• 4:14:42
  Speaker 3: the first time since his re entering the room. His
• 4:14:45
  Speaker 3: color was varying, and he was looking at her with
• 4:14:48
  Speaker 3: all the power and keenness which she believed no other
• 4:14:52
  Speaker 3: eyes than his possessed. No truth in any such report,
• 4:14:58
  Speaker 3: he repeated, No true in any part of it. None.
• 4:15:04
  Speaker 3: He had been standing by a chair, enjoying the relief
• 4:15:07
  Speaker 3: of leaning on it or of playing with it. He
• 4:15:10
  Speaker 3: now sat down, drew it a little nearer to her,
• 4:15:13
  Speaker 3: and looked with an expression which had something more than
• 4:15:16
  Speaker 3: penetration in it, something softer. Her countenance did not discourage.
• 4:15:22
  Speaker 3: It was a silent, but a very powerful dialog on
• 4:15:25
  Speaker 3: his supplication, on hers acceptance. Still a little nearer, and
• 4:15:32
  Speaker 3: a hand was taken and pressed, and Anne, my own
• 4:15:36
  Speaker 3: dear Anne, bursting forth in all the fullness of exquisite feeling,
• 4:15:40
  Speaker 3: and all suspense and indecision were over. They were reunited,
• 4:15:45
  Speaker 3: They were restored to all that had been lost. They
• 4:15:49
  Speaker 3: were carried back to the past with only an increase
• 4:15:52
  Speaker 3: of attachment and confidence, and only such a flutter of
• 4:15:55
  Speaker 3: present delight as made them little fit for the interruption
• 4:15:58
  Speaker 3: of missus Croft when she joined them not long afterwards.
• 4:16:03
  Speaker 3: She probably, in the observations of the next ten minutes,
• 4:16:07
  Speaker 3: saw something to suspect, And though it was hardly possible
• 4:16:10
  Speaker 3: for a woman of her description to wish the man
• 4:16:12
  Speaker 3: to a maker had imprisoned her longer, she might be
• 4:16:16
  Speaker 3: very likely wishing for some excuse to run about the house,
• 4:16:19
  Speaker 3: some storm to break the windows above, or a summons
• 4:16:22
  Speaker 3: to the admiral's shoemaker below. Fortune favored them all, however,
• 4:16:26
  Speaker 3: in another way, in a gentle, steady rain just happily
• 4:16:30
  Speaker 3: set in. As the Admiral returned and Anne rose to go,
• 4:16:34
  Speaker 3: she was earnestly invited to stay dinner. A note was
• 4:16:38
  Speaker 3: despatched to Camden Place, and she stayed stayed till ten
• 4:16:42
  Speaker 3: at night, And during that time the husband and wife,
• 4:16:45
  Speaker 3: either by the wife's contrivance, or by simply going on
• 4:16:49
  Speaker 3: in their usual way, were frequently out of the room together,
• 4:16:53
  Speaker 3: gone upstairs to hear a noise, or downstairs to settle
• 4:16:56
  Speaker 3: their accounts, or upon the landing to trim the lamp.
• 4:17:01
  Speaker 3: And these precious moments were turned to so good an
• 4:17:04
  Speaker 3: account that all the most anxious feelings of the past
• 4:17:07
  Speaker 3: were gone through. Before they parted at night, Anne had
• 4:17:12
  Speaker 3: the felicity of being assured that, in the first place,
• 4:17:15
  Speaker 3: so far from being altered for the worst, she had
• 4:17:18
  Speaker 3: gained inexpressibly in personal loveliness, and that as to character,
• 4:17:23
  Speaker 3: hers was now fixed on his mind as perfection itself,
• 4:17:27
  Speaker 3: maintaining the just medium of fortitude and gentleness, that he
• 4:17:31
  Speaker 3: had never ceased to love and to prefer her, though
• 4:17:34
  Speaker 3: it had been only at Upper Cross that he had
• 4:17:37
  Speaker 3: learnt to do her justice, and only at Lime that
• 4:17:40
  Speaker 3: he had begun to understand his own feelings, that at
• 4:17:43
  Speaker 3: Lime he had received lessons of more than one kind.
• 4:17:46
  Speaker 3: The passing admiration of mister Eliot had at least roused him,
• 4:17:50
  Speaker 3: and the scene on the cob, and at Captain Harville's
• 4:17:54
  Speaker 3: had fixed her superiority. In his preceding attempts to attach
• 4:17:59
  Speaker 3: himself to Louisa Musgrove the attempts of anger and pique.
• 4:18:04
  Speaker 3: He protested that he had continually felt the impossibility of
• 4:18:08
  Speaker 3: really caring for Louisa, though till that day, till the
• 4:18:12
  Speaker 3: leisure for reflection which followed it, he had not understood
• 4:18:15
  Speaker 3: the perfect excellence of the mind with which Louisa's could
• 4:18:19
  Speaker 3: so ill bear comparison, or the perfect the unrivaled hold
• 4:18:23
  Speaker 3: it possessed over his own. There he had learnt to
• 4:18:27
  Speaker 3: distinguish between the steadiness of principle and the obstinacy of
• 4:18:31
  Speaker 3: self will, between the darings of heedlessness and the resolution
• 4:18:35
  Speaker 3: of a collected mind. There he had seen everything to
• 4:18:39
  Speaker 3: exalt in his estimation the woman he had lost, and
• 4:18:42
  Speaker 3: there had begun to deplore the pride, the folly, the
• 4:18:46
  Speaker 3: madness of resentment which had kept him from trying to
• 4:18:49
  Speaker 3: regain her when thrown in his way. From that period
• 4:18:53
  Speaker 3: to the present, had his penance been the most severe,
• 4:18:57
  Speaker 3: he had no sooner been free from the horror and
• 4:18:59
  Speaker 3: nat remorse attending the first few days of Louisa's accident.
• 4:19:03
  Speaker 3: No sooner had begun to feel himself alive again than
• 4:19:07
  Speaker 3: he had begun to feel himself, though alive, not at liberty.
• 4:19:12
  Speaker 3: He found that he was considered by his friend Harville
• 4:19:15
  Speaker 3: an engaged man. The Harvilles entertained not a doubt of
• 4:19:19
  Speaker 3: a mutual attachment between him and Louisa, and though this
• 4:19:23
  Speaker 3: to a degree was contradicted instantly, it yet made him
• 4:19:26
  Speaker 3: feel that perhaps by her family, by everybody, by herself,
• 4:19:32
  Speaker 3: even the same idea might be held, and that he
• 4:19:35
  Speaker 3: was not free in honor, though if such were to
• 4:19:37
  Speaker 3: be the conclusion, too free alas in heart. He had
• 4:19:42
  Speaker 3: never thought justly on this subject before, and he had
• 4:19:45
  Speaker 3: not sufficiently considered that his excessive intimacy at Uppercross must
• 4:19:50
  Speaker 3: have its danger of ill consequence in many ways, and
• 4:19:53
  Speaker 3: that while trying whether he could attach himself to either
• 4:19:56
  Speaker 3: of the girls, he might be exciting unpleasant reports, if
• 4:20:00
  Speaker 3: not raising unrequited regard. He found too late that he
• 4:20:05
  Speaker 3: had entangled himself, and that precisely as he became thoroughly
• 4:20:10
  Speaker 3: satisfied of his not caring for Louisa at all, he
• 4:20:13
  Speaker 3: must regard himself as bound to her. If her feelings
• 4:20:16
  Speaker 3: for him were what the Harvilles supposed. It determined him
• 4:20:21
  Speaker 3: to leave lyme and await her perfect recovery. Elsewhere he
• 4:20:26
  Speaker 3: would gladly weaken by any fair means, whatever sentiment or
• 4:20:29
  Speaker 3: speculations concerning them might exist. And he went therefore into Shropshire,
• 4:20:34
  Speaker 3: meaning after a while to return to the crofts at
• 4:20:37
  Speaker 3: Kellynch and act as he found requisite. He had remained
• 4:20:43
  Speaker 3: in Shropshire, lamenting the blindness of his own pride and
• 4:20:47
  Speaker 3: the blunders of his own calculations, till at, once released
• 4:20:51
  Speaker 3: from Louisa by the astonishing felicity of her engagement with
• 4:20:54
  Speaker 3: Bennock Bath, Bath had instantly followed in thought, and not
• 4:21:00
  Speaker 3: long after in fact, to Bath, to arrive with hope,
• 4:21:05
  Speaker 3: to be torn by jealousy at the first sight of
• 4:21:08
  Speaker 3: mister Elliot, to experience all the changes of each at
• 4:21:11
  Speaker 3: the concert, to be miserable by the morning's circumstantial report,
• 4:21:16
  Speaker 3: to be now more happy than language could express, or
• 4:21:19
  Speaker 3: any heart but his own be capable of. He was
• 4:21:24
  Speaker 3: very eager and very delightful in the description of what
• 4:21:26
  Speaker 3: he had felt at the concert. The evening seemed to
• 4:21:29
  Speaker 3: have been made up of exquisite moments, the moment of
• 4:21:33
  Speaker 3: her stepping forward in the octagon room to speak to him,
• 4:21:36
  Speaker 3: the moment of mister Elliot's appearing and tearing her away,
• 4:21:40
  Speaker 3: and one or two subsequent moments marked by returning hope
• 4:21:43
  Speaker 3: or increasing despondency. Were dwelt on with energy to see you,
• 4:21:50
  Speaker 3: cried he in the midst of those who could not
• 4:21:52
  Speaker 3: be my well wishers. To see your cousin close by you,
• 4:21:56
  Speaker 3: conversing and smiling, and feel all the horrible eligibilities and
• 4:22:00
  Speaker 3: proprieties of the match. To consider it as the certain
• 4:22:04
  Speaker 3: wish of every being who could hope to influence you,
• 4:22:08
  Speaker 3: even if your own feelings were reluctant or indifferent, To
• 4:22:11
  Speaker 3: consider what powerful support would be his. Was it not
• 4:22:15
  Speaker 3: enough to make the fool of me which I appeared?
• 4:22:18
  Speaker 3: How could I look on without agony? Was not the
• 4:22:22
  Speaker 3: very sight of the friend who sat behind you? Was
• 4:22:25
  Speaker 3: not the recollection of what had been the knowledge of
• 4:22:28
  Speaker 3: her influence, the indelible, immovable impression of what persuasion had
• 4:22:33
  Speaker 3: once done? Was it not all against me? You should
• 4:22:37
  Speaker 3: have distinguished, replied Anne. You should not have suspected me.
• 4:22:41
  Speaker 3: Now the case so different, and my age so different.
• 4:22:46
  Speaker 3: If I was wrong in yielding to persuasion once, remember
• 4:22:49
  Speaker 3: it was to persuasion exerted on the side of safety,
• 4:22:53
  Speaker 3: not of risk. When I yielded, I thought it was
• 4:22:56
  Speaker 3: to duty. But no duty could be called in aid here.
• 4:23:00
  Speaker 3: In marrying a man indifferent to me, all risk would
• 4:23:03
  Speaker 3: have been incurred and all duty violated. Perhaps I ought
• 4:23:09
  Speaker 3: to have reasoned thus, he replied, But I could not.
• 4:23:12
  Speaker 3: I could not derive benefit from the late knowledge I
• 4:23:15
  Speaker 3: had acquired of your character. I could not bring it
• 4:23:18
  Speaker 3: into play. It was overwhelmed, buried, lost in those earlier
• 4:23:23
  Speaker 3: feelings which I had been smarting under year after year.
• 4:23:26
  Speaker 3: I could think of you only as one who had yielded,
• 4:23:30
  Speaker 3: one who had given me up, who had been influenced
• 4:23:32
  Speaker 3: by any one rather than by me. I saw you
• 4:23:37
  Speaker 3: with the very person who had guided you in that
• 4:23:39
  Speaker 3: year of misery. I had no reason to believe her
• 4:23:42
  Speaker 3: of less authority. Now the force of habit was to
• 4:23:45
  Speaker 3: be added. I should have thought, said Anne, that my
• 4:23:51
  Speaker 3: manner to yourself might have spared you much or all
• 4:23:54
  Speaker 3: of this. No, No, your manner might be only the
• 4:23:58
  Speaker 3: ease which your engagement to another man would give. I
• 4:24:01
  Speaker 3: left you in this belief, and yet I was determined
• 4:24:04
  Speaker 3: to see you again. My spirits rallied with the morning,
• 4:24:09
  Speaker 3: and I felt that I had still a motive for
• 4:24:12
  Speaker 3: remaining here. The Admiral's news, indeed, was a revulsion. Since
• 4:24:16
  Speaker 3: that moment, I have been divided what to do, and
• 4:24:19
  Speaker 3: had it been confirmed, this would have been my last
• 4:24:22
  Speaker 3: day in Bath. There was time for all this to
• 4:24:26
  Speaker 3: pass with such interruptions only as enhanced the charm of
• 4:24:30
  Speaker 3: the communication, and Bath could hardly contain any other two
• 4:24:33
  Speaker 3: beings at once so rationally and so rapturously happy as
• 4:24:38
  Speaker 3: during that evening occupied the sofa of missus Croft's drawing
• 4:24:42
  Speaker 3: room in Gay Street. Captain Wentworth had taken care to
• 4:24:46
  Speaker 3: meet the Admiral as he returned into the house, to
• 4:24:49
  Speaker 3: satisfy him as to mister Elliot and Kellynch and the
• 4:24:52
  Speaker 3: delicacy of the Admiral's good nature kept him from saying
• 4:24:56
  Speaker 3: another word on the subject. To Anne, he was quite concerned,
• 4:25:00
  Speaker 3: and lest he might have been giving her pain by
• 4:25:02
  Speaker 3: touching on a tender part, who could say? She might
• 4:25:05
  Speaker 3: be liking her cousin better than he liked her. And
• 4:25:08
  Speaker 3: upon recollection, if they had been to Mary at all,
• 4:25:11
  Speaker 3: why should they have waited so long? When the evening closed.
• 4:25:16
  Speaker 3: It is probable that the Admiral received some new ideas
• 4:25:19
  Speaker 3: from his wife, whose particularly friendly manner in parting with
• 4:25:23
  Speaker 3: her gave Anne the gratifying persuasion of her seeing and approving.
• 4:25:29
  Speaker 3: It had been such a day to Anne. The hours
• 4:25:32
  Speaker 3: which had passed since her leaving Camden Place had done
• 4:25:35
  Speaker 3: so much she was almost bewildered, almost too happy. In
• 4:25:40
  Speaker 3: looking back. It was necessary to sit up half the
• 4:25:44
  Speaker 3: night and lie awake the remainder to comprehend with composure
• 4:25:48
  Speaker 3: her present state and pay for the overplus of bliss
• 4:25:52
  Speaker 3: by headache and fatigue. Then follows chapter eleven I E.
• 4:25:59
  Speaker 3: Two twelve in the published book, and at the end
• 4:26:02
  Speaker 3: is written Finis July eighteenth, eighteen sixteen. End of chapter twelve.
• 4:26:12
  Speaker 4: Chapter thirteen, The last work Jane Austen was taken from us.
• 4:26:18
  Speaker 4: How much unexhausted talent perished with her, How largely she
• 4:26:22
  Speaker 4: might yet have contributed to the entertainment of her readers
• 4:26:25
  Speaker 4: if her life had been prolonged, cannot be known. But
• 4:26:28
  Speaker 4: it is certain that the mine at which she had
• 4:26:31
  Speaker 4: so long labored was not worked out, and that she
• 4:26:34
  Speaker 4: was still diligently employed in collecting fresh materials from it.
• 4:26:38
  Speaker 4: Persuasion had been finished in August eighteen sixteen. Some time
• 4:26:42
  Speaker 4: was probably given to correcting it for the press, but
• 4:26:45
  Speaker 4: on the twenty seventh of the following January, according to
• 4:26:48
  Speaker 4: the date on her own manuscript, she began a new
• 4:26:51
  Speaker 4: novel and worked at it up to the seventeenth of March.
• 4:26:54
  Speaker 4: The chief part of this manuscript is written in her
• 4:26:57
  Speaker 4: usual firm and neat hand, but some of the latter
• 4:27:00
  Speaker 4: pages seem to have been first traced in pencil, probably
• 4:27:03
  Speaker 4: when she was too weak to sit long at her desk,
• 4:27:06
  Speaker 4: and written over in ink afterwards. The quantity produced does
• 4:27:10
  Speaker 4: not indicate any decline of power or industry, for in
• 4:27:13
  Speaker 4: those seven weeks twelve chapters had been completed. It is
• 4:27:17
  Speaker 4: more difficult to judge of the quality of a work
• 4:27:19
  Speaker 4: so little advanced it had received no name. There was
• 4:27:23
  Speaker 4: scarcely any indication what the course of the story was
• 4:27:26
  Speaker 4: to be, nor was any heroine yet perceptible, who, like
• 4:27:30
  Speaker 4: Fanny Price or Anne Elliott, might draw round her the
• 4:27:33
  Speaker 4: sympathies of the reader. Such an unfinished fragment cannot be
• 4:27:37
  Speaker 4: presented to the public, but I am persuaded that some
• 4:27:39
  Speaker 4: of Jane Austen's admirers will be glad to learn something
• 4:27:42
  Speaker 4: about the latest creations. Which were forming themselves in her mind.
• 4:27:47
  Speaker 4: And therefore, as some of the principal characters were already
• 4:27:50
  Speaker 4: sketched in with a vigorous hand, I will try to
• 4:27:53
  Speaker 4: give an idea of them, illustrated by extracts from the work.
• 4:27:57
  Speaker 4: The scene is late at Sandeton, a village on the
• 4:28:00
  Speaker 4: Sussex coast, just struggling into notoriety as a bathing place,
• 4:28:04
  Speaker 4: under the patronage of the two principal proprietors of the parish,
• 4:28:08
  Speaker 4: Mister Parker and Lady Denham. Mister Parker was an amiable
• 4:28:12
  Speaker 4: man with more enthusiasm than judgment, whose somewhat shallow mind
• 4:28:16
  Speaker 4: overflowed with the one idea of the prosperity of Sandton,
• 4:28:20
  Speaker 4: together with a jealous contempt of the rival village of Brynshaw,
• 4:28:24
  Speaker 4: where a similar attempt was going on. To the regret
• 4:28:27
  Speaker 4: of his much enduring wife, he had left his family mansion,
• 4:28:30
  Speaker 4: with all of its ancestral comforts of gardens, shrubberies and shelter,
• 4:28:34
  Speaker 4: situated in a valley some miles inland, and had built
• 4:28:38
  Speaker 4: a new residence, a Trafalgar house, on the bare brow
• 4:28:41
  Speaker 4: of the hill, overlooking Sandaton and the sea exposed to
• 4:28:45
  Speaker 4: every wind that blows, but he will confess to no discomforts,
• 4:28:49
  Speaker 4: nor suffer his family to feel any from the change.
• 4:28:52
  Speaker 4: The following extract brings him before the reader mounted on
• 4:28:56
  Speaker 4: his hobby. He wanted to secure the promise of a visit,
• 4:29:00
  Speaker 4: and to get as many of the family as his
• 4:29:02
  Speaker 4: own house would hold, to follow him to Sanduton as
• 4:29:04
  Speaker 4: soon as possible. And healthy as all the hay woods
• 4:29:07
  Speaker 4: undeniably were, he foresaw that every one of them would
• 4:29:11
  Speaker 4: be benefited by the sea. He held it indeed as
• 4:29:14
  Speaker 4: certain that no person, however upheld for the present, by
• 4:29:17
  Speaker 4: fortuitous aids of exercise and spirit in a semblance of health,
• 4:29:21
  Speaker 4: could be really in a state of secure and permanent
• 4:29:24
  Speaker 4: health without spending at least six weeks by the sea
• 4:29:27
  Speaker 4: every year. The sea, air, and sea bathing together were
• 4:29:30
  Speaker 4: nearly infallible, one or the other of them being a
• 4:29:33
  Speaker 4: match for every disorder of the stomach, the lungs, or
• 4:29:36
  Speaker 4: the blood. They were anti spasmodic, anti pulmonary, anti bilious,
• 4:29:41
  Speaker 4: and anti rheumatic. Nobody could catch cold by the sea,
• 4:29:45
  Speaker 4: Nobody wanted appetite by the sea. Nobody wanted spirits, nobody
• 4:29:49
  Speaker 4: wanted strength. They were healing softening, relaxing, fortifying, and bracing,
• 4:29:55
  Speaker 4: seemingly just as was wanted, sometimes one sometimes the other.
• 4:30:01
  Speaker 4: If the sea breeze failed, the sea bath was the
• 4:30:03
  Speaker 4: certain corrective, and when bathing disagreed, the sea breeze was
• 4:30:07
  Speaker 4: evidently designed by nature for the cure. His eloquence, however,
• 4:30:11
  Speaker 4: could not prevail. Mister and missus Haywood never left home.
• 4:30:15
  Speaker 4: The maintenance, education and fitting out of fourteen children demanded
• 4:30:19
  Speaker 4: a very quiet, settled, careful course of life, and obliged
• 4:30:23
  Speaker 4: them to be stationary and healthy at Willingdon. What prudence
• 4:30:26
  Speaker 4: had first enjoined was now rendered pleasant by habit. They
• 4:30:30
  Speaker 4: never left home, and they had a gratification in saying so.
• 4:30:34
  Speaker 4: Lady Denham's was a very different character. She was a rich,
• 4:30:37
  Speaker 4: vulgar widow with a sharp but narrow mind, who cared
• 4:30:40
  Speaker 4: for the prosperity of Sandton only so far as it
• 4:30:43
  Speaker 4: might increase the value of her own property. She is
• 4:30:46
  Speaker 4: thus described Lady Denham had been a rich miss Brereton,
• 4:30:51
  Speaker 4: born to wealth but not to education. Her first husband
• 4:30:55
  Speaker 4: had been a mister Hollis, a man of considerable property
• 4:30:58
  Speaker 4: in the country, of which a large her share of
• 4:31:00
  Speaker 4: the parish of Sandeton, with manor and mansion house formed
• 4:31:04
  Speaker 4: a part. He had been an elderly man when she
• 4:31:06
  Speaker 4: married him, her own age about thirty. Her motives for
• 4:31:10
  Speaker 4: such a match could be little understood at the distance
• 4:31:13
  Speaker 4: of forty years. But she had so well nursed and
• 4:31:16
  Speaker 4: pleased mister Hollis that at his death he left her everything,
• 4:31:20
  Speaker 4: all his estates, and all at her disposal. After a
• 4:31:23
  Speaker 4: widowhood of some years, she had been induced to Mary again.
• 4:31:27
  Speaker 4: The late Sir Harry Denham of Denham Park in the
• 4:31:29
  Speaker 4: neighborhood of Sandeton, succeeded in removing her and her large
• 4:31:33
  Speaker 4: income to his own domains, but he could not succeed
• 4:31:36
  Speaker 4: in the views of permanently enriching his family, which were
• 4:31:39
  Speaker 4: attributed to him. She had been too wary to put
• 4:31:42
  Speaker 4: anything out of her own power, and when on Sir
• 4:31:45
  Speaker 4: Harry's death she returned again to her own house at Sandeton,
• 4:31:49
  Speaker 4: she was said to have made this boast that though
• 4:31:52
  Speaker 4: she had got nothing but her title from the family,
• 4:31:55
  Speaker 4: yet she had given nothing for it. For the title,
• 4:31:58
  Speaker 4: it was to be supposed that she married. Lady Denham
• 4:32:01
  Speaker 4: was indeed a great lady beyond the common wants of society.
• 4:32:05
  Speaker 4: For she had many thousands a year to bequeath, and
• 4:32:08
  Speaker 4: three distinct sets of people to be courted by her
• 4:32:11
  Speaker 4: own relations, who might very reasonably wish for her original
• 4:32:14
  Speaker 4: thirty pounds. Among them the legal heirs of mister Hollis,
• 4:32:18
  Speaker 4: who might hope to be more indebted to her sense
• 4:32:20
  Speaker 4: of justice than he had allowed them to be to his,
• 4:32:23
  Speaker 4: And those members of the Denham family, for whom her
• 4:32:25
  Speaker 4: second husband had hoped to make a good bargain. By
• 4:32:29
  Speaker 4: all these, or by branches of them, she had no
• 4:32:31
  Speaker 4: doubt been long and still continued to be well attacked.
• 4:32:34
  Speaker 4: And of these three divisions, mister Parker did not hesitate
• 4:32:37
  Speaker 4: to say that mister Hollis's kindred were the least in favor,
• 4:32:41
  Speaker 4: and Sir Henry Denham's the most. The former he believed
• 4:32:45
  Speaker 4: had done themselves irremediable harm by expressions of very unwise
• 4:32:49
  Speaker 4: resentment at the time of mister Hollis's death. The latter,
• 4:32:52
  Speaker 4: to the advantage of being the remnant of a connection
• 4:32:54
  Speaker 4: which she had certainly valued, joined those of having been
• 4:32:58
  Speaker 4: known to her from their childhood, and of being always
• 4:33:01
  Speaker 4: at hand to pursue their interest by seasonable attentions. But
• 4:33:05
  Speaker 4: another claimant was now to be taken into account a
• 4:33:08
  Speaker 4: young female relation whom Lady Denham had been induced to
• 4:33:12
  Speaker 4: receive into her family, after having always protested against any
• 4:33:16
  Speaker 4: such addition, and often enjoyed the repeated defeat. She had
• 4:33:19
  Speaker 4: given to every attempt of her own relations to introduce
• 4:33:22
  Speaker 4: this young lady or that young lady as a companion
• 4:33:25
  Speaker 4: at Sanderton House. She had brought back with her from
• 4:33:28
  Speaker 4: London last michaelmas a Miss Clara Brereton, who bid fair
• 4:33:32
  Speaker 4: to vie in favor with Sir Edward Denham and to
• 4:33:35
  Speaker 4: secure for herself and her family that share of the
• 4:33:38
  Speaker 4: accumulated property which they certainly had the best right to inherit.
• 4:33:43
  Speaker 4: Lady Denham's character comes out in a conversation which takes
• 4:33:46
  Speaker 4: place at mister Parker's tea table. The conversation turned entirely
• 4:33:51
  Speaker 4: upon Sandton, its present number of visitants and the chances
• 4:33:55
  Speaker 4: of a good season. It was evident that Lady Denham
• 4:33:58
  Speaker 4: had more anxiety, more fears of loss than her coadjutor.
• 4:34:02
  Speaker 4: She wanted to have the place to fill faster, and
• 4:34:04
  Speaker 4: seem to have many harassing apprehensions of the lodgings being
• 4:34:07
  Speaker 4: in some instances under let to report that a large
• 4:34:11
  Speaker 4: boarding school was expected. She replies, ah, well, no harm
• 4:34:15
  Speaker 4: in that they will stay there six weeks. And out
• 4:34:17
  Speaker 4: of such a number, who knows. But some may be
• 4:34:19
  Speaker 4: consumptive and want asses milk, And I have two milch
• 4:34:23
  Speaker 4: asses at this very time. But perhaps the little misses
• 4:34:26
  Speaker 4: may hurt the furniture. I hope they will have a
• 4:34:29
  Speaker 4: good sharp governess to look after them. But she wholly
• 4:34:32
  Speaker 4: disapproved of mister Parker's wish to secure the residence of
• 4:34:35
  Speaker 4: a medical man amongst them. Why what should we do
• 4:34:38
  Speaker 4: with a doctor here? It would only be encouraging our
• 4:34:41
  Speaker 4: servants and the poor to fancy themselves ill if there
• 4:34:44
  Speaker 4: was a doctor at hand. Oh, pray, let us have
• 4:34:46
  Speaker 4: none of that tribe at Sanditon. We go on very
• 4:34:49
  Speaker 4: well as we are. There is the sea and the
• 4:34:51
  Speaker 4: downs and my milch asses. And I have told missus
• 4:34:54
  Speaker 4: Whitby that if anybody inquires for a chamber horse, they
• 4:34:57
  Speaker 4: may be supplied at a fair rate. Poor mans. Mister
• 4:35:00
  Speaker 4: Hollis's chamber horse as good as new, And what can
• 4:35:03
  Speaker 4: people want more? I have lived seventy years in the
• 4:35:06
  Speaker 4: world and never took physic except twice, and never saw
• 4:35:09
  Speaker 4: the face of a doctor in all my life on
• 4:35:11
  Speaker 4: my own account. And I really believe if my poor
• 4:35:14
  Speaker 4: dear Sir Harry had never seen one neither, he would
• 4:35:17
  Speaker 4: have been alive. Now ten fees one after another did
• 4:35:20
  Speaker 4: the men take who sent him out of the world.
• 4:35:22
  Speaker 4: I beseech you, mister Parker, no doctor's here. This lady's
• 4:35:27
  Speaker 4: character comes out more strongly in a conversation with mister
• 4:35:30
  Speaker 4: Parker's guest, Miss Charlotte Haywood. Sir Edward Denham, with his
• 4:35:34
  Speaker 4: sister Esther and Clara Brereton have just left them. Charlotte
• 4:35:39
  Speaker 4: accepted an imitation from Lady Denham to remain with her
• 4:35:41
  Speaker 4: on the terrace while the others adjourned to the library.
• 4:35:45
  Speaker 4: Lady Denham, like a true great lady, talked and talked
• 4:35:48
  Speaker 4: only of her own concerns, and Charlotte listened, taking hold
• 4:35:52
  Speaker 4: of Charlotte's arm with the ease of one who felt
• 4:35:54
  Speaker 4: that any notice from her was a favor and communicative.
• 4:35:58
  Speaker 4: From the same sense of importance, or from a natural
• 4:36:01
  Speaker 4: love of talking. She immediately said, in a tone of
• 4:36:03
  Speaker 4: great satisfaction and with a look of arch sagacity, Miss
• 4:36:08
  Speaker 4: Ester wants me to invite her and her brother to
• 4:36:10
  Speaker 4: spend a week with me at Sandyton House, as I
• 4:36:12
  Speaker 4: did last summer. But I shan't. She has been trying
• 4:36:15
  Speaker 4: to get round me every way with her praise of
• 4:36:18
  Speaker 4: this and her praise of that. But I saw what
• 4:36:20
  Speaker 4: she was about. I saw through it all. I am
• 4:36:23
  Speaker 4: not very easily taken in, my dear Charlotte. Can think
• 4:36:27
  Speaker 4: of nothing more harmless to be said than the simple
• 4:36:29
  Speaker 4: inquiry of Sir Edward and Miss Denham. Yes, my dear,
• 4:36:33
  Speaker 4: my young folks as I call them sometimes, for I
• 4:36:36
  Speaker 4: take them very much by the hand, and had them
• 4:36:38
  Speaker 4: with me last summer about this time for a week
• 4:36:41
  Speaker 4: from Monday to Monday, and very delighted and thankful they were,
• 4:36:45
  Speaker 4: for they are very good young people, my dear. I
• 4:36:48
  Speaker 4: would not have you think that I only notice them
• 4:36:50
  Speaker 4: for poor dear Harry's sake. No, no, they are very
• 4:36:53
  Speaker 4: deserving themselves, or trust me, they would not be so
• 4:36:56
  Speaker 4: much in my company. I am not the woman to
• 4:36:59
  Speaker 4: help anybody blindfold. I always take care to know what
• 4:37:02
  Speaker 4: I am about and who I have to deal with
• 4:37:05
  Speaker 4: before I stir a finger. I do not think I
• 4:37:08
  Speaker 4: was ever overreached in my life, and that is a
• 4:37:10
  Speaker 4: good deal for a woman to say that has been
• 4:37:12
  Speaker 4: twice married. Poor dear Sir Harry, between ourselves thought at
• 4:37:17
  Speaker 4: first to have got more. But with a bit of
• 4:37:20
  Speaker 4: a sigh, he is gone, and we must not find
• 4:37:23
  Speaker 4: fault with the dead. Nobody could live happier together than us.
• 4:37:27
  Speaker 4: And he was a very honorable man, quite the gentleman
• 4:37:30
  Speaker 4: of ancient family. And when he died, I gave Sir
• 4:37:33
  Speaker 4: Edward his gold watch. This was said with a look
• 4:37:36
  Speaker 4: at her companion, which implied its right to produce a
• 4:37:38
  Speaker 4: great impression, And seeing no rapturous astonishment on Charlotte's countenance,
• 4:37:43
  Speaker 4: she added quickly, he did not bequeath it to his nephew,
• 4:37:47
  Speaker 4: My dear, it was no bequest. It was not in
• 4:37:49
  Speaker 4: the will. He only told me, and that but once,
• 4:37:52
  Speaker 4: that he should wish his nephew to have his watch.
• 4:37:55
  Speaker 4: But it need not have been binding if I had
• 4:37:57
  Speaker 4: not chosen very kind, indeed very handsome, said Charlotte, absolutely
• 4:38:02
  Speaker 4: forced to effect admiration. Yes, my dear, and it is
• 4:38:06
  Speaker 4: not the only kind thing I've done by him. I
• 4:38:08
  Speaker 4: have been a very liberal friend to Sir Edward, and
• 4:38:11
  Speaker 4: poor young man he needs it bad enough. For though
• 4:38:14
  Speaker 4: I am only the dowager, my dear, and he is
• 4:38:17
  Speaker 4: the heir. Things do not stand between us in the
• 4:38:20
  Speaker 4: way they usually do between those two parties. Not a
• 4:38:23
  Speaker 4: shilling do I receive from the Denham estate. Sir Edward
• 4:38:26
  Speaker 4: has no payments to make me. He don't stand upper most.
• 4:38:30
  Speaker 4: Believe me, it is I that help him. Indeed, he
• 4:38:33
  Speaker 4: is a very fine young man, and particularly elegant. In
• 4:38:36
  Speaker 4: his address, this was said chiefly for the sake of
• 4:38:39
  Speaker 4: saying something, but Charlotte directly saw that it was laying
• 4:38:42
  Speaker 4: her open to suspicion by Lady Denham's giving a shrewd
• 4:38:45
  Speaker 4: glance at her and replying, yes, yes, he's very well
• 4:38:49
  Speaker 4: to look at. And it is to be hoped that
• 4:38:51
  Speaker 4: somebody of large fortune will think so. For Sir Edward
• 4:38:54
  Speaker 4: must marry for money. He and I often talk that
• 4:38:57
  Speaker 4: matter over. A handsome young man like him will go
• 4:39:00
  Speaker 4: smirking and smiling about and paying girls compliments. But he
• 4:39:04
  Speaker 4: knows he must marry for money. And Sir Edward is
• 4:39:07
  Speaker 4: a very steady young man in the main, and has
• 4:39:09
  Speaker 4: got very good notions. Sir Edward Denham said, Charlotte, with
• 4:39:13
  Speaker 4: such personal advantages may be almost sure of getting a
• 4:39:16
  Speaker 4: woman of fortune if he chooses it. This glorious sentiment
• 4:39:20
  Speaker 4: seemed to quite remove suspicion. Ay, my dear, that is
• 4:39:23
  Speaker 4: very sensibly said. And if we could but get a
• 4:39:26
  Speaker 4: young heiress to Sandton. But heiresses are monstrous scarce. I
• 4:39:31
  Speaker 4: do not think we have had an heiress here, nor
• 4:39:33
  Speaker 4: even a co since Sandton has been a public place.
• 4:39:36
  Speaker 4: Families come after families, But as far as I can learn,
• 4:39:39
  Speaker 4: it is not one in a hundred of them that
• 4:39:41
  Speaker 4: have any real property landed or funded. An income perhaps,
• 4:39:45
  Speaker 4: but no property. Clergymen may be, or lawyers from town,
• 4:39:49
  Speaker 4: or half pay officers, or widows with only a jointure.
• 4:39:53
  Speaker 4: And what can such people do to anybody, except just
• 4:39:56
  Speaker 4: as they take our empty houses and between ourselves. I
• 4:40:00
  Speaker 4: I think they are great fools for not staying at home. Now,
• 4:40:03
  Speaker 4: if we could get a young heiress to be sent
• 4:40:05
  Speaker 4: here for her health, and as soon as she got well,
• 4:40:07
  Speaker 4: have her fall in love with Sir Edward, and miss
• 4:40:10
  Speaker 4: Ester must marry somebody of fortune too. She must get
• 4:40:13
  Speaker 4: a rich husband. Ah, young ladies that have no money
• 4:40:16
  Speaker 4: are very much to be pitied. After a short pause,
• 4:40:20
  Speaker 4: if miss Ester thinks to talk me into inviting them
• 4:40:23
  Speaker 4: to come and stay at Sandyton House. She will find
• 4:40:25
  Speaker 4: herself mistaken. Matters are altered with me since last summer.
• 4:40:29
  Speaker 4: You know, I have Miss Clara with me now, which
• 4:40:32
  Speaker 4: makes a great difference. I should not choose to have
• 4:40:34
  Speaker 4: my two housemaids time taken up all the morning in
• 4:40:37
  Speaker 4: dusting out bedrooms. They have Miss Clara's room to put
• 4:40:40
  Speaker 4: to rights as well as mine every day. If they
• 4:40:43
  Speaker 4: had hard work, they would want higher wages. Charlotte's feelings
• 4:40:47
  Speaker 4: were divided between amusement and indignation. She kept her own
• 4:40:51
  Speaker 4: countenance and kept a civil silence, but without attempting to
• 4:40:54
  Speaker 4: listen any longer, and only conscious that Lady Denham was
• 4:40:57
  Speaker 4: still talking in the same way, allowed her her own
• 4:41:00
  Speaker 4: thoughts to form themselves into such meditation as this. She
• 4:41:04
  Speaker 4: is thoroughly mean. I had no expectation of anything so bad.
• 4:41:08
  Speaker 4: Mister Parker spoke too mildly of her. He is too
• 4:41:11
  Speaker 4: kind hearted to see clearly, and their very connection misleads him.
• 4:41:15
  Speaker 4: He has persuaded her to engage in the same speculation,
• 4:41:19
  Speaker 4: and because they have so far the same object in view,
• 4:41:22
  Speaker 4: he fancies that she feels like him in other things.
• 4:41:24
  Speaker 4: But she is very, very mean. I can see no
• 4:41:28
  Speaker 4: good in her, poor miss Brereton, and it makes everybody
• 4:41:31
  Speaker 4: mean about her. This poor Sir Edward and his sister.
• 4:41:35
  Speaker 4: How far nature meant them to be respectable I cannot tell.
• 4:41:38
  Speaker 8: But they are.
• 4:41:39
  Speaker 4: Obliged to be mean in their civility to her. And
• 4:41:41
  Speaker 4: I am mean too in giving her my attention with
• 4:41:43
  Speaker 4: the appearance of coinciding with her. Thus it is when
• 4:41:47
  Speaker 4: rich people are sordid. Mister Parker has two unmarried sisters
• 4:41:52
  Speaker 4: of singular character. They live together, Diana, the younger, always
• 4:41:56
  Speaker 4: takes the lead, and the elder follows in the same track.
• 4:41:59
  Speaker 4: It is their pleasure to fancy themselves invalids to a
• 4:42:02
  Speaker 4: degree and in a manner never experienced by others, but
• 4:42:05
  Speaker 4: from a state of exquisite pain and utter prostration. Diana
• 4:42:09
  Speaker 4: Parker can always rise to be officious in the concerns
• 4:42:12
  Speaker 4: of all her acquaintance, and to make incredible exertions where
• 4:42:15
  Speaker 4: they are not wanted. It would seem that they must
• 4:42:19
  Speaker 4: always be either very busy for the good of others,
• 4:42:21
  Speaker 4: or else extremely ill themselves, some natural delicacy of constitution.
• 4:42:26
  Speaker 4: In fact, with an unfortunate turn for medicine, especially quack
• 4:42:30
  Speaker 4: medicine had given them an early tendency at various times
• 4:42:33
  Speaker 4: to various disorders. The rest of their suffering was from
• 4:42:36
  Speaker 4: their own fancy, the love of distinction, and the love
• 4:42:40
  Speaker 4: of the wonderful. They had charitable hearts and many amiable feelings,
• 4:42:44
  Speaker 4: but a spirit of restless activity and the glory of
• 4:42:47
  Speaker 4: doing more than anybody else had a share in every
• 4:42:50
  Speaker 4: exertion of benevolence, and there was vanity in all they did,
• 4:42:54
  Speaker 4: as well as in all they endured. These peculiarities come
• 4:42:58
  Speaker 4: out in the following letter of Diana Parker to her brother.
• 4:43:01
  Speaker 4: My dear Tom, we were much grieved at your accident,
• 4:43:04
  Speaker 4: and if you had not described yourself as having fallen
• 4:43:07
  Speaker 4: into such very good hands, I should have been with
• 4:43:09
  Speaker 4: you at all hazards. The day after the receipt of
• 4:43:12
  Speaker 4: your letter, though it found me suffering under a more
• 4:43:15
  Speaker 4: severe attack than usual of my old grievance, spasmodic, bile,
• 4:43:19
  Speaker 4: and hardly able to crawl from my bed to the sofa.
• 4:43:22
  Speaker 4: But how were you treated? Send me more particulars in
• 4:43:25
  Speaker 4: your next If indeed a simple sprain, as you denominate it,
• 4:43:29
  Speaker 4: nothing would have been so judicious as friction, friction by
• 4:43:32
  Speaker 4: the hand alone, supposing it could be applied immediately. Two
• 4:43:36
  Speaker 4: years ago I happened to be calling on Missus Sheldon
• 4:43:39
  Speaker 4: when her coachman's brained his foot as he was cleaning
• 4:43:42
  Speaker 4: the carriage and could hardly limp into the house, But
• 4:43:45
  Speaker 4: by the immediate use of friction alone steadily persevered in.
• 4:43:49
  Speaker 4: I rubbed his ankle with my own hands for four
• 4:43:52
  Speaker 4: hours without intermission. He was well in three days. Pray
• 4:43:56
  Speaker 4: never run into peril again in looking for an apothecary
• 4:43:59
  Speaker 4: on our case out, For had you, the most experienced
• 4:44:02
  Speaker 4: man in his line, settled at Sandatan, it would be
• 4:44:05
  Speaker 4: no recommendation to us. We have entirely done with the
• 4:44:08
  Speaker 4: whole medical tribe. We have consulted physician after physician in
• 4:44:12
  Speaker 4: Vain till we are quite convinced that they can do
• 4:44:15
  Speaker 4: nothing for us, and that we must trust to our
• 4:44:17
  Speaker 4: knowledge of our own wretched constitutions for any relief. But
• 4:44:21
  Speaker 4: if you think it advisable for the interests of the
• 4:44:23
  Speaker 4: place to get a medical man there, I will undertake
• 4:44:26
  Speaker 4: the commission with pleasure, and have no doubt of succeeding.
• 4:44:30
  Speaker 4: I could soon put the necessary irons in the fire
• 4:44:33
  Speaker 4: as forgetting to Sandutan myself, it is an impossibility. I
• 4:44:37
  Speaker 4: grieve to say that I cannot attempt it, but my
• 4:44:39
  Speaker 4: feelings tell me too plainly that in my present state
• 4:44:42
  Speaker 4: the sea air would probably be the death of me,
• 4:44:45
  Speaker 4: And in truth I doubt whether Susan's nerves would be
• 4:44:47
  Speaker 4: equal to the effort. She has been suffering much from headache,
• 4:44:51
  Speaker 4: and six leeches a day for ten days together relieved
• 4:44:54
  Speaker 4: her so little that we thought it right to change
• 4:44:56
  Speaker 4: our measures, and being convinced on examination that much of
• 4:44:59
  Speaker 4: the evil lay in her gums, I persuaded her to
• 4:45:02
  Speaker 4: attack the disorder there. She has accordingly had three teeth drawn,
• 4:45:06
  Speaker 4: and is decidedly better, But her nerves are a good
• 4:45:09
  Speaker 4: deal deranged, and she can only speak in a whisper,
• 4:45:12
  Speaker 4: and fainted away this morning on poor Arthur's trying to
• 4:45:15
  Speaker 4: suppress a cough. Within a week of the date of
• 4:45:18
  Speaker 4: this letter, in spite of the impossibility of moving and
• 4:45:21
  Speaker 4: of the fatal effects to be apprehended from the sea air,
• 4:45:24
  Speaker 4: Diana Parker was at Sandyton with her sister. She had
• 4:45:28
  Speaker 4: flattered herself that by her own indefatagical exertions and by
• 4:45:31
  Speaker 4: setting at work the agency of many friends. She had
• 4:45:34
  Speaker 4: induced two large families to take houses at Sandaton. It
• 4:45:38
  Speaker 4: was to expedite these politic views that she came, and
• 4:45:41
  Speaker 4: though she met with some disappointment of her expectation, yet
• 4:45:44
  Speaker 4: she did not suffer in health. Such were some of
• 4:45:47
  Speaker 4: the dramatis Personnee already dressed and prepared for their parts.
• 4:45:51
  Speaker 4: They are at least original, and unlike any that the
• 4:45:54
  Speaker 4: author had produced before. The success of the peace must
• 4:45:58
  Speaker 4: have depended on the skill with which these these parts
• 4:46:00
  Speaker 4: might be played. But a few will be inclined to
• 4:46:03
  Speaker 4: distress the skill of one who had so often succeeded.
• 4:46:06
  Speaker 4: If the author had lived to complete her work, it
• 4:46:08
  Speaker 4: is probable that these personages might have grown into as
• 4:46:11
  Speaker 4: mature an individuality of character, and have taken as permanent
• 4:46:15
  Speaker 4: a place amongst our familiar acquaintance as mister Bennett or
• 4:46:19
  Speaker 4: John Thorpe, Mary Musgrove, or Aunt Norris herself. End of
• 4:46:24
  Speaker 4: Chapter thirteen.
• 4:46:26
  Speaker 3: Chapter fourteen PostScript.
• 4:46:30
  Speaker 7: When first I was asked to put together a memoir
• 4:46:33
  Speaker 7: of my aunt, I saw reasons for declining the attempt.
• 4:46:36
  Speaker 7: It was not only that, having passed the threescore years
• 4:46:40
  Speaker 7: and ten usually allotted to men's strengths, and being unaccustomed
• 4:46:45
  Speaker 7: to write for publication, I might well distrust my ability
• 4:46:48
  Speaker 7: to complete the work, but that I also knew.
• 4:46:51
  Speaker 8: The extreme scantiness of the materials out of which it
• 4:46:54
  Speaker 8: might be constructed.
• 4:46:56
  Speaker 1: The grave closed over my aunt fifty two years ago,
• 4:47:00
  Speaker 1: and during that long period no idea of writing her
• 4:47:03
  Speaker 1: life had been entertained by any of her family. Her
• 4:47:07
  Speaker 1: nearest relatives, far from making provisions for such a purpose,
• 4:47:11
  Speaker 1: had actually destroyed many of the letters and papers by
• 4:47:14
  Speaker 1: which it might have been facilitated.
• 4:47:17
  Speaker 8: They were influenced, I believe, partly by an extreme dislike
• 4:47:21
  Speaker 8: to publishing private details, and partly by never having assumed
• 4:47:26
  Speaker 8: that the world would take so strong and abiding an
• 4:47:29
  Speaker 8: interest in her works as to claim her name as
• 4:47:32
  Speaker 8: public property. It was therefore necessary for me to draw
• 4:47:37
  Speaker 8: upon recollections rather than unwritten documents, for my materials, while
• 4:47:42
  Speaker 8: the subject itself.
• 4:47:43
  Speaker 3: Supplied me with nothing striking or prominent with which to
• 4:47:46
  Speaker 3: arrest the attention of the reader.
• 4:47:49
  Speaker 8: It has been said that the happiest individuals, like nations,
• 4:47:53
  Speaker 8: during their happiest periods, have no history. In the case
• 4:47:57
  Speaker 8: of my aunt, it was not only that her course
• 4:48:00
  Speaker 8: of life was unvaried, but that her own disposition was
• 4:48:03
  Speaker 8: remarkably calm, and even there was in her nothing eccentric
• 4:48:07
  Speaker 8: or angular, no ruggedness of temper, no singularity of manner,
• 4:48:12
  Speaker 8: none of the morbid sensibility or exaggeration of feeling which
• 4:48:17
  Speaker 8: not unfrequently accompanies great talents to be worked up into
• 4:48:21
  Speaker 8: a picture.
• 4:48:23
  Speaker 7: Hers was a mind well balanced on a basis of
• 4:48:26
  Speaker 7: good sense, sweetened by an affectionate heart, and regulated by
• 4:48:30
  Speaker 7: fixed principles, so that she was to be distinguished.
• 4:48:33
  Speaker 1: From many other amiable and sensible women only by that
• 4:48:37
  Speaker 1: peculiar genius which shines out clearly enough in her.
• 4:48:40
  Speaker 8: Works, but of which a biographer can make little use.
• 4:48:46
  Speaker 1: The motive which at last induced me to make the
• 4:48:48
  Speaker 1: attempt is exactly expressed in the passage prefixed to these pages.
• 4:48:53
  Speaker 3: I thought that I saw something to be done, knew
• 4:48:56
  Speaker 3: of no one who could do it but myself, and
• 4:48:58
  Speaker 3: so was driven to the enterprise. I am glad that
• 4:49:02
  Speaker 3: I have been able to finish my work as a
• 4:49:04
  Speaker 3: family record.
• 4:49:05
  Speaker 8: It can scarcely fail to be interesting to those relatives
• 4:49:08
  Speaker 8: who must ever set a high value on their connection
• 4:49:11
  Speaker 8: with Jane Austen, And to them I especially dedicate it,
• 4:49:16
  Speaker 8: But as I have been asked to do so, I
• 4:49:18
  Speaker 8: also submit it to the center of the public, with
• 4:49:21
  Speaker 8: all its faults, both of deficiency and redundancy. I know
• 4:49:26
  Speaker 8: that its value in their eyes must depend not on
• 4:49:29
  Speaker 8: any merits of its own, but on the degree of
• 4:49:31
  Speaker 8: estimation in which my aunt's works may still be held,
• 4:49:35
  Speaker 8: And indeed I shall esteem it one of the strongest
• 4:49:37
  Speaker 8: testimonies ever borne to her talents, if for her sake
• 4:49:42
  Speaker 8: an interest can be taken in so poor a sketch
• 4:49:45
  Speaker 8: as I have been able to draw. Bravicridge September seventh,
• 4:49:51
  Speaker 8: eighteen sixty nine.
• 4:49:57
  Speaker 1: PostScript printed at the end of the first edition, omitted
• 4:50:00
  Speaker 1: from the second, since these pages were in type.
• 4:50:06
  Speaker 7: I have read with astonishment the strange misrepresentation of my
• 4:50:09
  Speaker 7: aunt's manners given by.
• 4:50:11
  Speaker 8: Miss Midford in a letter which appears in her lately
• 4:50:14
  Speaker 8: published Life, Volume one, page three hundred five. Miss Midford
• 4:50:19
  Speaker 8: does not profess to have known Jane Austen herself, but
• 4:50:23
  Speaker 8: to report what had been told her by her mother,
• 4:50:26
  Speaker 8: Having stated that her mother, before her marriage, was well
• 4:50:30
  Speaker 8: acquainted with Jane Austen and her family, she writes thus,
• 4:50:35
  Speaker 8: Mamma says that she was then.
• 4:50:37
  Speaker 7: The prettiest, silliest, most affected husband hunting butterfly she ever remembers.
• 4:50:44
  Speaker 3: The editor of Miss Midford's Life very properly observes in
• 4:50:48
  Speaker 3: a note how different this description is from every other
• 4:50:51
  Speaker 3: account of Jane Austen, from whatever quarter. Certainly, it is
• 4:50:56
  Speaker 3: so totally at variance with the modest simplicity of carriage
• 4:51:00
  Speaker 3: which I have attributed to my aunt, that if it
• 4:51:03
  Speaker 3: could be supposed to her assemblance of truth, it must
• 4:51:06
  Speaker 3: be equally injurious to her memory and to my trustworthiness
• 4:51:10
  Speaker 3: as her biographer.
• 4:51:12
  Speaker 1: Fortunately, I am not driven to put my authority in
• 4:51:14
  Speaker 1: competition with that of Miss Midford, nor to ask which
• 4:51:18
  Speaker 1: ought to be considered the better witness in this case,
• 4:51:20
  Speaker 1: because I am able to prove, by a reference to dates,
• 4:51:23
  Speaker 1: that Miss Midford must have been under a mistake, and
• 4:51:26
  Speaker 1: that her mother could not possibly have known what she
• 4:51:29
  Speaker 1: was supposed to have reported.
• 4:51:31
  Speaker 3: Inasmuch as Jane Austen, at the time referred to was
• 4:51:34
  Speaker 3: a little girl, missus Midford was the daughter of doctor.
• 4:51:39
  Speaker 1: Russell, rector of Ashe, a parish adjoining Steventon, so that
• 4:51:43
  Speaker 1: the families of Austin and Russell must at a time
• 4:51:46
  Speaker 1: have been known to each other.
• 4:51:48
  Speaker 8: But the date assigned by Miss Midford for the termination
• 4:51:51
  Speaker 8: of the acquaintance is the time of her mother's marriage.
• 4:51:54
  Speaker 3: This took place in October seventeen eighty five, when Jane,
• 4:51:58
  Speaker 3: who had been.
• 4:51:58
  Speaker 8: Born in September seventeenth seventy five, was not quite ten
• 4:52:02
  Speaker 8: years old. In point of fact, however, Miss Russell's opportunities
• 4:52:06
  Speaker 8: of observing Jane Austen must have come to an end
• 4:52:09
  Speaker 8: still earlier, for upon Doctor Russell's death in January seventeen
• 4:52:14
  Speaker 8: eighty three, his widow and daughter removed from the neighborhood,
• 4:52:18
  Speaker 8: so that all intercourse between the families ceased when Jane
• 4:52:21
  Speaker 8: was little more than seven years old.
• 4:52:24
  Speaker 7: All persons who undertake to narrate from hearsay things which
• 4:52:28
  Speaker 7: are supposed to have taken place before they were born,
• 4:52:31
  Speaker 7: are liable to error, and are apt to call in
• 4:52:33
  Speaker 7: imagination to the aid of memory.
• 4:52:36
  Speaker 1: And hence it arises that many a fancy peace has
• 4:52:39
  Speaker 1: been substituted for genuine history.
• 4:52:42
  Speaker 8: I do not care to correct the inaccurate account of
• 4:52:45
  Speaker 8: Jane Austen's manners in after life, because Miss Midfoot candidly
• 4:52:48
  Speaker 8: expresses a doubt whether she had not been misinformed on
• 4:52:52
  Speaker 8: that point.
• 4:52:54
  Speaker 3: November seventeenth, eighteen sixty nine, end of Chap.
• 4:53:00
  Speaker 8: To fourteen PostScript