The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen
Page 26
THE LOST MEMOIRS OF JANE AUSTEN. Copyright © 2008 by Syrie James. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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1 Jane Austen may be referring here to her relationship with Tom Lefroy, her “Irish friend” with whom she shared at brief flirtation at age twenty.
2 George Austen served a long and distinguished career in the clergy, first as a curate at Tonbridge School, then as rector of Steventon, in Hampshire County (often abbreviated as Hants), from 1761, adding the living of Deane (a neighbouring parish) to his duties in 1773. A “living” as a clergyman generally included a house or parsonage and a modest stipend, both of which had to be relinquished upon retirement.
3 Jane Austen’s mother and father, Cassandra Leigh and George Austen, met in Bath, and were married there several years later, on 26 April 1764.
4 I assume she refers to one of her other memoirs, recently discovered, which I have not yet read.
5 Mrs. Austen outlived her daughter Jane by ten years, attaining the ripe old age of eighty-seven.
6 In 1807, England was still embroiled in the long, drawn-out struggle against Napoleon.
7 James Austen was at one time considered to be the writer of the family, with both serious and amusing poetry to his credit. In 1789 he began producing his own professional weekly magazine, The Loiterer, which was widely distributed and greatly admired, but lasted only fourteen months.
8 Susan was published after Jane Austen’s death under the titleNorthanger Abbey. Because it was a satire by an unknown writer ridiculing the popular “Gothic romances” of the time, the publisher may have had second thoughts after purchasing it, concerned about offending his established authors, and/or losing money if the new book failed to sell.
9 Years later, Jane Austen revised First Impressions and sold it under the title Pride and Prejudice. It is considered by many to be her masterpiece.
10 Jane refers here to a proposal made by a family friend in December 1802, the details of which are recounted later in this journal.
11 A reference to Persuasion, which Jane Austen wrote from August 1815 to August 1816. This crucial comment helps to fix the time period during which this journal was composed.
12 A small drawstring purse.
1 Bathing machines were portable dressing rooms that allowed occupants to undress without being seen by passerby.
13 Jane’s near tumble from these steps, now called Granny’s Teeth, may have inspired Louisa Musgrove’s treacherous fall from the Cobb in Jane Austen’s Persuasion, one of the most famous events in the history of Lyme. Indeed, when the poet Tennyson visited Lyme, he exclaimed: “Don’t talk to me of the Duke of Monmouth. Show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell!”
14 A baronet, although a highly desirable title, is the lowest hereditary title of honour, ranking immediately below the barons, and above all orders of knighthood except the Garter; it is not a peerage. Baronets did not sit in the House of Lords; they might be elected to the House of Commons, but were more often preoccupied with local, county affairs.
15 Address.
16 Jane Austen’s character Fanny Price rhapsodizes about evergreens in a similar manner in Mansfield Park, clearly echoing the author’s sentiments on the subject.
17 Years later, Jane Austen did revise the book, changing the heroine’s name from Susan to Catherine. It was published after the author’s death under the title Northanger Abbey.
18 Interestingly, Jane Austen included an almost identical speech in Mansfield Park when Sir Thomas reprimands Fanny Price for her refusal to marry Henry Crawford.
19 Jane Austen did, in fact, revise her verse, and sent a shorter poem to Catherine (with no mention of Colds).She must have also liked the original, though, since she retained copies of both.
20 Jane Austen brilliantly wrote just such a scene in Chapter 2 of Sense and Sensibility, in which the despicable Fanny Dashwood cunningly convinces her husband to disinherit his widowed mother and sisters; presumably, this is the conversation which inspired it.
21 Margiana, or Widdrington Tower, by Mrs. S. Sykes, 5 vols. (1808); Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field, a poem by Walter Scott (1808).
22 Their maidservant.
23 It was the custom at the time, when sisters were together, to single out the eldest daughter in a family by addressing her as Miss, followed by her surname; younger siblings were called Miss, followed by their Christian name, or both names.
24 A lantern whose opaque side panels were made of animal horn rather than glass.
25 It was the custom at the time to pair off and arrange guests at a dinner party in order of precedence for the formal promenade in to dinner, a very tricky process which involved questions of status and rank, and was no doubt the most nerve-wracking moment of a hostess’s evening. Mr. Ashford, as the son of a baronet, must have been the man of highest rank at the party, since he was chosen to escort the hostess.
26 Dr. Samuel Johnson, (1709–1784) was one of England’s greatest literary figures: a poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer and often considered the finest critic of English literature. He was also a great wit and prose stylist whose bon mots are still frequently quoted in print today. Jane Austen greatly admired his work.
27 A coat worn by women over the thin frocks of the time, usually about three-quarter length and buttoning in front.
28 A phaeton was a light-weight, four-wheeled open carriage; with four horses, it was the sports car of the time. Eight horses was unusual, and an affectation of the very wealthy.
29 Her copy of the manuscript was no doubt inaccessible, as the household was then packed up in expectation of their move from Southampton.
30 James-Edward Austen-Leigh (called Edward by his family) was one of Jane Austen’s favourite nephews. He inherited a great-aunt’s estate in 1836, taking the name of “Leigh” in addition to Austen. He became a country clergyman, and later a vicar; in 1869 he wrote A Memoir of Jane Austen, the very first biography of the authoress.
31 A similar scene in Pride and Prejudice suggests that Jane Austen was, indeed, inspired by this personal experience, which she used to great advantage in her eventual revision of First Impressions.
32 Frank Austen had recently settled his wife Mary (who was pregnant again) and their daughter Mary Jane in a cottage at Alton for the two years that he was to be at sea, so they could be close to his mother and sisters when they moved to Chawton Cottage.
34 Recipes.
35 Although several professional renderings of all the Austen sons exist, Cassandra’s simple water-colour sketch (which her affectionate niece Anna called “so hideously unlike”) is the only known “portrait” of Jane Austen in existence. In an attempt to refine it, a miniature reproduction was made in 1869, followed by a steel, engraved version which was used in James Edward Austen-Leigh’s “Memoir of Jane Austen” in 1870.
36 The offices were the kitchen, stables, and other parts of a large house where the household work was done, as opposed to the bedrooms, dining and drawing rooms, which were lived in by the family.
37 She refers to the characters Sir John and Lady Middleton in Sense and Sensibility.
38 Henry’s bank, which was doing extremely well at the time, collapsed five years later, a result of the difficult post-war economic conditions. He quickly rebounded, reprised his boyhood intention of taking Holy Orders, and was appointed to the curacy of Chawton in 1816.
39 The height of the London season was a three-month whirlwind of parties, balls and sporting events, which typically began after Easter and continued until August 12, which signalled the end of Parliament and the opening of grouse season. At this point, the fashionable deserted London and returned to the country, where the remainder of the year was devoted to the hunting and hounding of small animals, in particular the grouse, partridge, pheasant and fox. Parliament did not begin again until the end of the year, when shooting and hunting ceased, and foxes began to breed.
40 Sir Walter Scott (who became a baronet in 1820, and was known thereafter as Sir ), was a popular but minor poet in his early years. The turning point of his literary career came in 1814, with the publication of his first novel, Waverly, which was published anonymously, as were all its many successors down to 1827. He is often considered the inventor of the historical novel. He later became a great admirer of Jane Austen’s work, declaring that she had an “exquisite touch” and “a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with.”
41 Perhaps Jane Austen’s disdain for matchmaking was born at this moment, and inspired her to later write Emma.
42 Due to the continuing Napoleonic war, and the resulting blockade and embargo, French products such as champagne were impossible to come by, except on the black market.
43 According to a cash account Jane Austen kept in 1807, she had started the year with slightly more than £50 (the bulk of the sum was a legacy she received early that year from a family friend); her modest expenditures included approximately £14 on clothes, £9 on laundry, £4 on postage, £6 on presents, £3 on charity, and less than £1 on theatre and entertainment. Her personal luxury that year was £2.13S.6D. for “Hire Piano Forte.”
44 Most great landed families in nineteenth-century England maintained their wealth, status and power through the generations by transmitting their enormous estates intact to their descendants, via two ironclad practices, provided for in their wills or deeds of settlement. The first, primogeniture, left all the land to the eldest son, instead of dividing it among all the children. Entail placed restrictions on what the heir could do to the estate, to ensure that when he died, his eldest son in turn would inherit the property intact, and not mortgaged, split up, or sold. A girl must not inherit, to their way of thinking, because if she remained single, the line could die out, and if she married, the estate would belong to her husband—someone outside the family. The practice was so engrained that until 1925, by law the land of someone dying without a will went to the eldest son, and efforts to change the law were consistently defeated by the old families.
45 The term “bailiff” had two meanings at the time. One was a sheriff ’s officer, who carried out court orders, in particular, seizing goods or people for debt. Based on Jane’s response, Mr. Ashford refers to the other type of bailiff, who was a hired overseer or steward of an estate, whose duties included managing a large farm for its owners, collecting rents, responding to complaints from tenant farmers, etc.
46 Le Faye, Deidre, Jane Austen’s Letters; Letter #161; 29 May 1817.
47 Austen, Henry, Biographical Notice of The Author, 1818 (accompanied the joint publication of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.)