Jane and her siblings helped their mother at the glebe farm where Mrs Austen’s cattle were looked after by John Bond (born c.1738), the Revd Austen’s bailiff. ‘John Bond begins to find himself grow[ing] old’, Jane told her sister Cassandra, adding playfully that this was something ‘which John Bond ought not to do’. So it was thereafter decided that John was to confine himself to the less arduous duty of looking after the sheep.
Jane and Cassandra were in the habit of visiting and assisting those of their father’s parishioners who happened to be poor and needy. One Christmas time, for example, Jane purchased for them items such as a shift (dress), a shawl and some pairs of worsted stockings with money provided by Steventon’s squire, Edward Knight of Godmersham Park, Kent.
Life was not all work and no play – which is not to suggest that Jane regarded her writing as anything other than a pleasure. Favourite games which she enjoyed were cup-and-ball, at which Jane was reputedly an expert; the New Game of Emulation, played with dice where the object was to reach the final square on which an angel was depicted, and spillikins, where turns were taken with an ivory stick with a hook on its end to pick up other sticks from a pile, without disturbing them. Charades were also popular and were intended ‘to enliven the long evenings … by merry verses and happy, careless inventions of the moment, such as flowed without difficulty from the lively minds of those amongst whom she lived’.11
Not only Jane, but also her mother and father, and brothers James, Henry, and Francis, invented brain-teasing conundrums. The following is a somewhat macabre one, composed by Jane, where the reader is invited to guess to what the author is referring:
When my first is a task to a young girl of spirit
And my second confines her to finish the piece,
How hard is her fate! But how great is her merit
If by taking the whole she effect her release!
And the answer to the conundrum is ‘Hemlock’!
Jane and Cassandra enjoyed walking to Deane to visit their friends Mary and Martha Lloyd – a journey which Jane particularly relished when the ‘hard, black frosts lay on the ground’.12 Anna Lefroy remembered how, on the walks through the lanes, Jane and Cassandra wore ‘pattens’ (shoes with raised soles intended to protect the dress when the wearer walked outdoors on muddy ground), which were ‘usually worn at that time, even by Gentlewomen. I remember too their bonnets [which were] precisely alike in colour, shape & material’.13
Jane also enjoyed visiting nearby Overton where she made purchases from a ‘Scotchman’ (a person, not necessarily Scottish by nationality, who was a doorstep seller of fabric and drapery goods):
The Overton Scotchman has been kind enough to rid me of some of my money, in exchange for six shifts and four pairs of stockings. The Irish [linen] is not so fine as I should like; but as I gave as much money for it as I intended, I have no reason to complain. It cost me 3s 6d per yard.14
Balls were held in the Town Hall at Basingstoke, where the Master of Ceremonies introduced the guests and initiated the proceedings by leading one of the young ladies out onto the floor. Minuets, quadrilles and ‘Roger de Coverley’ were favourite dances of the day. The most favourite dance, however, was the polka, and this was undoubtedly on account of its having been forbidden at Court – ladies not being expected to reveal as much of their legs as the dance required. Jane responded to this injunction by transcribing as many polkas as she could lay her hands on into her music book, and playing them on the pianoforte at every conceivable opportunity!
Jane had the good fortune to have a friend, Mrs Anne Lefroy (whose son Benjamin would marry Jane’s niece Anna Austen), who was generous by nature and arranged many social gatherings at her home, which was not far from Steventon. Jane always felt at a certain disadvantage; she and her sister being obliged each to survive on a mere £20 a year allowance, given to them by their father for their personal expenses. This was until she earned money of her own through the sales of her books.
What did Jane actually look like? It was Anna Lefroy who gave this fine description of her:
Her complexion [was] of that rather rare sort which seems the peculiar property of light brunettes. A mottled skin, not fair, but perfectly clear & healthy in hue; the fine naturally curling hair, neither light nor dark; the bright hazel eyes to match, & the rather small but well-shaped nose. One hardly understands how with all these advantages she could yet fail at being a decidedly handsome women.15
Notes
1. William Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, p. 22.
2. James E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen, 1st edition 1869, p. 43.
3. Austen Papers, 28, 29.
4. Anna Lefroy, Lefroy Manuscript, quoted in James E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen, note 32.
5. Jane Austen Society collected reports, 1976–85, p. 5.
6. R.W. Chapman (ed), Jane Austen’s Letters to her Sister Cassandra (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), 2nd edition, p. 10.
7. William Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, p. 26.
8. James E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen, p. 137.
9. William Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, p. 16.
10. Biographical Notice, 1818. Critical Heritage, 73–8. In David Nokes, Jane Austen: A Life (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997), p. 536.
11. Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh, Personal Aspects of Jane Austen, p. 71.
12. Letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, 18/19 December 1798.
13. James E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen, p. 157.
14. Letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, 26 November 1798.
15. James E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen, p. 158.
4
Jane’s Siblings
Jane’s eldest brother James Austen, born in 1765, was ten years her senior. Like all of the Austens’ sons, he was educated at Steventon by his father. When he was old enough he followed in his father’s footsteps by entering St John’s College, Oxford, where he became a Fellow. James was said to be ‘well-read in English literature, had a correct taste, and wrote regularly and happily, both in prose and verse’. It was also said that he had ‘a large share in directing her [Jane’s] reading and forming her taste’.1
Jane’s brother George Austen, born in 1766, was nine years her senior. Sadly, from an early age he suffered from fits (presumably epileptic) from which he ‘never recovered sufficiently to take his place in the family’.2 George spent his time as a boarder in the village of Monk Sherborne, 3 miles to the north of Basingstoke, where he was looked after and visited regularly by his parents.
Edward Austen, born in 1767 and eight years Jane’s senior, is described as ‘an excellent man of business, kind-hearted and affectionate; and he possessed also a spirit of fun and liveliness’.3 Thomas Knight II (the son of the Revd Austen’s patron Thomas Knight I), Edward’s distant cousin and his wife Catherine, took a great interest in the young Edward and invited him to spend much time with them at their home, Godmersham Park in Kent. Subsequently, in 1783 Edward was legally adopted by the Knights (who were childless), on condition that he adopted their surname. Edward, in turn, would stand to inherit the Knights’ estates of Godmersham, Steventon and Chawton.
Henry Thomas Austen, born in 1771, was also educated at St John’s College, Oxford, where he too became a Fellow. Henry was described by Jane herself as being ‘most affectionate & kind, as well as entertaining’. In return, Henry was unstinting in his praise and admiration for Jane.4 He also encouraged her in her reading, as already mentioned.
Cassandra Austen, born in 1773 and therefore almost two years older than Jane, was Jane’s only sister. Jane’s love and affection for Cassandra is evident from the dozens of letters which she wrote to her during her lifetime, signing herself ‘With best love’; ‘God Bless you’; ‘Yours affectionately’; ‘Yours ever’. In these letters she speaks of outings she has had, gives detailed descript
ions of purchases which she has made of fabric – out of which clothes were to be made for forthcoming balls – and offers delightful snippets of family news such as, ‘… my father wishes to receive some of Edward’s pigs’.5 This appears to have been a two-way process because Jane subsequently tells Cassandra that the Revd Austen has furnished Edward with ‘a pig from Cheesedown [Farm]; it is already killed and cut up, but it is not to [i.e. does not] weigh more than 9 stone; the season is too far advanced to get him a larger one’.6
When the sisters were apart they corresponded every three or four days. However, it was invariably Jane who made the first move. If Jane was the traveller, for instance, ‘There [was] always a first letter from Jane telling Cassandra of the journey’. On the other hand, if Cassandra was the traveller, ‘then the first letter is from Jane expressing the hope that she had a good journey’.7 This suggests that of the two, Cassandra was emotionally the stronger and Jane the more dependent.
Francis William Austen (‘Frank’), born in 1774, was a mere twenty months older than Jane. William Austen-Leigh said of him: ‘There can be no doubt that by his bright and lovable nature he contributed greatly to the happiness of his sister Jane’.8 At the age of 12, Francis joined the Royal Navy.
Charles John Austen, born in 1779, was three years younger than Jane. Jane referred to him as ‘our own, particular little brother’ – on account of him being the youngest. William Austen-Leigh remarked upon Charles’s ‘sweet temper and affectionate disposition, in which he resembled his sister Jane’. Said he:
Charles Austen was one of those happy mortals destined to be loved from childhood to old age by every one with whom they [he] came into contact.9
At the age of 12, Charles too joined the Royal Navy.
Steventon lay in the territory over which the Vine Hunt operated, William John Chute of The Vyne, Sherborne St John, being Master of Foxhounds. Not surprisingly, therefore, hunting loomed large in the lives of Jane’s brothers. In fact, it was said of George Austen that:
all his own boys hunted at an early age on anything they could get hold of, and Jane, when five or six, must often have gazed with admiring, if not envious, eyes at her next oldest brother, Frank, setting off for the hunting field at the ripe age of seven, on his bright chestnut pony Squirrel (bought by himself for £1.12s).
For this he dressed in a suit of scarlet cloth made for him ‘from a riding habit which had formed part of his mother’s wedding outfit’.10
Notes
1. James E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen, p. 16.
2. William Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, p. 20.
3. James E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen, p. 205.
4. Caroline Austen, My Aunt Jane Austen, p. 172.
5. Letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, 25 November 1798.
6. Letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, 3 January 1799.
7. Le Faye, Jane Austen’s Letters, p. xv.
8. William Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, p. 49.
9. Ibid., p. 77.
10. Ibid., p. 28.
5
Enter Eliza Hancock
It was in 1786 that Eliza Hancock, Jane’s cousin who was fourteen years her senior, appeared at Steventon Rectory like a brilliant comet, to bring life, gaiety and a certain degree of raciness to the proceedings. Eliza was the daughter of Philadelphia, George Austen’s sister and her husband Tysoe Saul Hancock. Her life was, and would become, so extraordinary as to make Mrs Radcliffe’s gothic novels – which Jane so despised – pale into insignificance. This was not least because Eliza’s life was real and tangible.
Eliza’s arrival occurred just as Jane was about to embark upon her teenage writing years, when she would produce her so-called Juvenilia, and her influence on this, and upon other aspects of her young cousin Jane’s formative years, has probably been underestimated. In the words of James E. Austen-Leigh, Eliza was ‘one of Jane Austen’s most colourful connections and a significant influence on her teenage years’.1
Eliza’s recent family history was as follows. Her mother Philadelphia, having been brought up, allegedly, in Hertfordshire by her maternal cousins, spent five years as an apprentice to a London milliner before sailing, in January 1752, to Madras. William Austen-Leigh declared:
That Philadelphia Austen went to seek her fortune in India is certain, and that she did so reluctantly is extremely likely. She had at an early age been left an orphan without means or prospects and the friends who brought her up may have settled the matter for her.2
In February the following year, Philadelphia met Tysoe Saul Hancock, son of a vicar from Hollingbourne in Kent. Hancock, who had worked in India since 1745, was an employee of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC). He and Philadelphia were married on 22 February 1753.
In 1759 Hancock was appointed as the HEIC’s official surgeon at Fort St David, the company’s military post near Madras. Here he met and became friends with Warren Hastings, also an employee of the HEIC (and subsequently, from 1773–85, Governor-General of Bengal). Hastings’ wife – whom he had married two years previously in 1757 – was Mary Buchanan, who happened to be a friend of Philadelphia. By Mary, Hastings had one surviving son, George, born in December that year. Sadly, however, Mary died in July 1759.
In 1761 Hastings sent his son George – a sickly child now aged 3 – to England from India, to the Leigh family home at Adlestrop, Gloucestershire. Then, when Philadelphia’s brother the Revd Austen married Cassandra Leigh in 1764, the couple brought George to live with them at their new home at Deane. George then became Revd Austen’s pupil and he also ‘came under Mrs Austen’s maternal care’.3
On 22 December 1761 in Calcutta, the Hancocks’ daughter Elizabeth – initially known as ‘Betsy’ and later as ‘Eliza’ – was born. She was their only child and Warren Hastings was invited to become her godfather.
In autumn 1764 Warren Hastings was struck by another tragedy when his son George died. According to William Austen-Leigh, Mrs Austen mourned George Hastings’ death ‘as if he had been a child of her own’.4
In 1765 Hancock returned to England with his wife and daughter. In 1769 he returned to India, leaving Philadelphia and Eliza in England, where they spent a great deal of their time with the Austens at Steventon. Hancock now engaged himself in business ventures, but when he failed to prosper, Warren Hastings came to the rescue by donating the sum of £5,000 (which he later increased to £10,000), ‘in trust for Hancock and his wife during their lives, and, on the death of the survivor, to Betsy’.5
In the new year of 1773 Philadelphia visited Steventon to assist Mrs Austen, who gave birth to her fifth child Cassandra on 9 January 1773. Philadelphia’s husband died in India in November 1775, whereupon Philadelphia went abroad. She and Eliza finally settled in Paris where the latter completed her education, paid for by the money which Hastings had given them (Eliza’s father having died a bankrupt). Eliza’s beauty, education and accomplishments, which included musicianship and the ability to speak fluent French and probably Italian, then became a passport for her entry into the upper echelons of Parisian society.
On 16 May 1780 Eliza wrote to her cousin, Philadelphia (‘Phylly’) Walter, from Paris, where she was clearly having a wonderful time:
Paris is … the city in the world the best calculated to spend the whole Year in … We were a few days ago at Versailles & had the honour of seeing their Majesties & all the royal family dine & sup. The Queen is a very fine Woman, She has a most beautiful complexion & is indeed exceedingly handsome …
Eliza goes on to describe the queen’s apparel:
[her] Petticoat of pale green Lutestring [a glossy silk fabric], covered with a transparent silver gauze, [its] sleeves puckered & confined in different places with large bunches of roses, an amazing large bouquet of White lilac … Feathers, ribbon & diamonds intermixed with her hair … Her neck was entirely uncovered & ornamented by a most beautiful chain of diamonds …
The King was plainly dressed, he had however likewise some fine diamonds.
Eliza was, nevertheless, rather scathing about the Parisiens’ wigs:
Powder is universally worn, & in very large quantities, no one would dare to appear in public without it, the Heads in general look as if they have been dipped in a meal tub.6
The relationship between Eliza and the Revd Austen was a close one and she would later say of him: ‘What an excellent & pleasing Man he is, I love him most sincerely as indeed I do all the Family’.7 Eliza sent her uncle, who was also one of her trustees, a portrait of herself in miniature.8 However, on learning that she intended to marry French aristocrat Jean-François Capot, Comte de Feuillide and an officer in the Queen’s regiment of dragoons, the Revd Austen was not amused:
Mr Austen is much concerned at the connexion, which he says is giving up all their friends, their country, and he fears their religion.9
Despite this, in late 1781 Eliza, then aged 20, and the Comte were married.
Jane Austen Page 3