Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters by Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh (best affordable ebook reader .txt) 📕
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'Even at this distance of time, the genuine devotee of Jane Austen must be conscious of a futile but irresistible desire to "feel the bumps" of that Bœotian bookseller of Bath, who, having bought the manuscript of Northanger Abbey for the base price of ten pounds, refrained from putting it before the world. . . . Only two suppositions are possible: one, that Mr. Bull of the Circulating Library at Bath (if Mr. Bull it were) was constitutionally insensible to the charms of that master-spell which Mrs. Slipslop calls "ironing"; the other, that he was an impenitent and irreclaimable adherent of the author of The Mysteries of Udolpho.'
Mr. Meehan, in his Famous Houses of Bath and District (1901), is the most circumstantial of all, writing on p. 197:—
'Her novel Northanger Abbey, which is full of Bath, was finished in 1798, and in 1803 she sold the manuscript for ten pounds to Lewis Bull, a bookseller in the "Lower Walks" (now "Terrace Walk"). Bull had in 1785 succeeded James Leake, and he in turn was succeeded by John Upham. Bull was the founder of the well-known library in Bond Street, London—for many years known as Bull's Library.
[207] Memoir, p. 80.
[208] Ibid. p. 196.
[209] See pp. 275, 285.
[210] We are told in the biographical notice prefixed to Bentley's edition of the novels in 1833, that though Jane, when her authorship was an open secret, was once asked by a stranger to join a literary party at which Madame de Staël would be present, she immediately declined the invitation.
[211] Memoir, p. 89.
[212] She had experienced a similar shock before in the sudden death, by accident, of her cousin, Jane Williams.
[213] This judgment is based on the idea that Elinor and Marianne (admittedly earlier than First Impressions) bore something of the same relation to Sense and Sensibility that First Impressions did to Pride and Prejudice.
[214] Jane Austen and her Country-house Comedy, by W. H. Helm.
[215] Her cousin, Mary Cooke.
[216] This may have been Bullock's Natural History Museum, at 22 Piccadilly. See Notes and Queries, 11 S.v. 514.
[217] In Pall Mall.
[218] Theophilus Cooke.
[219] See p. 6.
[220] White Friars, Canterbury—the residence of Mrs. Knight.
[221] He took command of the Elephant on July 18, 1811, and became again concerned in the Napoleonic Wars. Sailor Brothers p. 226.
[222] The original of this letter is in the British Museum.
[223] Sense and Sensibility. We do not know whether the Incomes were ever altered.
[224] Mr. Hampson, like Mr. Walter, must have been related to Jane through her grandmother (Rebecca Hampson), who married first, Dr. Walter; secondly, William Austen. Mr. Hampson succeeded to a baronetcy, but was too much of a republican to use the title.
[225] Jane and her niece Fanny seem to have invented a language of their own—the chief point of which was to use a 'p' wherever possible. Thus the piece of music alluded to was 'Strike the harp in praise of Bragela.'
[226] We learn from a letter of Cassandra that he arrived in time to spend (with his family) a week at Chawton Cottage. He had been absent almost seven years. It was their first sight of his wife.
[227] The Comte d'Antraigues and his wife were both of them notable people. He had been elected deputy for the noblesse to the States-General in 1789, and had taken at first the popular side; but as time went on he became estranged from Mirabeau, and was among the earliest to emigrate in 1790. For the rest of his life he was engaged in plotting to restore the Bourbons. His wife had been the celebrated Madame St. Hubert of the Paris opera-house, and was the only woman ever known to have inspired Bonaparte to break forth into verse. Both the Count and Countess were murdered by their valet at Barnes, July 22, 1812. (Un agent secret sous la Révolution et l'Empire: Le Comte d'Antraigues, par Léonce Pingaud. Paris, 1894.)
[228] A novel by Mrs. Brunton, published in 1810.
[229] We can give no explanation of the cousinship, if any existed, of Miss Beckford; Miss Payne may have descended from a sister of Jane's grandmother, Rebecca Austen, who married a man of that name.
[230] Perhaps in the battle of Albuera, May 16, 1811, which is described by Professor Oman (Cambridge Modern History, ix. 467) as 'the most bloody incident of the whole Peninsular War.'
[231] June 2. They ought to have waited for the King's birthday (June 4), which was considered the correct day to begin pease upon.
[232] The publisher was a Mr. T. Egerton, described as of the Military Library, Whitehall. He was therefore not the same as Henry Egerton who called in Sloane St. (p. 247) pace Mr. Austin Dobson in his Introduction to Sense and Sensibility (Macmillan, 1896).
[233] Sailor Brothers, p. 237 (letter from Jane to Frank). See p. 272.
[234] We shall in future describe Jane's brother Edward as 'Mr. Knight,' and his children as 'Knight' with the Christian name prefixed; while the name 'Edward Austen' will be reserved for the author of the Memoir (James's eldest son), as he was always known in the family by that name.
[235] Memoir, p. 11.
[236] Cassandra was now staying at Steventon; these letters to her are mainly in the Memoir, but are supplemented and re-arranged from family MSS.
[237] Authors of the Rejected Addresses (1812).
[238] Mansfield Park, chapter xxiv.
[239] Mansfield Park, chapter xxv.
[240] Mansfield Park was also published at 18s., Emma at £1 1s., whereas the first edition of Sense and Sensibility had cost only 15s.
[241] I.e. typographical.
[242]
[243] In Mansfield Park (the scene of which is laid in Northamptonshire), a good deal turns on the steadfast determination of Edmund Bertram to be ordained.
[244] The caution observed at Steventon in preserving the secret of the authorship of the novels is shown in a little manuscript poem addressed by young Edward Austen to his aunt, when (at the age of fifteen or sixteen) he was at last informed that the two novels, which he already knew well, were by her.
[245] This passage occurs at the end of chapter liv. For a long time the publishers tried to put matters right by making three sentences into one. Mr. Brimley Johnson's was the first edition to break up the sentences properly. See Appendix, p. 409-10.
[246] Memoir, p. 104.
[247] Afterwards, Lady Pollen, of Redenham, near Andover, and then at a school in London.
[248] Layton and Shears, a millinery establishment at 9 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.
[249] After the death of his wife, Henry Austen moved into chambers over his bank, 10 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.
[250] This letter is full of allusions to Pride and Prejudice.
[251] Two of Henry Austen's clerks.
[252] Mr. Tilson was a partner of Henry Austen.
[253] Miss Darcy.
[254] Sailor Brothers, p. 233. One paragraph in this letter (respecting the marriage of Mr. Blackall) is quoted in Chapter VI.
[255] Edward Knight, whom his uncle Henry was about to take to Scotland. See p. 279.
[256] Pride and Prejudice was sold outright to Mr. Egerton; and this implies that the sum given was £110.
[257] 'Pengird' in Brabourne, but surely a misprint. Cf. Brabourne, ii. pp. 199, 266. Mme. Perigord and Mme. Bigeon were two of Eliza's French servants who stayed on with Henry until he moved to Hans Place.
[258] Lady Robert Kerr, whom Henry met in Scotland, and to whom he divulged the secret of his sister's authorship.
[259] Lizzie and Marianne Knight.
[260] Part of his duties as Receiver of Oxfordshire.
[261] These sisters were daughters of the Master of Balliol; and Mrs. Leigh was married to her first cousin, the Rev. Thomas Leigh, who succeeded to Stoneleigh. (See Leigh pedigree.)
[262] Madame d'Arblay to Dr. Burney, June 18, 1795.
[263] The keeper at Chawton.
[264] The Rector of Godmersham.
[265] The Wanderer.
[266] Sailor Brothers, p. 243.
[267] To be allowed to use the names of some of his ships in Mansfield Park.
[268] The old nurse at Godmersham.
[269] Stephen Rumbold Lushington, M.P. for Rye, 1807-12, and for Canterbury, 1812-30, and 1835-37; Privy Councillor; Governor of Madras.
[270] At Ashford; 'she' is Fanny.
[271] Charles and his party. He was now on the Namur as flag-captain to Sir Thomas Williams, and his wife and two small children were living with him on board.
[272] See p. 238. Mrs. Crabbe did not die until October 31, 1813 according to the Dictionary of National Biography.
[273] Afterwards Earl of Winchilsea.
[274] Sister to Mrs. Lefroy.
[275] Probably, of Pride and Prejudice.
[276] Probably Miss Elizabeth Hamilton (1758-1816), author of The Cottagers of Glenburnie, &c.
[277] (?) Battle of Leipzig, October 16-19, 1813.
[278] Also, one of Pride and Prejudice.
[279] Begun about Feb. 1811.
[280] Quoted by Miss Hill, p. 202.
[281] The Heroine, or the Adventures of Cherubina, by E. S. Barrett (2nd ed. 1814): a satire on Mrs. Radcliffe, in which a conspicuous part is played by an impostor called 'Whylome Eftsoons.'
[282] It is said to have been the hardest winter known for twenty years (Brabourne, vol. ii. p. 218).
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