A Memoir of Jane Austen

More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.com
Fore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com
Jane Austen’s Letters 55
doubted. Mr. Heathcote, 1 however, who has broken the small
bone of his leg, is so good as to be going on very well. It would be
really too much to have three people to care for.
‘You distress me cruelly by your request about books. I cannot
think of any to bring with me, nor have I any idea of our wanting
them. I come to you to be talked to, not to read or hear reading; I
can do that at home; and indeed I am now laying in a stock of
intelligence to pour out on you as my share of the conversation. I
am reading Henry’s History of England,° which I will repeat to
you in any manner you may prefer, either in a loose, desultory,°
unconnected stream, or dividing my recital, as the historian divides
it himself, into seven parts:–– The Civil and Military:
Religion: Constitution: Learning and Learned Men: Arts and
Sciences: Commerce, Coins, and Shipping: and Manners. So that
for every evening in the week there will be a different subject.
The Friday’s lot–– Commerce, Coins, and Shipping–– you will
find the least entertaining; but the next evening’s portion will
make amends. With such a provision on my part, if you will do
yours by repeating the French Grammar, and Mrs. Stent 2 will
now and then ejaculate some wonder about the cocks and hens,
what can we want? Farewell for a short time. We all unite in best
love, and I am your very affectionate
‘J.A.’
The two next letters must have been written early in 1801, after
the removal from Steventon had been decided on, but before it
had taken place. They refer to the two brothers who were at sea,
and give some idea of a kind of anxieties and uncertainties to
which sisters are seldom subject in these days of peace, steamers,
and electric telegraphs. At that time ships were often windbound
or becalmed, or driven wide of their destination; and sometimes
they had orders to alter their course for some secret service; not
to mention the chance of conflict with a vessel of superior
1
The father of Sir William Heathcote, of Hursley, who was married to a daughter of
Mr. Bigg Wither, of Manydown, and lived in the neighbourhood.
2
A very dull old lady, then residing with Mrs. Lloyd. [Mary Stent, died 24
December 1812, described in Caroline Austen’s Reminiscences, 7.]