A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Publications 85
What she meant, poor woman, who shall say? I sought no farther.
As soon as a whist party was formed, and a round table threatened,
I made my mother an excuse and came away, leaving just as
many for their round table as there were at Mrs. Grant’s. 1 I wish
they might be as agreeable a set. My mother is very well, and
finds great amusement in glove-knitting, and at present wants no
other work. We quite run over with books. She has got Sir John
Carr’s “Travels in Spain,” and I am reading a Society octavo, an
“Essay on the Military Police and Institutions of the British
Empire,” by Capt. Pasley of the Engineers,° a book which I protested
against at first, but which upon trial I find delightfully
written and highly entertaining. I am as much in love with the
author as I ever was with Clarkson or Buchanan, or even the two
Mr. Smiths of the city.° The first soldier I ever sighed for; but he
does write with extraordinary force and spirit. Yesterday, moreover,
brought us “Mrs. Grant’s Letters,”° with Mr. White’s
compliments; but I have disposed of them, compliments and all,
to Miss P., and amongst so many readers or retainers of books as
we have in Chawton, I dare say there will be no difficulty in
getting rid of them for another fortnight, if necessary. I have
disposed of Mrs. Grant for the second fortnight to Mrs. —— . It
can make no difference to her which of the twenty-six fortnights
in the year the 3 vols. lie on her table.° I have been applied to for
information as to the oath taken in former times of Bell, Book,
and Candle, but have none to give. Perhaps you may be able to
learn something of its origin where you now are.° Ladies who
read those enormous great stupid thick quarto volumes which
one always sees in the breakfast parlour there must be acquainted
with everything in the world. I detest a quarto.° Capt. Pasley’s
book is too good for their society. They will not understand a man
who condenses his thoughts into an octavo. I have learned from
Sir J. Carr that there is no Government House at Gibraltar. I
must alter it to the Commissioner’s’.°
The following letter° belongs to the same year, but treats of a
1 At this time, February 1813, ‘Mansfield Park’ was nearly finished. [The reference is
to the ‘round game’ in MP, Ch. 25.]