A Memoir of Jane Austen

More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.com
Southern Hill Reading
Dec r 1864
My dear Edward
You have asked me to put on paper my recollections of Aunt
Jane, & to do so would be, both on your account & her’s a labour
of love if I had but a sufficiency of material.
I am sorry to say that my reminiscences are few; surprisingly
so, considering how much I saw of her in childhood, & how much
intercourse we had in later years. I look back to the first period
but find little that I can grasp of any substance, or certainty: it
seems now all so shadowy! I recollect the frequent visits of my
two Aunts, & how they walked in wintry weather through the
sloppy lane between Steventon & Dean in pattens, usually worn
at that time even by Gentlewomen. I remember too their bonnets:
because though precisely alike in colour, shape & material, I made
it a pleasure to guess, & I believe always guessed right, which
bonnet & which Aunt belonged to each other–– Children do not
think of Aunts, or perhaps of any grown up people as young; yet
at the time to which I now refer my Aunts must have been very
young women–– even a little later, when I might be 9 or 10 y rs . old
I thought it so very odd, to hear Grandpapa speak of them as ‘the
Girls’. ‘Where are the Girls?’ ‘Are the Girls gone out?’
At the time of my birth Aunt Jane was not much over 17–– She
was thus entered in the family Bible in her Father’s hand writing.
A very good clear hand he wrote, by the by. ‘Jane Austen born 16
Dec r . 1775. Privately baptised 17 Dec r . 1775. Rec d . into the
Church 5 Ap l . 1776 Sponsors Rev d . M r . Cooke, Rector of
Bookham Surry, M rs . Jane Austen of Sevenoaks Kent, Father’s
Uncle’s Wife, M rs . Musgrave of Chinnor, Oxon.’
Aunt Jane was the general favorite with children; her ways with
them being so playful, & her long circumstantial stories so
delightful! These were continued from time to time, & begged for
Fore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com