A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Appendix
2. Copy of a letter from Anna Lefroy to JEAL (NPG,
RWC/HH, fos. 2–3).
Southern Hill,
Reading.
May 20 th [1869?]
My dear Edward
Lady Le Marchant° remembered your message & I will lose no
time in sending the copy you wish for. The lines on Mrs. Lefroy’s
death you shall have ˆalsoˆ if, when you have read, you desire to
have them–– but perhaps you may think them too long. The original
of Poll’s letters is in the possession of Mrs. George
Austen°–– it was given to her at Portsdown. Cassandra Austen in a
second letter to Fanny° says, ‘At Aunt Cassandra’s death there
were several scraps marked by her (of her Sister’s compositions)
to be given to different relations, & amongst others some to Lady
Knatchbull–– ’ (of course Lady Susan is here referred to) ‘& some
to my Uncle Frank–– one at least I know, or think probably he
must have had–– but I suppose his Daughter might object to giving
it up.’ Perhaps Cassandra has ‘Sanditon’ in her head, because
a copy of that taken by stealth during Aunt C’s life was undoubtedly
at Portsdown, where it had no business to be.
If it could be managed without much inconvenience I should
extremely like to see such papers as you have received [Anna
wrote rec d ] from Cassandra–– It was the recollection of one on her
lists that encouraged me to think there must be a deposit in that
quarter–– for that one must be somewhere, & probably more with
it–– the Herbert Austens° are gone from home, & so I have not
been able to give your message ˆof thanksˆ but by a hasty note
from Herbert written just before he left it appears that no letters
to Uncle Henry have been kept.
The occasional correspondence between the Sisters when apart
from each other would as a matter of course be destroyed by the
Survivor–– I can fancy what the indignation of Aunt Cass a . would
have been at the mere idea of its’ [sic] being read and commented
upon by any of us, nephews and nieces, little or great–– and indeed
I I [sic] think myself she was right, in that as in most other things
...
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