A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Appendix 193
9. Copy of a letter from Caroline Austen to JEAL, written,
from its inclusion of the extract from F. W. Fowle’s letter, after
the publication of the first edition of the Memoir, perhaps when
JEAL was collecting materials for the second edition (NPG,
RWC/HH, fos. 18–19).
My Aunt Miss Jane Austen had nearly left off singing, by the
time I can recollect much about her performances–– but some
songs of hers I do remember–– One was––
Her groves of green myrtle,° let foreign lands reckon,
Where bright beaming summer exalts their [ . . . ]
Far dearer to me are the Braes of [ . . . ]
With the wind stealing over the long yellow broom
——
My memory fails at the last word of the 3d. line–– and one or two
in the 4 th . are a guess. The Song, as she sang it, was in M.S. I
never saw it in print––
Another, already mentioned, was entitled Oh! no my Love no! or
The Wife’s [Farewell] I beleive from the Farce of Age tomorrow[.]
I had a printed copy of this once, myself ages ago––
But the song that I heard her sing oftenest, was a little French
ditty in her M.S. book[.] The 2 first lines were
[‘]Que j’aime à voir les Hirondelles
Volent ma fenêtre tous les jours’––
As a child, this was my favourite–– & was what I asked for the
oftenest. As M. Jacot is interested in my Aunt’s musical powers,
he may like to read an extract from a letter written by our cousin,
tho’ not her nephew, in answer to some enquiries of mine last year,
as to his reminiscences of one whom he had known very well,
after he was himself grown up–– the Rev. F. W. Fowle° of Amesbury,
Wilts––
[There follows an extract from Fowle’s letter copied from the
longer extract preserved in Caroline’s hand in the Austen-Leigh
archive, HRO, MS 23M93/66/2, for which see below.]