A Memoir of Jane Austen

More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.com
Fore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com
Appendix 195
11. Copy of part of a letter from G. D. Boyle, Vicar of
Kidderminster, to JEAL (NPG, RWC/HH, fos. 26–9°).
Summerhill,
Kidderminster.
Oct. 7. 1869
finished Oct. 16
Dear Sir
. . . I saw in the literary announcements of the autumn that you
were engaged on a life of the incomparable novelist, Jane Austen;
and I am tempted to tell you what I sincerely wish was better
worth your attention.
I was on intimate terms with a lady who died a few years ago,
Mrs. Barrett, whose maiden name was Turner or Edwards. It
seems odd that I should have a difficulty about her name, but the
fact is that her mother was twice married, and her daughters (by
two husbands) had all been married before they were known to
my wife or her family. Mrs. Barrett was no ordinary woman. She
had read widely and wisely, and preserved that most rare of gifts,
the power of entering fully into the tastes, ˆand especially the
intellectual tastes,ˆ of a younger generation than her own. She
had enjoyed the friendship of some remarkable people; but I
think I was more interested in hearing her recollections of the
author of ‘Persuasion’ than in any other of the reminiscences she
recalled. Most unfortunately for the purposes of your biography
she had lost, through the carelessness of a friend, a series of
letters from Miss Austen of great interest. I often entreated her to
write down her recollections, but although she possessed in no
ordinary degree the power of writing interesting and remarkable
letters, the recollections of a time of happiness long past by were,
she said, too overpowering.
There are, however, two or three matters I remember of interest.
The artistic method of Miss Austen’s character painting has
been a subject of constant remark since the time when Lord
Macaulay’s epoz on Madame D’Arblay appeared in the Edinburgh
Review. Her friend remembers well that, on one occasion,