A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Explanatory Notes
1867’. JEAL drew on it extensively for his Memoir, especially in the enlarged
second edition of 1871. Twelve years younger than her half-sister Anna, seven
years younger than her brother JEAL, Caroline spent much of her childhood
with her aunts Jane and Cassandra at Chawton: she was only 4 when the
Austens moved there in 1809. To her we owe the description of Chawton
Cottage and the intimate details of JA’s daily routine there, together with the
most touching of the accounts of her affinity with children, the little observations
about her dexterity with cup and ball, her neat satin stitch, and the care
she took with the look of her letters and the placing of the sealing wax on the
envelope; so, too, the story of the three chairs which substituted for a sofa, and
the record of JA’s final illness, as reported by Caroline’s mother, Mary Lloyd
Austen, who witnessed it. JEAL incorporates Caroline’s memories, deepening
their effect in Ed.2 by further verbatim quotation and the addition of new
details, like JA’s warning to Caroline against writing too much while young
(Memoir, 42, 67–74, 77, 124, 130–1). Caroline’s account was again a source
for the next generation of family biographers–– for JEAL’s youngest son
and grandson, William and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh, in Life & Letters
(1913); and it was printed in almost complete form by Caroline’s niece, Mary
Augusta Austen-Leigh, JEAL’s daughter, in her Personal Aspects of Jane
Austen (1920), 139–47. It was not published independently until 1952, when
R. W. Chapman prepared it for the Jane Austen Society. His edition received
a brief mention in the Times Literary Supplement, 20 June 1952, p. 406. It
was reissued in 1991. The present edition, based on Chapman’s, has been
corrected against Caroline’s manuscript by Deirdre Le Faye. I am greatly
indebted to Miss Le Faye for this generosity. The manuscript was presented to
the Jane Austen Society in 1949 by Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh and now
hangs, framed, in JA’s House, Chawton.
Caroline Mary Craven Austen (1805–80) was James Austen’s youngest
child, born at Steventon. She did not marry, but lived with her mother Mary
Lloyd until 1843, thereafter moving to be near her brother James Edward.
From her mother she inherited ‘pocket-books’ recording family events and
heard first-hand accounts of Aunt Jane. In adult life she spent much time with
Aunt Cassandra.
166 last long surviving Brother: Admiral Sir Francis (Frank) Austen (1774–
1865). The death of Frank Austen, her last surviving sibling, seems to
have been one of the major factors in prompting the next generation to
assemble a publishable biography of JA.
Cowper’s dwelling place at Olney: see the note at p. 69 above, where JEAL
draws extensively on this section of Caroline’s memoir.
167 The front door opened on the road: Caroline first wrote ‘The front door of
the house opened on the road’, subsequently crossing out ‘of the house’.
170 he had many children: Charles Austen’s first wife died in September 1814,
leaving him with three daughters, Cassy Esten, Harriet Jane, and Frances
Palmer. Frank Austen eventually fathered eleven children, the seventh
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