A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Mr. Clarke 93
part. Such, at least, I believed to be your words; but as I am very
anxious to be quite certain of what was intended, I entreat you to
have the goodness to inform me how such a permission is to be
understood, and whether it is incumbent on me to show my sense
of the honour by inscribing the work now in the press to His
Royal Highness; I should be equally concerned to appear either
presumptuous or ungrateful.’
The following gracious answer was returned by Mr. Clarke,
together with a suggestion which must have been received with
some surprise:––
‘Carlton House, Nov. 16, 1815.°
‘DEAR MADAM,–– It is certainly not incumbent on you to dedicate
your work now in the press to His Royal Highness; but if you
wish to do the Regent that honour either now or at any future
period I am happy to send you that permission, which need not
require any more trouble or solicitation on your part.
‘Your late works, Madam, and in particular “Mansfield Park,”
reflect the highest honour on your genius and your principles. In
every new work your mind seems to increase its energy and power
of discrimination. The Regent has read and admired all your
publications.
‘Accept my best thanks for the pleasure your volumes have
given me. In the perusal of them I felt a great inclination to write
and say so. And I also, dear Madam, wished to be allowed to
ask you to delineate in some future work the habits of life, and
character, and enthusiasm of a clergyman, who should pass his
time between the metropolis and the country, who should be
something like Beattie’s Minstrel––
Silent when glad, affectionate tho’ shy,
And in his looks was most demurely sad;
And now he laughed aloud, yet none knew why.°
Neither Goldsmith, nor La Fontaine in his “Tableau de Famille,”°
have in my mind quite delineated an English clergyman, at least
of the present day, fond of and entirely engaged in literature, no