A Memoir of Jane Austen

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CHAPTER IX
Opinions expressed by eminent persons––Opinions of others of less
eminence––Opinion of American readers
INTO this list of the admirers of my Aunt’s works, I admit those
only whose eminence will be universally acknowledged. No doubt
the number might have been increased.
Southey, in a letter to Sir Egerton Brydges,° says: ‘You mention
Miss Austen. Her novels are more true to nature, and have, for
my sympathies, passages of finer feeling than any others of this
age. She was a person of whom I have heard so well and think so
highly, that I regret not having had an opportunity of testifying to
her the respect which I felt for her.’
It may be observed that Southey had probably heard from his
own family connections of the charm of her private character. A
friend of hers, the daughter of Mr. Bigge Wither, of Manydown
Park near Basingstoke, was married to Southey’s uncle, the Rev.
Herbert Hill,° who had been useful to his nephew in many ways,
and especially in supplying him with the means of attaining his
extensive knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese literature. Mr.
Hill had been Chaplain to the British Factory at Lisbon, where
Southey visited him and had the use of a library in those languages
which his uncle had collected. Southey himself continually
mentions his uncle Hill in terms of respect and gratitude.
S. T. Coleridge° would sometimes burst out into high
encomiums of Miss Austen’s novels as being, ‘in their way, perfectly
genuine and individual productions.’
I remember Miss Mitford’s° saying to me: ‘I would almost cut
off one of my hands, if it would enable me to write like your aunt
with the other.’
The biographer of Sir J. Mackintosh° says: ‘Something recalled
to his mind the traits of character which are so delicately touched
in Miss Austen’s novels . . . He said that there was genius in
sketching out that new kind of novel . . . He was vexed for the