A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Opinions of Eminent Persons
Miss Bates, our idol, though the village bore;
And Mrs. Elton, ardent to explore.
While the clear style flows on without pretence,
With unstained purity, and unmatched sense:
Or, if a sister e’er approached the throne,
She called the rich ‘inheritance’ her own.
The admiration felt by Lord Macaulay° would probably have
taken a very practical form, if his life had been prolonged. I have
the authority of his sister, Lady Trevelyan, for stating that he had
intended to undertake the task upon which I have ventured. He
purposed to write a memoir of Miss Austen, with criticisms on
her works, to prefix it to a new edition of her novels, and from the
proceeds of the sale to erect a monument to her memory in Winchester
Cathedral. Oh! that such an idea had been realised! That
portion of the plan in which Lord Macaulay’s success would have
been most certain might have been almost sufficient for his
object. A memoir written by him would have been a monument.
I am kindly permitted by Sir Henry Holland° to give the following
quotation from his printed but unpublished recollections of
his past life:––
‘I have the picture still before me of Lord Holland lying on his
bed, when attacked with gout, his admirable sister, Miss Fox,
beside him reading aloud, as she always did on these occasions,
some one of Miss Austen’s novels, of which he was never wearied.
I well recollect the time when these charming novels, almost
unique in their style of humour, burst suddenly on the world. It
was sad that their writer did not live to witness the growth of her
fame.’
My brother-in-law, Sir Denis Le Marchant,° has supplied me
with the following anecdotes from his own recollections:––
‘When I was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Mr.
Whewell,° then a Fellow and afterwards Master of the College,
often spoke to me with admiration of Miss Austen’s novels. On
one occasion I said that I had found “Persuasion” rather dull. He
quite fired up in defence of it, insisting that it was the most
beautiful of her works. This accomplished philosopher was