A Memoir of Jane Austen

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xxiv
Introduction
& I suppose there a [sic] few now living who can more fully
appreciate the talent or revere the memory of Aunt Jane than
Lady Knatchbull’ (see pp. 158–9). But in the same place Anna
also writes that Fanny’s family, the Knights of Godmersham, felt
a general preference for Cassandra Austen and that they viewed
Jane’s talent with some suspicion–– intellectual pursuits and a
passion for scribbling did not fit with their finer family pretensions.
Though Jane was welcome at Godmersham, she stayed
there less frequently than Cassandra, was less intimate in the
family circle, and expressed some unease with its ways. Time
undoubtedly dulled Fanny Knight’s earlier attachment to Aunt
Jane; so much so that Anna’s recollections quoted above assume a
wonderful inappropriateness when set against the record we do
have of Fanny’s opinion in 1869. Senile or not, she had energy
enough to write down this memory for her sister Marianne when
she in turn raised Austen-Leigh’s enquiries:
Yes my love it is very true that Aunt Jane from various circumstances
was not so refined as she ought to have been from her talent & if she
had lived 50 years later she would have been in many respects more
suitable to our more refined tastes. They were not rich & the people
around with whom they chiefly mixed, were not at all high bred, or in
short anything more than mediocre & they of course tho’ superior in
mental powers & cultivation were on the same level as far as refinement
goes–– but I think in later life their intercourse with Mrs. Knight (who
was very fond of & kind to them) improved them both & Aunt Jane
was too clever not to put aside all possible signs of ‘common-ness’ (if
such an expression is allowable) & teach herself to be more refined, at
least in intercourse with people in general. Both the Aunts (Cassandra
& Jane) were brought up in the most complete ignorance of the World
& its ways (I mean as to fashion &c) & if it had not been for Papa’s
marriage which brought them into Kent, & the kindness of Mrs.
Knight, who used often to have one or other of the sisters staying with
her, they would have been, tho’ not less clever & agreeable in themselves,
very much below par as to good Society & its ways. If you hate
all this I beg yr. pardon but I felt it at my pen’s end & it chose to come
along & speak the truth. 15
15 Fanny Knight’s Diaries: Jane Austen through her Niece’s Eyes, ed. Deirdre Le
Faye (Alton: Jane Austen Society, 2000), 38–9.