A Memoir of Jane Austen

More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.com
Fore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com
Explanatory Notes 223
daughter Cassy Esten. JEAL does not seem to have had access to the bulk
of his aunt’s letters to Cassandra, though he knew from Caroline of their
existence and dissemination as legacies. The largest cache, in Fanny,
Lady Knatchbull’s possession, was not available for inspection during the
writing of the Memoir and was only published after her death by her son,
as Letters of Jane Austen, ed. Edward, Lord Brabourne (2 vols., 1884).
Hence JEAL’s statement at p. 65–– ‘I have no letters of my aunt, nor any
other record of her, during her four years’ residence at Southampton’––
can be explained by the fact that the letters for that period (nos. 49–67 in
Letters) went to Lady Knatchbull in the post-1845 division.
51 The two following letters . . . written in November 1800: these, amounting to
over six pages, are both added in Ed.2. Ed.1 reads at this point: ‘Her
letters scarcely ever have the date of the year, and are never signed with
her Christian name at full length. [new paragraph] The following letters
must have been written in 1801, after the removal of the family from
Steventon had been decided on, but before it took place.’ Ed.1, then, has
only the two short extracts of naval news from letters to Cassandra of 11
February and 26–7 May 1801.
Steventon, Saturday evening, Nov. 8 th .: no. 25, in Letters, bequeathed by
Cassandra to Caroline Austen in 1845. A comparison between the version
in the Memoir and in Letters, 54–8, shows that JEAL repunctuated extensively,
smoothed out grammatical awkwardnesses, and corrected JA’s
eccentric spellings. He also edited matter as well as style, silently omitting
substantial sections of domestic detail and family gossip (e.g. the
section in Letters, 56). This is his consistent policy with the letters he
includes in the Memoir, and it extends elsewhere to the substitution of
initials for full names and the suppression of details which he considers
still likely to embarrass the families of those to whom JA makes occasional
indiscreet or humorous reference. All further letters quoted by
JEAL will be supplied with the relevant reference to the version in Letters,
with which comparison should be made. I will note below only the
most salient of JEAL’s alterations or omissions.
Charlotte Graham . . . Harriet Bailey: Lady Georgiana Charlotte
Graham, eldest daughter of the third Duke of Montrose (Letters, 529).
Mr. Chute’s frank: William John Chute (1757–1824), Member of Parliament
for Hampshire 1790–1806 and 1807–20 (Letters, 507). By an Act of
1763, MPs were entitled to free postage (expensive at this time) and often
extended their frank to friends, by writing the address and date in their
own hand.
one constant table: JA wrote ‘our constant Table’ (Letters, 55).
52 Pembroke: a small four-legged table with hinged flaps.
chiffonniere: a small cupboard with drawers.
Earle Harwood: (1773–1811), second son of John and Anne Harwood, the