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Explanatory Notes 225
from a longer letter, for which see no. 34 in Letters. The autograph letter
was bequeathed by Cassandra to Charles Austen whose daughter Cassy
Esten made it available to JEAL. Cassandra was at the time of its writing
staying in London with Henry and Eliza Austen, and JA is sending the
latest news of Frank and Charles, both on recent active service in the
Mediterranean, Charles on HMS Endymion and Frank now on his way
home after distinguished action as commanding officer of HMS Petrel.
Sir Ralph Abercrombie: General Sir Ralph Abercromby (1734–1801),
appointed in 1801 to command British troops in the Mediterranean.
jolly and affable: JA wrote ‘fat, jolly & affable’ (Letters, 80).
while Steventon is ours: the Austens left Steventon in May 1801, before
which Edward, Frank, and Charles all made farewell visits to their old
home (Life & Letters, 164).
later in the same year: a short extract from a much longer letter to Cassandra,
written from Bath, 26–7 May 1801 (no. 38 in Letters). Again,
JEAL was indebted to Charles’s daughter Cassy Esten for it.
privateer: an armed vessel, owned and officered by private persons, but
with a government commission to act against hostile nations.
gold chains and topaze crosses for us: according to Le Faye, the two topaz
crosses remained with Letter 38 as it descended through Charles
Austen’s family and later into the auction rooms (Letters, 379, n. 4). (See
G. H. Tucker, ‘Jane Austen’s Topaz Cross’, Jane Austen Society Report
(1978), 76–7.) The gift provided JA with the idea for the ‘very pretty
amber cross’ which William Price brought from Sicily for his sister
Fanny in MP, ch. 26. Charles Austen’s experiences as a midshipman in
the West Indies and his adventurous early career (Sailor Brothers, 21–2)
are generally considered to be the originals for William Price.
58 afterwards in Green Park Buildings: the Austens arrived in Bath in May
1801, when they took the lease on No. 4 Sydney Place (not Terrace as
JEAL writes), though they did not move in until the autumn, spending
the intervening months with the Leigh Perrots (see notes below) or on
holiday on the Devonshire coast and, for a short time, back in Steventon.
They moved to 3 Green Park Buildings in October 1804 (Fam. Rec.,
117–20; 126).
Mr. Leigh Perrot: Mrs Austen’s brother (see note to p. 37 above). He now
divided his time between Scarlets, his Berkshire estate, and Bath, where
he sought treatment for chronic gout. At this time he and his wife were
renting 1 Paragon Buildings, Bath. On the death of Mrs Leigh Perrot in
1836 JEAL inherited Scarlets, with the proviso that he take the name of
Leigh in addition to Austen.
Northleigh: Northleach in Ed.1. It was this Oxfordshire estate, inherited
in 1751 (when he added Perrot to his name), which Mr Leigh Perrot sold
to buy Scarlets.