Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family RecordAusten-Leigh, William
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Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family Record
Austen-Leigh, William
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817; Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Family; Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Family relationships
I wonder whether you happened to see Mr.
Blackall's marriage in the papers last January.
We did. He was married at Clifton to a Miss
Lewis, whose father had been late of Antigua. I
should very much like to know what sort of a woman
she is. He was a piece of perfection--noisy
perfection--himself, which I always recollect with
regard. We had noticed a few months before his
succeeding to a College living, the very living
which we recollected his talking of, and wishing
for; an exceeding good one, Great[65] Cadbury in
Somersetshire. I could wish Miss Lewis to be of a
silent turn and rather ignorant, but naturally
intelligent and wishing to learn, fond of cold
veal pies, green tea in the afternoon, and a green
window-blind at night.
North Cadbury is an Emmanuel College living, and Mr. Blackall was a
Fellow of that society, who, after the fashion of the times, had waited
long for his living and his wife. Jane had known him well and liked him
much, though with sufficient detachment to remember and to criticise his
demonstrative manners, his love of instructing others, and other little
peculiarities. The 'friend' of 1798 must have been a young Cambridge
don; and she was not likely to have had an opportunity of knowing
individually more than one of that limited community, who did not
naturally come in the Austens' way. It seems obvious to link the two
allusions together; and if this is correct, we have identified one of
the admirers of our heroine.[66]
More serious--but not _very_ serious--was the attachment between her
and Mrs. Lefroy's nephew, Tom Lefroy, afterwards Chief Justice of
Ireland, which is mentioned somewhat cautiously in the _Memoir_, and the
end of which is alluded to in the letter already quoted.
The young people became acquainted in the winter of 1795-6, and took to
each other from the first. In a lively letter to Cassandra on January 9,
1796, Jane describes a ball at Manydown:--
Mr. H[eathcote][67] began with Elizabeth, and
afterwards danced with her again; but _they_ do
not know how _to be particular_. I flatter myself,
however, that they will profit by the three
successive lessons which I have given them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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