FOOTNOTES:
[45] Written in 1815-16.
[46] What a capital picture, of an amiable rich man’s bondage.
[47] Are old abbeys so common in Hampshire that Jane Austen should have made two of her country-houses abbeys?
[48] The habit, now gone out of fashion, of having grown-up parlour-boarders in schools, rendered them more like homes for young people of all ages.
[49] These old genial suppers have vanished, being crowded out of existence by late dinners, which are very different meals.
[50] We can, however, imagine Harriet’s showing that book, with lingering pride and pleasure, to her grandchildren.
[51] The more convivial habits of the period peep out here and there in Jane Austen’s novels.
[52] Disingenuous, mocking Emma!
[53] In reading Jane Austen’s novels one is carried back to the time when good playing on the piano, or “the instrument” as it is frequently called, was held, in the higher classes, as it is now in much lower grades, a crowning mark of a liberal education in a girl. Yet Jane Austen herself fell short of this attainment, and she almost invariably makes her heroines—as in the experiences of Elizabeth Bennet, Emma Woodhouse, Catherine Morland, and Fanny Price—either to have failed in the duty of practising, so as not to have acquired more than a moderate proficiency in music, or else to have been deficient in musical taste or deprived of musical education.
[54] I have already said that Jane Austen wastes no time in descriptions of places; yet she often contrives to suggest so much in a few lines, that her pleasant, homely English scenes, no less than her life-like characters, rise vividly before the mind. That briefest description of Abbey Mill Farm—comfortable and tidy, with the short, straight walk between the apple-trees up to the front door—does its business thoroughly. I have seen more than one such cosy, trim, old-fashioned farmhouse, which has brought the exclamation to my lips, “That was where Harriet Smith visited the Martins.”
[55] I think it was Archbishop Whately who said, apropos of Jane Austen’s novels, that so far from its being easy to represent the simplicity and folly which, like poverty, we have always with us, so as to divert a reader, it demands nothing short of genius for the task.
[56] Already, in the interval between the writing of “Pride and Prejudice” and of “Emma,” the constant use of men’s surnames in conversation was going out in good society.
[57] I have heard that a great modern statesman, who takes some relaxation in reading novels, and who is an ardent admirer of Jane Austen, is specially in love with Mrs. Elton. Her portrait is his favourite in this wonderful picture-gallery.
[58] In the course of the conversation, Jane Austen puts into Jane Fairfax’s mouth a strong expression of admiration for the post-office arrangements, with their regularity and despatch. Yet these were the days of heavily-taxed letters and delayed conveyance by coach. What would Jane Austen have thought of the penny post, with its multiplied responsibilities and requirements, to which railway celerity is given? and still the system bears the strain, and admirably fulfils the intention of its founder.
[59] Morning walks, “taken fasting,” are now, we may be thankful, an utterly exploded prescription for delicate men and women.
[60] In how many country houses in England is spruce beer to be found to-day?
[61] The position of Frank Churchill—dependent on his uncle and aunt, bound to humour their whims and wait on their pleasure—seems never to have struck Jane Austen as unmanly and undesirable.
[62] A striking illustration of what a good woman must suffer from such a false step as that which Jane Fairfax had taken.
[63] Emma has as much trouble in convincing her friends that she is not attached to Frank Churchill, as Elizabeth Bennet found in persuading her relations that she returned the affection of Darcy.
[64] Mr. Knightley’s quiet superiority to public opinion in making such a suggestion, is another fine point in a fine character.
[65] Babies’ tiny caps have disappeared, like some other articles of costume in Emma’s day. What would Mrs. Weston have thought of the bald little polls which are now fearlessly exposed by mothers and nurses?
“They’ve robed that maid so poor and pale
In silks and samites rare;
And pearls for drops of frozen hail
Are glistening in her hair.”
