My biography of Fanny Palmer Austen is now two years old. Let me share with you some highlights of Fanny’s life to date. Happy Second Birthday, Fanny.
Click on the images below and then hover your mouse over them to learn more about the highlights of Fanny’s life so far.
In early summer 2017, Austen scholar Sarah Emsley and I created a Walking Tour to highlight places familiar to Jane Austen’s naval brother’s, Charles and Francis and their families, during the time that they spent in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The purpose was to share this perspective on Halifax with participants at the Jane Austen Society UK conference, held in the city from 20-27 June. The original version of the tour is also available on Sarah’s webpage. The version you are viewing here benefits from further enhancements added by Trudi Smith. You can click on each image for further details. You can check out the immersive Global Earth Walking Tour version. Thanks, Trudi, for these fine additions.
Jane Austen never visited Halifax, Nova Scotia, but two of her brothers were stationed in the city during their time in the Royal Navy, and she was very interested in their careers. She drew on their experiences when she wrote her two naval novels, Mansfield Park (1814) and Persuasion (1818). Nova Scotia and Bermuda are the only places in North America where the Austen brothers lived and worked, and it is still possible to see many of the sites they knew. This walking tour of Halifax includes Citadel Hill, St. Paul’s Church, the Naval Yard Clock, Government House, St. George’s Church, and Admiralty House, along with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
HMS Cleopatra
Captain Charles Austen was the first to visit Halifax. He came as a young officer during his appointment to the North American Station of the Royal Navy and stayed several times between 1805 and 1811—first with his ship HMS Indian, a 399 ton, 18 gun sloop of war, later with HMS Swiftsure (74 guns) as flag captain to Admiral Sir John Warren, Commander-in-Chief of the North American Station, and finally with HMS Cleopatra, a 32 gun frigate. It was the turbulent time of the Napoleonic Wars with France and Spain.
In 1811, Jane Austen, who was beginning her novel Mansfield Park, wrote to her sister Cassandra that she knew, “on the authority of some other Captn just arrived from Halifax,” that Charles was “bringing the Cleopatra home” to England (25 April 1811).
Thirty-four years later, in more peaceful times, Admiral Sir Francis Austen arrived on the 50 gun HMS Vindictive as Commander-in-Chief of the North American and West Indies Station, 1845-48. He was seventy-one and on what would prove to be his last command. He and his squadron spent each June to October based in Halifax.
HMS Vindictive (50 guns), moored off the Naval Yard, by Herbert Grey Austen (Private collection; reproduced with permission of the owner.)
Halifax is famous for its huge natural harbour. It was chosen as a British naval and military base and settlement because of its natural features and its location as the first mainland landfall in North America from Europe. Founded in 1749, Halifax was strategically positioned close to the route to French possessions in Québec to the north and the Thirteen Colonies on the American seaboard to the south.
When Charles was in port between 1805 and 1811, his vessel could be found either moored at the north side of Georges Island or perhaps at one of the anchorages adjacent to the Naval Yard. When Sir Francis arrived each year to set up a summer headquarters, it was most convenient to moor HMS Vindictive close to the Yard and in sight of his official residence, Admiralty House.
Click on each image for details. For the full walking tour, download the PDF, or check out our immersive Google Earth Walking Tour.
This blog is the result of a journey made this past summer into the county of Kent, camera in hand and ready to bring Fanny Austen back to Godmersham Park, the estate of her brother-in-law, Edward Knight.
Jane Austen herself had testified to the pleasures of life at Godmersham. She praised the “Elegance and Ease and Luxury” and confided to her sister, Cassandra, that she intended to “eat Ice & drink French wine and be above Vulgar Economy” (Jane to Cassandra, 1 July 1808).” What defined Fanny Austen experiences when she visited Godmersham with Charles and their children in 1812 and 1813?
I like to think how Fanny might have felt as she approached Godmersham for the first time in mid-July 1812. It must have been an awkward, tiring journey from her home aboard HMS Namur to the Knight’ s estate, situated eight miles south of Canterbury, Kent. Yet she surely felt a measure of anticipation as their destination came closer. Just after the village of Chilham, the carriage traversed Godmersham’s landscaped park, with its views of sheep grazing in the meadows, a browsing herd of 600 fallow deer and wooded downlands rising in folds to the west. Soon Fanny caught sight of the handsome, red brick eighteenth-century Palladian-style house, built in the 1730s by Thomas Brodnax and later enlarged in the 1780s.
Fig. 1: Godmersham Park in 1785
Fig.2: Godmersham Park today
Fig. 3: Front door to Godmersham
On entering the house through a handsome pedimented doorway, Fanny found herself in an elegant front hall. It was decorated with fine white plaster work, beautifully carved wood, and insert statuary (Fig .7), and a magnificent white marble mantlepiece. The overall effect of the room was of light, luxury and refinement. Nor did the nearby drawing room disappoint. It was enhanced by a voluptuous frieze in which scallop shells and acanthus leaves alternated with female masks. Elsewhere the design incorporated motifs of musical instruments and baskets of fruit and flowers. It is unlikely that Fanny had ever been in a house of this size and grandeur. She must have been in awe of what she saw.
Once settled, Fanny found herself introduced to the recreational pleasures of the estate and the neighbourhood. One day her niece and hostess, Fanny Knight, arranged an outing to the nearby cathedral town of Canterbury, and on another she walked “Uncle Chas. and At. Fanny,” as she called them, to the top of the North Downs so that they could admire the view.
Fig. 4: Looking Towards the North Downs
The surrounds of the house were very pleasing. One could amble along the River Stour or stroll in the gardens, the lime walk and the shrubberies.
Fig 5: The Lime Walk at Godmersham today
Another pleasing destination was the ornamental Grecian temple, built by the Knights in the 18th century. This was reached by walking to the top of a small hill, quite close to the house. Family tradition records that Jane Austen liked to take her current manuscript to this summer house, as it was a place of seclusion.
Fig. 6: The Grecian temple high on a hill
Fanny was also treated to a ride in her brother-in-law, Edward Knight’s, personal carriage. He took her to nearby Eastwell Park, home to the Finch-Hatton family, an estate admired for its deer park, fine oaks, beeches and ancient yew trees.
Yet, from Fanny Austen’s point of view, Godmersham offered more than superior creature comforts. Her next visit in mid-October 1813 was particularly significant as it afforded her the close company of another guest, Jane Austen. Jane described the arrival and reception of Fanny and her family. “We met them in the Hall, the Woman and girl part of us [herself and Fanny Knight] … It was quite an evening of confusion. – at first we were all walking from one part of the house to another - then came a fresh dinner for Charles and his wife [Fanny] in the breakfast room - then we moved to the library, were joined by the Dining Room people, were introduced & so forth- & then we had Tea and Coffee which was not over til past 10 …. Edward, Charles and the two Fannys [Fanny Austen and Fanny Knight] & I sat snugly talking. (Jane to her sister Cassandra, 15 October 1813)
Fig.7: The Hall where Jane met Fanny and her family
Jane’s letters from Godmersham to Cassandra speak of Fanny in familiar terms. Fanny is referred to as “Mrs Fanny,” one of the “two Fannys,” “Fanny Senior, “[Cassy’s] Mama,” and part of “the Charleses” (Jane to Cassandra (15, 18, 26 October 1813). Jane commends Fanny’s choice of dress and appearance and describes her as being “just like her own nice self” (Jane to Cassandra, 15 October). Jane, it seems, had a warm and affectionate attitude to Fanny.
Fig.8: Captain Charles Austen by Robert Field.
During their overlapping visit to Godmersham Fanny and Jane had plenty of time for conversation. There is no knowing what they may have discussed but they had mutual interests in various topics. Jane was keenly interested in Charles’s career and his well-being. Fanny no doubt shared with Jane her worries about the state of Charles’s naval career and his hopes for a North American posting together with a commission into an active fighting vessel.
Additionally, during the year five-year old Cassy Austen had been spending weeks with her aunts, Jane and Cassandra at Chawton Cottage, away from her floating makeshift home aboard HMS Namur off the Kent coast. Fanny did not like to have her children aboard when winter weather brought frigid temperatures and harsh gales. Moreover, whatever the season, Cassy Austen was very prone to sea sickness. Fanny was grateful that her eldest child was made so welcome at Chawton Cottage. Perhaps, she and Jane discussed how these visits were working out as well as Fanny’s plans for beginning Cassy’s education in reading and writing.
Jane and Fanny also had in common a keen interest in the navy. On this topic Fanny had first hand information she could share with Jane. For example, since August Charles had been encouraging a young midshipman, who had recently joined the Namur. He would also be known to Fanny, as she regularly took an interest in the young trainee officers aboard Charles’s vessels.
This boy was also of interest to Jane; she refers to him as “Young Kendall (Jane to Cassandra, 15 October 1813). At the time, Jane was bringing Mansfield Park to completion. Its cast of characters includes midshipman, William Price. As Jane was scrupulously accurate about naval details in her novels, it would not be surprising if she was curious to learn from Fanny about the experiences and education of an actual midshipman.
About this time Jane was probably thinking ahead to her next novel, Emma, possibly even making preparatory notes. The novel contains a reference to the seaside resort of Southend, a place where Fanny had spent some previous months with her children and parents. In Emma, the John Knightley family make an autumn visit to “South End”, an expedition strenuously recommended by their apothecary, Mr. Wingfield, who prescribed “for all the children, but particularly for the weakness in little Bella’s throat, – both sea air and sea bathing” (Emma, ch. 12). Obviously, Fanny was equipped to explain to Jane the amenities of Southend, to extol the benefits of sea air and to describe the modern bathing facilities.
Godmersham Park was altogether a happy family community for Fanny to visit, where she could appreciate luxurious country living, and enjoy Jane Austen’s company in conversation over their familial and naval interests.
Fig. 9: Fanny back at Godmersham: On the mantlepiece in the drawing room, 8 June 2019
Photo Credits: Hugh and Sheila Kindred, except Fig. 1: The Godmersham Park Heritage Centre and Fig. 8: Courtesy of a private collection.
Come join me in a tour of Austen family homes as Fanny came to know them. First, this month to Chawton Cottage and Chawton House in Hampshire and next month to Godmersham Park in Kent.
Soon after her arrival in England in July 1811, Fanny made the first of several visits to Chawton, a small village in Hampshire about 52 miles southwest of London. She travelled through lovely countryside composed of woods, sheltered valleys, hop fields, lanes and downs.[1] On August 8th Fanny, Charles and their two children arrived at Chawton Cottage. Here she met the widowed Mrs George Austen and her daughters, Cassandra and Jane, for the first time.
Fig. 1: View of Chawton Cottage today
Fig. 2: Dining Room at the Cottage
Originally an 18th century farm house, the Cottage had been recently renovated. To Fanny’s eye, it must have looked inviting, set off by an attractive garden, which included shrubberies made by adding ornamental plants, such as lilac and herbaceous plants to the existing hedgerows. The women immediately warmed to Fanny and the children, Cassy (age 2½) and Harriet (1½) , and they were delighted to welcome Charles after an absence of over 6½ years while he was serving on the North American Station of the Royal Navy. Cassandra described Fanny as “a very pleasing little woman, she is gentle and amiable in her manners and appears to make [Charles] very happy,”[2] words which suggest that Fanny passed muster with the Chawton Cottage family from the very beginning.
Besides the happy busyness of a family visit, this would have been an occasion for Charles and Fanny to share some of their experiences in the North American naval world they had recently left. Austen scholar Brian Southam pictures the returned Charles, and presumably Fanny, as “regaling the Austens with stories of Bermuda and Halifax, [the major ports on the North American Station] and Charles’s successes in his vessel, the Indian.”[3] Fanny and Charles departed after an enjoyable visit of one week but their return was greatly anticipated. Cassandra, Jane and Mrs Austen welcomed “Charles and his pretty little wife [back to the Cottage] early in the winter.” In Cassandra’s words: “Charles and his Fanny came to us for a few days previous to taking possession of their aquatic abode [aboard HMS Namur].”[4]
Fig. 3: The Great House, front approach.
Living primarily at sea from 1812-1814 meant that Fanny and her family had reduced opportunities to make shore-based visits into Hampshire, but they did go again to Chawton in May 1813. They stayed at the Cottage but frequently socialized with several of their immediate relatives, who were staying at the mansion house, [5] where Charles’s brother Edward Knight was in temporary residence with his own large family. Edward had been adopted as an adolescent by wealthy childless cousins, Thomas and Catherine Knight. As their heir, he had come into possession not only of Chawton Great House and its estate but also Godmersham Park in Kent.
Chawton Great House had its origins in Elizabethan times but was subsequently much altered by generations of Knights. The house retained aspects of its early construction and decoration so that Fanny could admire some of its original sixteenth-century features, such as a fireplace backed with herringbone brickwork and the richly carved oak panelling in the Great Hall and Dining Room. Edward’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Fanny Knight, on first seeing the Great House in 1807, described it as “a fine large house [with] such a number of old irregular passages etc. that it is very entertaining to explore them, and often when I think myself miles away from one part of the house I find a passage or entrance close to it, & I don’t know when I shall be quite mistress of all the intricate, and different ways.”[6] Perhaps Fanny Austen explored the interesting complexities of the house with Fanny Knight as her guide.
Fig. 4: Chawton House, side view.
During Fanny’s two and a half weeks in Chawton, she made many informal visits to the Great House, which was easily reached by following a path from the Cottage through the estate to the mansion house.
Fig. 5: Way across the fields from the Cottage to the Great House
Should it be a morning visit, the ladies usually gathered in the Oak Room.
Fig. 6: View from the window seat in the Oak Room.
Fig. 7: Fanny Palmer Austen’s Silhouette.
In a sense, Fanny has a continuing presence in this room even today as her silhouette, created by John Meirs between 1811 and 1814, hangs on the left-hand side of the fireplace.
More formal family events also occurred, such as the dinner on May 17th when Fanny, Charles, Jane, Cassandra and their friend, Martha Lloyd, dined at the Great House and enjoyed games in the evening. Perhaps those assembled played charades, a favourite pastime within the Austen family. On another occasion, according to Fanny Knight, they had a “merry” time playing “jeu de violin.”
Chawton also had a place in the lives of Fanny’s two oldest daughters, Cassy and Harriet. They spent most of June 1813 with their Aunts Cassandra and Jane at the Cottage. In both 1813 and 1814 they made winter visits there, for Fanny feared for her children’s well-being when cold winds, wet, foggy weather and the constant motion of the sea made life on board truly uncomfortable. Her eldest, Cassy, who was particularly prone to seasickness, made regular trips to Chawton even though Fanny hated being separated from her children.
Fig. 8: Quilt made by Jane, Cassandra and Mrs Austen displayed at the Museum
Fanny surely enjoyed the time she spent at Chawton. She experienced the conviviality of a large family gathering at the Great House and the attendant luxury of the Knight’s hospitality. The Cottage also offered a genuine welcome in a pleasing village with a rural setting and a chance for Fanny to become more intimately acquainted with her new sisters, Cassandra and Jane. Moreover, Chawton provided an escape from the confinement and loneliness, the cabin fever that was the fate of an officer’s wife living on a naval vessel riding at anchor at sea.
Today Chawton Cottage is the Jane Austen House Museum and has recently celebrated the 70th anniversary of its founding. The collection of artefacts associated with Jane Austen, her family and her novels is evocative and impressive.
The reconstruction of the garden to include plants which would have likely been in place when Jane was in residence greatly enhances the charm of the setting.
Fig. 9: The Cottage garden today
Chawton House is also a fascinating destination as an example of a Tudor mansion and estate, successively adapted and modernized over 500 years. Visitors can view the 15,000-volume library, which specializes in the works of early women writers, and walk in the restored Georgian garden and “wilderness,” while reflecting on the historic associations with the lives and times of Jane and Fanny Austen.
Photos by Hugh & Sheila Kindred, except Fig.1, courtesy of David Brandreth.
[1] The text in this blog is derived from my book, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister, 78-81, 88, 121-23.
[2] Cassandra Austen to Phylly Walter, quoted in Austen Papers, ed. Richard A. Austen-Leigh, 251.
[3] See Brian Southam, “Jane Austen and North America: Fact and Fiction,” in Jane Austen and the North Atlantic, ed. Sarah Emsley, 26.
[4] Cassandra Austen to Phylly Walter, Austen Papers, 251
[5] The party included Charles’s brother Henry, his brother James’s wife, Mary, and their daughter, Caroline.
[6] Quoted in Deirdre Le Faye, Fanny Knight’s Diary, 12.
Introduction: Regular readers of my blogs may wonder why a webpage titled Jane Austen’s Naval World includes posts about Jane Austen in distinctly landlocked places, such as Sevenoaks and Seal in Kent, England (see 31 May 2019). There is an explanation. I have been in the UK for the last 10 weeks, living in a part of West Kent that was known to Jane. Being on location during a lovely British summer has got me thinking about what some of the local places meant to Jane Austen. Today’s post, with accompanying photos, is about Jane’s weekend in the attractive village of Wrotham situated eight miles from Sevenoaks, Kent and twenty-seven miles south east of London.
It was mid November 1813. Jane had been at Godmersham for several months, enjoying the luxury of her brother Edward’s estate. He offered to take her back to Chawton, by way of Wrotham, where his sister-in-law, Harriot Moore, née Bridges, lived with her husband, George, the rector of St George’s church. Thus, on Saturday, 13 November, the Knight carriage, with passengers Jane, her niece Fanny, and Edward, proceeded up the long driveway to be warmly received at Court Lodge, the Moore’s spacious and elegant rectory. For the next three days, Jane enjoyed Harriot’s company,[1] admired her handsome home and had a chance to become better acquainted with George Moore.[2]
Fig.1: George Moore, Rector of St George’s Church, Wrotham, Kent
Margaret Wilson, in her article titled “The Rev. George Moore,” notes that “the character of Dr Grant in Mansfield Park is sometimes compared to George Moore, for he also enjoyed a luxurious life style.”[3] I agree there is a similarity between the two men regarding a taste for comfortable living, but there is nothing in Jane’s descriptions of George Moore to suggest he values good food to the extent that the obsessive gourmand, Dr Grant, clearly does. Moreover, Dr Grant blames his wife when the cook is in error, but Jane does not think George Moore censured his wife when the error is someone else’s. She cites as evidence a recent occasion when she and the Moores were together in Canterbury but were kept waiting by a servant who was late bringing the carriage. She describes George Moore as speaking to the servant “in a very loud voice & with a good deal of heat,” but adds “I was pleased he did not scold Harriot at all.”[4]
However, there could be another link with Mansfield Park. As Wilson notes, “in the novel, Jane depicts Henry Crawford trying in vain to persuade Edmund to improve his Parsonage ‘from being the mere gentleman’s residence’ into a house which could ‘receive such an air as to make the owner be set down as the great land-owner of the parish.’”[5] Arguably, George Moore’s attitude to his rectory and its surrounds is reflected in Henry Crawford’s views. During her visit, Jane could see for herself how Moore valued the impression that his property made on others. His past behaviour was further evidence of his priorities.
When Moore was appointed at Wrotham, he acquired the rectory and the wealthy living with its associated rights and glebe lands.[6] However, he found the existing rectory unsatisfactory, even though historian Edward Hasted had recently described it as “a Handsome building … considerably improved of late years.”[7] Using influence to get permission for a replacement (his father was the current Archbishop of Canterbury), Moore hired Samuel Wyatt, brother of the acclaimed architect, James Wyatt, to design a new rectory he named Court Lodge. The house is still standing today.
Fig. 2: The porch of Court Lodge
Fig.3: Court Lodge, built 1802
The entry porch is decorated with fluted Greek columns. On the garden front there is a segmented bay window, behind which Wyatt had added a shallow lead dome. In later years Bagshaw’s Directory described Court Lodge as “a handsome building… beautified with tasteful pleasure gardens and shrubberies.”[8] Moreover, in Moore’s time as rector, the living included considerable agricultural lands, which may have created the impression that he controlled a small estate. It was an impression which would have gratified George Moore, whose attitude may have been captured by Austen in Henry Crawford’s advice to Edmund.
On Sunday, 14 November, Jane was kept busy attending two church services but before she left Wrotham, she might have caught a glimpse of a near by property, even finer than Court Lodge. This was St Clere, the elegant seventeenth century mansion and home of the Evelyn family. It was located west of Wrotham, near the foot of the North Downs hills with extensive views across its surrounding fields and woodlands. William Evelyn, of St Clere and Queens’s Parade, Bath had served as MP for Hythe from 1768 to 1802. He had also been known to the Austen family since at least 1775.[9] Edward Knight had purchased horses from him,[10] and Jane had mixed in the same social circles as the Evelyns in Bath as early as 1799. With all these connections in mind, there would be every reason for wanting to have a look at St Clere before they left the neighbourhood.
Fig. 4: St Clere, built c. 1633
Fig. 5: St Clere from the garden
Jane’s earlier encounters with the elderly Mr Evelyn are recorded in her letters to Cassandra, including a vivid and teasing account dating from 26 May 1801 when she was twenty-five. She wrote: “I assure you inspite of what I might chuse to insinuate in a former letter, that I have seen very little of Mr Evelyn since my coming here; I met him this morning for only the 4th time, & as to my anecdote about Sydney Gardens, ... he only asked me whether I were to be at Sidney Gardens in the evening or not. -- There is now something like an engagement between us & the Phaeton.” On the following day Jane received a note from Mr Evelyn “soon after breakfast” and joined him for a drive “to the top of Kingsdown” in “the very bewitching Phaeton & four.”[11]
Jane’s jaunty description would scarcely cause Cassandra alarm. She knew Mr Evelyn had been a family friend for many years and as Jane wrote: “I really beleive he is very harmless; people do not seem afraid of him here, and he gets Groundsel for his birds and all that.”[12] Her remarks acknowledged his kindness to birds and elsewhere his keen interest in horses is noted: there is no suggestion of any personal attraction on Jane’s part.
However, the fact remains that she had gone for a drive with a much older married man, who in some quarters had been rumoured to have had an adulterous affair with Miss Mary Cassandra Twistleton, a distant cousin of Jane’s through the Leigh family.[13] This contextual information about Evelyn’s amorous history adds another twist to the import of Jane’s drive in the “very bewitching Phaeton.” Austen biographer, Park Honan, thinks that “the significance of the Evelyn incident would not be worth observing, perhaps, if it did not show that her quiet independence allowed her to enjoy the company of an interesting man whose adultery was his concern.”[14] At any rate, the cheeky manner of Jane’s remarks about her drive with Mr. Evelyn appears to suggest that she was well aware that her choice, in the views of others in Bath, might appear to push the boundaries of acceptable genteel behaviour for unmarried young ladies.
We do not know if Jane Austen even got close to St Clere or if she did, whether being in its proximity was enough to trigger fleeting recollections of the pleasure of her outing with Mr Evelyn and the gesture at independence that it portended. Whatever the case, now, twelve years later, Jane had charted a different course for autonomous action. She had become a published writer and her novels were being read and appreciated. She was about to bring Mansfield Park to publication. The weekend at Wrotham would be her last visit to West Kent. In fact, her social visits with relatives became less frequent. From then on, Austen was very involved with her writing. Emma would absorb her time and energies and there was Persuasion yet to come. Her stay in Wrotham was a pleasing pause, an occasion which may have sparked an idea for use in Mansfield Park. In recollection, she most likely remembered it as an interlude of novelty and sociability in a comfortable place.
[1] Jane had been friendly with Harriot for some years. They had recently spent time together at Godmersham where, according to Jane “Harriot [was] quite as pleasant as ever, we [were] very comfortable together, & [talked] over our Nephews and Nieces occasionally as may be supposed.” See Jane to Cassandra, Jane Austen’s Letters, [hereafter Letters] ed. Deirdre Le Faye (1995) no. 94, 245.
[2] In the past George Moore had had a mixed press in his parish. According to Kent historian, Edward Hasted, Moore was so disliked by his parishioners at the time of his wedding to Harriot Bridges in 1806 that they substituted a funeral hymn for the traditional wedding psalm. See Margaret Wilson, “The Rev George Moore,” Jane Austen Society Report, 2004, 360.
[3] See Wilson, 362.
[4] See Letters, no. 94, 245.
[5] See Wilson, 362.
[6] It was worth £1000 a year. Wilson, 362.
[7] See E. Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (Canterbury, 1797) vol. V, 31.
[8] See Wilson, 363.
[9] See the letter from George Austen to his half brother, William Walter, December 1775: “Mr Evelyn is going to treat us to a ploughing match in this neighbourhood on next Tuesday, if the present frost does not continue and prevent it, Kent against Hants for a rump of beef; he sends his own ploughman from St Clair.” Quoted in Terry Townshend, Jane Austen in Kent (2005), 35.
[10] Jane wrote about this to Cassandra, 19 June 1799: “[Edward] made an important purchase…a pair of Coach Horses; his friend Mr Evelyn found them out & recommended them.” Letters, 47.
[11] See Letters 38, 90-91.
[12] See Letters, 91.
[13]According to Park Honan: “as to the man who might be involved with Miss Twisleton’s sexual delight every bit of gossip and suspicion focused on old Mr Evelyn who usually spoke of nothing but horses.” See Jane Austen: Her Life by Park Honan (1997), 173.
[14] See Honan, 173-4.