Chapter 6

_Early Compositions--Friends at Ashe--A very old Letter--Lines on the Death of Mrs. Lefroy--Observations on Jane Austen's Letter-writing--Letters_.

I know little of Jane Austen's childhood. Her mother followed a custom, not unusual in those days, though it seems strange to us, of putting out her babies to be nursed in a cottage in the village. The infant was daily visited by one or both of its parents, and frequently brought to them at the parsonage, but the cottage was its home, and must have remained so till it was old enough to run about and talk; for I know that one of them, in after life, used to speak of his foster mother as 'Movie,' the name by which he had called her in his infancy. It may be that the contrast between the parsonage house and the best class of cottages was not quite so extreme then as it would be now, that the one was somewhat less luxurious, and the other less squalid. It would certainly seem from the results that it was a wholesome and invigorating system, for the children were all strong and healthy. Jane was probably treated like the rest in this respect. In childhood every available opportunity of instruction was made use of. According to the ideas of the time, she was well educated, though not highly accomplished, and she certainly enjoyed that important element of mental training, associating at home with persons of cultivated intellect. It cannot be doubted that her early years were bright and happy, living, as she did, with indulgent parents, in a cheerful home, not without agreeable variety of society. To these sources of enjoyment must be added the first stirrings of talent within her, and the absorbing interest of original composition. It is impossible to say at how early an age she began to write. There are copy books extant containing tales some of which must have been composed while she was a young girl, as they had amounted to a considerable number by the time she was sixteen. Her earliest stories are of a slight and flimsy texture, and are generally intended to be nonsensical, but the nonsense has much spirit in it. They are usually preceded by a dedication of mock solemnity to some one of her family. It would seem that the grandiloquent dedications prevalent in those days had not escaped her youthful penetration. Perhaps the most characteristic feature in these early productions is that, however puerile the matter, they are always composed in pure simple English, quite free from the over- ornamented style which might be expected from so young a writer. One of her juvenile effusions is given, as a specimen of the kind of transitory amusement which Jane was continually supplying to the family party.

THE MYSTERY. AN UNFINISHED COMEDY.

DEDICATION.

TO THE REV. GEORGE AUSTEN.

SIR,--I humbly solicit your patronage to the following Comedy, which, though an unfinished one, is, I flatter myself, as complete a _Mystery_ as any of its kind.

I am, Sir, your most humble Servant, THE AUTHOR.

THE MYSTERY, A COMEDY.

_DRAMATIS PERSONAE_.

_Men_. _Women_. Col. ELLIOTT. FANNY ELLIOTT. OLD HUMBUG. Mrs. HUMBUG YOUNG HUMBUG. _and_ Sir Edward Spangle Daphne. and Corydon.