Early in the year 1816 some family troubles disturbed the usually tranquil course of Jane Austen's life; and it is probable that the inward malady, which was to prove ultimately fatal, was already felt by her; for some distant friends,[11.1] whom she visited in the spring of that year, thought that her health was somewhat impaired, and observed that she went about her old haunts, and recalled old recollections connected with them in a particular manner, as if she did not expect ever to see them again. It is not surprising that, under these circumstances, some of her letters were of a graver tone than had been customary with her, and expressed resignation rather than cheerfulness. In reference to these troubles in a letter to her brother Charles, after mentioning that she had been laid up with an attack of bilious fever, she says: 'I live upstairs for the present and am coddled. I am the only one of the party who has been so silly, but a weak body must excuse weak nerves.' And again, to another correspondent: 'But I am getting too near complaint; it has been the appointment of God, however secondary causes may have operated.' But the elasticity other spirits soon recovered their tone. It was in the latter half of that year that she addressed the two following lively letters to a nephew, one while he was at Winchester School, the other soon after he had left it:
Chawton, ]uly 9, 1816
MY DEAR E.
Many thanks. A thank for every line, and as many to Mr W.
Digweed for corning. We have been wanting very much to hear
of your mother, and are happy to find she continues to mend,
but her illness must have been a very serious one indeed.
When she is really recovered, she ought to try change of
air, and come over to us. Tell your father that I am very
much obliged to him for his share of your letter, and most
sincerely join in the hope of her being eventually much the
better for her present discipline. She has the comfort
moreover of being confined in such weather as gives one
little temptation to be out. It is really too bad, and has
been too bad for a long time, much worse than any one
can bear, and I begin to think it will never be fine
again. This is a finesse of mine, for I have often
observed that if one writes about the weather, it is
generally completely changed before the letter is read. I
wish it may prove so now, and that when Mr W. Digweed
reaches Steventon tomorrow, he may find you have had a long
series of hot dry weather. We are a small party at present,
only grandmamma, Mary Jane, and myself. Yalden's coach
cleared off the rest yesterday. I am glad you recollected to
mention your being come home.[11.2] My heart began to sink
within me when I had got so far through your letter without
its being mentioned. I was dreadfully afraid that you might
be detained at Winchester by severe illness, confined to
your bed perhaps, and quite unable to hold a pen, and only
dating from Steventon in order, with a mistaken sort of
tenderness, to deceive me. But now I have no doubt of your
being at home. I am sure you would not say it so seriously
unless it actually were so. We saw a countless number of
postchaises full of boys pass by yesterday
morning[11.3] -- full of future heroes, legislators, fools,
and villains. You have never thanked me for my last letter,
which went by the cheese. I cannot bear not to be thanked.
You will not pay us a visit yet of course; we must not think
of it. Your mother must get well first, and you must go to
Oxford and not be elected; after that a little change
of scene may be good for you, and your physicians I hope
will order you to the sea, or to a house by the side of a
very considerable pond.[11.4] Oh! it rains again. It beats
against the window. Mary Jane and I have been wet through
once already today; we set off in the donkey-carriage for
Farringdon, as I wanted to see the improvement Mr Woolls is
making, but we were obliged to turn back before we got
there, but not soon enough to avoid a pelter all the way
home. We met Mr Woolls. I talked of its being bad weather
for the hay, and he returned me the comfort of its being
much worse for the wheat. We hear that Mrs S. does not quit
Tangier: why and wherefore? Do you know that our Browning is
gone? You must prepare for a William when you come, a
good-looking lad, civil and quiet, and seeming likely to do.
Good bye. I am sure Mr W.D.[11.5] will be astonished at my
writing so much, for the paper is so thin that he will be
able to count the lines if not to read them.
Yours affecly,
JANE AUSTEN
In the next letter will be found her description of her own style of composition, which has already appeared in the notice prefixed to Northanger Abbey and Persuasion:
Chawton, Monday, Dec. 16th (1816)
MY DEAR E.,
One reason for my writing to you now is, that I may have the
pleasure of directing to you Esqre. I give you
joy of having left Winchester. Now you may own how miserable
you were there; now it will gradually all come out, your
crimes and your miseries -- how often you went up by the Mail
to London and threw away fifty guineas at a tavern, and how
often you were on the point of hanging yourself, restrained
only, as some ill-natured aspersion upon poor old Winton has
it, by the want of a tree within some miles of the city.
Charles Knight and his companions passed through Chawton
about 9 this morning; later than it used to be. Uncle Henry
and I had a glimpse of his handsome face, looking all health
and good humour. I wonder when you will come and see us. I
know what I rather speculate upon, but shall say nothing. We
think uncle Henry in excellent looks. Look at him this
moment, and think so too, if you have not done it before;
and we have the great comfort of seeing decided improvement
in uncle Charles, both as to health, spirits, and
appearance. And they are each of them so agreeable in their
different way, and harmonise so well, that their visit is
thorough enjoyment. Uncle Henry writes very superior
sermons. You and I must try to get hold of one or two, and
put them into our novels: it would be a fine help to a
volume; and we could make our heroine read it aloud on a
Sunday evening, just as well as Isabella Wardour, in the
Antiquary is made to read the History of the Hartz
Demon in the ruins of St Ruth, though I believe, on
recollection, Lovell is the reader. By the bye, my dear E.,
I am quite concerned for the loss your mother mentions in
her letter. Two chapters and a half to be missing is
monstrous! It is well that I have not been at
Steventon lately, and therefore cannot be suspected of
purloining them: two strong twigs and a half towards a nest
of my own would have been something. I do not think,
however, that any theft of that sort would be really very
useful to me. What should I do with your strong, manly,
vigorous sketches, full of variety and glow? How could I
possibly join them on to the little bit (two inches wide) of
ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces
little effect after much labour?
You will hear from uncle Henry how well Anna is. She seems perfectly recovered. Ben was here on Saturday, to ask uncle Charles and me to dine with them, as tomorrow, but I was forced to decline it, the walk is beyond my strength (though I am otherwise very well), and this is not a season for donkey-carriages; and as we do not like to spare uncle Charles, he has declined it too. Tuesday. Ah, ah! Mr E. I doubt your seeing uncle Henry at Steventon today. The weather will prevent your expecting him, I think. Tell your father, with aunt Cass's love and mine, that the pickled cucumbers are extremely good, and tell him also -- 'tell him what you will'. No, don't tell him what you will, but tell him that grandmamma begs him to make Joseph Hall pay his rent, if he can.
You must not be tired of reading the word uncle, for I have not done with it. Uncle Charles thanks your mother for her letter; it was a great pleasure to him to know that the parcel was received and gave so much satisfaction, and he begs her to be so good as to give three shillings for him to Dame Staples, which shall be allowed for in the payment of her debt here.
Adieu, Amiable! I hope Caroline behaves well to you.
Yours affecly,
J. AUSTEN
I cannot tell how soon she was aware of the serious nature of her malady. By God's mercy it was not attended with much suffering; so that she was able to tell her friends as in the foregoing letter, and perhaps sometimes to persuade herself that, excepting want of strength, she was 'otherwise very well'; but the progress of the disease became more and more manifest as the year advanced. The usual walk was at first shortened, and then discontinued; and air was sought in a donkey-carriage. Gradually, too, her habits of activity within the house ceased, and she was obliged to lie down much. The sitting-room contained only one sofa, which was frequently occupied by her mother, who was more than seventy years old. Jane would never use it, even in her mother's absence; but she contrived a sort of couch for herself with two or three chairs, and was pleased to say that this arrangement was more comfortable to her than a real sofa. Her reasons for this might have been left to be guessed, but for the importunities of a little niece, which obliged her to explain that if she herself had shown any inclination to use the sofa, her mother might have scrupled being on it so much as was good for her.
It is certain, however, that the mind did not share in this decay of the bodily strength. Persuasion was not finished before the middle of August in that year; and the manner in which it was then completed affords proof that neither the critical nor the creative powers of the author were at all impaired. The book had been brought to an end in July; and the re-engagement of the hero and heroine effected in a totally different manner in a scene laid at Admiral Croft's lodgings. But her performance did not satisfy her. She thought it tame and flat, and was desirous of producing something better. This weighed upon her mind, the more so probably on account of the weak state of her health; so that one night she retired to rest in very low spirits. But such depression was little in accordance with her nature, and was soon shaken off. The next morning she awoke to more cheeful views and brighter inspirations: the sense of power revived; and imagination resumed its course. She cancelled the condemned chapter, and wrote two others, entirely different, in its stead. The result is that we possess the visit of the Musgrove party to Bath; the crowded and animated scenes at the White Hart Hotel; and the charming conversation between Capt. Harville and Anne Elliot, overheard by Capt. Wentworth, by which the two faithful lovers were at last led to understand each other's feelings. The tenth and eleventh chapters of Persuasion then, rather than the actual winding-up of the story, contain the latest of her printed compositions, her last contribution to the entertainment of the public. Perhaps it may be thought that she has seldom written anything more brilliant; and that, independent of the original manner in which the denouement is brought about, the pictures of Charles Musgrove's goodnatured boyishness and of his wife's jealous selfishness would have been incomplete without these finishing strokes. The cancelled chapter exists in manuscript. It is certainly inferior to the two which were substituted for it: but it was such as some writers and some readers might have been contented with; and it contained touches which scarcely any other hand could have given, the suppression of which may be almost a matter of regret.[11.6]
The following letter was addressed to her friend Miss Bigg, then staying at Streatham with her sister, the wife of the Reverend Herbert Hill, uncle of Robert Southey. It appears to have been written three days before she began her last work, which will be noticed in another chapter; and shows that she was not at that time aware of the serious nature of her malady:
Chawton, January 24,1817
MY DEAR ALETHEA,
I think it time there should be a little writing between us,
though I believe the epistolary debt is on your side,
and I hope this will find all the Streatham party well,
neither carried away by the flood, nor rheumatic through the
damps. Such mild weather is, you know, delightful to
us, and though we have a great many ponds, and a fine
running stream through the meadows on the other side of the
road, it is nothing but what beautifies us and does to talk
of. I have certainly gained strength through the
winter and am not far from being well; and I think I
understand my own case now so much better than I did, as to
be able by care to keep off any serious return of illness. I
am convinced that bile is at the bottom of all I have
suffered, which makes it easy to know how to treat myself.
You will be glad to hear thus much of me, I am sure. We have
just had a few days' visit from Edward, who brought us a
good account of his father, and the very circumstance of his
coming at all, of his father's being able to spare him, is
itself a good account. He grows still, and still improves in
appearance, at least in the estimation of his aunts, who
love him better and better, as they see the sweet temper and
warm affections of the boy confirmed in the young man: I
tried hard to persuade him that he must have some message
for William,[11.7] but in vain... This is not a time of year
for donkey-carriages, and our donkeys are necessarily having
so long a run of luxurious idleness that I suppose we shall
find they have forgotten much of their education when we use
them again. We do not use two at once however; don't imagine
such excesses... Our own new clergyman[11.8] is expected
here very soon, perhaps in time to assist Mr Papillon on
Sunday. I shall be very glad when the first hearing is over.
It will be a nervous hour for our pew, though we hear that
he acquits himself with as much ease and collectedness, as
if he had been used to it all his life. We have no chance we
know of seeing you between Streatham and Winchester: you go
the other road and are engaged to two or three houses; if
there should be any change, however, you know how welcome
you would be... We have been reading the Poet's
Pilgrimage to Waterloo, and generally with much
approbation. Nothing will please all the world, you know;
but parts of it suit me better than much that he has written
before. The opening -- the proem I believe he calls
it -- is very beautiful. Poor man! one cannot but grieve for
the loss of the son so fondly described. Has he at all
recovered it? What do Mr and Mrs Hill know about his present
state?
Yours affly,
J. AUSTEN
The real object of this letter is to ask you for a receipt, but I thought it genteel not to let it appear early. We remember some excellent orange wine at Manydown, made from Seville oranges, entirely or chiefly. I should be very much obliged to you for the receipt, if you can command it within a few weeks.
On the day before, 23 January, she had written to her niece in the same hopeful tone: I feel myself getting stronger than I was, and can so perfectly walk to Alton, or back again without fatigue, that I hope to be able to do both when summer comes.'
Alas! summer came to her only on her death-bed. 17 March is the last date to be found in the manuscript on which she was engaged; and as the watch of the drowned man indicates the time of his death, so does this final date seem to fix the period when her mind could no longer pursue its accustomed course.
And here I cannot do better than quote the words of the niece to whose private records of her aunt's life and character I have been so often indebted:
I do not know how early the alarming symptoms of her malady came on. It was in the following March that I had the first idea of her being seriously ill. It had been settled that about the end of that month, or the beginning of April, I should spend a few days at Chawton, in the absence of my father and mother, who were just then engaged with Mrs Leigh Perrot in arranging her late husband's affairs; but Aunt Jane became too ill to have me in the house, and so I went instead to my sister Mrs Lefroy at Wyards'. The next day we walked over to Chawton to make enquiries after our aunt. She was then keeping her room, but said she would see us, and we went up to her. She was in her dressing gown, and was sitting quite like an invalid in an arm-chair, but she got up and kindly greeted us, and then, pointing to seats which had been arranged for us by the fire, she said, 'There is a chair for the married lady, and a little stool for you, Caroline.'[11.9] It is strange, but those trifling words were the last of hers that I can remember, for I retain no recollection of what was said by anyone in the conversation that ensued. I was struck by the alteration in herself. She was very pale, her voice was weak and low, and there was about her a general appearance of debility and suffering; but I have been told that she never had much acute pain. She was not equal to the exertion of talking to us, and our visit to the sick room was a very short one, Aunt Cassandra soon taking us away. I do not suppose we stayed a quarter of an hour; and I never saw Aunt Jane again.
In May 1817 she was persuaded to remove to Winchester, for the sake of medical advice from Mr Lyford. The Lyfords have, for some generations, maintained a high character in Winchester for medical skill, and the Mr Lyford of that day was a man of more than provincial reputation in whom great London practitioners expressed confidence. Mr Lyford spoke encouragingly. It was not, of course, his business to extinguish hope in his patient, but I believe that he had, from the first, very little expectation of a permanent cure. All that was gained by the removal from home was the satisfaction of having done the best that could be done, together with such alleviations of suffering as superior medical skill could afford.
Jane and her sister Cassandra took lodgings in College Street. They had two kind friends living in the Close, Mrs Heathcote and Miss Bigg, the mother and aunt of the present Sir William Heathcote of Hursley, between whose family and ours a close friendship has existed for several generations. These friends did all that they could to promote the comfort of the sisters, during that sad sojourn in Winchester, both by their society, and by supplying those little conveniences in which a lodging-house was likely to be deficient. It was shortly after settling in these lodgings that she wrote to a nephew the following characteristic letter, no longer, alas! in her former strong, clear hand.
Mrs David's, College St, Winton,
Tuesday, May 27th
There is no better way, my dearest E., of thanking you for
your affectionate concern for me during my illness than by
telling you myself, as soon as possible, that I continue to
get better. I will not boast of my handwriting; neither that
nor my face have yet recovered their proper beauty, but in
other respects I gain strength very fast. I am now out of
bed from 9 in the morning to 10 at night: upon the sofa, it
is true, but I eat my meals with aunt Cassandra in a
rational way, and can employ myself, and walk from one room
to another. Mr Lyford says he will cure me, and if he fails,
I shall draw up a memorial and lay it before the Dean and
Chapter, and have no doubt of redress from that pious,
learned, and disinterested body. Our lodgings are very
comfortable. We have a neat little drawing-room with a bow
window overlooking Dr Gabell's garden.[11.10] Thanks to the
kindness of your father and mother in sending me their
carriage, my journey hither on Saturday was performed with
very little fatigue, and had it been a fine day, I think I
should have felt none; but it distressed me to see uncle
Henry and Wm Knight, who kindly attended us on horseback,
riding in the rain almost the whole way. We expect a visit
from them tomorrow, and hope they will stay the night; and
on Thursday, which is a confirmation and a holiday, we are
to get Charles out to breakfast. We have had but one visit
from him, poor fellow, as he is in sickroom, but he
hopes to be out tonight. We see Mrs Heathcote every day, and
William is to call upon us soon. God bless you, my dear E.
If ever you are ill, may you be as tenderly nursed as I have
been. May the same blessed alleviations of anxious,
sympathising friends be yours: and may you possess, as I
dare say you will, the greatest blessing of all in the
consciousness of not being unworthy of their love. I
could not feel this.
Your very affecte Aunt,
J.A.
The following extract from a letter which has been before printed, written soon after the former, breathes the same spirit of humility and thankfulness:
I will only say further that my dearest sister, my tender, watchful, indefatigable nurse, has not been made ill by her exertions. As to what I owe her, and the anxious affection of all my beloved family on this occasion, I can only cry over it, and pray God to bless them more and more.
Throughout her illness she was nursed by her sister, often assisted by her sister-in-law, my mother. Both were with her when she died. Two of her brothers, who were clergymen, lived near enough to Winchester to be in frequent attendance, and to administer the services suitable for a Christian's death-bed. While she used the language of hope to her correspondents, she was fully aware of her danger, though not appalled by it. It is true that there was much to attach her to life. She was happy in her family; she was just beginning to feel confidence in her own success; and, no doubt, the exercise of her great talents was an enjoyment in itself. We may well believe that she would gladly have lived longer; but she was enabled without dismay or complaint to prepare for death. She was a humble, believing Christian. Her life had been passed in the performance of home duties, and the cultivation of domestic affections, without any self-seeking or craving after applause. She had always sought, as it were by instinct, to promote the happiness of all who came within her influence, and doubtless she had her reward in the peace of mind which was granted her in her last days. Her sweetness of temper never failed. She was ever considerate and grateful to those who attended on her. At times, when she felt rather better, her playfulness of spirit revived, and she amused them even in their sadness. Once, when she thought herself near her end, she said what she imagined might be her last words to those around her, and particularly thanked her sister-in-law for being with her, saying: 'You have always been a kind sister to me, Mary.' When the end at last came, she sank rapidly, and on being asked by her attendants whether there was anything that she wanted, her reply was, 'Nothing but death.' These were her last words. In quietness and peace she breathed her last on the morning of 18 July, 1817.
On the 24th of that month she was buried in Winchester Cathedral, near the centre of the north aisle, almost opposite to the beautiful chantry tomb of William of Wykeham. A large slab of black marble in the pavement marks the place. Her own family only attended the funeral. Her sister returned to her desolated home, there to devote herself, for ten years, to the care of her aged mother; and to live much on the memory of her lost sister, till called many years later to rejoin her. Her brothers went back sorrowing to their several homes. They were very fond and very proud other. They were attached to her by her talents, her virtues, and her engaging manners; and each loved afterwards to fancy a resemblance in some niece or daughter of his own to the dear sister Jane, whose perfect equal they yet never expected to see.
[11.1] The Fowles, of Kintbury, in Berkshire.
[11.2] It seems that her young correspondent, after dating from his home, had been so superfluous as to state in his letter that he was returned home, and thus to have drawn on himself this banter.
[11.3] The road by which many Winchester boys returned home ran close to Chawton Cottage.
[11.4] There was, though it exists no longer, a pond close to Chawton Cottage, at the junction of the Winchester and Gosport roads.
[11.5] Mr Digweed, who conveyed the letters to and from Chawton, was the gentleman named in page [18], as renting the old manor house and the large farm at Steventon.
[11.6] This cancelled chapter is now printed, in compliance with the requests addressed to me from several quarters.
[11.7] Miss Bigg's nephew, the present Sir William Heathcote, of Hursley.
[11.8] Her brother Henry, who had been ordained late in life.
[11.9] The writer was at that time under twelve years old.
[11.10] lt was the corner house at College Street, at the entrance to Commoners.