treet.

[299] Mr. Murray's 'reader' on this occasion was evidently William
Gifford, the editor of the _Quarterly Review_, who writes under date
Sept. 29, 1815: 'Of _Emma_ I have nothing but good to say. I was sure of
the writer before you mentioned her. The MS. though plainly written has
yet some, indeed many little omissions, and an expression may now and
then be amended in passing through the press. I will readily undertake
the revision.' _Memoir of John Murray_ by Samuel Smiles (1891), vol. i.
p. 282.

[300] The present Mr. John Murray kindly informs us that the original
edition of _Emma_ consisted of 2000 copies, of which 1250 were sold
within a year.

[301] (?) _The Field of Waterloo_, by Sir Walter Scott.

[302] _Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk_; or possibly John Scott's _Paris
Revisited in 1815_.

[303] The printer.

[304] _A narrative of the events which have lately taken place in
France_, by Helen Maria Williams. London, 1815.

[305] These included a set to Miss Edgeworth (_Life and Letters of Maria
Edgeworth_, edited by A. J. C. Hare (1894), vol. i. p. 235), and another
to Lady Morley, a clever woman, to whom _Sense and Sensibility_ and
_Pride and Prejudice_ had at one time been ascribed (_Life of M. R.
Mitford_, by the Rev. A. G. L'Estrange, vol. i. p. 241).

[306] Unfortunately, most of the worst misprints remained in the new
edition, while certain new ones were added.

[307] _Memoir_, pp. 122-4.

[308] _Life of King James II, from the Stuart MSS. in Carlton House_,
published 1816.

[309] At Brighton.

[310] Published, 1804.

CHAPTER XVIII

_PERSUASION_

1815-1816

So far as we know, Jane went to London in 1815 perfectly sound in
health. Her remark to Cassandra on her enjoyment of the muggy,
unwholesome weather is written with the security of a person accustomed
to be free from bodily ailments, and expecting that condition of things
to continue. But, alas! we must look upon this visit, which seemed to
mark the highest point in her modest fame, as marking also a downward
stage in her career as regards both prosperity and health. Perhaps the
excitement of the publication of _Emma_, and probably the close
attention on the sick-bed of her brother which coincided with
it--possibly even the muggy weather which she praised so
highly--combined to diminish her vigour, and to sow the seeds of a
disease, the exact nature of which no one seems ever to have been able
to determine. These, ho