succeeded him in the title.
The Marchioness had a light phaeton, drawn by six, and sometimes by eight
little ponies, each pair decreasing in size, and becoming lighter in
colour, through all the grades of dark brown, light brown, bay, and
chestnut, as it was placed farther away from the carriage. The two
leading pairs were managed by two boyish postilions, the two pairs
nearest to the carriage were driven in hand. It was a delight to me to
look down from the window and see this fairy equipage put together; for
the premises of this castle were so contracted that the whole process
went on in the little space that remained of the open square. Like other
fairy works, however, it all proved evanescent. Not only carriage and
ponies, but castle itself, soon vanished away, 'like the baseless fabric
of a vision.' On the death of the Marquis in 1809, the castle was pulled
down. Few probably remember its existence; and any one who might visit
the place now would wonder how it ever could have stood there.

In 1809 Mr. Knight was able to offer his mother the choice of two houses
on his property; one near his usual residence at Godmersham Park in Kent;
the other near Chawton House, his occasional residence in Hampshire. The
latter was chosen; and in that year the mother and daughters, together
with Miss Lloyd, a near connection who lived with them, settled
themselves at Chawton Cottage.

Chawton may be called the _second_, as well as the _last_ home of Jane
Austen; for during the temporary residences of the party at Bath and
Southampton she was only a sojourner in a strange land; but here she
found a real home amongst her own people. It so happened that during her
residence at Chawton circumstances brought several of her brothers and
their families within easy distance of the house. Chawton must also be
considered the place most closely connected with her career as a writer;
for there it was that, in the maturity of her mind, she either wrote or
rearranged, and prepared for publication the books by which she has
become known to the world. This was the home where, after a few years,
while still in the prime of life, she began to droop and wither away, and
which she left only in the last stage of her illness, yielding to the
persuasion of friends hoping against hope.

[Chawton Church: ChawtonChurch.jpg]

This house stood in the village of Chawton, about a mile from Alton, on
the right hand side, just where the road to Win