r upon Dr. Russell's death, in
January 1783, his widow and daughter removed from the neighbourhood, so
that all intercourse between the families ceased when Jane was little
more than seven years old.

All persons who undertake to narrate from hearsay things which are
supposed to have taken place before they were born are liable to error,
and are apt to call in imagination to the aid of memory: and hence it
arises that many a fancy piece has been substituted for genuine history.

I do not care to correct the inaccurate account of Jane Austen's manners
in after life: because Miss Mitford candidly expresses a doubt whether
she had not been misinformed on that point.

_Nov_. 17, 1869.

NOTES.

{0a} _The Watsons_ and _Lady Susan_ are not included in this reprint.

{1} I went to represent my father, who was too unwell to attend himself,
and thus I was the only one of my generation present.

{3} My chief assistants have been my sisters, Mrs. B. Lefroy and Miss
Austen, whose recollections of our aunt are, on some points, more vivid
than my own. I have not only been indebted to their memory for facts,
but have sometimes used their words. Indeed some passages towards the
end of the work were entirely written by the latter.

I have also to thank some of my cousins, and especially the daughters of
Admiral Charles Austen, for the use of letters and papers which had
passed into their hands, without which this Memoir, scanty as it is,
could not have been written.

{5} There seems to have been some doubt as to the validity of this
election; for Hearne says that it was referred to the Visitor, who
confirmed it. (Hearne's _Diaries_, v.2.)

{6} Mrs. Thrale writes Dr. _Lee_, but there can be no doubt of the
identity of person.

{31} The celebrated Beau Brummel, who was so intimate with George IV. as
to be able to quarrel with him, was born in 1771. It is reported that
when he was questioned about his parents, he replied that it was long
since he had heard of them, but that he imagined the worthy couple must
have cut their own throats by that time, because when he last saw them
they were eating peas with their knives. Yet Brummel's father had
probably lived in good society; and was certainly able to put his son
into a fashionable regiment, and to leave him 30,000 pounds. {31a} Raikes
believes that he had been Secretary to Lord North. Thackeray's idea that
he had been a footman cannot stand against the autho