1797. The title then
intended for it was 'First Impressions.' 'Sense and Sensibility' was
begun, in its present form, immediately after the completion of the
former, in November 1797 but something similar in story and character had
been written earlier under the title of 'Elinor and Marianne;' and if, as
is probable, a good deal of this earlier production was retained, it must
form the earliest specimen of her writing that has been given to the
world. 'Northanger Abbey,' though not prepared for the press till 1803,
was certainly first composed in 1798.

Amongst the most valuable neighbours of the Austens were Mr. and Mrs.
Lefroy and their family. He was rector of the adjoining parish of Ashe;
she was sister to Sir Egerton Brydges, to whom we are indebted for the
earliest notice of Jane Austen that exists. In his autobiography,
speaking of his visits at Ashe, he writes thus: 'The nearest neighbours
of the Lefroys were the Austens of Steventon. I remember Jane Austen,
the novelist, as a little child. She was very intimate with Mrs. Lefroy,
and much encouraged by her. Her mother was a Miss Leigh, whose paternal
grandmother was sister to the first Duke of Chandos. Mr. Austen was of a
Kentish family, of which several branches have been settled in the Weald
of Kent, and some are still remaining there. When I knew Jane Austen, I
never suspected that she was an authoress; but my eyes told me that she
was fair and handsome, slight and elegant, but with cheeks a little too
full.' One may wish that Sir Egerton had dwelt rather longer on the
subject of these memoirs, instead of being drawn away by his extreme love
for genealogies to her great-grandmother and ancestors. That
great-grandmother however lives in the family records as Mary Brydges, a
daughter of Lord Chandos, married in Westminster Abbey to Theophilus
Leigh of Addlestrop in 1698. When a girl she had received a curious
letter of advice and reproof, written by her mother from Constantinople.
Mary, or 'Poll,' was remaining in England with her grandmother, Lady
Bernard, who seems to have been wealthy and inclined to be too indulgent
to her granddaughter. This letter is given. Any such authentic
document, two hundred years old, dealing with domestic details, must
possess some interest. This is remarkable, not only as a specimen of the
homely language in which ladies of rank then expressed themselves, but
from the sound sense which it contains. Forms of expre