ks of her grandfather's study looking
cheerfully into the sunny garden, 'his own exclusive property, safe
from the bustle of all household cares,' and adds:

'The dining-or common sitting-room looked to the front and was lighted
by two casement windows. On the same side the front door opened into a
smaller parlour, and visitors, who were few and rare, were not a bit the
less welcome to my grandmother because they found her sitting there
busily engaged with her needle,[16] making and mending. In later
times--but not probably until my two aunts had completed their short
course at Mrs. Latournelle's at Reading Abbey, and were living at
home--a sitting-room was made upstairs: "the dressing-room," as they
were pleased to call it, perhaps because it opened into a smaller
chamber in which my two aunts slept. I remember the common-looking
carpet with its chocolate ground, and painted press with shelves above
for books, and Jane's piano, and an oval looking-glass that hung between
the windows; but the charm of the room with its scanty furniture and
cheaply painted walls must have been, for those old enough to understand
it, the flow of native wit, with all the fun and nonsense of a large and
clever family.' Such was the room in which the first versions of _Sense
and Sensibility_ and _Pride and Prejudice_ were composed.

We have anticipated somewhat in describing the Rectory as it appeared
after George Austen's reforms, and when his children were growing up in
it. As it appeared to him and his wife on their arrival, it must have
left much to be desired.

The young couple who now entered upon a home which was to be theirs for
thirty-seven years had many excellent and attractive qualities. George
Austen's handsome, placid, dignified features were an index to his mind.
Serene in temper, devoted to his religion and his family, a good father
and a good scholar, he deserved the love and respect which every
evidence that we have shows him to have gained from his family and his
neighbours. His wife's was a somewhat more positive nature: shrewd and
acute, high-minded and determined, with a strong sense of humour, and
with an energy capable of triumphing over years of indifferent health,
she was ardently attached to her children, and perhaps somewhat proud of
her ancestors. We are told that she was very particular about the shape
of people's noses, having a very aristocratic one herself; but we ought
perhaps to add that she admitted she