year, Edward and all his family took the name of Knight[234]: a name
which had been borne by every successive owner of the Chawton Estate
since the sixteenth century. In June, Jane went with her mother to stay
for a fortnight at Steventon Rectory--the last visit ever paid by Mrs.
Austen to any place. When she determined never to leave home again, she
said that her latest visit should be to her eldest son. Accordingly she
went, and took a final farewell of the place where nearly the whole of
her married life had been spent. She was then seventy-two years old,
and lived on for sixteen more; but she kept her resolution and never
again left Chawton Cottage for a single night. Her long survival can
hardly have been expected by those who had to nurse her through frequent
fits of illness; but these ailments do not seem to have been of the sort
that kills. She was, however, always ready to contemplate the near
approach of death both for herself and others; for in July 1811, after
buying some bombazine in which to mourn for the poor King, she said: 'If
I outlive him it will answer my purpose; if I do not, somebody may mourn
for me in it: it will be wanted for one or the other, I dare say, before
the moths have eaten it up.' As it happened, the King lived nine more
years, and Mrs. Austen sixteen; and it was the lot of the latter to lose
two children before her own time came. When Jane died in 1817, the
health of her eldest brother, James, was failing, and two years and a
half later he died. His mother lived on; but during the last years of
her life she endured continual pain not only patiently but with
characteristic cheerfulness. She once said to her grandson, Edward
Austen: 'Ah, my dear, you find me just where you left me--on the sofa. I
sometimes think that God Almighty must have forgotten me; but I dare say
He will come for me in His own good time.'[235]

Our letters recommence in January 1813--almost at the exact date of the
publication of _Pride and Prejudice_--a date which will seem to many
people the central point in Jane Austen's life. She appeared, indeed, to
be rather of that opinion herself, so far as her modest, unassuming
nature would allow her to attribute importance to one of her own works.
She calls it her 'darling child,' and does not know how she can
tolerate people who will not care at least for Elizabeth. But we had
better let her speak for herself. The first of the following
letters[236] was written before t