o live somewhat
too exclusively within it. They might see in each other much to love and
esteem, and something to admire. The family talk had abundance of spirit
and vivacity, and was never troubled by disagreements even in little
matters, for it was not their habit to dispute or argue with each other:
above all, there was strong family affection and firm union, never to be
broken but by death. It cannot be doubted that all this had its
influence on the author in the construction of her stories, in which a
family party usually supplies the narrow stage, while the interest is
made to revolve round a few actors.

It will be seen also that though her circle of society was small, yet she
found in her neighbourhood persons of good taste and cultivated minds.
Her acquaintance, in fact, constituted the very class from which she took
her imaginary characters, ranging from the member of parliament, or large
landed proprietor, to the young curate or younger midshipman of equally
good family; and I think that the influence of these early associations
may be traced in her writings, especially in two particulars. First,
that she is entirely free from the vulgarity, which is so offensive in
some novels, of dwelling on the outward appendages of wealth or rank, as
if they were things to which the writer was unaccustomed; and, secondly,
that she deals as little with very low as with very high stations in
life. She does not go lower than the Miss Steeles, Mrs. Elton, and John
Thorpe, people of bad taste and underbred manners, such as are actually
found sometimes mingling with better society. She has nothing resembling
the Brangtons, or Mr. Dubster and his friend Tom Hicks, with whom Madame
D'Arblay loved to season her stories, and to produce striking contrasts
to her well bred characters.

[Steventon Parsonage: Parsonage.jpg]

CHAPTER II.

_Description of Steventon--Life at Steventon--Changes of Habits and
Customs in the last Century_.

As the first twenty-five years, more than half of the brief life of Jane
Austen, were spent in the parsonage of Steventon, some description of
that place ought to be given. Steventon is a small rural village upon
the chalk hills of north Hants, situated in a winding valley about seven
miles from Basingstoke. The South-Western railway crosses it by a short
embankment, and, as it curves round, presents a good view of it on the
left hand to those who are travelling down the line, about t