imagine for how many centuries the ancestors of those
little flowers have occupied that undisturbed, sunny nook, and may think
how few living families can boast of as ancient a tenure of their land.
Large elms protrude their rough branches; old hawthorns shed their annual
blossoms over the graves; and the hollow yew-tree must be at least coeval
with the church.

[Steventon Manor House: ManorHouse.jpg]

But whatever may be the beauties or defects of the surrounding scenery,
this was the residence of Jane Austen for twenty-five years. This was
the cradle of her genius. These were the first objects which inspired
her young heart with a sense of the beauties of nature. In strolls along
those wood-walks, thick-coming fancies rose in her mind, and gradually
assumed the forms in which they came forth to the world. In that simple
church she brought them all into subjection to the piety which ruled her
in life, and supported her in death.

The home at Steventon must have been, for many years, a pleasant and
prosperous one. The family was unbroken by death, and seldom visited by
sorrow. Their situation had some peculiar advantages beyond those of
ordinary rectories. Steventon was a family living. Mr. Knight, the
patron, was also proprietor of nearly the whole parish. He never resided
there, and consequently the rector and his children came to be regarded
in the neighbourhood as a kind of representatives of the family. They
shared with the principal tenant the command of an excellent manor, and
enjoyed, in this reflected way, some of the consideration usually awarded
to landed proprietors. They were not rich, but, aided by Mr. Austen's
powers of teaching, they had enough to afford a good education to their
sons and daughters, to mix in the best society of the neighbourhood, and
to exercise a liberal hospitality to their own relations and friends. A
carriage and a pair of horses were kept. This might imply a higher style
of living in our days than it did in theirs. There were then no assessed
taxes. The carriage, once bought, entailed little further expense; and
the horses probably, like Mr. Bennet's, were often employed on farm work.
Moreover, it should be remembered that a pair of horses in those days
were almost necessary, if ladies were to move about at all; for neither
the condition of the roads nor the style of carriage-building admitted of
any comfortable vehicle being drawn by a single horse. When one look