nequivocally
gentlemen, and whose grandsons, occupying the same position in life, may
perhaps be astonished at being told that '_such things were_.'

I have drawn pictures for which my own experience, or what I heard from
others in my youth, have supplied the materials. Of course, they cannot
be universally applicable. Such details varied in various circles, and
were changed very gradually; nor can I pretend to tell how much of what I
have said is descriptive of the family life at Steventon in Jane Austen's
youth. I am sure that the ladies there had nothing to do with the
mysteries of the stew-pot or the preserving-pan; but it is probable that
their way of life differed a little from ours, and would have appeared to
us more homely. It may be that useful articles, which would not now be
produced in drawing-rooms, were hemmed, and marked, and darned in the old-
fashioned parlour. But all this concerned only the outer life; there was
as much cultivation and refinement of mind as now, with probably more
studied courtesy and ceremony of manner to visitors; whilst certainly in
that family literary pursuits were not neglected.

I remember to have heard of only two little things different from modern
customs. One was, that on hunting mornings the young men usually took
their hasty breakfast in the kitchen. The early hour at which hounds
then met may account for this; and probably the custom began, if it did
not end, when they were boys; for they hunted at an early age, in a
scrambling sort of way, upon any pony or donkey that they could procure,
or, in default of such luxuries, on foot. I have been told that Sir
Francis Austen, when seven years old, bought on his own account, it must
be supposed with his father's permission, a pony for a guinea and a half;
and after riding him with great success for two seasons, sold him for a
guinea more. One may wonder how the child could have so much money, and
how the animal could have been obtained for so little. The same
authority informs me that his first cloth suit was made from a scarlet
habit, which, according to the fashion of the times, had been his
mother's usual morning dress. If all this is true, the future admiral of
the British Fleet must have cut a conspicuous figure in the
hunting-field. The other peculiarity was that, when the roads were
dirty, the sisters took long walks in pattens. This defence against wet
and dirt is now seldom seen. The few that remain are