Jane Austen (7 page)

Jane is not averse to poking fun at the matrimonial state. For example, in
Frederic & Elfrida
, Charlotte enters into a matrimonial engagement with two gentlemen at the same time; in
The Adventures of Mr Harley
, Harley, having been absent from England for half a year, finds himself in a stagecoach travelling to Hogsworth Green, ‘the seat of Emma’. In the stagecoach with him are ‘a man without a Hat, Another with two, An old maid & a young Wife [of] about 17 with fine dark Eyes & an elegant Shape’. It was then that Harley remembers that this latter person was ‘his Emma [whom] he had married … a few weeks before he left England’.

Even in her twenties Jane continued to write amusingly about love and marriage – in fact, she was to do so all her life, both in her novels and in her letters. On 5 September 1796, for instance, she beseeches Cassandra to:

(Dr Marchmont is a fictitious character in Frances (‘Fanny’) Burney’s novel
Camilla
, or
A
Picture of Youth
, who interfered in the relationship between Camilla and her young gentleman friend).

On 15 and 16 of the same month, Jane writes to Cassandra skittishly:

It is impossible for the independent observer not to find similarities, both of style and of content, in the works of Jane Austen and her cousin Eliza. In both are to be found scintillating wit, together with a readiness to ridicule antiquated traditions, conventions or views. And just as Eliza has the refreshing ability to make a joke at her own expense, so Jane does likewise, albeit vicariously through the characters of her novels. All this is set against a background of literary knowledge. (Eliza, like Jane, was well versed in poetry, quoting, for example, in her letters to Phylly, from Alexander Pope and Matthew Prior. She was also familiar with the plays of Shakespeare and the operas of Mozart).
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One may imagine Eliza at Steventon, sharing Jane’s sense of humour and acting as a catalyst by giving Jane the confidence to write uninhibitedly about situations which she found to be interesting, amusing or absurd. Indeed, it may not be too much of an exaggeration to say that Jane modelled herself, to some extent in her writing, on Eliza.

It appears that Eliza not only had a profound effect on Jane, but also on her brothers James and Henry, both of whom are alleged to have fallen in love with her. But when Henry proposed to her in 1795, she refused him.

In a letter to her sister Cassandra dated 9/10 January 1796, Jane, in her first sentence, mentions the fact that yesterday was Tom’s birthday. The ‘Tom’ referred to was Thomas Langlois Lefroy and it was, in fact, his 20th birthday – Jane having celebrated her 20th birthday in the previous month of December (1795).

The Lefroy family, which was of Huguenot decent, had settled in Kent in the late sixteenth century. Tom’s father, Antony Peter Lefroy, was an army officer. He was not a wealthy man and his commission had been purchased for him by his maternal uncles of the name Langlois. Anthony was stationed in Ireland where, in 1765, he married Anne Gardiner, daughter of a local squire. The couple had ten children; Tom being the eldest of five sons.

Jane Austen had first met Tom Lefroy in the autumn or winter of 1796 when he was staying with his uncle the Revd (Isaac Peter) George Lefroy and aunt Anne (
née
Bridges) at Ashe, a village 2 miles north of Steventon. The Revd George Lefroy was also indebted to his forebears for it was his uncle, the wealthy diplomat Benjamin Langlois, who had purchased for him his livings of Ashe and Compton, which he held in plurality.

The Lefroys had arrived in Hampshire from Surrey in 1783 (when Jane Austen was only 8 years old). Mrs Lefroy was a philanthropist with a great interest in public health and social work. She also loved to host social events, and she and Jane became great
friends, despite a disparity in their ages of twenty-six years. When Jane first met him, Tom Lefroy had just completed his law studies at Trinity College, Dublin – his great-uncle Benjamin Langlois having provided the funds for his education. Tom was shortly to enter Lincoln’s Inn, one of London’s four Inns of Court to which barristers belonged and from which they were called to the Bar. Jane’s introduction to Tom was an event which was to change her life, at first for better, and shortly afterwards, for worse.

In her above-mentioned letter to Cassandra, Jane goes on to describe ‘an exceedingly good ball’ which she had attended the previous evening, and declares that she is almost afraid to tell her sister:

Jane declares that she can expose [i.e. make a spectacle of] herself in this fashion only once more because Tom is due to leave the country very shortly.

She assures Cassandra that Tom is a ‘very gentlemanlike, good looking, pleasant young man’. She had encountered him at three previous balls, but apart from this, they had not met. Jane now makes a very telling comment that Tom:

Why, it may be asked, did the household at Ashe laugh excessively about Jane, and why was Tom so ashamed of coming to Steventon?

Jane goes on to say that since the ball she has been visited by Tom and by his cousin George. George was aged 13 and Jane comments that he is ‘really well-behaved now’, implying that perhaps he had not been well-behaved on previous occasions! As for Tom, Jane declares that he has ‘but one fault’, which was that his morning coat was ‘a great deal too light’. Jane believed that Tom had chosen a coat that was light in colour deliberately, because he was imitating Tom Jones (the novelist Henry Fielding’s character in the book of that name) whom he greatly admired and who was wearing a white-coloured coat when he was wounded.

A few days later, on 14 January 1796, Jane writes again to Cassandra. The following evening there was to be a gathering at Ashe:

The ‘offer’ clearly refers to an offer of marriage which Jane hopes to receive – undoubtedly from Tom Lefroy. For her, this is a most serious matter and yet, as is so often the case, she jokingly pretends that it is not.

Jane’s letter to Cassandra is full of hope and expectation. She tells her sister that she is prepared to dispense with all her ‘other admirers’ and ‘even the kiss which C. Powlett [the Reverend Charles Powlett] wanted to give me, as I mean to confine myself in future to Mr Tom Lefroy, for whom I do not care sixpence’.

This latter comment was, again, said tongue-in-cheek, for as will be seen, Jane cared for Tom a great deal. When she completes the letter the following day, however, she is in the depths
of despair; all her hopes having been dashed, for after that gathering on Friday night at Ashe she would never see Tom Lefroy again. She writes, sorrowfully:

Here, for once, Jane is unable to disguise her feelings by making light of the situation. So why had Tom left under such unhappy circumstances? The answer was given, many years later, by Caroline Austen (daughter of Jane’s eldest brother James, by his second wife Mary Lloyd) in a letter that she wrote to her brother James E. Austen-Leigh. (Caroline said that her remarks were based upon what her mother had told her).

On 17 November 1798 Jane told Cassandra of a conversation she had had with Mrs Lefroy in which, ‘of her nephew [Tom] she said nothing at all …’. In fact, Mrs Lefroy mentioned Tom’s name only once, but even when she did, Jane was ‘too proud to make any enquiries’. Afterwards, however, Jane learnt from her father that Tom ‘was gone back to London in [on] his way to Ireland, where he is called to the Bar and means to practise’.
2
(Tom had been called to the Irish Bar in the previous year, 1797, after which he practised law in Dublin).

Caroline Austen declared that when Tom did finally marry (in 1799) it was to ‘an Irish lady – who certainly had the convenience
of money …’. The lady referred to was Mary Paul, the sister of a friend of Tom’s from college, who would bear him nine children. Caroline also stated that there had never been an engagement between Tom and Jane.
3
Helen Lefroy, in an article entitled
Strangers
which was published by the Jane Austen Society in 1982, begs to differ in respect of Mary Paul’s financial situation. ‘Mary,’ she said, ‘brought no great dowry to the marriage’. (Mary did, however, inherit the estate of Siversprings, County Wexford, on the unexpected death of her brother).
4
In 1852, Tom Lefroy became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland – a post which he held until his retirement at the age of 91.

Did Tom really intend to propose to Jane on that January evening in 1796, as she herself believed? If so, did Mrs Lefroy get wind of the fact, and was this why she packed him off to London in so summary a fashion? Whatever Mrs Lefroy and her husband, the Revd George Lefroy’s thoughts and feelings on the matter may have been, they were well aware of the importance of acting in accordance with the wishes of Tom’s family. Tom’s parents, for example, surely hoped that their son would find a person of a higher social status than Jane – the daughter of a humble schoolmaster turned clergyman – to marry. And had not the wealthy Benjamin Langlois (Tom’s great-uncle, to whom he was indebted for his education) purchased for Mrs Lefroy’s husband his living at Ashe? Certainly, it would be most unwise to risk offending either of these two parties.

Perhaps Jane realised the predicament in which Mrs Lefroy found herself. In any event, she does not appear to have blamed Mrs Lefroy and the pair continued to be firm friends.
Nevertheless, it is surely no coincidence that in Jane’s subsequent novels there can be found the theme of a rigid social class system, combined with interfering relatives or friends, being an impediment to the love and affection which two people feel for one another.

When, on 5 September 1796, Jane writes to Cassandra describing how she has dined at Goodnestone Park near Canterbury in Kent – the home of the Bridges family – there are indications that she has become attracted to another would-be suitor. At Goodnestone, Jane opened a ball with (Brook) Edward Bridges, the fourth son of the family.
5
(It will be remembered that in December 1791, Jane’s brother Edward had married Edward Bridges’ sister Elizabeth).

The next reference by Jane to Edward Bridges comes on 27 August 1805, when she writes to Cassandra from Goodnestone Farm to say that Edward (who is now Curate of Goodnestone) has arrived, unexpectedly, for dinner. She says:

When three years later, on 20 November 1808, Jane writes to Cassandra again, it is clear that the situation has completely changed. She says:

Clearly, the ‘news’ to which Jane refers is the engagement of Edward Bridges – now Rector of Bonnington, Kent – to Harriet Foote. The following year, 1809, Edward and Harriet were duly married.