Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers - J. H. Hubback (novels for students txt) 📗

DURING the cruises of the Canopus, we have only one letter from Jane Austen with any mention of Frank, and that is before his disappointment of Trafalgar, or his success at St. Domingo. The full quotation serves to show some of the difficulties of correspondence. She writes to Cassandra “I have been used very ill this morning. I have received a letter from Frank which I ought to have had when Elizabeth and Henry had theirs, and which in its way from Albany to Godmersham has been to Dover and Steventon. It was finished on the i-th, and tells what theirs told before as to his present situation; he is in a great hurry to be married, and I have encouraged him in it, in the letter which ought to have been an answer to his. He must think it very strange that I do not acknowledge the receipt of his, when I speak of those of the same date to Eliz and Henry, and to add to my injuries, I forgot to number mine on the outside.” This plan of numbering was a certain safeguard against misunderstandings, as it made it easy to find out if a letter had been lost. The “present situation” was that off Ushant, after the chase of Villeneuve across the Atlantic, and before the orders to return southward had been received.

In July 1806, Francis was married to Mary Gibson, known hereafter by her sisters-in-law as “Mrs. F. A.” to distinguish her from the other Mary, “Mrs. J. A.”

Among the many social functions subjected to Jane Austen’s criticism, it is not likely that the absurdities of a fashionable marriage would escape her attention. The subject is treated with more than ordinary severity in “Mansfield Park”—“It was a very proper wedding. The bride was elegantly dressed, the two bridesmaids were duly inferior, her father gave her away, her mother stood with salts in her hand, expecting to be agitated, her aunt tried to cry, and the service was impressively read by Dr. Grant. Nothing could be objected to, when it came under the discussion of the neighbourhood, except that the carriage which conveyed the bride and bridegroom and Julia from the Church door to Sotherton was the same chaise which Mr. Rushworth had used for a twelvemonth before. In every thing else the etiquette of the day might stand the strictest investigation.”

Such was Jane Austen’s comment on the worldly marriage. Her estimate of her own brother’s wedding may be better gathered from the account of that of Mr. Knightly and Emma.

“The wedding was very much like other weddings, where the parties have no taste for finery and parade; and Mrs. Elton, from the particulars detailed by her husband, thought it all extremely shabby, and very inferior to her own, ‘very little white satin, very few lace veils; a most pitiful business. Selina would stare when she heard of it.’ But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.”

From the time of his marriage till the following April, Francis was free to spend his time with his wife at Southampton, where they were settling not far from the house where his mother and sisters now lived.

This time was evidently a very pleasant one for Jane. She makes several mentions of Frank and his wife and their common pursuits in her letters to Cassandra.

“We did not take our walk on Friday, it was too dirty, nor have we yet done it; we may perhaps do something like it to-day, as after seeing Frank skate, which he hopes to do in the meadows by the beach, we are to treat ourselves with a passage over the ferry. It is one of the pleasantest frosts I ever knew, so very quiet. I hope it will last some time longer for Frank’s sake, who is quite anxious to get some skating; he tried yesterday, but it would not do.

“Our acquaintance increase too fast. He was recognised lately by Admiral Bertie, and a few days since arrived the Admiral and his daughter Catherine to wait upon us. There was nothing to like or dislike in either. To the Berties are to be added the Lances, with whose cards we have been endowed, and whose visit Frank and I returned yesterday. They live about a mile and three-quarters from S., to the right of the new road to Portsmouth, and I believe their house is one of those which are to be seen from almost anywhere among the woods on the other side of the Itchen. It is a handsome building, stands high, and in a very beautiful situation.”

The next letter is an answer to one from Cassandra delaying her return, evidently a matter of regret to the whole household.

“Frank and Mary cannot at all approve of your not being at home in time to help them in their finishing purchases, and desire me to say that, if you are not, they will be as spiteful as possible, and choose everything in the style most likely to vex you—knives that will not cut, glasses that will not hold, a sofa without a seat, and bookcase without shelves. But I must tell you a story. Mary had for some time had notice from Mrs. Dickson of the intended arrival of a certain Miss Fowler in this place. Miss F. is an intimate friend of Mrs. D., and a good deal known as such to Mary. On Thursday last she called here while we were out. Mary found, on our return, her card with only her name on it, and she had left word that she would call again. The particularity of this made us talk, and, among other conjectures, Frank said in joke, ‘I dare say she is staying with the Pearsons.’ The connection of the names struck Mary, and she immediately recollected Miss Fowler’s having been very intimate with persons so called, and, upon putting everything together, we have scarcely a doubt of her actually being staying with the only family in the place whom we cannot visit.

“What a contretemps!—in the language of France. What an unluckiness!—in that of Madame Duval. The black gentleman has certainly employed one of his menial imps to bring about this complete, though trifling mischief. Miss Fowler has never called again, but we are in daily expectation of it. Miss P. has, of course, given her a proper understanding of the business. It is evident that Miss F. did not expect or wish to have the visit returned, and Francis is quite as much on his guard for his wife as we could for her sake or our own.”

What the mysterious disagreement with the Pearson family may have been it is impossible to tell. That it caused more amusement than heartburn is clear, but Jane was always an adept, as she says herself at constructing “a smartish letter, considering the want of materials.”

The next we hear of Frank (beyond the fact that he has “got a very bad cold, for an Austen; but it does not disable him from making very nice fringe for the drawing-room curtains”) is on the question of his further employment. He was very anxious indeed to get into a frigate, but feared that the death of Lord Nelson, who knew of his desire, would seriously damage his chances of getting what he wanted. Jane writes: “Frank’s going into Kent depends of course upon his being unemployed; but as the First Lord, after promising Lord Moira that Captain A. should have the first good frigate that was vacant, has since given away two or three fine ones, he has no particular reason to expect an appointment now. He, however, has scarcely spoken about the Kentish journey. I have my information chiefly from her, and she considers her own going thither as more certain if he should be at sea than if not.” This was in February 1807. Mrs. Frank Austen was very soon to feel the loneliness of a sailor’s wife. In