LETTERS OF JANE AUSTEN
ried Lady Louisa Greville (daughter of the Earl of Warwick), and was Rector of Great Weldon, Northamptonshire, and Chaplain to the Queen. Lady Gordon and Miss Anne Finch were the sisters of the owner of Eastwell Park, the former of whom married Sir Jenison William Gordon, K.C.B., and the latter died unmarried. Goodnestone Farm, to which the first letter was written, and from which Jane afterwards writes, is a comfortable house very near the great house, which has generally been inhabited as a dower house or by some younger member of the Bridges family, to whom it belongs. “Harriot” means Harriet Bridges, as this was the year before she married Mr. Moore. It will be noticed that Jane always has a good word for her when she speaks of her, which, considering the freedom of her general remarks upon her acquaintance, is a high testimony to character, which was doubtless deserved. It must be admitted that my beloved great-aunt was a careless speller. She invariably spells “niece” “neice” in these letters, and in that now before me she spells Lady Bridges’ name “Brydges” twice, which I note to remark that the Goodnestone family spell their name with an “i,” the Wootton family with a “y,” which makes a difference, though I cannot describe it in the same terms as Mr. Justice Haliburton
(Sam Slick) once used to me in the
