Page:Austen Lady Susan Watson Letters.djvu/229

 INTRODUCTION

is right that some explanation should be given of the manner in which the letters now published came into my possession.

The Rev. J. E. Austen Leigh, nephew to Jane Austen, and first cousin to my mother Lady Knatchbull, published in 1869 a “Memoir” of his aunt, and supplemented it by a second and enlarged edition in the following year, to which he added the hitherto unpublished tale, “Lady Susan,” for the publication of which he states in his preface that he had “lately received permission from the author’s niece, Lady Knatchbull, of Provender, in Kent, to whom the autograph copy was given.” It seems that the autograph copy of another unpublished tale, “The Watsons,” had been given to Mr. Austen Leigh’s half-sister, Mrs. Lefroy, and that each recipient took a copy of what was given to the other, by which means Mr. Austen Leigh became acquainted with the existence and contents of “Lady Susan,” and knowing that it was the property of my mother, wrote to ask her permission to attach it to, and publish it with, the second edition of his Rh