Page:Jane Austen (Sarah Fanny Malden 1889).djvu/21

 from her, Jane most completely. Like her husband, she was of good family; a descendant of the Lord Chandos who was English Ambassador at Constantinople in 1686. The handsome young clergyman (George Austen was noted for his good looks even into extreme old age) settled with his bride at Deane in 1765, and they had a child, though not one of their own, before they went there. Warren Hastings, then of course in India, confided to their charge the son of his first marriage, and the child remained with them until his early death of what was then called "putrid sore throat," probably a form of diphtheria. On this child Mrs. Austen had lavished all a mother's care, and throughout her life she declared that she could not have mourned more for her own child than she did for this adopted little one, though when he died her own nursery was filling fast, for five sons were born at Deane in rapid succession, James, Edward, Henry, Francis, and Charles.

In 1771 the Austen family migrated to Steventon Parsonage, only a drive of a mile and a half from Deane Parsonage, but such a mile and a half! Where now-a-days a smooth lane runs from one village to the other there was then only a cart-track, cut up with fearful ruts, and absolutely impassable for an ordinary gentleman's carriage. Mrs. Austen was unable either to walk or ride the distance, and so, when one of the waggons conveying the family goods had been nearly filled, the remaining space was occupied by a feather bed, upon which she was placed; the beds were then wedged between small pieces of furniture to avoid as much as possible all jolting, and in this manner did the clergyman's wife reach her future home. On January the 9th, 1772, her first daughter was