Page:A memoir of Jane Austen (Fourth Edition).pdf/159

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had been prolonged. I have the authority of his sister, Lady Trevelyan, for stating that he had intended to undertake the task upon which I have ventured. He purposed to write a memoir of Miss Austen, with criticisms on her works, to prefix it to a new edition of her novels, and from the proceeds of the sale to ercct a monument to her memory in Winchester Cathedral. Oh! that such an idea had been realised! That portion of the plan in which Lord Macaulay's success would have been most certain might have been almost sufficient for his object. A memoir written by him would have been a monument. I am kindly permitted by Sir Henry Holland to give the following quotation from his printed but unpublished recollections of his past life :---

'I have the picture still before me of Lord Holland lying on his bed, when attacked with gout, his ad- mirable sister, Miss Fox, beside him reading aloud, as she always did on these occasions, some one of Miss Austen's novels, of which he was never wearied. I well recollect the time when these charming novels, almost unique in their style of humour, burst suddenly on the world. It was sad that their writer did not live to witness the growth of her fame.' My brother-in-law, Sir Denis Le Marchant, has supplied me with the following anecdotes from his own recollections:-

'When I was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Mr. Whewell, then a Fellow and afterwards Master of the College, often spoke to me with ad-