JANE AUSTEN’S
SAILOR BROTHERS
[Illustration: VICE-ADMIRAL SIR FRANCIS AUSTEN, K.C.B.]
JANE AUSTEN’S
SAILOR BROTHERS
_Being the Adventures of Sir Francis
Austen, G.C.B., Admiral of the Fleet
and Rear-Admiral Charles
Austen By J. H. Hubback
and Edith C. Hubback_
_mdccccvi_
_London: John Lane_
_The Bodley Head, Vigo Street, W._
_New York: John Lane Company_
Printed by BALLANTYNE & CO. LIMITED
Tavistock Street, London
TO M. P. H.
“I HAVE DISCOVERED A THING VERY
LITTLE KNOWN, WHICH IS THAT IN
ONE’S WHOLE LIFE ONE CAN NEVER
HAVE MORE THAN ONE MOTHER.
YOU MAY THINK THIS OBVIOUS.
YOU ARE A GREEN GOSLING!”
PREFACE
Perhaps some apology may be expected on behalf of a book about Jane
Austen, having regard to the number which have already been put before
the public in past years. My own membership of the family is my excuse
for printing a book which contains little original matter, and which
might be described as “a thing of shreds and patches,” if that phrase
were not already over-worked. To me it seems improbable that others
will take a wholly adverse view of what is so much inwoven with all the
traditions of my life. When I recollect my childhood, spent chiefly
in the house of my grandfather, Sir Francis, and all the interests
which accompanied those early days, I find myself once more amongst
those deep and tender distances. Surrounded by reminiscences of the
opening years of the century, the Admiral always cherished the most
affectionate remembrance of the sister who had so soon passed away,
leaving those six precious volumes to be a store of household words
among the family.
How often I call to mind some question or answer, expressed quite
naturally in terms of the novels; sometimes even a conversation would
be carried on entirely appropriate to the matter under discussion, but
the actual phrases were “Aunt Jane’s.” So well, too, do I recollect the
sad news of the death of Admiral Charles Austen, after the capture,
under his command, of Martaban and Rangoon, and while he was leading
his squadron to further successes, fifty-six years having elapsed since
his first sea-fight.
My daughter and I have made free use of the _Letters of Jane Austen_,
published in 1884, by the late Lord Brabourne, and wish to acknowledge
with gratitude the kind permission to quote these letters, given to
us by their present possessor. In a letter of 1813, she speaks of
two nephews who “amuse themselves very comfortably in the evening by
netting; they are each about a rabbit-net, and sit as deedily to it,
side by side, as any two Uncle Franks could do.” In his octogenarian
days Sir Francis was still much interested in this same occupation of
netting, to protect his Morello cherries or currants. It was, in fact,
only laid aside long after his grandsons had been taught to carry it on.
My most hearty thanks are also due to my cousins, who have helped to
provide materials for our work; to Miss M. L. Austen for the loan of
miniatures and silhouettes; to Miss Jane Austen for various letters
and for illustrations; to Commander E. L. Austen for access to logs,
and to official and other letters in large numbers; also to Miss Mary
Austen for the picture of the _Peterel_ in action, and to Mrs. Herbert
Austen, and Captain and Mrs. Willan for excellent portraits of the
Admirals, and to all these, and other members of the family, for much
encouragement in our enterprise.
JOHN H. HUBBACK.
_July 1905._
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. BROTHERS AND SISTERS 1
II. TWO MIDSHIPMEN 15
III. CHANGES AND CHANCES IN THE NAVY 28
IV. PROMOTIONS 41
V. THE “PETEREL” SLOOP 56
VI. THE PATROL OF THE MEDITERRANEAN 78
VII. AT HOME AND ABROAD 94
VIII. BLOCKADING BOULOGNE 111
IX. THE PURSUIT OF VILLENEUVE 130
X. “A MELANCHOLY SITUATION” 147
XI. ST. DOMINGO 164
XII. THE CAPE AND ST. HELENA 180
XIII. STARS AND STRIPES 196
XIV. CHINESE MANDARINS 212
XV. A LETTER FROM JANE 227
XVI. ANOTHER LETTER FROM JANE 243
XVII. THE END OF THE WAR 260
XVIII. TWO ADMIRALS 274
INDEX 287
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Vice-Admiral Sir Francis Austen, K.C.B. (_From a painting
in the possession of Mrs. Herbert Austen_) _Frontispiece_
The Reverend George Austen, Rector of Steventon (_From
a miniature in the possession of Miss M. L. Austen_) 8
Action between the English frigate _Unicorn_ and the French
frigate _La Tribune_, June 8, 1796 (_From a painting in
the possession of Captain Willan, R.N., and Mrs. Willan_).
_By kind permission of Miss Hill_ 22
Francis Austen as Lieutenant (_From a miniature_) 44
Sloop of War and Frigate (_From a pencil sketch by Captain
Herbert Austen, R.N._) 64
_Peterel_ in action with the French brig _La Ligurienne_ after
driving two others on the rocks near Marseilles, on
March 21, 1800 (_From a sketch by Captain Herbert
Austen, R.N., in the possession of Miss Mary Austen_) 84
Topaz Crosses given to Cassandra and Jane by Charles
Austen (_In the possession of Miss Jane Austen_) 92
The Way to Church from Portsdown Lodge (_From a
pencil sketch by Catherine A. Austen_) 108
Mrs. Austen (_From a silhouette in the possession of Miss
M. L. Austen_) 124
Order of Battle and of Sailing, signed Nelson and Bronté,
dated March 26, 1805 132
Order of Battle and of Sailing, signed Nelson and Bronté,
dated June 5, 1805 138
Captain Francis William Austen (_From a miniature of
1806, in the possession of Miss M. L. Austen. The Order
of the C.B. has been painted in at a later date, probably
when conferred in 1815_) 156
“Vice-Admiral Sir Francis Austen, K.C.B.’s writing-desk”
(_From a caricature sketch by his daughter Cassandra,
about 1840_) 174
Cassandra Austen (_From a silhouette in the possession of
Miss M. L. Austen_) 184
Portchester Castle. The French prisoners were interned
in the neighbouring buildings after the Battle of
Vimiera (_From a sketch by Captain Herbert Austen, R.N._) 200
Captain Charles Austen (_From a painting of 1809, in the
possession of Miss Jane Austen_) 210
Jane Austen, from a sketch by her sister Cassandra (_In
the possession of Miss Jane Austen_) 226
Mrs. Charles Austen, _née_ Fanny Palmer, daughter of the
Attorney-General of Bermuda (_From a painting in the
possession of Miss Jane Austen_) 252
Captain Charles Austen, C.B. (_From a painting in the
possession of Captain Willan, R.N., and Mrs. Willan_) 266
Jane Austen’s work-box, with her last piece of work (_In
the possession of Miss Jane Austen_) 270
Memorandum, dated May 12, 1838, signed by Charles
Austen on taking command of the _Bellerophon_ 274
Rear-Admiral Charles Austen, C.B. (_From a miniature
painted at Malta in 1846, in the possession of Miss Jane
Austen_) 278
Sir Francis Austen, G.C.B., Admiral of the Fleet, at the
age of ninety 284
JANE AUSTEN’S SAILOR BROTHERS
CHAPTER I
BROTHERS AND SISTERS
No one can read Jane Austen’s novels, her life, or her letters,
without feeling that to her the ties of family were stronger and more
engrossing than any others.
Among the numbers of men and women who cheerfully sacrifice the claims
of their family in order that they may be free to confer somewhat
doubtful benefits on society, it is refreshing to find one who is the
object of much love and gratitude from countless unknown readers, and
who yet would have been the first to laugh at the notion that her
writing was of more importance than her thought for her brothers and
sister, or the various home duties which fell to her share. It is this
sweetness and wholesomeness of thought, this clear conviction that
her “mission” was to do her duty, that gives her books and letters
their peculiar quality. Her theory of life is clear. Whatever troubles
befall, people must go on doing their work and making the best of it;
and we are not allowed to feel respect, or even overmuch sympathy,
for the characters in the novels who cannot bear this test. There is
a matter-of-courseness about this view which, combined with all that
we know of the other members of the family, gives one the idea that
the children at Steventon had a strict bringing up. This, in fact, was
the case, and a very rich reward was the result. In a family of seven
all turned out well, two rose to the top of their profession, and one
was--Jane Austen.
The fact of her intense devotion to her family could not but influence
her writing. She loved them all so well that she could not help
thinking of them even in the midst of her work; and the more we know
of her surroundings, and the lives of those she loved, the more we
understand of the small joyous touches in her books. She was far too
good an artist, as well as too reticent in nature, to take whole
characters from life; but small characteristics and failings, dwelt
on with humorous partiality, can often be traced back to the natures
of those she loved. Mary Crawford’s brilliant letters to Fanny Price
remind one of Cassandra, who was the “finest comic writer of the
present age.” Charles’ impetuous disposition is exaggerated in Bingley,
who says, “Whatever I do is done in a hurry,” a remark which is
severely reproved by Darcy (and not improbably by Francis Austen), as
an “indirect boast.” Francis himself comes in for his share of teasing
on the opposite point of his extreme neatness, precision, and accuracy.
“They are so neat and careful in all their ways,” says Mrs. Clay, in
“Persuasion,” of the naval profession in general; and nothing could
be more characteristic of Francis Austen and some of his descendants
than the overpowering accuracy with which Edmund Bertram corrects Mary
Crawford’s hasty estimate of the distance in the wood.
“‘I am really not tired, which I almost wonder at; for we must have
walked at least a mile in this wood. Do not you think we have?’
“‘Not half a mile,’ was his sturdy answer; for he was not yet so
much in love as to measure distance, or reckon time, with feminine
lawlessness.
“‘Oh, you do not consider how much we have wound about. We have taken
such a very serpentine course, and the wood itself must be half a mile
long in a straight line, for we have never seen the end of it yet since
we left the first great path.’
“‘But if you remember, before we left that first great path we saw
directly to the end of it. We looked down the whole vista, and saw it
closed by iron gates, and it could not have been more than a furlong in
length.’
“‘Oh, I know nothing of your furlongs, but I am sure it is a very long
wood; and that we have been winding in and out ever since we came into
it; and therefore when I say that we have walked a mile in it I must
speak within compass.’
“‘We have been exactly a quarter of an hour here,’ said Edmund, taking
out his watch. ‘Do you think we are walking four miles an hour?’
“‘Oh, do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or
too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.’
“A few steps farther brought them out at the bottom of the very walk
they had been talking of.
“‘Now, Miss Crawford, if you will look up the walk, you will convince
yourself that it cannot be half a mile long, or half half a mile.’
“‘It is an immense distance,’ said she; ‘I see that with a glance.’
“He still reasoned with her, but in vain. She would not calculate, she
would not compare. She would only smile and assert. The greatest degree
of rational consistency could not have been more engaging, and they
talked with mutual satisfaction.”
It is in “Mansfield Park” and in “Persuasion” that the influence of
her two sailor brothers, Francis and Charles, on Jane Austen’s work
can be most easily traced. Unlike the majority of writers of all time,
from Shakespeare with his “Seacoast of Bohemia” down to the author
of a penny dreadful, Jane Austen never touched, even lightly, on a
subject unless she had a real knowledge of its details. Her pictures
of the life of a country gentleman and of clergymen are accurate, if
not always sympathetic. Perhaps it was all too near her own experience
to have the charm of romance, but concerning sailors she is romantic.
Their very faults are lovable in her eyes, and their lives packed with
interest. When Admiral Croft, Captain Wentworth, or William Price
appears on the scene, the other characters immediately take on a
merely subsidiary interest, and this prominence is always that given
by appreciation. The distinction awarded to Mr. Collins or Mrs. Elton,
as the chief object of ridicule, is of a different nature. The only
instance she cared to give us of a sailor who is not to be admired is
Mary Crawford’s uncle, the Admiral, and even he is allowed to earn our
esteem by disinterested kindness to William Price.
No doubt some of this enthusiasm was due to the spirit of the times,
when, as Edward Ferrars says, “The navy had fashion on its side”;
but that sisterly partiality was a stronger element there can be no
question. Her place in the family was between these two brothers,
Francis just a year older, and Charles some four years younger. Much
has been said about her fondness for “pairs of sisters” in her novels,
but no less striking are the “brother and sister” friendships which
are an important factor in four out of her six books. The love of
Darcy for his sister Georgiana perhaps suggests the intimacy between
James Austen and Jane, where the difference in their ages of ten years,
their common love of books, the advice and encouragement that the elder
brother was able to give his sister over her reading, are all points of
resemblance. The equal terms of the affection of Francis and Jane are
of another type.
Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor, Mrs. Croft and Frederick
Wentworth, give us good instances of firm friendships. In the case
of the Tilneys, confidences are exchanged with ease and freedom; but
in “Persuasion,” the feeling in this respect, as in all others, is
more delicate, and only in the chapter which Jane Austen afterwards
cancelled can we see the quickness of Mrs. Croft’s perceptions where
her brother was concerned. For so long as she supposes him to be on
the brink of marrying Louisa Musgrove, sympathy is no doubt somewhat
difficult to force, but “prompt welcome” is given to Anne as Captain
Wentworth’s chosen wife; and with some knowledge of Mrs. Croft we know
that the “particularly friendly manner” hid a warmth of feeling which
would fully satisfy even Frederick’s notions of the love which Anne
deserved. But it is in “Mansfield Park” that “brothers and sisters”
play the strongest part. No one can possibly doubt the very lively
affection of Mary and Henry Crawford. Even when complaining of the
shortness of his letters, she says that Henry is “exactly what a
brother should be, loves me, consults me, confides in me, and will
talk to me by the hour together”--and the scene later on, where he
tells of his devotion to Fanny Price, is as pretty an account of such
a confidence as can be well imagined, where the worldliness of each
is almost lost in the happiness of disinterested love, which both are
feeling.
When Jane Austen comes to describing Fanny’s love for her brother
William, her tenderness and her humour are in perfect accord. From
the reality of the feelings over his arrival and promotion, to the
quiet hit at the enthusiasm which his deserted chair and cold pork
bones might be supposed to arouse in Fanny’s heart after their early
breakfast, when he was off to London, the picture of sisterly love
is perfect. We are told, too, that there was “an affection on his
side as warm as her own, and much less encumbered by refinement and
self-distrust. She was the first object of his love, but it was a love
which his stronger spirits and bolder temper made it as natural for him
to express as to feel.” So far this describes the love of William and
Fanny, but a few lines further on comes a passage which has the ring of
personal experience. In reading it, it is impossible not to picture a
time which was always of great importance in the life at Steventon--the
return on leave for a few weeks or a few months of one or other of
the sailor brothers, and all the walks and talks which filled up the
pleasant days. “On the morrow they were walking about together with
true enjoyment, and every succeeding morrow renewed the _tête-à-tête_.
Fanny had never known so much felicity in her life as in this
unchecked, equal, fearless intercourse with the brother and friend, who
was opening all his heart to her, telling her all his hopes and fears,
plans and solicitudes respecting that long thought of, dearly earned,
and justly valued blessing of promotion--who was interested in all
the comforts and all the little hardships of her home--and with whom
(perhaps the dearest indulgence of the whole) all the evil and good of
their earliest years could be gone over again, and every former united
pain and pleasure retraced with the fondest recollection.”
Some slight record of the childhood of the Steventon family has been
left to us. Most of the known facts have already been told by admirers
of Jane Austen, but some extracts from an account written by Catherine
Austen in the lifetime of her father, Sir Francis Austen, will at least
have the merit of accuracy, for he would certainly have been merciless
to even the simplest “embroidery.”
[Illustration: THE REVEREND GEORGE AUSTEN IN 1763]
The father, Mr. George Austen, was the rector of Steventon. He was
known in his young days, before his marriage, as “the handsome
tutor,” and he transmitted his good looks to at least three of his
sons; Henry, Francis, and Charles were all exceptionally handsome men.
Indeed, neither wit nor good looks were deficient in the Steventon
family. Probably much of Jane’s simplicity about her writing arose
from the fact that she saw nothing in it to be conceited about, being
perfectly convinced that any of the others, with her leisure and
inclination, could have done just as well. Her father had a gentleness
of disposition combined with a firmness of principle which had great
effect in forming the characters of his family. The mother’s maiden
name was Cassandra Leigh. She was very lively and active, and strict
with her children. It is not difficult to see whence Francis derived
his ideas of discipline, or Jane her unswerving devotion to duty.
The elder members of the family were born at Deane, which was Mr.
Austen’s first living, but in 1771 they moved to Steventon, where they
lived for nearly thirty years.
The account of the house given by Catherine Austen shows the simplicity
of the life.
“The parsonage consisted of three rooms in front on the ground floor,
the best parlour, the common parlour, and the kitchen; behind there
were Mr. Austen’s study, the back kitchen and the stairs; above them
were seven bedrooms and three attics. The rooms were low-pitched but
not otherwise bad, and compared with the usual style of such buildings
it might be considered a very good house.” An eulogy follows on the
plainness and quietness of the family life--a characteristic specially
due to the mother’s influence.
“That she had no taste for expensive show or finery, may be inferred
from the fact being on record that for two years she actually never
had a gown to wear. It was a prevalent custom for ladies to wear
cloth habits, and she having one of red cloth found any other dress
unnecessary. Imagine a beneficed clergyman’s wife in these days
contenting herself with such a costume for two years! But the fact
illustrates the retired style of living that contented her.” Even when
she did find it necessary to provide herself with some other costume,
the riding-habit was made to serve another useful purpose, for it was
cut up into a first cloth suit for little Francis.
The following account of their upbringing closes this slight record:
“There is nothing in which modern manners differ much more from those
of a century back than in the system pursued with regard to children.
They were kept in the nursery, out of the way not only of visitors
but of their parents; they were trusted to hired attendants; they
were allowed a great deal of air and exercise, were kept on plain
food, forced to give way to the comfort of others, accustomed to be
overlooked, slightly regarded, considered of trifling importance. No
well-stocked libraries of varied lore to cheat them into learning
awaited them; no scientific toys, no philosophic amusements enlarged
their minds and wearied their attention.” One wonders what would have
been the verdict of this writer of fifty years ago on education in
1905. She goes on to tell us of the particular system pursued with the
boys in order to harden them for their future work in life. It was
not considered either necessary or agreeable for a woman to be very
strong. “Little Francis was at the age of ten months removed from the
parsonage to a cottage in the village, and placed under the care of
a worthy couple, whose simple style of living, homely dwelling, and
out-of-door habits (for in the country the poor seldom close the door
by day, except in bad weather), must have been very different from the
heated nurseries and constrained existence of the clean, white-frocked
little gentlemen who are now growing up around us. Across the brick
floor of a cottage Francis learnt to walk, and perhaps it was here that
he received the foundation of the excellent constitution which was so
remarkable in after years. It must not, however, be supposed that he
was neglected by his parents; he was constantly visited by them both,
and often taken to the parsonage.”
One cannot but admire the fortitude of parents who would forego the
pleasure of seeing their children learn to walk and satisfy themselves
with daily visits, for the sake of a plan of education of which the
risks cannot have been otherwise than great.
The rough-and-tumble life which followed must have thoroughly suited
the taste of any enterprising boy, and given him an independence of
spirit, and a habit of making his own plans, which would be exactly
what was wanted in the Navy of those days, when a man of twenty-five
might be commander of a vessel manned by discontented, almost mutinous,
sailors, with the chance of an enemy’s ship appearing at any time on
the horizon.
Riding about the country after the hounds began for Francis at the age
of seven; and, from what we hear of Catherine Morland’s childhood, we
feel sure that Jane would not always have been contented to be left
behind.
Catherine, at the age of ten, was “noisy and wild, hated confinement
and cleanliness, and loved nothing so well in the world as rolling down
the green slope at the back of the house.” When she was fourteen, we
are told that she “preferred cricket, base-ball, riding on horseback,
and running about the country, to books--or, at least, books of
information--for, provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be
gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she
had never any objection to books at all!”
This, if not an accurate picture of the tastes of the children at
Steventon, at least shows the sort of amusements which boys and girls
brought up in a country parsonage had at their command.
Perhaps it was of some such recollections that Jane Austen was
thinking when she praised that common tie of childish remembrances.
“An advantage this, a strengthener of love, in which even the conjugal
tie is beneath the fraternal. Children of the same family, the same
blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of
enjoyment in their power which no subsequent connection can supply, and
it must be by a long and unnatural estrangement, by a divorce which
no subsequent connection can justify, if such precious remains of the
earliest attachments are ever entirely outlived. Too often, alas! it
is so. Fraternal love, sometimes almost everything, is at others worse
than nothing. But with William and Fanny Price it was still a sentiment
in all its prime and freshness, wounded by no opposition of interest,
cooled by no separate attachment, and feeling the influence of time
and absence only in its increase.” That it was never Jane’s lot to feel
this cooling of affection on the part of any member of her family is
due not only to their appreciation of their sister, but to the serenity
and adaptability of her own sweet disposition.