Amongst the most valuable neighbours of the Austens were Mr. and Mrs. Lefroy and their family.  He was rector of the adjoining parish of Ashe; she was sister to Sir Egerton Brydges, to whom we are indebted for the earliest notice of Jane Austen that exists.  In his autobiography, speaking of his visits at Ashe, he writes thus:  ’The nearest neighbours of the Lefroys were the Austens of Steventon.  I remember Jane Austen, the novelist, as a little child.  She was very intimate with Mrs. Lefroy, and much encouraged by her.  Her mother was a Miss Leigh, whose paternal grandmother was sister to the first Duke of Chandos.  Mr. Austen was of a Kentish family, of which several branches have been settled in the Weald of Kent, and some are still remaining there.  When I knew Jane Austen, I never suspected that she was an authoress; but my eyes told me that she was fair and handsome, slight and elegant, but with cheeks a little too full.’  One may wish that Sir Egerton had dwelt rather longer on the subject of these memoirs, instead of being drawn away by his extreme love for genealogies to her great-grandmother and ancestors.  That great-grandmother however lives in the family records as Mary Brydges, a daughter of Lord Chandos, married in Westminster Abbey to Theophilus Leigh of Addlestrop in 1698.  When a girl she had received a curious letter of advice and reproof, written by her mother from Constantinople.  Mary, or ‘Poll,’ was remaining in England with her grandmother, Lady Bernard, who seems to have been wealthy and inclined to be too indulgent to her granddaughter.  This letter is given.  Any such authentic document, two hundred years old, dealing with domestic details, must possess some interest.  This is remarkable, not only as a specimen of the homely language in which ladies of rank then expressed themselves, but from the sound sense which it contains.  Forms of expression vary, but good sense and right principles are the same in the nineteenth that they were in the seventeenth century.

   ’MY DEARES POLL,

’Yr letters by Cousin Robbert Serle arrived here not before the 27th of Aprill, yett were they hartily wellcome to us, bringing ye joyful news which a great while we had longed for of my most dear Mother & all other relations & friends good health which I beseech God continue to you all, & as I observe in yrs to yr Sister Betty ye extraordinary kindness of (as I may truly say) the best Mothr & Gnd Mothr in the world in pinching herself to make you fine, so I cannot but admire her great good Housewifry in affording you so very plentifull an allowance, & yett to increase her Stock at the rate I find she hath done; & think I can never sufficiently mind you how very much it is yr duty on all occasions to pay her yr gratitude in all humble submission & obedience to all her commands soe long as you live.  I must tell you ’tis to her bounty & care in ye greatest measure you are like to owe yr well living in this world, & as