’P.S.—­Thy ffathr & I send thee our blessing, & all thy brothrs & sistrs theyr service.  Our harty & affectionate service to my brothr & sistr Childe & all my dear cozens.  When you see my Lady Worster & cozen Howlands pray present thm my most humble service.’

This letter shows that the wealth acquired by trade was already manifesting itself in contrast with the straitened circumstances of some of the nobility.  Mary Brydges’s ‘poor ffather,’ in whose household economy was necessary, was the King of England’s ambassador at Constantinople; the grandmother, who lived in ’great plenty and splendour,’ was the widow of a Turkey merchant.  But then, as now, it would seem, rank had the power of attracting and absorbing wealth.

At Ashe also Jane became acquainted with a member of the Lefroy family, who was still living when I began these memoirs, a few months ago; the Right Hon. Thomas Lefroy, late Chief Justice of Ireland.  One must look back more than seventy years to reach the time when these two bright young persons were, for a short time, intimately acquainted with each other, and then separated on their several courses, never to meet again; both destined to attain some distinction in their different ways, one to survive the other for more than half a century, yet in his extreme old age to remember and speak, as he sometimes did, of his former companion, as one to be much admired, and not easily forgotten by those who had ever known her.

Mrs. Lefroy herself was a remarkable person.  Her rare endowments of goodness, talents, graceful person, and engaging manners, were sufficient to secure her a prominent place in any society into which she was thrown; while her enthusiastic eagerness of disposition rendered her especially attractive to a clever and lively girl.  She was killed by a fall from her horse on Jane’s birthday, Dec. 16, 1804.  The following lines to her memory were written by Jane four years afterwards, when she was thirty-three years old.  They are given, not for their merits as poetry, but to show how deep and lasting was the impression made by the elder friend on the mind of the younger:—­

   TO THE MEMORY OF MRS. LEFROY.

   1.

   The day returns again, my natal day;
      What mix’d emotions in my mind arise! 
   Beloved Friend; four years have passed away
      Since thou wert snatched for ever from our eyes.

   2.

   The day commemorative of my birth,
      Bestowing life, and light, and hope to me,
   Brings back the hour which was thy last on earth. 
      O! bitter pang of torturing memory!

   3.

   Angelic woman! past my power to praise
      In language meet thy talents, temper, mind,
   Thy solid worth, thy captivating grace,
      Thou friend and ornament of human kind.

   4.

   But come, fond Fancy, thou indulgent power;
      Hope is desponding, chill, severe, to thee: 
   Bless thou this little portion of an hour;
      Let me behold her as she used to be.