Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters | Page 6

master,
invited their visitor, Dr. Brydges[8], to stand. On his declining, they
brought forward his nephew, Theophilus Leigh, then a young Fellow of
Corpus. The election resulted in a tie, and the visitor had no qualms of
conscience in giving his casting vote to his nephew. Theophilus proved
to be a man 'more[9] famous for his sayings than his doings,
overflowing with puns and witticisms and sharp retorts; but his most
serious joke was his practical one of living much longer than had been
expected or intended.' He no doubt became a most dignified Head, and
inspired the young men with fear and respect; but he must have
sometimes remembered the awful day when he first preached before his
father, who immediately turned his back on the divine, saying
afterwards: 'I thank you, Theo, for your discourse; let us hereafter have
less rhetoric and more divinity; I turned my back lest my presence
might daunt you.' When Theo in turn was an old man, and when Jane
Austen's eldest brother went to Oxford, he was asked to dine with this
dignified kinsman. Being a raw freshman, he was about to take off his
gown, when the old man of eighty said with a grim smile: 'Young man,
you need not strip; we are not going to fight.'[10]
Cassandra Leigh's youth was spent in the quiet rectory of Harpsden, for
her father was one of the more conscientious of the gently born clergy
of that day, living entirely on his benefice, and greatly beloved in his
neighbourhood as an exemplary parish-priest. 'He was one of the most
contented, quiet, sweet-tempered, generous, cheerful men I ever knew,'
so says the chronicler of the Leigh family, 'and his wife was his

counterpart. The spirit of the pugnacious Theophilus dwelt not in him;
nor that eternal love of company which distinguished the other brothers,
yet he was by no means unsocial.' Towards the end of his life he
removed to Bath, being severely afflicted with the gout, and here he
died in 1763. His peaceful wife, Jane Walker, was descended on her
mother's side from a sufficiently warlike family; she was the daughter
of an Oxford physician, who had married a Miss Perrot, one of the last
of a very old stock, long settled in Oxfordshire, but also known in
Pembrokeshire at least as early as the fourteenth century. They were
probably among the settlers planted there to overawe the Welsh, and it
is recorded of one of them that he slew 'twenty-six men of Kemaes and
one wolf.' A contrast to these uncompromising ancestors was found in
Mrs. Leigh's aunt, Ann Perrot, one of the family circle at Harpsden,
whom tradition states to have been a very pious, good woman.
Unselfish she certainly was, for she earnestly begged her brother, Mr.
Thomas Perrot, to alter his will by which he had bequeathed to her his
estates at Northleigh in Oxfordshire, and to leave her instead an annuity
of one hundred pounds. Her brother complied with her request, and by
a codicil devised the estates to his great-nephew, James, son of the Rev.
Thomas Leigh, on condition that he took the surname and arms of
Perrot.[11] Accordingly, on the death of Mr. Thomas Perrot at the
beginning of 1751, James Leigh became James Leigh Perrot of
Northleigh. His two sisters, Jane and Cassandra, also profited by the
kindness of their great-aunt, who left two hundred pounds to each.
Another legacy which filtered through the Walkers from the Perrots to
the Austens was the advantage of being 'kin' to the Founder of St.
John's College, Oxford--Sir Thomas White--an advantage of which
several members of the family availed themselves.
Northleigh, for some reason or other, did not suit its new owner. He
pulled down the mansion and sold the estate to the Duke of
Marlborough, buying for himself a property at Hare Hatch on the Bath
Road, midway between Maidenhead and Reading. We shall meet him
again, and his devoted wife, Jane Cholmeley; and we shall see a
remarkable instance of his steadfast love for her.
George Austen perhaps met his future wife at the house of her uncle,

the Master of Balliol, but no particulars of the courtship have survived.
The marriage took place at Walcot Church, Bath, on April 26, 1764, the
bride's father having died at Bath only a short time before. Two
circumstances connected with their brief honeymoon--which consisted
only of a journey from Bath to Steventon, broken by one day's halt at
Andover--may be mentioned. The bride's 'going-away' dress seems to
have been a scarlet riding-habit, whose future adventures were not
uninteresting; and the pair are believed to have had an unusual
companion for such an occasion--namely, a small boy, six years old,
the only son of Warren Hastings by his first wife.