74 JANE AUSTEN 



is the game at Osborne Castle.^ I have played 

 nothing but ' Vingt-un ' of late. You would be 

 astonished to hear the noise we make there — the 

 fine old lofty drawing-room rings again. Lady 

 Osborne sometimes declares she cannot hear herself 

 speak. Lord Osborne enjoys it famously, and he 

 makes the best dealer without exception that I ever 

 beheld — such quickness and spirit, he lets nobody 

 dream over their cards. I wish you could see him 

 over-draw himself on both his own cards. It is 

 worth anything in the world ! " 



We may surely recognise 'the folly and under- 

 bred parade of Mr. John Thorpe in Mr. Tom 

 Musgrave's speech. Again, Tom Musgrave plagues 

 Emma just as Thorpe persecuted Catherine by an 

 ill-timed invitation to a tSte-a-tite curricle drive. 



The heroine, Emma Watson, has no resemblance 

 to Emma Woodhouse. In situation she may be 

 compared to Fanny Price, for she has been brought 

 up by a refined aunt, and is suddenly plunged into 

 the very different manners and surroundings of her 

 pushing jealous sisters; but in character she seems to 

 me to have none of the charm which has given Fanny 

 Price such various admirers as the Rev. Sydney 

 Smith and Mr. F. W. H. Myers.' It is perhaps 

 characteristic of her creator's truth, that her 

 heroine who is made known to us just as she 

 arrives at her new home in uncomfortable surround- 



^ Not fhe Royal residence of that name. 



' Mr. Austen Leigh, Memoir, p. 140, quotes from Sir Denis Le 

 Marchant that Fanny Price was a " prime favourite " of Sydney 

 Smith. Mr. F. Myers I remember speaking to me of his especial 

 admiration for Mansfield Park and Fanny. 



