Bigge Wither, of Manydown Park near Basingstoke, was
married to Southey's uncle, the Rev. Herbert Hill, who had been useful to
his nephew in many ways, and especially in supplying him with the means
of attaining his extensive knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese
literature. Mr. Hill had been Chaplain to the British Factory at Lisbon,
where Southey visited him and had the use of a library in those languages
which his uncle had collected. Southey himself continually mentions his
uncle Hill in terms of respect and gratitude.
S. T. Coleridge would sometimes burst out into high encomiums of Miss
Austen's novels as being, 'in their way, perfectly genuine and individual
productions.'
I remember Miss Mitford's saying to me: 'I would almost cut off one of my
hands, if it would enable me to write like your aunt with the other.'
The biographer of Sir J. Mackintosh says: 'Something recalled to his mind
the traits of character which are so delicately touched in Miss Austen's
novels . . . He said that there was genius in sketching out that new
kind of novel . . . He was vexed for the credit of the "Edinburgh
Review" that it had left her unnoticed .
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