Whewell, then
a Fellow and afterwards Master of the College, often spoke to me with
admiration of Miss Austen's novels. On one occasion I said that I had
found "Persuasion" rather dull. He quite fired up in defence of it,
insisting that it was the most beautiful of her works. This
accomplished philosopher was deeply versed in works of fiction. I
recollect his writing to me from Caernarvon, where he had the charge
of some pupils, that he was weary of _his_ stay, for he had read the
circulating library twice through.
'During a visit I paid to Lord Lansdowne, at Bowood, in 1846, one of
Miss Austen's novels became the subject of conversation and of praise,
especially from Lord Lansdowne, who observed that one of the
circumstances of his life which he looked back upon with vexation was
that Miss Austen should once have been living some weeks in his
neighbourhood without his knowing it.
'I have heard Sydney Smith, more than once, dwell with eloquence on
the merits of Miss Austen's novels. He told me he should have enjoyed
giving her the pleasure of reading her praises in the "Edinburgh
Review.
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