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Austen-Leigh, James Edward, 1798-1874

"Memoir of Jane Austen"

Once, when
she thought herself near her end, she said what she imagined might be her
last words to those around her, and particularly thanked her sister-in-
law for being with her, saying: 'You have always been a kind sister to
me, Mary.' When the end at last came, she sank rapidly, and on being
asked by her attendants whether there was anything that she wanted, her
reply was, '_Nothing but death_.' These were her last words. In
quietness and peace she breathed her last on the morning of July 18,
1817.
On the 24th of that month she was buried in Winchester Cathedral, near
the centre of the north aisle, almost opposite to the beautiful chantry
tomb of William of Wykeham. A large slab of black marble in the pavement
marks the place. Her own family only attended the funeral. Her sister
returned to her desolated home, there to devote herself, for ten years,
to the care of her aged mother; and to live much on the memory of her
lost sister, till called many years later to rejoin her. Her brothers
went back sorrowing to their several homes. They were very fond and very
proud of her.


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