little miss austin

When we arrived in downtown London, we first sent Alice to cousin Thomas' house.

Thomas was not at home, but his cousin Mary entertained them.

Pastor George wrote in advance, and Mary had already prepared the room, and asked the maid to take Alice into the room to rest and change clothes.Henry then introduced Tom and Wesley to her, and the hostess entertained them for tea, and then they left.

Tom Lefroy rented an apartment in London, not too big, with a guest room, and Henry was going to live with him temporarily.Wesley lived in Lady Gresham's house in London.

"Where is your apartment? I'll take you there." After thinking about it, Wesley decided to take them there since they were all brought to London.But if Henry didn't live with Tom, he was fine.

Tom was not hypocritical, and happily reported the address to the coachman. The coachman was familiar with the streets of London, nodded, said he knew how to get there, and sent them there.

Before getting into the car, Alice stood by the upstairs window and waved goodbye to them.

After getting into the car, Henry said, "I've been fine for the past two weeks. I'll come and pick Alice up tomorrow to play. Tom is going to court, Wesley, do you want to go with us?"

Wesley shook his head, "I'm here to do something, I don't know how many days it will take, and I'll write to Alice when I'm done. Are you going to take her away when you go to Oxford?"

"You have to ask her what she means. Maybe she thinks London is fun and will stay for a while. By the way," Henry hesitated, "Father wants Alice to find a teacher in London or Oxford. When she reaches the age of 8 Go to school after age."

The existing schools are all aristocratic schools, such as Eton College. Children below the aristocratic class either go to relatively small private schools, or are sent to private teachers like Rev. George to go to school until they are 12 years old. Going to military school, some children continue to study, and they can go to college at the age of 15 or 6. For example, Tom went to Trinity College at the age of 14 and graduated at the age of 17.Henry went to Oxford University at the age of 17, graduated at the age of 21, and studied for a master's degree for another year.

Aristocratic girls will go to the homes of some married intellectual women to go to school, and sometimes they need boarding; girls from the gentry class either receive education at home from their fathers and brothers, or they are also sent to the homes of teachers such as Pastor George to receive education, or some monasteries also have boarding girls' school.Both Cathy and Jane had been educated at similar intellectual women's homes before, and later at convent girls' schools, but neither had been there for very long.When she was studying at a certain lady's house, it happened that the epidemic broke out that year. Jane caught typhus and almost died of a serious illness. Pastor George went to take both daughters home.

With a family background like the Austin family, it is better for girls to receive a bit of lady education, not just cultural education, Wesley also understands this.The reason why Mrs. Gresham did not hinder his love for Jane Austen was also because the background of the Austen family was not bad, and the ancestors of the Austen family were also rich. She has status, but no title; her mother Cassandra's natal family has a higher social status in the Li family. Cassandra's eldest brother inherited a large inheritance from their wealthy great-aunt, and her father was once an Oxford The dean of the College of All Souls, so her eldest and fourth sons all went to Oxford University for college.

Wesley is just being honest, not stupid. What Henry meant to him is that he wants to ask him to help pay attention to a good teacher. It is hard to find a teacher who is qualified to accept students and has a good reputation. She must be knowledgeable, have a good family background, and know how to behave like a lady. , not too rich, rich wives are usually not willing to take the trouble to teach students.And the teachers who are willing to teach students have limited energy, and the number of students will not be too many, so Pastor George will look for teachers in advance. After finding a suitable teacher, he must make an appointment in advance. If they can send their daughter there, they have to assess the students.

As for the choice of teachers in London and Oxfordshire, it is also because they are not far from Hampshire and it is convenient to travel.

Wesley nodded, "I see, I will help to keep an eye on it."

Thomas is a small civil servant of the government. He can be regarded as a small leader. The annual salary plus the annuity of the couple is about 400 pounds a year. The house is his own, and living in London is not bad.There are not many children in the family, 3. The eldest son is also going to the Royal Naval Academy, the youngest son is just able to walk, and the middle daughter, April, is more than 1 year older than Alice.

Henry picks her up almost every other day and takes April with him.Little April is a little reserved girl, and Henry thinks she is not as fun as his little sister.

Alice was very excited when she went out to visit London for the first time.Henry called a carriage and went to the commercial street first.

In this era, there were no flagship stores of hypermarkets, specialty stores or anything. The clothes were all hand-sewn, and there were not many big stores with small fronts.Because of the dyes, they are all natural dyes, the color fastness is not enough, and there are not many too bright colors, and the English people don't seem to like too bright colors.

Alice brought four sets of shirts, petticoats and drawers, including two new ones, and Henry bought her two more, both in natural white muslin; Overcoats, a new black tweed cloak with a hood.I also bought rolls of ribbons in different widths from a small clothing store, the wide ones for bows and the narrow ones for hair ties.

On the days when you don't go out, just make trinkets at home like April.Bought a finished copper wire headband, cut it to a suitable length, and matched it with ribbons, glass beads, and wooden beads to make a very beautiful little hair accessory.April was very happy, and Cousin Mary also praised them for their ability.

Alice used to like to tinker with these small hand-crafts, all kinds of ribbons, ribbons, crystal rice beads, ore rice beads, rice beads, pearl glass beads, shell flowers, enamel ornaments, mother-of-pearl ornaments, etc., etc., hand-painted patterns by yourself, and make some decorations for yourself It's a great way to pass the time.Now, there are not many materials to choose from, so I can only make some hair bands from cloth heads made at home to pass the time.

On Sunday afternoon, Henry came to pick Alice up to see a circus performance.

This time I didn't bring April, but Tom and Wesley came.Tom is here to meet his friends, and Wesley, an honest boy, has never seen a circus performance.

His experience was similar to that of Edward's brother. He moved to live with his aunt at the age of 13. The adoption procedure was completed before his uncle died. Mr. Gresham hired a good tutor for him, but he never had the opportunity to go out to study.According to the practice of ordinary noble children, when he reaches the age of 18, he should also travel like Edward, travel all over Europe, and even go to North America to increase his experience and knowledge; London saw it, but Mrs. Gresham tied him tightly and refused to allow him to leave.

Alice didn't even know how she could agree with Wesley to leave this time.

"That's because I told my aunt that I have to go to college." Wesley told her quietly.

Alice hugged his neck tightly so as not to be scattered by the crowd at the theater entrance.Many people came to see the circus performance, Henry and Tom squeezed in to buy tickets, entrusting Wesley to take care of Alice.At first they just held hands, but Alice was so short that she was almost squeezed away, so Wesley had to pick her up and try to get as close to the wall of the theater as possible.

"You should have come with your servant, like a bodyguard."

Wesley was somewhat embarrassed, "I didn't expect... there would be so many people! Is the circus good?"

"It should be pretty, otherwise why would there be so many people?"

Makes sense!

"You should go to college. Henry and James both went to college. If George wasn't sick, he would go to college too." James is the eldest brother.

"I'm only going to college now, maybe a bit late." He sighed.

"It's okay, you are only 20 years old, and you are only 24 years old after graduation, very young."

"It's time to get married at the age of 24." He was worried about Jane, "I'm afraid...even if I graduate from college, Jane won't, won't look at me more."

Alice thought, this is probably what Mrs. Gresham would be worried about. She might want Wesley to get married earlier and have children earlier so that she would have a next generation of heirs.You can't laugh at Wesley's mind for only thinking about such trivial things. After all, in the countryside, you can't expect him to have as much experience and insight—he hasn't visited as many places as Cathy and Jane!The older sisters often go out to visit relatives, so even if they are not very well-informed, they must be much better than Wesley.

It is really not difficult for Jane to look down on him.

"If you think about it this way, college life is so interesting, maybe you will meet other lovely ladies. Jane is not good! She has a bad temper and gets angry every now and then."

Tom asked, "Is Jane angry again?" He and Henry had just squeezed out of the ticket office and found them.

"Of course she will be angry when encountering annoying things." She said with a smile.

Henry took her away from Wesley's arms, "You can go in, hurry up and grab a good seat. It can't be too close to the venue, but it can't be too far. The best seats are the third and fourth rows."

There is no rule of numbered seating in the theater, the first to get in first takes the best seats. Three young men and a little girl sat in the third row of seats.

After they sat down, gradually more and more people came in, and there were peddlers walking around hawking, with straps hanging around their necks, and a wooden lattice on their chests, in which were some snacks, small bags of tobacco or It's a tin box, and some people sell bottled wine and bottled water.

The author has something to say:

* All Souls College is not an education college, but a scholar college, so Jane's eldest brother and fourth brother all went to St. John's College.

* There are 6 boys in the Austin family. George is disabled and cannot go to school. The third son Edward is adopted out. The eldest and fourth sons go to Oxford.At that time, there were no civilians who could go to the military academy, and they were all the children of nobles and gentry, and they were officers after they graduated from the military academy.During the First World War, the death rate of British officers was too high, which directly led to the extinction of many noble families.

*Londyneum, Celtic, present-day London.