On 16 December 1816, her 41st birthday, Jane Austen wrote a letter to her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh. Edward, as he was known, had recently gone to study at Oxford. Perhaps gently poking fun at Edward, a budding novelist, she wrote of his “strong, manly, spirited Sketches, full of variety and Glow”.
Discussing her own work, she asked modestly: “How could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces
