Jane Austen and her niece Cassy Esten Austen

Children were important to Jane Austen both in real life and in her fiction. Cassy Esten Austen (1808-1897) was among the nieces who she knew well, when they were young children. Chawton Cottage periodically became Cassy’s temporary refuge from the bitter winter weather at home aboard HMS Namur and from the bouts of sea sickness that she suffered in shipboard life year-round.[1] She spent weeks at a time with Jane and Cassandra Austen, who took their duties as aunts very seriously.[2] They encouraged her early education in literacy,[3] and they tried to make her feel secure and cared for, even though Cassy must have greatly missed her parents and sisters. Through these visits Cassy and Aunt Jane evolved a particular relationship which redounded in Cassy’s development and Austen’s fiction.

Fig.1: Chawton Cottage, Hampshire, where Cassy Esten Austen stayed with her aunts, Jane and Cassandra.

Fig 2: Rough weather at the Nore Anchorage, where the Charles Austen family lived on HMS Namur.[4]

Cassy from Jane’s perspective

Jane’s letters reveal changing attitudes about Cassy’s behaviour and developing personality. Her early assessments seem uncomplimentary. During Cassy’s month long stay at Chawton Cottage in June 1813, Jane found her young niece trying, observing to her brother Francis that Cassy “ought to be a very nice Child - Nature has done enough for her.”[5] Four months later when Cassy was due to visit Godmersham Park, home of her uncle Edward Knight, Jane feared that “Cassy would disappoint me by some immediate disagreeableness,” and that a “cross Child” would limit her father, Charles’s enjoyment of his visit (14 October 1813). Jane gives the impression of a willful and independent minded little girl, who does not measure up to her aunt’s standards for juvenile behaviour, but what were those standards to which Jane ascribed and which Cassy apparently failed to meet?

Jane Austen espoused firm principles about child rearing and advocated bringing up children “with a proper sense of what was expected of them.”[6] She was particularly sensitive to the quality of a child’s manners and standard of politeness. However, her periodic disappointment in Cassy’s boisterous and impolite conduct did not signal a dislike of her. In speaking of her brother Frank’s growing brood of six children, all under eleven years of age, she wrote, they are “sometimes very noisy & not under such Order as they ought and easily might, [but] I cannot help liking them, and even loving them” (23 January 1817).[7] So it was with Cassy.  Between 1812 and 1817, Jane’s references to Cassy largely express affection rather than criticism. She was pleased that Cassy “kissed her very affectionately” on her arrival at Godmersham in October 1813. Jane was empathetic about Cassy’s recently suffering from sea sickness on board the Namur, noting that “poor little Cassy is grown extremely thin and looks poorly” (15 October 1813).

Jane’s further descriptions of Cassy’s interests and attitudes indicate an ongoing attention to the child’s social and emotional development. She observed, with amusement, an instance of Cassy’s keen curiosity about human relations. When apprised of her cousin Anna’s engagement to Ben Lefroy, Cassy wanted to know all the details surrounding the event. According to Jane, the curious Cassy “asked a thousand questions, in her usual way - What he said to you? and what you said to him?” (29 November 1814). Cassy, it appears, was a dedicated questioner.

On another occasion, Jane was particularly aware of Cassy’s volatile emotions. When visiting Cassy in London, she observed: “That puss Cassy [8] did not shew more pleasure in seeing me … she does not shine in the tender feelings. She will never be a Miss O’neal; more in the Mrs Siddon’s line” (30 November 1814). Jane’s assessment of Cassy’s demeanor suggests that her niece had a flair for the dramatic, in the style of the great tragedienne, Sarah Siddons. Jane’s descriptions of her interactions with Cassy reveal her sensitive understanding of childhood behaviour and her ability to see the world from a child’s point of view.

Intriguingly, Jane’s familiarity with Cassy may have had a particular benefit. Her observations could have helped her in creating her sketch of the young Catherine Morland in the opening pages of Northanger Abbey. Catherine was mischievous: “if she gathered flowers at all, it was chiefly for the pleasure of mischief - at least so it was conjectured from her always preferring those which she was forbidden to take.” She was moreover “noisy and wild, hated confinement …  and loved nothing so well in the world as rolling down the green slope at the back of the house.”[9] The very young Cassy had been described by her mother as “riotous and unmanageable”[10] and was later considered by Jane as rambunctious yet likeable. Cassy did not initially warm to scholarly pursuits;[11] Catherine “was often inattentive” to her lessons. The proclivities of Cassy and Catherine are strikingly similar.  

Aunt Jane from Cassy’s perspective

Cassy became the beneficiary of Jane’s gifts for entering into the imaginary world of a child, to divine what activities would amuse and delight her. The aunt who emphasized the importance of polite behaviour was also the aunt who thought of wonderful and amusing things to do. Cassy could look forward to games of skill with Jane, possibly cup and ball, where the object was to catch a ball on a string into a wooden cup, or pick-up sticks, known as spillikins.[12] When she was at Chawton, Cassy was surely pleased when her Austen first cousins, Caroline (from Steventon) and Mary Jane (from Alton),[13] were also present. On such occasions the three girls played make believe, aided and abetted by Aunt Jane who would “furnish [them] with what [they] wanted from her wardrobe, and … would be the entertaining visitor in our imaginary house.” According to Caroline Austen, “she amused us in various ways - once I remember in giving a conversation as between myself and two cousins, supposed to be grown up the day after a Ball”[14] (Memoir,10). Such flights of fancy, involving splendid balls, lively dancing and, perhaps, even handsome young gentlemen for partners, surely appealed to the dramatically inclined Cassy, who had already shown curiosity about her cousin Anna’s social and love life.

When she was not in her aunt’s company, Cassy received letters and various messages from Aunt Jane. In early January 1817, eight-year-old Cassy was surprised and pleased to take receipt of a word puzzle, addressed to “Ym raed Yssac,” consisting of ten lines of text in which each word is spelled backwards. An intrigued Cassy was left to solve the mystery and discover that the first line, “I hsiw uoy yppah wen raey” conveyed her aunt’s greeting of “I wish you a happy new year.[15] Messages also came from Aunt Jane in London to Cassy when she was in Chawton, by way of letters from Jane to Cassandra. Cassy likely giggled when she was told that Jane hoped that “[Cassy] found my Bed comfortable last night & has not filled it with fleas” (2 March 1814). In the same letter Jane reports that: “I have seen nobody in London yet with such a long chin as Dr Syntax, nor Anybody quite so large as Gogmagoglicus.” Cassy[16] would be amused that Jane had encountered no one resembling the large chinned fictional cleric, Dr Syntax,[17] nor the legendary giant, Gogmagoglicus.[18]

Fig. 3: “Dr Syntax sketching the Lake” by Thomas Rowlandson.[19]

The joke about the fleas continued a week later when Jane issued a mock warning and a threat of consequences: “if Cassandra has filled my Bed with fleas, I am sure they must bite herself” (9 March 1814). A last message for Cassy was included in a letter sent to her father, Charles, by a weak and ailing Jane on 6 April 1817. She says she would need a Hackney Chariot to transport her, if she were to travel to be of service to her niece, Harriet, who was ill. Aunt Jane hoped “Cassy will take care it is a green one.” This comment must refer to an earlier confidence shared between them. Three months later Cassy was saddened by the news of her Aunt Jane’s death, but as she grew older, she no doubt reflected appreciatively on the kindnesses, care and attention that this special aunt had shown her.  

 Although Cassy’s real-life relationship with Jane Austen ended in 1817, fifty years later she would be party to a decision about how her now famous aunt would be viewed in posterity. By conferring with her cousins, Caroline Austen, Anna Lefroy, and Anna’s brother, James Edward Austen-Leigh, who was writing his Memoir of Jane Austen, Cassy became part of a conspiracy to refresh Jane’s image for public consumption. Cassy was the gate keeper as she possessed the best primary source in the matter - Cassandra Austen’s full-face sketch of her sister, done in 1810 with pencil and watercolours. Cassy agreed with her cousins’ plan to ask artist, James Andrews, to produce a painting based on Cassandra’s sketch. The resulting, prettified makeover became the source for the steel-engraving used as the frontispiece of the Memoir. It is this image which has since been endlessly reproduced.

Fig. 4: Full face image of Jane Austen, drawn from life, by her sister Cassandra, 1810.[20]

Fig. 5: Jane Austen: The steel engraving by Lizars from a likeness painted by James Andrews after the watercolour sketch by Cassandra Austen.   

Cassy was candid about her complicity, confessing “to not thinking [the new painting] much like the original; - but that, the public will not be able to detect.”[21] Perhaps she thought the painting was good for the purpose as it showed a “very pleasing, sweet face,” and projected an image that was best suited to the style and tastes of the Victorian period. We cannot be sure how Jane would have reacted to this reinvented image of herself, but we know she deplored artifice and pretense.

Fortunately, Cassy valued and carefully kept Cassandra’s original sketch of Jane. It was passed on within the Austen family and by 1948 had found a permanent place in the National Portrait Gallery, London. It sits in a special protective display case which automatically lights up when a viewer approaches. The details of Jane’s face, the complexity of her expression, and the subtlety of Cassandra’s artistry are all made clear. We have Cassy to thank for her protection of Cassandra’s original image of Jane Austen, which we have good reason to admire and treasure.[22]

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[1] After her mother’s death in September 1814, Cassy she spent even more time at Chawton. According to Caroline Austen (1805-1880, daughter of Jane’s brother, James), as Cousin Cassy grew older, she “lived there [Chawton Cottage] chiefly for a time.” See Caroline Austen, My Aunt Jane: A Memoir, written 1867 and published by The Jane Austen Society (1952, reprinted 2008), 6, hereafter Memoir.

[2] Societal norms dictated that as single women, Jane and Cassandra should be willing to help with her brothers’ children, when called upon.

[3] Cassy was apparently “under the especial tutorage of Aunt Cass [Cassandra Austen].” See Memoir, 6.

[4] “The Junction of the Thames and the Medway” by J. M.W. Turner, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

[5] Jane to Francis, 6 July 1813. Hereafter the dates of Jane’s letters appear in brackets in the text.

[6] See David Selwyn, Jane Austen and Children (2010), 101.

[7] In other letters, when she thought she had been too critical of a niece or nephew, she was swift to make amends. See Paula Byrne, The Real Jane Austen, A Life in Small Things (2012), 259.

[8]To call her niece “that Puss Cassy” in this context suggests more affection than criticism.

[9] Passages from Northanger Abbey are from R. Chapman, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (1922), 13, 14.

[10] See Fanny Austen to Esther Esten, 1 June 1810, in Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister (hereafter JATS), (2017, 2018), 52.

[11] On 4 October 1813, Fanny Austen described her daughter Cassy’s attitudes towards literacy: “Cassandra begins now to read very prettily, but I have had an amazing deal of trouble with her not owing to a dullness of comprehension; but a dislike to learning.” See JATS, 127.

[12] Caroline recalls that Aunt Jane “could throw the spilikins for us, better than anyone else.” Memoir, 7.

[13] Mary Jane Austen (1807-1836), eldest daughter of Francis Austen, brother of Jane.       

[14] Memoir, 10.

[15] Jane Austen to Cassy Esten Austen, by way of Capt: C.J. Austen RN, 8 January 1817. According to Caroline Austen “Aunt Jane frequently [wrote] to me and in addressing a child, she was perfect.” See Memoir, 10.

[16] Katheryn Sutherland, editor of Jane Austen: The Chawton Letters (2018), 101, considers that these remarks were intended for Cassy.

[17] Dr Syntax was the anti-hero of the comic poem by William Combe, The Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (1812). Thomas Rowlandson’s illustrations of the poem were well-known and popular.  

[18] Gogmagoglicus was a make-believe giant; the name has a fine rhythmic ring. Jane Austen was an inveterate teller of imaginary tales to her young nieces and nephews. She may have already told Cassy a story in which this giant appeared.

[19] Image taken from a late 19th century bowl by Wm. Adams & Sons, Tunstall, England.

[20] The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK.

[21] Quoted in Claire Harman, Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World (2009), 116.

[22] This image has been chosen for the covers of several biographies of Jane Austen, especially those by Park Honan, Jane Austen: Her Life (1987); Claire Tomalin, Jane Austen: A Life (1997); and George Holbert Tucker, A History of Jane Austen’s Family (1983).