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." "Fanny Price" was one of his prime favourites.'

I close this list of testimonies, this long 'Catena Patrum,' with the
remarkable words of Sir Walter Scott, taken from his diary for March 14,
1826: {149} 'Read again, for the third time at least, Miss Austen's
finely written novel of "Pride and Prejudice." That young lady had a
talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of
ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The
big Bow-Wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite
touch which renders ordinary common-place things and characters
interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied
to me. What a pity such a gifted creature died so early!' The well-worn
condition of Scott's own copy of these works attests that they were much
read in his family. When I visited Abbotsford, a few years after Scott's
death, I was permitted, as an unusual favour, to take one of these
volumes in my hands. One cannot suppress the wish that she had lived to
know what such men thought of her powers, and how gladly they would have
cultivated a personal acquaintance with her. I do not think that it
would at all have impaired the modest simplicity of her character; or
that we should have lost our own dear 'Aunt Jane' in the blaze of
literary fame.