go out to him. There is a pretty little Lady Marianne of the party,
to be shaken hands with, and asked if she remembered Mr. Austen: . . .

'I shall write to Charles by the next packet, unless you tell me in
the meantime of your intending to do it.

'Believe me, if you chuse,
'Yr affte Sister.'

Jane did not estimate too highly the 'Cousin George' mentioned in the
foregoing letter; who might easily have been superior in sense and wit to
the rest of the party. He was the Rev. George Leigh Cooke, long known
and respected at Oxford, where he held important offices, and had the
privilege of helping to form the minds of men more eminent than himself.
As Tutor in Corpus Christi College, he became instructor to some of the
most distinguished undergraduates of that time: amongst others to Dr.
Arnold, the Rev. John Keble, and Sir John Coleridge. The latter has
mentioned him in terms of affectionate regard, both in his Memoir of
Keble, and in a letter which appears in Dean Stanley's 'Life of Arnold.'
Mr. Cooke was also an impressive preacher of earnest awakening sermons. I
remember to have heard it observed by some of my undergraduate friends
that, after all, there was more good to be got from George Cooke's plain
sermons than from much of the more laboured oratory of the University
pulpit. He was frequently Examiner in the schools, and occupied the
chair of the Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy, from 1810 to 1853.

Before the end of 1805, the little family party removed to Southampton.
They resided in a commodious old-fashioned house in a corner of Castle
Square.