Read Jane and the Genius of the Place: Being the Fourth Jane Austen Mystery for Free Online Page B

fostered endure in part to this day. By 1775, Tattersall was providing the newly formed Jockey Club with a room (and his famous claret) for its meetings, and in 1780 he opened a Subscription Room, a club with an annual paid membership, for the laying and settling of bets. The committee that adjudicated betting disputes was known as Tattersall's Committee—the governing body of bookmaking.— Editor's note.
5 Frances, Countess Jersey, was finally deceased by August 1805; but not before her ruthless methods had once enslaved the much younger Prince of Wales.— Editor's note.
6 Eclipse, a chestnut horse with a white blaze and one white leg, was foaled for the Duke of Cumberland in Windsor Park in the year of the great eclipse: 1764. He was one of the greatest racehorses of all time, and his bloodline is arguably the most important male line in the world of horse racing.— Editor's note.
7 It was customary in Austen 's time for spectators to gallop alongside the competing horses in the final lengths of a race. Though commonplace, the practise was highly dangerous and often led to mishap—either for the mounted spectator or the racehorses themselves, more than one of whom was denied a victory by the interference of an overzealous fan.— Editor's note.
8 Edward refers to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman , by Mary Wollstonecraft, first published in 1792. Elizabeth Austen was educated at an excellent finishing school in London, known as “the Ladies' Eton.” It may be there that she fostered her interest in women's issues. In 1808, she signed her name in a work written by the radical London feminist Mary Hays.— Editor's note.

19 August 1805, cont'd.
    “G OOD G OD ! M RS . G REY, IN C OLLINGFORTH'S CHAISE.” Neddie threw his elegant top hat into our barouche, and hastened towards the gruesome scene. Henry was hard on his heels.
    “Mamma!” Fanny slipped from my grasp. “What has happened to Mrs. Grey? And why is she lying so, in her shift? Does she suffer from a fit?”
    Mrs. Grey's face was contorted, her lips thrust apart, and her tongue protuberant; around her neck was a length of red ribbon, such as once must have bound up her long black hair. She had certainly been strangled with it. To gaze upon her was terrible—so much beauty turned horrible in an instant, and utterly beyond salvation.
    With a choked cry from the seat opposite, Anne Sharpe fainted dead away.
    “Sit dawn , Fanny.” Lizzy clutched at her daughter's sash and tugged on it firmly. “If anyone is suffering from a fit, it is your governess, child—and who can wonder, with a charge so troublesome as yourself? Endeavour to behave with a litde decorum, while Aunt Jane secures Miss Sharpe's vinaigrette.”
    I had already scrambled about the carriage in search of such an item, and found it at last in a litde travelling case of Fanny's, tricked out with such necessaries as a lady might require. Extra handkerchiefs, a roll of sticking plaster, tiny scissors, and a packet of threaded needles— and, joy of joys, the crystal flacon filled with smelling salts. I waved it under the governess's nose, and watched her snort like Henry's champion.
    Fanny was all concern in a moment, and hovered over Miss Sharpe like a little mother; the governess looked quite ill, indeed, but protested that she was entirely well, and struggled to sit upright with something like her usual composure. She accepted a glass of tepid cordial, but kept her face studiously averted from the Collingforth chaise.
    For my part, I felt no compunction in regarding the interesting scene unfolding to the rear. My brother had not leapt to the dead woman's side merely from an excess of chivalry—no, in the present instance, such a mark of active concern was absolutely required. The Lord Lieutenant of Kent himself had appointed my brother Justice of the Peace—a capacity in which Neddie had served barely six months. It was an honour without recompense (for gendemen are never offered the