Anne Brydges Lefroy

[laughs]

Uh, yeah, so with a new term beginning, um, in January, he took off several weeks in December of 1795 to visit his aunt and uncle, Reverend George and Anne Lefroy, in Ashe, England, which is nearly 60 miles away from London.

And it was there that Tom met Jane, who was a family friend to Tom's Aunt Anne.

So Tom's aunt was family friends with the Austens, as I said, and his aunt was actually really fond of Jane Austen.

And it's, it's a really beautiful image, and the woman herself looks very elegant with fine, clear features and astonishingly big gray eyes and long lashes.

So this is a portrait of Mrs. Anne Lefroy, who was a neighbor of the Austens when they lived in Steventon.

And from Jane's early childhood, Mrs. Lefroy was a really dear friend and confidant.

She lent her books from her extensive library and encouraged her as a fledgling writer.

Anne was actually 27 years older than Jane, so she may have taken on the role of a kind of mother figure to her, and it's been suggested that she might have inspired the character of Lady Russell in Persuasion.

Anne Lefroy was a really extraordinary woman in her own right.

She was known locally as Madame Lefroy for her sophisticated tastes and manners.

She was highly sociable, intelligent, and cultured.

You know, it's almost like a mail order bride system.

And I don't think it was much different in Jane's day or Jane's aunt's day.

So Philadelphia, Philly, went to India, where she married Tysoe Hancock.

She got her lucrative marriage, but there's a rumor that she had an affair with Warren Hastings.

From the letters, she talks about such profligates sitting down together and dancing together as to get tongues wagging.

She would have met Thomas Lefroy at Ash Rectory.

Her aunt, Anne Lefroy, lived there.

They really hit it off, but I don't know that it was a big romance.