Edward Knight's Family
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Elizabeth Austen, later Knight, continued.
'... to talk, but only to listen – it was enough to be alone with her. But there were other times, she made me her companion daily as she walked about her conservatory, showing me her favourite flowers and tending her birds. This was a lengthy process; I think by then her birds were one of her chief interests, she looked after them entirely herself – or so it seems to me – with the most scrupulous and loving care. There were many cages, including at least one breeding cage. She was an enthusiastic and very successful breeder of canaries, and told me much of how to become the same, going into details of how best to mate them, how to look after the mother bird, and how to feed and foster the little offspring. How she loved flowers and birds!
I don't think that at that time of her life she read much, and, alas! in all her talks she never mentioned her Aunt Jane, and I had never been told of her. What an opportunity I missed – I cannot say that I have heard stories of any description of Jane Austen from one who had known her. 'No one could read Aunt Jane like grandmama' said Aunt Cam – why, oh why, did she not read to me?
When I left Dane Court I knew a great deal about goldfinches, bullfinches, and canaries, and grandmama made me a present of one of her best songsters, a lovely golden canary, the first in my life of a very long succession, only ended by the second war!'
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