Editing Jane Austen (section)

===Steventon===
[[File:SteventonRectory.jpg|thumb|[[Steventon, Hampshire|Steventon]] parsonage, as depicted in ''[[A Memoir of Jane Austen]]'', was in a valley and surrounded by meadows.<ref name="Le Faye 2004 20"/>]]

In 1768, the family finally took up residence in Steventon. [[Henry Thomas Austen|Henry]] was the first child to be born there, in 1771.<ref>Nokes (1998), 37; Le Faye (2004), 25</ref> At about this time, Cassandra could no longer ignore the signs that little George was [[developmentally disabled]]. He had seizures and may have been deaf and mute. At this time she chose to send him to be fostered.<ref>Le Faye (2004), 22</ref> In 1773, [[Cassandra Austen|Cassandra]] was born, followed by [[Francis Austen|Francis]] in 1774, and Jane in 1775.<!-- don't forget Charles?? source? --><ref>Nokes (1998), 37; Le Faye (2004), 24–27</ref>

According to the biographer [[Park Honan]], the Austen home had an "open, amused, easy intellectual atmosphere", in which the ideas of those with whom members of the Austen family might disagree politically or socially were considered and discussed.<ref>Honan (1987), 211–212</ref>

The family relied on the patronage of their kin and hosted visits from numerous family members.<ref name="Todd4">Todd (2015), 4</ref> Mrs Austen spent the summer of 1770 in London with George's sister, Philadelphia, and her daughter [[Eliza de Feuillide|Eliza]], accompanied by his other sister, Mrs. Walter, and her daughter Philly.<ref>Nokes (1998), 39; Le Faye (2004), 22–23</ref>{{efn|Philadelphia had returned from India in 1765 and taken up residence in London; when her husband returned to India to replenish their income, she stayed in England.  He died in India in 1775, with Philadelphia unaware until the news reached her a year later, fortuitously as George and Cassandra were visiting. See Le Faye, 29–36}}<!-- swap this source --> Philadelphia and Eliza Hancock were, according to Le Faye, "the bright comets flashing into an otherwise placid solar system of clerical life in rural [[Hampshire]], and the news of their foreign travels and fashionable London life, together with their sudden descents upon the Steventon household in between times, all helped to widen Jane's youthful horizon and influence her later life and works."<ref>Le Faye (2004), 29</ref>

Cassandra Austen's cousin Thomas Leigh visited a number of times in the 1770s and 1780s, inviting young Cassie to visit them in [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] in 1781. The first mention of Jane occurs in family documents upon her return,  "...&nbsp;and almost home they were when they met Jane & Charles, the two little ones of the family, who had to go as far as New Down to meet the [[chaise]], & have the pleasure of riding home in it."<ref>Le Faye (2004), 46</ref> Le Faye writes that "Mr Austen's predictions for his younger daughter were fully justified. Never were sisters more to each other than Cassandra and Jane; while in a particularly affectionate family, there seems to have been a special link between Cassandra and Edward on the one hand, and between Henry and Jane on the other."<ref>Le Faye (2004), 26</ref>

From 1773 until 1796, George Austen supplemented his income by farming and by teaching three or four boys at a time, who boarded at his home.<ref>Honan (1987), 14, 17–18; Collins (1994), 54.</ref> The Reverend Austen had an annual income of £200 ({{Inflation|UK|200|1773|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-3}}) from his two livings.<ref name="Irvine 2005 p.2">Irvine (2005) p.2</ref> This was a very modest income at the time; by comparison, a skilled worker like a blacksmith or a carpenter could make about £100 annually while the typical annual income of a gentry family was between £1,000 and £5,000.<ref name="Irvine 2005 p.2"/> Mr. Austen also rented the 200-acre Cheesedown farm from his benefactor Thomas Knight, which could make a profit of £300 ({{Inflation|UK|300|1773|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-3}}) a year.<ref>Lane (1995), 1.</ref>

During this period of her life, Jane Austen attended church regularly, socialised with friends and neighbours,{{efn|For social conventions among the gentry generally, see Collins (1994), 105}} and read novels—often of her own composition—aloud to her family in the evenings. Socialising with the neighbours often meant dancing, either impromptu in someone's home after supper or at the balls held regularly at the [[assembly rooms]] in the town hall.<ref>Tomalin (1997), 101–103, 120–123, 144; Honan (1987), 119.</ref> Her brother Henry later said that "Jane was fond of dancing, and excelled in it".<ref>Quoted in Tomalin (1997), 102; see also Honan (1987), 84</ref>