Sussexes and Austens

sir – In 1801 Lt Charles Austen RN, the novelist’s youngest brother, was serving in Endymion when the ship’s commander was asked to give a passage from Lisbon to Portsmouth to the 1st Duke of Sussex (Letters, May 23). He was married to Lady Augusta Murray unlawfully under the Royal Marriages Act.

Jane Austen reported in a letter to her sister: “They were very well satisfied with their Royal Passenger, whom they found fat, jolly & affable, who talks of Lady Augusta as his wife & seems much attached to her.”

The extensive Sussex library was to include Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, of which Lady Augusta owned a first edition.

Not a bad model for Prince Harry (apart from the fatness).

Mary Lanch

Harrow, Middlesex