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Jane Austen Society of Australia
Writing Competition 1999
winner:
An Obituary –
prepared by the Late Rev William Collins, of Hunsford, Kent, anticipating
the death of his cousin, Mr George Arthur Bennet, of Longbourn
Topic: write an obituary for a character from any Jane Austen novel.
Judges: Bertha McKenzie, Annette Harman and Sibylle Burkart
From:
Mr —, Attorney, London;
To:
Mr George Arthur Bennet, of Longbourn, in the County of Hertfordshire, on the occasion of
the death of Rev William Collins of Hunsford, near Westerham, Kent.
Sir –
I write to inform you of the recent death of your cousin, Rev William Collins, of
Hunsford, Kent. You will be aware that the Longbourn Estate, in which you presently
reside, was entailed to Mr Collins effective from your own decease. As Mr Collins has
predeceased you and has died without male issue, the entailment is thereby rendered null
and void. The Longbourn Estate reverts to your own direct line and becomes the inheritance
of your direct male heir, at present Mr Charles Fitzwilliam Gardiner Bingley, eldest son
of Mr and Mrs Charles Bingley, of the County of — near Derbyshire. I am enclosing
herewith an obituary notice, which Mr Collins had prepared in readiness for distribution
to the public newspapers in the event of your decease preceding his own. I trust I may
continue to be of assistance in matters concerning the Longbourn Estate in the future.
Yours (etc)
Mr —. Attorney, London
Obituary
Mr George Arthur Bennet
(by Rev William Collins)I
t is my solemn and unfortunate duty to announce the passing to a higher life of my
cousin, Mr George Arthur Bennet, of Longbourn, in the County of Hertfordshire.
The Bennet name came to be well known in London and throughout the southern counties
after the most fortunate marriage alliance between Mr Bennet’s second daughter,
Elizabeth, and Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, the nephew of my late esteemed patroness, the Right
Honourable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, of Rosings, Kent.
I came to know my Cousin Bennet some years ago, when I first visited the Longbourn
property, which is entailed to my humble self. I believed it was my humble duty to visit
my Bennet cousins, to remind them of the entail and to proffer an olive branch of peace,
and to humbly and dutifully offer to be of service in anticipation of the necessity of my
taking up residence at Longbourn in the unhappy event of my Cousin Bennet’s
death preceding my own. Now that it will be my painful and unfortunate duty to take
possession of the Longbourn home, I derive much solace from the knowledge that
since first making their acquaintance I have been of much service to the Bennet family in
rendering wise counsel and spiritual guidance.
The cause of Mr Bennet’s decease is unknown. However, it is my own humble opinion
that his death was exacerbated by a penitential spirit and a deep burden of remorse for
the folly of his early years, which, prior to my own humble ministrations, were not wisely
spent, either in his own spiritual improvement, or in the moral instruction of his wife
and daughters.
No doubt my own humble counsel was of great benefit to my Cousin Bennet in his
spiritual pilgrimage. In his latter years, Mr Bennet spent many hours of every day alone
in his library, no doubt contemplating his own spiritual improvement in the light of the
valuable moral and spiritual counsel which I was diligent to deliver to him since first
making his acquaintance. On one occasion when I ventured to commend to my Cousin Bennet
some volumes of uplifting sermons which would be beneficial to him in his declining years,
he himself assured me that he was even then utilising the long hours of isolation totally
absorbed in serious contemplation of the excellent moral and spiritual counsel which I had
already been able to render to him over the previous many years. He begged me not to
trouble myself to provide other material, which, he assured me, could be but surfeit, and
which, compared to my own humble contribution, must be at best the pedantry of lesser men.
He then earnestly troubled me to give him the privacy of his library yet again, that he
might resume his personal spiritual meditation, redeeming all the time that was yet
allowed to him.
Mr Bennet is survived by a widow and four daughters. The two elder daughters have made
fortuitous marriages in recent years; the second, as mentioned heretofore, having made a
most fortunate alliance with the nephew of my late patroness, the Honourable Lady
Catherine de Bourgh. In a humble effort to continue to be of service to my Bennet cousins,
I have personally petitioned my new patroness, the Honourable Lady Anne de Bourgh,
daughter of Lady Catherine, on behalf of my two unmarried cousins, Misses Mary and
Catherine Bennet, and I am happy to say that Lady Anne has most graciously condescended to
endeavour to find for them suitable places as governesses. Meanwhile, as neither of these
young ladies is of a serious turn, it will be my happy duty to place them under my own
personal tutelage. I doubt not but that there will be much improvement once I am able to
supervise their moral instruction. Mr Bennet’s widow has found congenial
accommodation with her own relatives.
All matters concerning my late cousin Bennet’s business or personal affairs should
be addressed to my humble self at the Longbourn Estate.
I am, Your humble servant,
Rev William Collins.
Coral Joyce
Other winners:
2nd prize $50 ~ Marjorie Jones ~ An Obituary: Lady Catherine de Bourgh, 1750 – 1815
3rd prize $25 ~ Josie Adler ~ An Obituary for the Rev William Collins dec’d, late of
the Parish of Hunsford, Kent
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03 February 2003
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