Frances, Countess of Morley, thanks Jane Austen for a copy of the newly published Emma. She already knows the families in Jane's earlier novels and welcomes the Woodhouses as new acquaintances. Jane's reply admits her anxiety about the book's reception and her relief at this encouragement. Unlike the isolated readers' opinions elsewhere in the collection, these two letters preserve both the compliment and the author's answer.

Frances Talbot, Countess of Morley to Jane Austen

DEC 27, 1815

‘Saltram, December 27 (1815).

‘Madam,—I have been most anxiously waiting for an introduction to “Emma,” and am infinitely obliged to you for your kind recollection of me, which will procure me the pleasure of her acquaintance some days sooner than I should otherwise have had it. I am already become intimate with the Woodhouse family, and feel that they will not amuse and interest me less than the Bennetts, Bertrams, Norrises, and all their admirable predecessors. I can give them no higher praise.

‘I am, Madam, your much obliged ‘F. Morley.’

Source: A Memoir of Jane Austen (1871), p. 133.

Jane Austen to Frances Talbot, Countess of Morley

DEC 31, 1815

‘Madam,—Accept my thanks for the honour of your note, and for your kind disposition in favour of “Emma.” In my present state of doubt as to her reception in the world, it is particularly gratifying to me to receive so early an assurance of your Ladyship’s approbation. It encourages me to depend on the same share of general good opinion which “Emma’s” predecessors have experienced, and to believe that I have not yet, as almost every writer of fancy does sooner or later, overwritten myself.

‘I am, Madam,

‘Your obliged and faithful Servt. ‘J. Austen.’

‘December 31, 1815.’

Source: A Memoir of Jane Austen (1871), p. 133.