1 . (p. 3) Baronetage: The reference is to John Debrett’s two-volume Baronetage of England (1808). A baronet is just above the rank of knight and below that of baron.
2 (p. 4) Dugdale: Sir William Dugdale’s catalogue of the seventeenth-century nobility was published in 1675 and 1676.
3 (p. 9) There was only a small part … alienable: Sir Walter’s estate is entailed, meaning that he is legally obliged to pass most of the estate to an heir, and thus may sell only a small part of it, that which is alienable, or separate from the entailed portion.
4 (p. 17) This peace: The reference is to the Treaty of Paris (1814), the seeming defeat of the forces of Napoleon, until his escape from Elba in 1815.
5 (p. 17) greatest prize of all: When British naval officers captured an enemy ship, they were legally entitled to seize and sell all its contents as “prizes.” Since the British navy was powerful and successful in the Napoleonic Wars, many officers enriched themselves this way, as Wentworth is said to have done.
6 (p. 19) Lord St. Ives: Austen may have been thinking of the British naval hero Lord Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), victor over Napoleon at Trafalgar, whose father was a country clergyman (as was Jane Austen’s own father).
7 (p. 21) rear admiral of the white: Rear-admirals were ranked below vice-admirals, the rank just below admiral; the three squadrons of the British Navy were ranked, in downward order, red, white, and blue.
8 (p. 21) Trafalgar action: Trafalgar was the site of an important battle of 1805 that established Britain’s naval power as supreme over Napoleon’s.
9 (p. 25) St. Domingo: The reference is to an 1806 victory for the British against the French Navy in Santo Domingo.
10 (p. 62) privateers: Privateers were armed vessels owned and commanded by private persons who held government commissions to use arms against hostile nations, especially for the purpose of profiteering in merchandise seized.
11 (p. 72) new creations: The reference is to bestowings of the title of baronet. Mary echoes her father’s contempt for recent “creations” (see p. 3).
12 (p. go) as the nature of the country required, for going and returning: Lyme and the countryside around it are very hilly, and the journey would have been slow. Jane Austen visited Lyme in 1804 and here drew on that experience.
13 (p.91) romantic rocks: Austen may have been thinking of the poem “Kubla Khan” (1798), by the Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), with its “deep romantic chasm” (1. 12) and “dancing rocks” (1.23).
14 (p. 96) Marmion or The Lady of the Lake: Sir Walter Scott (1771- 1832) is the author of these two popular long poems, Marmion: A Tale of Flooden Field (1808) and The Lady of the Lake: A Poem (1810).
15 (p. 96) Giaour and The Bride of Abydos: George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) wrote The Giaour, A Fragment of a Turkish Tale (1813) and The Bride of Abydos: A Turkish Tale (1813). These publications would have been recent at the time the novel takes place, and much talked about.
16 (p. 104) “dark blue seas”: The reference is Byron’s long poem of 1812, Childe Harold’s Pilgrzmage, canto 2, stanza 17.
17 (p. 111) Henry: The reference is to Matthew Prior’s poem “Henry and Emma” (1709). Based on the old ballad “The Nut-Brown Maid,” it tells the story of Emma, who proves her selfless love for her lover, Henry, in part by willingness to extend her devotion for his sake to the woman she thinks is her rival.
18 (p. 116) Camden-place: Jane Austen drew here and elsewhere on her knowledge of Bath’s addresses and establishments, with their varying indications of social status and fashionability; she resided there from 1801 until 1806.
19 (p. 135) silver sounds: The “silver sound” of the timepiece that awakens the heroine is found in The Rape of the Lock (1714), canto 1, line 18, by Alexander Pope (1688-1744).
20 (p. 179) Miss Larolles: A character in Cecilia (1782), a novel by Fanny Burney (1752-1840); the heroine seats herself when attending performances so as to talk to those she wants to cultivate.
21 (p. 205) youth … many years: Charles will temporarily fill the position for a clergyman who has been promised to the parish by a patron but is not yet old enough to be ordained.
22 (p. 216) head: This is a reference to the collection of tales called The Arabian Nights or The Thousand and One Nights. The conceit is that a legendary king of Samarkand killed each of his wives the morning following their wedding night until he married Scheherazade, who remained alive by promising to tell him a new tale every night.