Inside the story
Meet Miss Matilda Jenkyns
Miss Matilda Jenkyns, usually called Miss Matty, is a gentle, timid older unmarried woman living in the small town of Cranford. She is the younger sister of the formidable Deborah Jenkyns and a dear friend of the narrator, who observes her place in the town’s close female society.
On the page
Elderly early-Victorian village gentlewoman with a small, soft, gentle 'mousey' face and grey hair; wears round spectacles she often takes off and puts on, and a neat prim lavender lace cap (she secretly longed for a fashionable sea-green turban); dressed in modest, old-fashioned high-waisted gowns; slight, nervous, mild in bearing.
