There was,however, the occasion in France when Nelson and Ball were on half-pay, and Nelson dismissed Ball as 'a great coxcomb' for wearing epaulettes, not, at that time, part of official uniform. So presumably Ball was wearing uniform at the time of Nelson's comment, unless it was an affectation Nelson had remembered from the days when they were serving.
Jane Austen was meticulous about detail, though, and very familiar, through her brothers, with naval custom and practice, certainly when ashore. Many of the 'fictional' naval events in her novels are thinly disguised fact. However, 'Mansfield Park' wasn't publlished until 1814, so maybe the 'no uniform off duty' was a post-Nelson innovation.
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