After returning from Lyme Regis in the autumn of 1804, the Austens left Sydney Place, and went to Green Park Buildings, which had been among the houses first considered. They were here when Mr. Austen’s death occurred in January 1805; and then Mrs. Austen and her daughters moved into lodgings in Gay Street. Mrs. Lybbe Powys gives us a lively word-picture of Bath in 1805— “The Dress Ball, Upper Rooms immensely crowded at ten; but the number of card parties quite spoilt the balls, as ‘tis fashionable to attend five or six before you go to the room. It was endeavoured to alter these hours, but fortunately for the old people, and those who drink the waters, it was not permitted, and at eleven, if in the middle of a dance, the music stops. But I suppose ‘tis reckoned vulgar to come early, one sees nothing of the dancing or company for the crowds. The rooms are not half so agreeable as they were some years ago, when the late London hours were not thought of; and how prejudicial must they be to the health of all, is very visible in the young as in the old.... Sixteen thousand strangers at Bath in the season 1805!” Of Bath itself we hear in the satirical skit called _The New Guide_— “Of all the gay places the world can afford, By gentle and simple for pastime adored, Fine balls, and fine concerts, fine buildings and springs, Fine walks and fine views and a thousand fine things, Not to mention the sweet situation and air, What place, my dear mother, with Bath can compare?” There is little reason to doubt that Jane would thoroughly enjoy the change afforded by such constant opportunity for diversion, such delightful mingling with a crowd in which her bright humour must have found frequent opportunities for indulgence. As we have seen, she had written her first Bath book, _Northanger Abbey_, many years before, and while she sat in the Pump Room, awaited a partner in the Assembly Rooms, or shopped in Milsom Street, she must have recalled her own creations, Catherine Morland and Isabella Thorpe, Henry Tilney and Mrs. Allen, quite as vividly as if they were real persons of her acquaintance. The second Bath book, _Persuasion_, was not written until many years after, yet these two, chronologically so far apart, topographically so near each other, have always been, owing to conditions of length, bound together.