Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family RecordAusten-Leigh, William
General
Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family Record
Austen-Leigh, William
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817; Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Family; Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Family relationships
I fancy we are to have a house in Seymour Street,
or thereabouts. My uncle and aunt both like the
situation. I was glad to hear the former talk of
all the houses in New King Street as too small; it
was my own idea of them. I had not been two
minutes in the dining-room before he questioned me
with all his accustomary eager interest about
Frank and Charles, their views and intentions. I
did my best to give information.
* * * * *
_Tuesday Night._--When my uncle went to take his
second glass of water I walked with him, and in
our morning's circuit we looked at two houses in
Green Park Buildings, one of which pleased me very
well. We walked all over it except into the
garret; the dining-room is of a comfortable size,
just as large as you like to fancy it; the second
room about 14ft. square. The apartment over the
drawing-room pleased me particularly, because it
is divided into two, the smaller one a very
nice-sized dressing-room, which upon occasion
might admit a bed. The aspect is south-east. The
only doubt is about the dampness of the offices,
of which there were symptoms.
Paragon: Tuesday [May 12, 1801].
Sixty-one guineas and a-half for the three cows
gives one some support under the blow of only
eleven guineas for the tables. Eight for my
pianoforte is about what I really expected to get;
I am more anxious to know the amount of my books,
especially as they are said to have sold well.
* * * * *
In the evening, I hope you honoured my toilette
and ball with a thought; I dressed myself as well
as I could, and had all my finery much admired at
home. By nine o'clock my uncle, aunt, and I
entered the rooms, and linked Miss Winstone on to
us. Before tea it was rather a dull affair; but
then the before tea did not last long, for there
was only one dance, danced by four couple. Think
of four couple, surrounded by about an hundred
people, dancing in the Upper Rooms at Bath.
After tea we _cheered up_; the breaking up of
private parties sent some scores more to the ball,
and though it was shockingly and inhumanly thin
for this place, there were people enough, I
suppose, to have made five or six very pretty
Basingstoke assemblies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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