Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family RecordAusten-Leigh, William
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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
Frank writes in good spirits, but says that our
correspondence cannot be so easily carried on in
future as it has been, as the communication
between Cadiz and Lisbon is less frequent than
formerly. You and my mother, therefore, must not
alarm yourselves at the long intervals that may
divide his letters. I address this advice to you
two as being the most tender-hearted of the
family.
My mother made her _entree_ into the dressing-room
through crowds of admiring spectators yesterday
afternoon, and we all drank tea together for the
first time these five weeks. She has had a
tolerable night, and bids fair for a continuance
in the same brilliant course of action to-day. . . .
Mr. Lyford[87] was here yesterday; he came while
we were at dinner, and partook of our elegant
entertainment. I was not ashamed at asking him to
sit down to table, for we had some pease-soup, a
sparerib, and a pudding. He wants my mother to
look yellow and to throw out a rash, but she will
do neither.
We live entirely in the dressing-room now, which I
like very much; I always feel so much more elegant
in it than in the parlour.
I have made myself two or three caps to wear of
evenings since I came home, and they save me a
world of torment as to hair-dressing, which at
present gives me no trouble beyond washing and
brushing, for my long hair is always plaited up
out of sight, and my short hair curls well enough
to want no papering.
_Sunday._--My father is glad to hear so good an
account of Edward's pigs, and desires he may be
told, as encouragement to his taste for them, that
Lord Bolton is particularly curious in _his_ pigs,
has had pigstyes of a most elegant construction
built for them, and visits them every morning as
soon as he rises.
This and the following letter contain allusions to Jane's wearing caps.
Those intended for use at balls, &c. would be smart head-dresses, worn
at that period by younger as well as older women.[88] In later life, the
Miss Austens seem to have been rather indifferent to fashion and beauty
in their clothing, although always very neat.
Steventon: Tuesday [December 18, 1798].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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