The Letters of Jane Austen: Selected from the compilation of her great nephew, Edward, Lord BradbourneAusten, Jane
General
The Letters of Jane Austen: Selected from the compilation of her great nephew, Edward, Lord Bradbourne
Austen, Jane
Austen, Cassandra, 1773-1845; Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 -- Correspondence; Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence
We dine at Chilham Castle to-morrow, and I expect to find some
amusement, but more from the concert the next day, as I am sure of
seeing several that I want to see. We are to meet a party from
Goodnestone, Lady B., Miss Hawley, and Lucy Foote, and I am to meet Mrs.
Harrison, and we are to talk about Ben and Anna. "My dear Mrs.
Harrison," I shall say, "I am afraid the young man has some of your
family madness; and though there often appears to be something of
madness in Anna too, I think she inherits more of it from her mother's
family than from ours." That is what I shall say, and I think she will
find it difficult to answer me.
I took up your letter again to refresh me, being somewhat tired, and was
struck with the prettiness of the hand: it is really a very pretty hand
now and then,--so small and so neat! I wish I could get as much into a
sheet of paper.[27] Another time I will take two days to make a letter
in: it is fatiguing to write a whole long one at once. I hope to hear
from you again on Sunday and again on Friday, the day before we move.
On Monday, I suppose, you will be going to Streatham, to see quiet Mr.
Hill and eat very bad baker's bread.
A fall in bread by the by. I hope my mother's bill next week will show
it. I have had a very comfortable letter from her, one of her foolscap
sheets quite full of little home news. Anna was there the first of the
two days. An Anna sent away and an Anna fetched are different things.
This will be an excellent time for Ben to pay his visit, now that we,
the formidables, are absent.
I did not mean to eat, but Mr. Johncock has brought in the tray, so I
must. I am all alone. Edward is gone into his woods. At this present
time I have five tables, eight-and-twenty chairs, and two fires all to
myself.
Miss Clewes is to be invited to go to the concert with us; there will be
my brother's place and ticket for her, as he cannot go. He and the other
connections of the Cages are to meet at Milgate that very day, to
consult about a proposed alteration of the Maidstone road, in which the
Cages are very much interested. Sir Brook comes here in the morning, and
they are to be joined by Mr. Deedes at Ashford. The loss of the concert
will be no great evil to the Squire. We shall be a party of three ladies
therefore, and to meet three ladies.
What a convenient carriage Henry's is, to his friends in general! Who
has it next? I am glad William's going is voluntary, and on no worse
grounds. An inclination for the country is a venial fault. He has more
of Cowper than of Johnson in him,--fonder of tame hares and blank verse
than of the full tide of human existence at Charing Cross.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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