STEVENTON, Saturday (January 3, 1801).
MY DEAR CASSANDRA,--As you have by this time received my last letter, it
is fit that I should begin another; and I begin with the hope, which is
at present uppermost in my mind, that you often wore a white gown in the
morning at the time of all the gay parties being with you.
Our visit at Ash Park, last Wednesday, went off in a _come-cá_ way. We
met Mr. Lefroy and Tom Chute, played at cards, and came home again.
James and Mary dined here on the following day, and at night Henry set
off in the mail for London. He was as agreeable as ever during his
visit, and has not lost anything in Miss Lloyd's estimation.
Yesterday we were quite alone--only our four selves; but to-day the
scene is agreeably varied by Mary's driving Martha to Basingstoke, and
Martha's afterwards dining at Deane.
My mother looks forward with as much certainty as you can do to our
keeping two maids; my father is the only one not in the secret. We plan
having a steady cook and a young giddy housemaid, with a sedate,
middle-aged man, who is to undertake the double office of husband to the
former and sweetheart to the latter. No children of course to be allowed
on either side.
You feel more for John Bond than John Bond deserves. I am sorry to lower
his character, but he is not ashamed to own himself that he has no doubt
at all of getting a good place, and that he had even an offer many years
ago from a Farmer Paine of taking him into his service whenever he might
quit my father's.
There are three parts of Bath which we have thought of as likely to have
houses in them,--Westgate Buildings, Charles Street, and some of the
short streets leading from Laura Place or Pulteney Street.
Westgate Buildings, though quite in the lower part of the town, are not
badly situated themselves. The street is broad, and has rather a good
appearance. Charles Street, however, I think is preferable. The
buildings are new, and its nearness to Kingsmead Fields would be a
pleasant circumstance. Perhaps you may remember, or perhaps you may
forget, that Charles Street leads from the Queen Square Chapel to the
two Green Park Streets.
The houses in the streets near Laura Place I should expect to be above
our price. Gay Street would be too high, except only the lower house on
the left-hand side as you ascend. Towards that my mother has no
disinclination; it used to be lower rented than any other house in the
row, from some inferiority in the apartments. But above all others her
wishes are at present fixed on the corner house in Chapel Row, which
opens into Prince's Street. Her knowledge of it, however, is confined
only to the outside, and therefore she is equally uncertain of its being
really desirable as of its being to be had. In the mean time she assures
you that she will do everything in her power to avoid Trim Street,
although you have not expressed the fearful presentiment of it which was
rather expected.
We know that Mrs. Perrot will want to get us into Oxford Buildings, but
we all unite in particular dislike of that part of the town, and
therefore hope to escape. Upon all these different situations you and
Edward may confer together, and your opinion of each will be expected
with eagerness.
As to our pictures, the battle-piece, Mr. Nibbs, Sir William East, and
all the old heterogeneous, miscellany, manuscript, Scriptural pieces
dispersed over the house, are to be given to James. Your own drawings
will not cease to be your own, and the two paintings on tin will be at
your disposal. My mother says that the French agricultural prints in
the best bedroom were given by Edward to his two sisters. Do you or he
know anything about it?
She has written to my aunt, and we are all impatient for the answer. I
do not know how to give up the idea of our both going to Paragon in May.
Your going I consider as indispensably necessary, and I shall not like
being left behind; there is no place here or hereabouts that I shall
want to be staying at, and though, to be sure, the keep of two will be
more than of one, I will endeavor to make the difference less by
disordering my stomach with Bath buns; and as to the trouble of
accommodating us, whether there are one or two, it is much the same.
According to the first plan, my mother and our two selves are to travel
down together, and my father follow us afterwards in about a fortnight
or three weeks. We have promised to spend a couple of days at Ibthorp in
our way. We must all meet at Bath, you know, before we set out for the
sea, and, everything considered, I think the first plan as good as any.
My father and mother, wisely aware of the difficulty of finding in all
Bath such a bed as their own, have resolved on taking it with them; all
the beds, indeed, that we shall want are to be removed,--namely, besides
theirs, our own two, the best for a spare one, and two for servants; and
these necessary articles will probably be the only material ones that
it would answer to send down. I do not think it will be worth while to
remove any of our chests of drawers; we shall be able to get some of a
much more commodious sort, made of deal, and painted to look very neat;
and I flatter myself that for little comforts of all kinds our apartment
will be one of the most complete things of the sort all over Bath,
Bristol included.
We have thought at times of removing the sideboard, or a Pembroke table,
or some other piece of furniture, but, upon the whole, it has ended in
thinking that the trouble and risk of the removal would be more than the
advantage of having them at a place where everything may be purchased.
Pray send your opinion.
Martha has as good as promised to come to us again in March. Her spirits
are better than they were. . . .
My mother bargains for having no trouble at all in furnishing our house
in Bath, and I have engaged for your willingly undertaking to do it all.
I get more and more reconciled to the idea of our removal. We have lived
long enough in this neighborhood: the Basingstoke balls are certainly on
the decline, there is something interesting in the bustle of going away,
and the prospect of spending future summers by the sea or in Wales is
very delightful. For a time we shall now possess many of the advantages
which I have often thought of with envy in the wives of sailors or
soldiers. It must not be generally known, however, that I am not
sacrificing a great deal in quitting the country, or I can expect to
inspire no tenderness, no interest, in those we leave behind. . . .
Yours affectionately, J. A.
Miss AUSTEN,
Godmersham Park, Faversham, Kent.