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[75] 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[76] 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[77] 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[78] 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[79] 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.
