castle square, monday (october 24).

my dear cassandra,—edward and george came to us soon after seven on saturday, very well, but very cold, having by choice travelled on the outside, and with no greatcoat but what mr. wise, the coachman, good-naturedly spared them of his, as they sat by his side. they were so much chilled when they arrived, that i was afraid they must have taken cold; but it does not seem at all the case: i never saw them looking better.

they behave extremely well in every respect, showing quite as much feeling as one wishes to see, and on every occasion speaking of their father with the liveliest affection. his letter was read over by each of them yesterday, and with many tears; george sobbed aloud, edward's tears do not flow so easily; but as far as i can judge they are both very properly impressed by what has happened. miss lloyd, who is a more impartial judge than i can be, is exceedingly pleased with them.

george is almost a new acquaintance to me, and i find him in a different way as engaging as edward.

we do not want amusement: bilbocatch, at which george is indefatigable, spillikins, paper ships, riddles, conundrums, and cards, with watching[110] the flow and ebb of the river, and now and then a stroll out, keep us well employed; and we mean to avail ourselves of our kind papa's consideration, by not returning to winchester till quite the evening of wednesday.

mrs. j. a. had not time to get them more than one suit of clothes; their others are making here, and though i do not believe southampton is famous for tailoring, i hope it will prove itself better than basingstoke. edward has an old black coat, which will save his having a second new one; but i find that black pantaloons are considered by them as necessary, and of course one would not have them made uncomfortable by the want of what is usual on such occasions.

fanny's letter was received with great pleasure yesterday, and her brother sends his thanks and will answer it soon. we all saw what she wrote, and were very much pleased with it.

to-morrow i hope to hear from you, and to-morrow we must think of poor catherine. to-day lady bridges is the heroine of our thoughts, and glad shall we be when we can fancy the meeting over. there will then be nothing so very bad for edward to undergo.

the "st. albans," i find, sailed on the very day of my letters reaching yarmouth, so that we must not expect an answer at present; we scarcely feel, however, to be in suspense, or only enough to keep[111] our plans to ourselves. we have been obliged to explain them to our young visitors, in consequence of fanny's letter, but we have not yet mentioned them to steventon. we are all quite familiarized to the idea ourselves; my mother only wants mrs. seward to go out at midsummer.

what sort of a kitchen garden is there? mrs. j. a. expresses her fear of our settling in kent, and, till this proposal was made, we began to look forward to it here; my mother was actually talking of a house at wye. it will be best, however, as it is.

anne has just given her mistress warning; she is going to be married; i wish she would stay her year.

on the subject of matrimony, i must notice a wedding in the salisbury paper, which has amused me very much, dr. phillot to lady frances st. lawrence. she wanted to have a husband, i suppose, once in her life, and he a lady frances.

i hope your sorrowing party were at church yesterday, and have no longer that to dread. martha was kept at home by a cold, but i went with my two nephews, and i saw edward was much affected by the sermon, which, indeed, i could have supposed purposely addressed to the afflicted, if the text had not naturally come in the course of dr. mant's observations on the litany: 'all that are in danger, necessity, or tribulation,' was the subject[112] of it. the weather did not allow us afterwards to get farther than the quay, where george was very happy as long as we could stay, flying about from one side to the other, and skipping on board a collier immediately.

in the evening we had the psalms and lessons, and a sermon at home, to which they were very attentive; but you will not expect to hear that they did not return to conundrums the moment it was over. their aunt has written pleasantly of them, which was more than i hoped.

while i write now, george is most industriously making and naming paper ships, at which he afterwards shoots with horse-chestnuts, brought from steventon on purpose; and edward equally intent over the "lake of killarney," twisting himself about in one of our great chairs.

tuesday.—your close-written letter makes me quite ashamed of my wide lines; you have sent me a great deal of matter, most of it very welcome. as to your lengthened stay, it is no more than i expected, and what must be, but you cannot suppose i like it.

all that you say of edward is truly comfortable; i began to fear that when the bustle of the first week was over, his spirits might for a time be more depressed; and perhaps one must still expect something of the kind. if you escape a bilious attack, i shall wonder almost as much as rejoice. i[113] am glad you mentioned where catherine goes to-day; it is a good plan, but sensible people may generally be trusted to form such.

the day began cheerfully, but it is not likely to continue what it should, for them or for us. we had a little water-party yesterday; i and my two nephews went from the itchen ferry up to northam, where we landed, looked into the 74, and walked home, and it was so much enjoyed that i had intended to take them to netley to-day; the tide is just right for our going immediately after moonshine, but i am afraid there will be rain; if we cannot get so far, however, we may perhaps go round from the ferry to the quay.

i had not proposed doing more than cross the itchen yesterday, but it proved so pleasant, and so much to the satisfaction of all, that when we reached the middle of the stream we agreed to be rowed up the river; both the boys rowed great part of the way, and their questions and remarks, as well as their enjoyment, were very amusing; george's inquiries were endless, and his eagerness in everything reminds me often of his uncle henry.

our evening was equally agreeable in its way: i introduced speculation, and it was so much approved that we hardly knew how to leave off.

your idea of an early dinner to-morrow is exactly[114] what we propose, for, after writing the first part of this letter, it came into my head that at this time of year we have not summer evenings. we shall watch the light to-day, that we may not give them a dark drive to-morrow.

they send their best love to papa and everybody, with george's thanks for the letter brought by this post. martha begs my brother may be assured of her interest in everything relating to him and his family, and of her sincerely partaking our pleasure in the receipt of every good account from godmersham.

of chawton i think i can have nothing more to say, but that everything you say about it in the letter now before me will, i am sure, as soon as i am able to read it to her, make my mother consider the plan with more and more pleasure. we had formed the same views on h. digweed's farm.

a very kind and feeling letter is arrived to-day from kintbury. mrs. fowle's sympathy and solicitude on such an occasion you will be able to do justice to, and to express it as she wishes to my brother. concerning you, she says: "cassandra will, i know, excuse my writing to her; it is not to save myself but her that i omit so doing. give my best, my kindest love to her, and tell her i feel for her as i know she would for me on the same occasion, and that i most sincerely hope her health will not suffer."

[115]

we have just had two hampers of apples from kintbury, and the floor of our little garret is almost covered. love to all.

yours very affectionately, j. a.

miss austen, edward austen's, esq.,

godmersham park, faversham, kent.