Chawton Friday Jany 29.
I hope
you received my little parcel by J. Bond on Wednesday eveng, my dear Cassandra,
& that you will be ready to hear from me again on Sunday, for I feel that I
must write to you to day. Your parcel is safely arrived & everything shall
be delivered as it ought. Thank you for your note. As you had not heard from me
at that time it was very good in you to write, but I shall not be so much your
debtor soon.—I want to tell you that I have got my own darling Child from
London;—on Wednesday I received one Copy, sent down by Falknor, with three
lines from Henry to say that he had given another to Charles, & sent a 3d
by the Coach to Godmersham; just the two Sets which I was least eager for the
disposal of. I wrote to him immediately to beg for my two other Sets, unless he
would take the trouble of forwarding them at once to Steventon &
Portsmouth—not having an idea of his leaving Town before to day;—by your
account however he was gone before my Letter was written. The only evil is the
delay, nothing more can be done till his return. Tell James & Mary so, with
my Love.—For your sake I am as well pleased that it shd be so, as it might be
unpleasant to you to be in the Neighbourhood at the first burst of the
business.—The Advertisement is in our paper to day for the first time;—18s—He
shall ask £1- 1- for my two next, & £1- 8 for my stupidest of all.—I shall
write to Frank, that he may not think himself neglected. Miss Benn dined with
us on the very day of the Books coming, & in the eveng we set fairly at it
& read half the 1st vol. to her—prefacing that having intelligence from
Henry that such a work wd soon appear we had desired him to send it whenever it
came out—& I beleive it passed with her unsuspected.—She was amused, poor
soul! that she cd not help you know, with two such people to lead the way; but
she really does seem to admire Elizabeth. I must confess that I think her as
delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, & how I shall be able to
tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do not know.—There are a few
Typical errors—& a "said he" or a "said she" would
sometimes make the Dialogue more immediately clear—but "I do not write for
such dull Elves"
"As
have not a great deal of Ingenuity themselves."—The 2d vol. is shorter
than I cd wish—but the difference is not so much in reality as in look, there
being a larger proportion of Narrative in that part. I have lopt & cropt so
successfully however that I imagine it must be rather shorter than S. & S.
altogether.—Now I will try to write of something else;—it shall be a complete
change of subject—Ordination. I am glad to find your enquiries have ended so
well.—If you cd discover whether Northamptonshire is a Country of Hedgerows, I
shd be glad again.—We admire your Charades excessively, but as yet have guessed
only the 1st. The others seem very difficult. There is so much beauty in the
Versification however, that the finding them out is but a secondary pleasure.—I
grant you that this is a cold day, & am sorry to think how cold you will be
through the process of your visit at Manydown. I hope you will wear your China
Crape. Poor wretch! I can see you shivering away, with your miserable feeling
feet.—What a vile Character Mr Digweed turns out, quite beyond anything &
everything;—instead of going to Steventon they are to have a Dinnerparty next
tuesday!—I am sorry to say that I could not eat a Mincepie at Mr Papillon's; I
was rather head-achey that day, & cd not venture on anything sweet except
Jelly; but that was excellent.—There were no stewed pears, but Miss Benn had
some almonds & raisins.—By the bye, she desired to be kindly remembered to
you when I wrote last, & I forgot it.—Betsy sends her Duty to you &
hopes you are well, & her Love to Miss Caroline & hopes she has got rid
of her Cough. It was such a pleasure to her to think her Oranges were so well
timed, that I dare say she was rather glad to hear of the Cough.
[Second leaf of letter missing; postscript
upside down at top of p.1]
Since I
wrote this Letter we have been visited by Mrs Digweed, her Sister & Miss
Benn. I gave Mrs D. her little parcel, which she opened here & seemed much
pleased with—& she desired me to make her best Thanks &c. to Miss Lloyd
for it.—Martha may guess how full of wonder & gratitude she was.
[Miss
Austen Steventon]
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