Tuesday 17 August 2010

Several things happened between the second letter dated 14 and 15 January 1796 and the third letter dated Tuesday 23 August 1796. The first being that Jane Austen started writing First Impressions, which would become Pride and Prejudice; and the second being that her oldest brother, James Austen, who was a widower, started courting their cousin Eliza de Feuillide, who was at this time a widow.

I read somewhere that Mary Crawford (Mansfield Park) and Eliza de Feuillide had many of the same personality traits. Mary did not want to marry Edmond because he was going to be a preacher and it is said that Eliza would not marry James because he was a preacher. After her husband was guillotined in France she made it clear that she wanted to marry money.

Eliza wrote in a letter to her cousin, Philadelphia Walters, on 13th December 1796, “...I am glad to find you have made up your mind to visiting the Rectory, but at the same time, and in spite of all your conjectures and belief, I do assert that Preliminaries are so far from settled that I do not believe the parties ever will come together, not however that they have quarrelled, but one of them cannot bring her mind to give up dear Liberty, and yet dearer flirtation – After a few months stay in the Country She sometimes thinks it possible to undertake sober Matrimony, but a few weeks stay in London convinces her how little the state suits her taste – Lord S’s card has this moment been brought me which I think very ominous considering I was talking of Matrimony, but it does not signify, I shall certainly escape both Peer & Parson...”

She was speaking of Steventon Rectory and James and her relationship. Lord S. might have been Charles Sackville-Germain (1767-1843), Viscount Sackville of Drayton and later 5th Duke of Dorset.

I think Eliza was a character and Jane liked her very much. She was quite a bit older and worldly than Cassandra or Jane so she must have seemed very interesting to them.

There is a very good book out by Deirdre Le Faye about Eliza de Feuillide called Jane Austen's 'Outlandish Cousin' The Life and Letters of Eliza de Feuillide. It is very entertaining.

Tuesday 12 May 2010

Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “I shall be extremely impatient to hear from you again, that I may know how Elixa is, & when you are to return. With best Love, &c., I am affectionately yours

J: Austen

Miss Austen
The Rev. Mr. Fowle’s,
Kintbury,
Newbury” – Jane Austen, 15 January 1796

Eliza would have been, Eliza Lloyd Fowle, (died 1839), She was Mary and Martha Lloyd’s sister. She married her cousin, Revd Fulwar-Craven Fowle (14 May 1764 – 9 March 1840), which would make her Tom Fowle’s sister-in-law and cousin . She and her husband also lived at Kintbury.

So, today we finish letter #2.

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “John Lyford and his sister bring Edward home to day, dine with us, & we shall all go together to Ashe. I understand that we are to draw for Partners.” – Jane Austen, Friday 15 January 1796

The Edward here would be Revd Edward Cooper. She mentions him at the beginning of this letter as having gone with his friend John Lyford and coming back on Friday, which would be 15 January.

John Lyford; He was in fact Revd John Lyford (1769 to 12 June 1799); the curate of Basing and Nately 1793. He married Jane Lodge 19 April 1799, died suddenly and was buried at Basingstoke. He was married just under two months. That is very sad.

An interesting note about his family is that his brother, Charles Lyford (1743-1805), was a surgeon in Winchester and his son, Giles-King Lyford (1764-1837), was Surgeon-in-Ordinary at the County Hospital, Winchester, and attended Jane Austen during her last illness.

John Lyford’s sister was Mary Susannah (1772-1840). She married Revd James Digweed in June 1803.

Drawing for partners must be just what it sounds like. I read somewhere, (I cannot find it now), but, there was the thought that perhaps Mrs. Lefroy chose to have drawing for partners because she was concerned about the flirting between Jane and Mr. Lefroy.

It seems to me that drawing for partners might be a bit risky, what if you did not particularly care for the partner you drew? Then what? You are stuck with no way out except a Mr. Elton scene; and no one wants that; to be compared with the littleness of Mr. Elton! Mr. Knightly's advice would be to, just do the right thing and stick-it-out, and maybe, just maybe, if you keep a positive attitude, you just might enjoy yourself. You just might, in the end, decide that Emma chose better for Mr. Elton than he did for himself! You never know until you try!

Monday 10 May 2010

Monday 10 May 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “Wm. Chute called here yesterday. I wonder what he means by being so civil. There is a report that Tom is going to be married to a Litchfield Lass.” – Jane Austen, Friday 15 January 1796

When I first read this, I thought she was referring to Mr. Tom Lefroy, but she was not; she was referring to Mr. Tom Chute, Williams’ brother.

William-John Chute (1757-1824) was MP for Hants and married to Elizabeth Smith. He had inherited The Vyne/Vyne Estate in Sherborne St. John, Hants. It says something about the Austen family that the MP would visit them, does it not?

The Vyne in Sherborne St. John

Another picture of The Vyne in Sherborne St. John

This is a link to information about The Vyne and how you can visit it.
http://www.visitsoutheastengland.com/site/things-to-do/the-vyne-p51263


Tom Chute ((1772-1827), the Revd Thomas-Vere Chute; he attended Pembroke College, Cambridge and received a BA in 1794 and an MA in 1801. He was in the Hants Fencible Cavalry and was stationed at Deal and New Romney, Kent in 1798. He was ordained in 1804. He occupied the Lobb family livings of Great Moulton St Michael and South Pickenham in Norfolk. He inherited the Vyne in 1824 and died unmarried at South Pickenham Hall 22 January 1827. He owned copies of Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice. and Northanger Abby & Persuasion. He signed his name in the volumes.

Great Moulton St. Michael

This is a link to Great Moulton St Michael, one of Revd Chute’s churches. It has some great indoor pictures.

http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/greatmoulton/greatmoulton.htm

South Pickenham in Norfolk

This is a link to South Pickenham in Norfolk. It also has some great pictures of the inside of the church.

http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/southpickenham/southpickenham.htm


I guess things did not work out with the Litchfield Lass. But, think about this for a minute, Tom Chute was three years older than Jane, so very near her age. They way she mentions him in the same paragraph as Mr. Tom Lefroy, and it seems, in a very melancholy state, makes me think that there had been something between Jane and Mr. Chute. She was, after all writing to Cassandra, and Cassandra would have been aware of Jane’s feelings, so she could make reference without much detail.

He went to Pembroke College, not that far of a stretch to Pemberley, is it?

I know I am way to much of a romantic when it comes to Jane Austen, but here is a picture of his house – hum - maybe Chadwick House was not so much the inspiration for Pemberley as some might think, as she would have been more likely to have visited Pickenham Hall than to have ever visited Chadwick House.

Could this be the real story of Pride and Prejudice gone very, very wrong? Since we have very little or no information before the first letter that Cassandra let us keep, we can only imagine. This could be a very sad statement, they both died unmarried, and he, owning a copy of Pride and Prejudice with his name written in it, showing that he intended to keep it

And her, with the notion of a man who was wrong, but willing to change for the love he has for a woman. – Sigh…

Saturday 8 May 2010

Saturday 8 May 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “Friday – At length the Day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, & when you receive this it will be over ----My tears flow as I write, at the melancholy idea” – Jane Austen, Friday 15 January 1796

There is not really too much to say about this entry. She says it all, does she not? But, I cannot help but wonder, what happened between Thursday, when she was expecting an offer from Mr. Lefroy and Friday when she was crying because he would be leaving.

Thursday 6 May 2010

Thursday 6 May 2010

Okay, so we begin again, picking up where we left off.

Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “Tell Mary that I make over Mr Heartley & all his Estate to her for her sole use and Benefit in future, & not only him, but all my other admirers into the bargain wherever she can find them, even the kiss which C. Powlett wanted to give me, as I mean to confine myself in future to Mr Tom Lefroy, for whom I donot care sixpence. Assure her also as a last & indubitable proof of Warren’s indifference to me, that he actually drew that Gentleman’s picture for me, & delivered it to me without a Sigh.” – Jane Austen, Thursday 14 January 1796

Mary would have been Mary Lloyd. She was with Cassandra visiting Mr. and Mrs. Fowle, who were Mary’s aunt and uncle on her mother’s side.

Mr. Heartley was probably one of the Hartley’s from Bucklebury, Berkshire.
As far as I can tell the Rev. Winchcombe Henry Howard Hartley would have been the Hartley in residence in 1796. He was the vicar of Bucklebury. He married Elizabeth Watts on 21 August 1809.

This is Bucklebury House before the fire.

This is current day Bucklebury!

There was a fire that destroyed a lot of the first house. The current day photo is a restoration of the servants quarters! Still very pretty! The Hartley family still lives there today.

It looks to me like Jane made a pretty big sacrifice for Mr. Lefroy. Mr. Heartley had quite an estate to hand over to Mary.

This is a link to information about the family and the house.
http://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/bucklebury_house.html

Mr. C. Powlett, Charles Powlett; he may be a bit more interesting than he seems at first mention. He was born in 1765, so he would have been around thirty or thirty-one in 1796. Jane had just turned twenty.

His linage was from the 3rd Duke of Bolton. He was raised by his uncle, Charles, mostly at Hackwood Park, where ‘he became acquainted with rank and fashion in abundance, which somewhat unsettled him for the sphere to which his ill-starred fortunes destined him’. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1781, but he did not finish. He held quite a few different Bolton family livings as rector and in 1790 was Chaplain-in-Ordinary to the Prince of Wales.

This was how Hackwood Park looked around 1830.

This is a picture from the air in 1995.

He married Anne ‘Nancy’ Temple in November of 1796.

He had some trouble and had to leave England for France in 1827. He died in Brussels in 1834.

Someone jumped the gun and wrote an obituary notice for him in 1830 which described him as ‘cheerful, benevolent, conscientious, and virtuous’, but the biographer also added that, ‘His person was diminutive, and his limbs not well formed. He had a quick apprehension, and an excellent memory; but he was somewhat deficient in judgment and profundity. His opinions were apt to run to extremes, and to be lightly taken up, and lightly abandoned. He was a little too free of his advice, which was given with a self-sufficiency not always well received.’ Hum – maybe this sounds like Mr. Collins?

In any case it is apparent he did not obtain a kiss from Jane.

And Mr. Lefroy, well… sigh,,,

Warren; John-Willing Warren (1771-c.1831), He was most likely a student of Mr. Austen's at Steventon, c.1785 and went on to Oxford and, also, contributed to The Loiterer, a magazine Jane Austen's brothers published while they were at Oxford. He became a barrister-at-law and a Charity Commissioner. He married in 1807.

I wonder if warren drew a picture of Mr. Lefroy as a way of teasing her. Mr. Lefroy was being teased about her at Ashe. Their behavior must have warranted the notice of everyone around them, so she was probably being teased also, if so, she did not seem to mind.

Monday 1 March 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “Caroline, Anna and I have just been devouring some cold Souse, & it would be difficult to say which enjoyed it most – “, Jane Austen, Thursday 14 January 1796

Caroline; Caroline-Isabella Powys (died in 1838). She married Edward Cooper on 14 March 1793. They had eight children together.

Anna; Her full name was Jane-Anna-Elizabeth Austen, but she was known as Anna, (15 April 1793 to 1 September 1872). Her father was James Austen, Jane Austen’s eldest brother. She would have been 5 years old, and an only child at this time. Her mother, Anne Mathew Austen, had died on 3 May 1795, so I am sure her life had changed considerably. This letter being written 14 January 1796, her mother had only been gone 8 months.

Cold Souse; here is a recipe from Cooks.com.

SOUSE (PICKLED PORK)
4 pork hocks
1 tbsp. salt
1 rounded tsp. pickling spice
1 c. vinegar
1/2 tsp. sugar
Cover hocks with cold water. Bring to boil and simmer until tender, approximately 3 hours. Remove bones from hocks and place meat in a glass or ceramic container. Reduce stock to two cups. Add pickling spices and vinegar. Boil 1 to 2 minutes. Strain over hocks. Refrigerate until jelled.

I have not tried this. It just does not sound very good. But, then, if I lived in 1796 I probably would have enjoyed it as much as Caroline, Anna and Jane did. Bon Appetite!

Friday 26 February 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “The Rivers are still at Manydown, and are to be at Ashe tomorrow. I intended to call on the Miss Biggs yesterday had the weather been tolerable.” – Jane Austen, Thursday 14 January 1796

The Rivers family were baronets of Chafford, Kent. They had seven children who were alive in 1796, Thomas a 7th Baronet who died in 1805, James an 8th Baronet who was accidentally killed in 1805, and Revd Henry Rivers a 9th Baronet who was the rector of Martyr Worthy, Hants. He died in 1851. Their sisters were Mary, Emilia, Maria, and Louisa.



Revd Henry Rivers church would have been St. Switchuns, Martyr Worthy, Hampshire, which is a small Anglican church. The bell turret was added in 1865.



Manydown was the home of the Biggs; Harris, Althea, Elizabeth and Catherine. The ladies were friends with Cassandra and Jane.



Ashe is where the ball would be the next night. It is where the Lefroy’s lived and where Tom Lefroy was visiting.

Friday 12 February 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “How impertinent you are to write to me about Tom, as if I had not opportunities of hearing from him myself. The last letter that I received from him was dated on Friday the 8th, and he told me that if the wind should be favourable on Sunday, which it proved to be, they were to sail from Falmouth on that Day. By this time therefore they are at Barbadoes I suppose.” – Jane Austen Thursday 14 January 1796

Tom; Revd Tom Fowle (1765-13 February 1797). He was Cassandra’s fiancé. He had a small parish in Allington, Wilts. which he had received from Lord Craven in 1793 and was also one of Lord Craven’s domestic chaplains. Lord Craven asked him to go with him as chaplain to the campaign in the West Indies.

Tom and Cassandra had become engaged sometime in 1792. They had not married because they had hoped to receive a more valuable parish from Lord Craven in Shropshire. Tom and Cassandra had just spent time together in Kintbury with his parents before he left for the West Indies.

As the distance between England and Barbados is 4,185 miles or 6,734 kilometers it is not likely that Tom was in Barbados yet, but it is very sweet of Jane to suppose this part of his trip would be over.

It is interesting that in 1796 William Wilberforce was working very hard to have the slave trade abolished and Tom was heading out with Lord Craven on a slave trade mission.

Thursday 4 February 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “I am very glad to find from Mary that Mr & Mrs Fowle are pleased with you. I hope you will continue to give satisfaction.” – Jane Austen, Thursday 14 January 1796
Mary would have been Mary Lloyd. She is mentioned at the beginning of this letter as having written to Jane also. Mr. and Mrs. Fowle were her aunt and uncle on her mother’s side. She must have been visiting with Cassandra.

Cassandra was visiting Mr. and Mrs. Fowle, her fiancés parents, in Kintbury, Newbury. I am sure they wanted to get to know his furture wife. Tom, her fiancé, was at sea with Lord Craven. Mr. Fowle was Revd Thomas Fowle II, (1726-7 February 1806). Mrs. Fowle was Jane Craven Fowle, (died in 1798).

The Revd Thomas Fowle II was vicar at St. Mary's in Kintbury as of 1762. He took the position when his father died.


This is St. Mary's in Kintbury where Cassandra was visiting at the time this letter was written.



This is just another view of St. Mary's in Kintbury. It is so pretty, what a great building.

Here is a link to St. Mary's in Kintbury.

http://www.berkshirehistory.com/churches/kintbury.html

He was also rector of Hampstead Marshall, Berkshire as of 1771.



This is St. Mary's in Hamstead Marshall.

This is a link to great information on St. Mary’s in Hamstead Marshall. Revd. Thomas Fowle II is listed in their list of rectors.

http://www.hamsteadmarshall.net/church/index.htm

This is a house near St. Andrew's in Sherborne St. John. I would not say for sure that it is the house James and his family lived in, but it is pretty.


James was vicar in Sherborne St. John and this is St. Andrew's church in Sherborne St. John, so I imagine this would have been his church in 1796.

Tuesday 2 February 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “Anna is now here; She came up in her chaise to spend the day with her young Cousins; but she does not much take to them or anything about them, except Caroline’s Spinning-wheel.”

Anna; Her full name was Jane-Anna-Elizabeth Austen, but she was known as Anna, (15 April 1793 to 1 September 1872). Her father was James Austen, Jane Austen’s oldest brother. She would have been 5 years old, and an only child at this time. Her mother, Anne Mathew Austen, had died on 3 May 1795, so I am sure her life had changed considerably. This letter being written 14 January 1796, her mother had only been gone 8 months.

Her father was vicar at Sherborne St. John, Hants., in the district of Basingstoke and Deane. The distance between Steventon and Sherborne St. John is about 6.8 miles or 11.0 kilometers; so about, I am estimating, not quite an hour away, maybe a half hour on a good day?

Caroline was Edward Cooper’s wife.

The Cooper’s children, just then, would have been Edward-Philip (27 October 1794 – 29November 1864)) and Isabella-Mary (29 November 1795 – 31 January 1859). So, Edward-Philip would have been twenty-seven months old and Isabella-Mary fourteen months old. They probably did not do too much to interest five year old Anna.

Monday 1 February 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “Edward is gone to spend the day with his friend, John Lyford, & does not return till to-morrow.” – Jane Austen, 14 January 1796

Edward would have been the Revd Edward Cooper who was visiting during the writing of this letter. He has been discussed previously in this letter and also in letter #1.

John Lyford; He was in fact Revd John Lyford (1769 to 12 June 1799); the curate of Basing and Nately 1793. He married Jane Lodge 19 April 1799, died suddenly and was buried at Basingstoke. He was married just under two months. That is very sad.

An interesting note about his family is that his brother, Charles Lyford (1743-1805), was a surgeon in Winchester and his son, Giles-King Lyford (1764-1837), was Surgeon-in-Ordinary at the County Hospital, Winchester, and attended Jane Austen during her last illness.

Sunday 31 January 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “I am very much flattered by your commendation of my last Letter, for I write only for Fame, and without any view to pecuniary Emolument. – “ – Jane Austen, 14 January 1796

She was jesting here, but foreshadowing! What would she think if she knew that 234 years later, her books have never been out of print, all of them made into movies, and, it seems to me, just about every love story movie made has the Pride and Prejudice theme running through it in some way or another, would she be surprised?

Maybe not; she liked her stories and in a much later letter she refers to them as her children, so, in a sense, they are her legacy, no, they are her legacy. I think she would be proud.

Saturday 30 January 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “Our party to Ashe to-morrow night will consist of Edward Cooper, James (for a Ball is nothing without him), Buller, who is now staying with us, & I – I look forward with great impatience to it, as I rather expect to receive an offer from my friend in the course of the evening. I shall refuse him, however, unless he promises to give away his white coat.” – Jane Austen, 14 January 1796

Ashe was where the Lefroy’s lived. I posted a picture of it in letter #1, the first entry. The friend she refers to here would be Mr. Tom Lefroy. He was visiting the Lefroy family at this time. There is much discussion of him, and a bit of discussion of his white coat, in the first letter.

This entry and one coming up make me believe that she did care enough for him to marry him. Even though I realize that she had a great wit and humor, and I also realize that because she is not here to ask we can, all of us, pick and choose how we wish things to be, I still choose to believe that she would have married him, if he would have asked.

They were both penniless, and it is said that Madam Lefroy put a stop to their “romance” because of it, but when you consider that money was such a factor in all of Jane Austen’s stories, maybe, this made a distinct impression upon her, coupled with the fact that Cassandra had not married her fiancé, Mr. Tom Fowle, because he did not make enough money, and this situation, also, had such a sad ending. When you think about it, it seems like money is the third person in all of her stories.

Buller must have been Richard Buller, the son of William Buller, who was a friend of her father, George Austen.

Richard and Jane wrote to each other, so they must have been friends.

Here is a link to William Buller in Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Buller

This is Ibthrop!

And here is a link to the Bed and Breakfast that it has become. We can stay there!

http://www.ibthorpemanorfarm.com/

Monday 25 January 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “I sent you a letter yesterday to Ibthrop, which I suppose you will not receive at Kintbury. It was not very long or very witty, & therefore if you never receive it, it does not much signify. I wrote principally to tell you that the Coopers were arrived and in good health – the little boy is very like Dr Cooper & the little girl is to resemble Jane, they say.” – Jane Austen, Thursday 14 January 1796

Ibthrop is where Mary, Martha and Mrs. Lloyd moved to after they moved from Dean. They were very good friend’s of the Austen’s and related to the Fowle’s. That may be why Cassandra would have been at Ibthrop while she was visiting Kintbury. James married Mary in 1797 and Frank ended up marrying Martha in 1828.


There is already a note about the Coopers in letter #1 on Tuesday 1 December 2009.

The Dr. Cooper she refers to would most likely have been Revd Dr Edward Cooper (1728- 27 August 1792), the father of Revd Edward Cooper jr. who was visiting at the time; and Jane, I imagine would have been his wife, Jane Leigh Cooper. She was the sister of Jane Austen’s mother, so Jane Austen’s aunt. I wonder if that is who she is named after?

Friday 22 January 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “What a good-for-nothing-fellow Charles is to bespeak the stockings – I hope he will be too hot all the rest of his life for it!” – Jane Austen, Thursday January 1796

This note is in reference to a statement she made in letter #1. We discussed it on 20 December 2010.

http://allthings-jane-austen.blogspot.com/2009/11/letter-1.html

Apparently, she asked Charles to buy her silk stockings and then she spent all her money on white gloves and pink fabric, so she could not pay him back for them.

Her wit! and poor Charles. He must have been pretty amiable for her to ask, and him to agree, to buy the silk stockings in the first place. He did it, and then to be scolded for it! J

Let’s see if we can figure out how much those silk stockings would have cost.

In an expense account listing for President George Washington in 1796 there are listings for Mrs. Washington for:

$ 3.00 for gloves
$17.50 for 5 pair of silk stockings
.85 for cotton stockings

It seems they paid the girl who helped in the kitchen 45 schillings, which equaled $8.63.

So, and someone correct me if I am wrong. It has been a very, very long time since I was in a math class,

Divide 17.50 x 5 = 3.50, so, $3.50 if she had bought them in America, but…

If 45 schillings equaled $8.63, that would mean each schilling would equal about 19 cents, so, 3.50 x .19 = .665.

After all of that, the stockings would have cost just about 7 schillings.

And, just for fun and curiosity sake, if Mr. Darcy made 10,000 pounds a year, and 1 schilling = .19, and 20 schillings equaled 1 pound,

If we convert pounds to schillings, 10,000 x 20 = 200,000 schillings x .19 = 38,000?

So, Mr. Darcy made $38,000 a year in 1796 equivalents? It does not seem like that much does it, but when you take into consideration that a family making above 4,000 pounds a year in Jane Austen’s time enjoyed unlimited comforts: servants, carriages, horses, a second home, etc. And remember, Mr. Bingley only made 5,000 pounds a year, so …

To put it a little more into our perspective, Mr. James Heldman estimated that the pound in 1810 would equal $33.00 in 1988, so Mr. Darcy’s 10,000 pounds would have been worth $330,000.00 in 1988.

Mr. Edward Copeland estimated that in 1989 the 1810 pound would be closer to $80.00, so that would increase Mr. Darcy’s income to $800,000.00 a year.

And, Mr. Gene Ruoff said the 1810 pound, in 1991 would be closer to $200.00. So, good heavens, Mr. Darcy, it does look like you can afford Pemberley after all, at $2,000,000.00 a year.

I have not yet had my coffee, but I think this is right.

I wonder if Jane would have asked for the .85 cotton stockings she would have been able to afford it all and Charles would have been saved the trouble of being “too hot for all the rest of his life for it.”

Monday 11 January 2010
Letter #2, To Cassandra, from Steventon, “We are extremely sorry for poor Eliza’s Illness – I trust however that she has continued to recover since you wrote, & that you will none of you be the worse for your attendance on her.” – Jane Austen, Thursday 14 1796

Eliza; Eliza Lloyd Fowle, discussed on 6 January 2010, in letter #1.http://allthings-jane-austen.blogspot.com/2009/11/letter-1.html

Letter #2

Sunday 10 January 2010
Letter #2! Jane is still writing to Cassandra who is still in Kintbury with Tom’s family.

The notes in the book say there is a letter missing, dated Tuesday the 12th or Wednesday 13 1796. Maybe one of the letters Cassandra destroyed before she died? She destroyed letters that might have hurt someone’s feelings or contained circumstances she did not want relived. I think it is interesting that Jane Austen’s family, mainly Henry and Cassandra, treated her life, even after her death, as if they knew she would be famous for hundreds of years later.

“I have just received your & Mary’s letter & I thank you both, tho’ their contents might have been more agreeable. I do not at all expect to see you on Tuesday since matters have fallen out so unpleasantly, & if you are not able to return till after that day, it will hardly be possible for us to send for you before Saturday; tho’ for my own part I care so little about the Ball that it would be no sacrifice to me to give it up for the sake of seeing you two days earlier.” – Jane Austen, Thursday 14 1796

I wonder if the Mary she mentions is Mary Lloyd. Mary Lloyd was Eliza Lloyd Fowle’s sister. Eliza is discussed in letter #1 on Wednesday 6 January 2010. She also mentioned Mary Lloyd in letter #1 which we discussed on 24 November 2009. It makes sense that she would be referring to Mary Lloyd.
http://allthings-jane-austen.blogspot.com/2009/11/letter-1.html

I do not believe the ball she mentions can be the ball at Ashe because that ball will take place the next night, on Friday the 15th. She must be referring to a different ball, she talks of not seeing Cassandra on Tuesday which would be after the Friday ball.