Letter 13, Post 11

Monday 10 December 2012
To Cassandra, from Steventon, "John Bond begins to find himself grow old, which John Bonds ought not to do, and unequal to much hard work; a man is therefore hired to supply his place as to labour, and John himself is to have the care of the sheep. There are not more people engaged than before, I believe; only men instead of boys. I fancy so at least, but you know my stupidity as to such matters." - Jane Austen, Saturday 1-Sunday 2 December 1798

You can hear the affection Jane Austen has for John Bond here, can't you? John Bond was the farm bailiff at Steventon. He was born around 1738 at Laverstoke, so he would have been around sixty-five years old at this time. He married Anne Naishon or Nation of Deane in 1772. They had four children: Hannah, born in 1772, George, born in 1776, John, born in 1780 and Elizabeth, born in 1782. John and Anne both passed away in 1825.

                                          Steventon Parsonage.

The link below is to a flicker photo stream that has some amazing pictures of Steventon taken by Jeff Dodgson Photography. They are worth checking out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffdodgson/3570969628/in/photostream/

I hope you enjoyed your day today!
Terrie