becalmed, but Charles hoped to reach Portsmouth by
Monday or Tuesday. . . . He received my letter,
communicating our plans, before he left England,
was much surprised, of course, but is quite
reconciled to them, and means to come to
Steventon once more while Steventon is ours.

After this, we have no letters of Jane till she wrote from Bath; so we
may suppose that the sisters were soon united. The months of March and
April were spent in making the final preparations for leaving Steventon,
and in receiving farewell visits from Edward Austen and his wife, as
well as from Frank and Charles and Martha Lloyd. At the beginning of
May, Mrs. Austen and her two daughters left their old home and went to
Ibthorp; two days later, leaving Cassandra behind them, Jane and her
mother went in a single day from Ibthorp to Bath, where they stayed with
the Leigh Perrots in Paragon Buildings.

FOOTNOTES:

[107] The two M.P.'s for the county.

[108] The carpenter.

[109] Catherine Bigg.

[110] Partly _Memoir_, p. 58; partly unpublished.

[111] James Austen.

[112] _Memoir_, p. 61.

[113] The invitation, the ball-dress, and some remarks made in this and
the preceding letter, refer to a ball annually given at Hurstbourne
Park, on the anniversary of the Earl of Portsmouth's wedding-day. He was
the third Lord Portsmouth, whose eccentricities afterwards became
notorious, and the invitations, as well as other arrangements about
these balls, were of a peculiar character. It will be remembered that he
had been for a short time a pupil at Steventon Rectory (p. 21).

[114] A very dull old lady, then residing with Mrs. Lloyd.

[115] For this expression, see 'The Watsons' (in _Memoir_, p. 325).

[116] Sir Thomas Williams, whose first wife was Jane Cooper; 'Whapshare'
is the correct name of the lady.

[117] Unpublished.

[118] The Debaries were a large family, one of whom had the Parsonage
near Ibthorp.

[119] This seems to show that the balls were held at the town hall and
not at the 'Angel Inn' (_Miss Hill_, pp. 51-54).

[120] Probably Jane wrote 'Axford Buildings,' which were a continuation
of Paragon towards Walcot Church.

[121] Eliza Fowle.

[122] _Memoir_, p. 64.

[123] The Duke of Sussex, who married, without the King's consent, Lady
Augusta Murray.

CHAPTER XI

BATH AGAIN

1801-1805

In the separation of Jane and Cassandra, the letters begin again