is there any reason to doubt the badness of a country
lane; but the particular family-flitting referred to must be left
uncertain.

George Austen was thirty-three years old when he settled down at his
Hampshire living. His wife was some eight years younger. Their means
were not large, but George was able to supplement his income both by
farming and by taking pupils. Life too was simpler in those days; and we
read of Mrs. Austen being without a new gown for two years, and spending
much of the time in a red riding-habit, which even then had not finished
its usefulness, for it was cut up some years later into a suit for one
of her boys. Her time, indeed, was soon busily employed; her eldest boy,
James, was born on February 13, 1765; the second, George, on August 26,
1766; and the third, Edward, on October 7, 1767. The Austens followed
what was a common custom in those days--namely, that of putting out
their children to nurse. An honest woman in Deane had charge of them all
in turn, and we are told that one or both of their parents visited them
every day.

The only excitements to vary the tranquil life at Steventon were
occasional visits to or from their near relations. Cassandra's brother
was now living on his property called Scarlets, at Hare Hatch, in the
parish of Wargrave, and was thus within a day's journey from Steventon.
He had married a Miss Cholmeley, of Easton in Lincolnshire, but they had
no children. Cassandra's only sister, Jane (the beauty of the family),
was married at the end of 1768 to Dr. Cooper, Rector of Whaddon, near
Bath. Edward Cooper was the son of Gislingham Cooper, a banker in the
Strand, by Ann Whitelock, heiress of Phyllis Court and Henley Manor. Dr.
and Mrs. Cooper divided their time between his house at Southcote, near
Reading, and Bath--from which latter place no doubt he could keep an
eye on his neighbouring parish. The Coopers had two children, Edward and
Jane. They and the Austens were on very intimate terms, and it is
probable that Jane Austen's early knowledge of Bath was to a great
extent owing to the visits paid to them in that place. Another family
with whom the Austens were on cousinly terms were the Cookes. Samuel
Cooke, Rector of Little Bookham in Surrey and godfather to Jane, had
married a daughter of the Master of Balliol (Theophilus Leigh), and
their three children, Theophilus, Mary, and George, belonged, like the
Coopers, to an inner circle of relations on both sides (Leigh P