ians I hope will order you to the
sea, or to a house by the side of a very
considerable pond.[351] Oh! it rains again. It
beats against the window. Mary Jane and I have
been wet through once already to-day; we set off
in the donkey-carriage for Farringdon, as I wanted
to see the improvements Mr. Woolls is making, but
we were obliged to turn back before we got there,
but not soon enough to avoid a pelter all the way
home. We met Mr. Woolls. I talked of its being bad
weather for the hay, and he returned me the
comfort of its being much worse for the wheat. We
hear that Mrs. S. does not quit Tangier: why and
wherefore? Do you know that our Browning is gone?
You must prepare for a William when you come, a
good-looking lad, civil and quiet, and seeming
likely to do. Good bye. I am sure Mr. W. D. will
be astonished at my writing so much, for the paper
is so thin that he will be able to count the lines
if not to read them.

Yours affec^{ly},
J. AUSTEN.
Mr. J. E. Austen.

There was a second family visit this year to Cheltenham, where Cassandra
and Jane had already been in the spring. Probably their connexion with
this watering-place was through Mrs. James Austen, and _hers_ was
through her sister, Mrs. Fowle of Kintbury. Mr. Fowle had lived at
Elkstone near Cheltenham, and continued to hold that benefice, which was
in the gift of the Craven family. The Fowles would naturally renew
their intercourse with their old friends in the neighbourhood, and _he_
would go to see his curate and acquaint himself with the circumstances
of his parish. The visits to Gloucestershire were therefore for pleasure
and business as well as health.

In August 1816 it was a recent serious illness of Mrs. James Austen
which took the party there; Mrs. Austen being accompanied by her
daughter Caroline, and her sister-in-law Cassandra. Meanwhile, Jane
remained with her mother at Chawton, where she had Edward Austen as a
visitor.

During Cassandra's absence Jane wrote to her as follows:--

Chawton: September 4, 1816.[352]

We go on very well here, Edward is a great
pleasure to me; he drove me to Alton yester