When May came, she consented to the proposal of those around her that
she should move to Winchester, in order to get the best medical advice
that the neighbourhood afforded. The Lyford family had maintained for
some time a high character for skill in the profession of medicine at
that place; and the Mr. Lyford of the day was a man of more than
provincial reputation, in whom great London consultants expressed
confidence.[363] Accordingly, on Saturday, May 24, she bade farewell to
her mother and her home, and her brother James's carriage conveyed
Cassandra and herself to Winchester. The little cavalcade--for they were
attended by two riders--started in sadness and in rain; and all must
have doubted whether she would ever come back to Chawton.

She was going, however, to a place for which she felt the veneration
which all good Hampshire people owe to their county town: a veneration
shared by a good many Englishmen outside the limits of the county.

The sisters took lodgings in College Street, in the house next to what
was then called 'Commoners,' and is now the head master's house. On the
front wall of the little house where they lived there is now a plaque
commemorating the stay of Jane Austen. Near to them, in the Close, were
living their old friends Mrs. Heathcote and Miss Bigg, who did all they
could to add to their comforts; while at the school were their nephew,
Charles Knight, and young William Heathcote--either of whom they might
hope to see from time to time.

The course of the illness, and its fatal termination, are shown pretty
clearly in the letters which follow; the most informing and the most
pathetic of which (next to her own) are the two written by Cassandra to
Fanny Knight after all was ended.

Some of the letters are undated, and we cannot therefore be certain of
the order in which they were written; we must also allow for the
probable fact that Cassandra did not say more than was necessary to her
mother of Jane's increasing weakness and discomfort.

Mr. Lyford spoke encouragingly, though it is believed that he had, from
the first, very little expectation of a permanent cure. Some temporary
rally there seems to have been; and, soon after settling in her
lodgings, Jane was able to write as follows to Edward Austen:--

Mrs. David's, College Street, Winton:
Tuesday [May 27, 1817].[364]

I know no better way, my dearest Edward, of