A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Jane Austen’s Letters 51
mated, while a vein of humour continually gleams through the
whole; but the materials may be thought inferior to the execution,
for they treat only of the details of domestic life. There is in them
no notice of politics or public events; scarcely any discussions on
literature, or other subjects of general interest. They may be said
to resemble the nest which some little bird builds of the materials
nearest at hand, of the twigs and mosses supplied by the tree in
which it is placed; curiously constructed out of the simplest
matters.
Her letters have very seldom the date of the year, or the signature
of her christian name at full length; but it has been easy to
ascertain their dates, either from the post-mark, or from their
contents.
The two following letters are the earliest that I have seen. They
were both written in November 1800;° before the family removed
from Steventon. Some of the same circumstances are referred to
in both.
The first is to her sister Cassandra, who was then staying with
their brother Edward at Godmersham Park, Kent:––
‘Steventon, Saturday evening, Nov. 8 th .°
‘MY DEAR CASSANDRA,
‘I thank you for so speedy a return to my two last, and particularly
thank you for your anecdote of Charlotte Graham and her
cousin, Harriet Bailey,° which has very much amused both my
mother and myself. If you can learn anything farther of that
interesting affair, I hope you will mention it. I have two messages;
let me get rid of them, and then my paper will be my own. Mary
fully intended writing to you by Mr. Chute’s frank,° and only
happened entirely to forget it, but will write soon; and my father
wishes Edward to send him a memorandum of the price of the
hops. The tables are come, and give general contentment. I had
not expected that they would so perfectly suit the fancy of us all
three, or that we should so well agree in the disposition of
them; but nothing except their own surface can have been
smoother. The two ends put together form one constant table° for