Part 2 (1/2)

Unfortunately, poor little George never recovered sufficiently to take his place in the fah he lived on as late as 1827

The fifth child, Cassandra, was born in January 1773, and on June 6, 1773, Mrs Austen writes:--

We will not give up the hopes of seeing you both (and as ) at Steventon before the summer is over Mr Austen wants to show his brother his lands and his cattle and many other matters; and I want to show you my Henry and my Cassy, who are both reckoned fine children Jeton, whoe of; he is between five and six years old, very backward of his age, but good-tempered and orderly He is the eldest son of Lord Portsot a nice dairy fitted up, and ah to see theer than Jack-asses--and here I have got duckies and ducks and chickens for Phyllis's amusement In short you must come, and, like Hezekiah, I will show you all my riches

_December 12, 1773_--I thank God we are all quite well and irl is alen, has been with us about a ood teton has left us, his an to be alarreorse, and is going to take hiier (who undertakes to cure that disorder) may be of service to him

A sixth child, Francis Williaust 20, 1775_--We are all, I thank God, in good health, and I am more nimble and active than I was last time, expect to be confined some time in November My last boy is very stout, and has run alone these two irl talks all day long, and incompanion

Henry has been in breeches soood a e by their looks that there was above three years and a half difference in their ages, one is so little and the other so great Master Van is got very well again, and has been with us again these threefor a few holidays

The new infant, however, did not appear quite so soon as was expected, and the last letter of the series is written by George Austen on December 17, 1775

Steventon: December 17, 1775

DEAR SISTER,--You have doubtless been for so from Hampshi+re, and perhaps wondered a little ere in our old age grown such bad reckoners, but so it was, for Cassy certainly expected to have been brought to bed a reat deal of warning, everything was soon happily over We have now another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy, and a future companion She is to be Jenny, and seems to me as if she would be as like Harry as Cassy is to Neddy Your sister, thank God, is pure well after it

George Austen's prediction was fully justified Never were sisters more to each other than Cassandra and Jane; while in a particularly affectionate family there seems to have been a special link between Cassandra and Edward on the one hand, and between Jane and Henry on the other

Jane's Godparents were Mrs Musgrave (a connexion of her mother's), Mrs

Francis Austen (another Jane), wife of George's kind uncle, and Samuel Cooke, Rector of Little Bookham We may suppose that, like the rest of her fahteen ood woman's at Deane

We have, indeed, but little information about the household at Steventon for the next few years Another child--the last--Charles, was born in June 1779 There ht and lively family party to fill the Rectory, all the more so because the boys were educated at hoe Austen's sons has described hi 'not only a profound scholar, but possessed of a most exquisite taste in every species of literature'; and, even if we allow for soeration, there can be no doubt that it was a hoood taste, and a general love of reading prevailed To balance this characteristic the Austen nature possessed yet another--spread over many members of the family--namely, an enthusiastic love of sport The boys hunted fro sort of way, upon any pony or donkey that they could procure, or, in default of such luxuries, on foot; perhaps beginning the day with an early breakfast in the kitchen A wonderful story is told, on good authority, of a piece of aest son but one, Francis, at the ht on his own account (it must be supposed with his father's per everything that the pony could get its nose over; and at the end of two years sold it again for 2 12_s_ 6_d_ It was a bright chestnut, and he called it 'Squirrel'; though his elder brothers, to plague hi' This was the boy for whose benefit his -habit which played so important a part in her early married life

If he mounted 'Squirrel' in this costu 'in pink' with a vengeance, and aiety of the field

It is evident that part of the good training at Steventon consisted in , manly, active, and self-reliant

When the ti home they would not be found unprepared

Mr Austen found it a pleasant task to educate his own sons with his other pupils, and thereby to dispense with the cost of public schools

We get a glimpse of him as a teacher in a letter of his son Henry, written s Henry, by the way, made use of a style that one is thankful Jane did not adopt

Sufferthe earliest lessons of ht by precept and example to love and venerate your name I cannot remember the time when I did not associate with your character the idea of everything great, aood Your benevolence was a the with truer worshi+p than courtiers ever pay the throne Your works of taste, both of the pencil and the pen, were continually offered to my notice as objects of iht which I experienced when, on producing a translation of a well-known Ode of Horace to my father's criticism, he favoured h s would have been pleased with the perusal of my humble essay

There is also a pleasant picture of hoh Family_, in which the writer speaks of Cassandra, 'wife of the truly respectable Mr Austen,' and adds: 'With his sons (all proures in life), Mr Austen educates a few youths of chosen friends and acquaintances When a this liberal society, the simplicity, hospitality, and taste which cohtful valleys of Switzerland ever recur toto educate his sons at hohters, and, according to a family tradition, Cassandra and Jane were dispatched at a very early age to spend a year at Oxford with Mrs Cawley, a sister of Dr Cooper--a fact which makes it likely that their cousin, Jane Cooper, was also of the party Mrs Caas theof a Principal of Brasenose College, and is said to have been a stiff-mannered person She irls under her charge At the latter place Cassandra and Jane Austen were attacked by a putrid fever

Mrs Caould not write word of this to Steventon, but Jane Cooper thought it right to do so, upon which Mrs Austen and Mrs Cooper set off at once for Southahters away Jane Austen was very ill and nearly died Worse befell poor Mrs Cooper, who took the infection and died at Bath whither she had returned As Mrs Cooper died in October 1783, this fixes the date roughly when the sisters went to Oxford and Southa to profit from the instruction of masters at Oxford (she can hardly have been seven years old when she went there), and itwith Cassandra than for any other reason that she was sent

On the sa soon after the Southaht old enough to profit much by the instruction there imparted, but because she would have beenthat 'if Cassandra were going to have her head cut off, Jane would insist on sharing her fate'

The school chosen was a famous one in its day--na, kept by a Mrs Latournelle, an Englishwoman married to a Frenchman Miss butt, afterwards Mrs Sherwood, ent to the saraphy[19] that Mrs