LETTERS OF JANE AUSTEN
The “Triton” is a new 32 frigate just
launch at Deptford. Frank is much pleased with
the prospect of having Captain Gore under his
command.
Miss Austen, Steventon, Overton, Hants.
――――
1798, 1799
The next division of letters comprises those written in 1798 and in January, 1799. The first is written from Dart ford, evidently the first stage of a journey home to Steventon from Godmersham, where Mr. and Mrs. George Austen had been visiting their son Edward in his new abode, probably for the first time, since he could not have been settled there for more than a year; and there is a graphic account of the loss and recovery of Jane′s writing and dressing boxes, which appear to have had a narrow escape from a voyage to the West Indies. From this and the following letters, it would seem that Mrs. Austen was in delicate health, and apparently thought herself worse than was really the case. At any rate, she rallied from the attack of which she complained at this time, and lived happily on until 1827, when she died at the ripe age of
eighty-eight, having survived her husband twen-
