LETTERS OF JANE AUSTEN
the Welbys have lost their eldest son by a putrid fever at Eton, and another that Tom Chute is going to settle in Norfolk. You have scarcely ever mentioned Lizzy since your being at Godmersham. I hope it is not because she is altered for the worse.
I cannot yet satisfy Fanny as to Mrs. Foote′s baby′s name, and I must not encourage her to expect a good one, as Captain Foote is a professed adversary to all but the plainest; he likes only Mary, Elizabeth, Anne, &c. Our best chance is of “Caroline,” which in compliment to a sister seems the only exception.
He dined with us on Friday, and I fear will not soon venture again, for the strength of our dinner was a boiled leg of mutton, underdone even for James; and Captain Foote has a particular dislike to underdone mutton; but he was so good-humoured and pleasant that I did not much mind his being starved. He gives us all the most cordial invitation to his house in the country, saying just what the Williams ought to say to make us welcome. Of them we have seen nothing since you left us, and we hear that they are just gone to Bath again, to be out of the way of further alterations at Brooklands.
Mrs. F. A. has had a very agreeable letter from Mrs. Dickson, who was delighted with the
purse, and desires her not to provide herself with
