Page:Jane Austen (Sarah Fanny Malden 1889).djvu/54

 duties of a clergyman. He did not resign his livings, but installed his eldest son in them as a kind of perpetual curate, and this arrangement lasted till Mr. Austen's death in 1805.

At first the idea of a move was a great grief to Jane, but she was always resolute in seeing the bright side of life, and so she repressed her own regrets, and could soon write gaily to her sister: "I am becoming more and more reconciled to the idea of departure. We have lived long enough in this neighbourhood; the Basingstoke balls are certainly on the decline; there is something interesting in the bustle of going away, and the prospect of spending future summers by the sea or in Wales is very delightful. For a time we shall now possess many of the advantages which I have often thought of with envy in the wives of sailors or soldiers. It must not be generally known, however, that I am not sacrificing a great deal in quitting the country, or I can expect to inspire no tenderness, no interest in those we leave behind." It was fortunate that she had a hopeful disposition to bear her up throughout the worries of house-hunting, and the inevitable discomforts of "a move," for Cassandra was away at the time, and, Mrs. Austen being in delicate health, all the burden fell upon Jane. Mr. Austen wished to live at Bath, where Mrs. Austen had a married sister, Mrs. Leigh Perrot; so in May 1801 Jane and her parents moved to Bath, where they were to stay with their relatives till they found a house. Jane's account of the journey brings before us the gap that railroads have made between her days and ours, for "our journey was perfectly free from accident or event; we changed horses at the end of every stage, and paid at almost every turnpike. We had charming