‘Today’ we have the beginning of a letter to Cassandra Austen that her sister wrote in 1816, while Cassandra is visiting in the spa town of Cheltenham.  This letter (which will be concluded tomorrow) has several little “quotables” as it meanders through family business and acquaintances, beginning with “I have borne the arrival of your letter to-day extremely well; anybody might have thought it was giving me pleasure.”  But there’s something about today’s post-quote reference the death of an acquaintance that makes me smile every time I read it.  Does that make me awful???  Enjoy today’s letter here —

8th September 1816 – (to be continued on the 9th)