28 July 1817 – Monday – Cassandra Austen to Anne Sharp

My dear Miss Sharp

I have great pleasure in sending you the lock of hair you wish for, & I add a pair of clasps which she sometimes wore & a small bodkin which she had had in constant use for more than twenty years.  I know how these articles, trifling as they are, will be valued by you & I am very sure that if she is now conscious of what is passing on earth it gives her pleasure they should be so disposed of.– I am quite well in health & my Mother is very tolerably so & I am much more tranquil than with your ardent feelings you could suppose possible.  What I have lost, no one but myself can know, you are not ignorant of her merits, but who can judge how I estimated them?– God’s will be done, I have been able to say so all along, I thank God that I have.– If any thing should ever bring you into attainable distance from me we must meet my dear Miss Sharp.–

Beleive me very truly
Yr affectte friend
Cass. Elizth Austen