Austen's Letter to Her Sister

How cool is to write a letter on a (big) postcard? Laura (the UK) sent me this one, and I enjoyed the front as well as the back. And also that delightful calligraphy!

This is the text on the edited letter on the postcard (you can read here the complete letter):

No. 13 – Queen's Square – Friday May 17th

My dearest Cassandra,

Well, here we are at Bath; we got here about one o'clock, and have been arrived just long enough to go over the house, fix on our rooms, and be very well pleased with the whole of it and our first view of Bath has been just as gloomy as it was last November twelvemonth. – We stopped in Paragon as we came along, but as it was too wet and dirty for us to get out, and at the bottom of Kingsdown Hill we met a gentleman in a buggy, who on minute examination, turned out to be Dr. Hall – and Dr. Hall in such very deep mourning that either his Mother, his Wife, or himself must be dead. – We are exceedingly pleased with the House; the rooms are quite as large as we expected. Mrs. Bromley is a fat woman in mourning, and a little black kitten runs about the staircase. – I have the outward and larger apartment, as I ought to have; which is quite as large as our bedroom at home, and my Mother's is not materially less. – The Beds are both as large as any at Steventon; and I have a very nice chest of Drawers and a closet full of shelves –. I hope it will be a tolerable afternoon; when first we came, all the Umbrellas were up, but now the Pavements are getting very white again. – My Mother does not seem at all the worse for her journey, nor are any of us I hope, tho’ Edw. seemed rather fagged last night, and not very brisk this morning, but I trust the bustle of sending for Tea, Coffee, and Sugar, &c., and going out to taste a cheese himself, will do him good. –

There was a very long list of Arrivals here, in the Newspaper yesterday, so that we need not immediately dread absolute Solitude – and there is a Public Breakfast in Sydney Gardens every morning, so that we shall not be wholly starved. – I like our situation very much – – it is far more cheerful than Paragon, and the prospect from the Drawingroom window, at which I now write, is rather picturesque, as it commands a prospective view of the left side of Brock Street, broken by three Lombardy Poplars in the Garden of the last house in Queen's Parade. –

Jane

A great deal of Love from everybody.

Miss Austen,

Steventon,

Overton,

Hants.