I have had a great misfortune; my dear old dog is dead.

I have discovered that our great favourite, Miss Austen, is my countrywoman...with whom mamma before her marriage was acquainted. Mamma says that she was then the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly she ever remembers...

I have had a great misfortune; my dear old dog is dead.

To think of playing cricket for hard cash! Money and gentility would ruin any pastime under the sun.

Nothing so pretty to look at as my garden!

I have still the best comforts of life - books and friendships - and I trust never to lose my relish for either.

Our English people are much addicted to raising idols, and then revenging themselves on their own idolatry by knocking down and demolishing the poor bits of wood and stone that they had worshipped as gods. How many literary reputations have been so treated!