there, and consequently the rector and his children came to be regarded
in the neighbourhood as a kind of representatives of the family. They
shared with the principal tenant the command of an excellent manor, and
enjoyed, in this reflected way, some of the consideration usually awarded
to landed proprietors. They were not rich, but, aided by Mr. Austen's
powers of teaching, they had enough to afford a good education to their
sons and daughters, to mix in the best society of the neighbourhood, and
to exercise a liberal hospitality to their own relations and friends. A
carriage and a pair of horses were kept. This might imply a higher style
of living in our days than it did in theirs. There were then no assessed
taxes. The carriage, once bought, entailed little further expense; and
the horses probably, like Mr. Bennet's, were often employed on farm work.
Moreover, it should be remembered that a pair of horses in those days
were almost necessary, if ladies were to move about at all; for neither
the condition of the roads nor the style of carriage-building admitted of
any comfortable vehicle being drawn by a single horse. When one looks at
the few specimens still remaining of coach-building in the last century,
it strikes one that the chief object of the builders must have been to
combine the greatest possible weight with the least possible amount of
accommodation.

The family lived in close intimacy with two cousins, Edward and Jane
Cooper, the children of Mrs. Austen's eldest sister, and Dr. Cooper, the
vicar of Sonning, near Reading. The Coopers lived for some years at
Bath, which seems to have been much frequented in those days by clergymen
retiring from work. I believe that Cassandra and Jane sometimes visited
them there, and that Jane thus acquired the intimate knowledge of the
topography and customs of Bath, which enabled her to write 'Northanger
Abbey' long before she resided there herself. After the death of their
own parents, the two young Coopers paid long visits at Steventon. Edward