...that JA, as you said in your post, is writing to her sister to whom she was very close and I don't think that she would just come out with those sorts of remarks in general company but her letters were a private correspondence between her sister and herself. I am sure that all of us make remarks and comments when we are in the company of those with whom we have a close relationship, and say things that we probably would not say in the company of people with whom we are less acquainted. I also don't think of JA as ever having a smirk on her face - that makes her sound rather petty, IMHO, like the Highbury gossips.

And of course, I think that the general attitude towards death during that era was more matter-of-fact than today, and the same is true of many aspects of Georgian life. Mrs. Austen, for instance, 'farmed' her children out to a family to be fostered in Steventon village until they were grown to a suitable age to be returned to the Austen home.