In letter 71, JA wrote to Cassandra "I give you joy of our new nephew, and hope if he ever comes to be hanged it will not be till we are too old to care about it." I must say that joke rubs me the wrong way - what a thing to say about a newborn baby, even in a private letter! I know that one of the points of humour is that it balances between telling the truth and hurting people's feelings. (Think of the stand-up comics you've heard!) This is one occasion when JA crosses the line for me.