Jane is writing in the summer, June, but I still had to smile in reading “We have considerable dealings with the waggons at present: a hamper of port and brandy from Southampton is now in the kitchen” (75) because of Mary Crawford’s trials during the harvest in obtaining a wagon to deliver her harp to the parsonage:

“I was astonished to find what a piece of work was made of it! To want a horse and cart in the country seemed impossible, so I told my maid to speak for one directly; and as I cannot look out of my dressing–closet without seeing one farmyard, nor walk in the shrubbery without passing another, I thought it would be only ask and have, and was rather grieved that I could not give the advantage to all. Guess my surprise, when I found that I had been asking the most unreasonable, most impossible thing in the world; had offended all the farmers, all the labourers, all the hay in the parish! As for Dr. Grant’s bailiff, I believe I had better keep out of his way; and my brother–in–law himself, who is all kindness in general, looked rather black upon me when he found what I had been at.” (MP, 6)