idered
satisfactory: indeed, the writer speaks of the negotiation as 'happily
over.' The remaining clause in it which ensured to the Leigh Perrots two
bucks, two does, and the game off one manor annually was less
successful, for the bucks sometimes arrived in such a condition as to
demand immediate burial. Yet it can hardly have been this which made
Jane at a later date speak of the 'vile compromise': we should rather
treat this expression as one of her _obiter dicta_, not meant to be
taken seriously.

'And here,' writes Mrs. Austen on August 13, 1806, 'we found ourselves
on Tuesday (that is, yesterday se'nnight), eating fish, venison, and all
manner of good things, in a large and noble parlour hung round with
family portraits.'

Mrs. Austen had expected to find Stoneleigh very grand, but the
magnificence of the place surpassed her expectations. After describing
its exterior, she adds:--

At nine in the morning we say our prayers in a
handsome chapel of which the pulpit, &c., is now
hung in black. Then follows breakfast, consisting
of chocolate, coffee, and tea, plum cake, pound
cake, hot rolls, cold rolls, bread and butter, and
dry toast for me. The house steward, a fine large
respectable-looking man, orders all these matters.
Mr. Leigh and Mr. Hill are busy a great part of
the morning. _We_ walk a good deal, for the woods
are impenetrable to the sun, even in the middle of
an August day. I do not fail to spend some part of
every day in the kitchen garden, where the
quantity of small fruit exceeds anything you can
form an idea of.

She concludes her letter by saying:--

Our visit has been a most pleasant one. We all
seem in good humour, disposed to be pleased, and
endeavouring to be agreeable, and I hope we
succeed. Poor Lady Saye and Sele, to be sure, is
rather tormenting, though sometimes amusing, and
affords Jane many a good laugh, but she fatigues
me sadly on the whole. To-morrow we depart. We
have seen the remains of Kenilworth, which
afforded us much entertainment, and I expect still
more from the sight of Warwick Castle, which we
are going to see to-day.[160]

From Stoneleigh, we may imagine the Austens to have gone on to pay a
promised visit to Hamstall-R