Eliza, Jane Austen’s cousin, thanks her cousin Philadelphia Walter for news from Steventon. The “Mrs. Cooper” whose death she mourns is Jane’s maternal aunt, the sister of Jane’s mother Cassandra. Eliza and her own mother, Philadelphia Hancock, have been worried about how Cassandra will bear the loss. This is an extract from a longer letter written in Paris.

Eliza de Feuillide to Philadelphia Walter

MAY 7, 1784

I experienced much pleasure from the account you gave me of my Uncle Geo: Austen's family; each of my cousins seems to be everything their parents could wish them; such intelligence would have given me the completest satisfaction had it not been accompanied by the melancholy news of the death of the valuable Mrs. Cooper. I sincerely lament her loss and sympathize with the grief it must have occasioned. Both Mama and myself were very apprehensive of the influence of this event on my aunt's health, but fortunately the last accounts from Steventon assure us that the whole family continue well.

Extract from Life and Letters (1913), p. 39.