An Elegant Entertainment

One step up from the quiet tea-and-cards evening was the evening party. Guests at such parties would expect other entertainments (such as performances by professional musicians) as well as tea and cards. After visiting the Maitland family one evening, Jane told Cassandra, "We found ourselves tricked into a thorough party at Mrs. Maitland's, a quadrille & a Commerce Table & Music in the other room." Such elegance didn't necessarily impress Jane: "The Miss Maitlands. were as civil & as silly as usual."

Jan Austen's brother Henry and his wife, Eliza (the fashionable former Countess de Feuillide), lived in London and were well acquainted with what guests expected at a truly elegant evening party. During one of Jane's visits, they held a musical party, with five professional musicians providing the entertainment. Eliza worked for days ahead of time to ensure its success. Jane sent Cassandra the details:

Our party went off extremely well. There were many solicitudes, alarms & vexations beforehand of course, but at last everything was quite right. The rooms were dressed up with flowers & looked very pretty...Including everybody we were 66 - which was considerable more than Eliza had expected, & quite enough to fill the Back Draw[in]g room, & leave a few to be scattered about in the other, & in the passage...The House was not clear till after 12.