ailments
Mr. Daniel Wilson spent a day
with us last week and was delightful.
Our present guests are
Mr. Inglis and the 4 elder
Thorntons.
Our comfort in their company is lessened by poor
Isabella’s being seized with the
Measles.* She has
already been in bed two days, and very ill; but things
look more favourably to day. The night was very bad.
My Sister Martha who joins
the others [in] [tear]dest respects, is
laid up with a severe cold and hoarseness
– So you see you took us at our best moment.
I can no longer resist the inclination I have to know how you go
on,
how the Waters agree with you, and whether you have escaped
colds so as to be able to follow
them up?
I assure you I am not the only person here who has said every day
‘I wonder how Lady Olivia is’! You have been so much the burden of
the Song, that I overheard
the little brat
the other day singing in a plaintive Note to her doll –
When you indulge me with a letter there is one subject you
always neglect to say a word about, – I mean your health. I beg
you not to overlook it next time, for tho I agree with the
Apostle that it is of more importance that '
your soul should [deletion] prosper and be in
health ';* yet health of body is so valuable a possession
not only for personal comfort but is such an instrument for
doing good, & such a material for active exertion that it is
to be reckoned among our valuable possessions and tho I bless
God you are not unhealthy, yet there is a delicacy about you
which requires care, especially in the article of catching
cold.
A young divine, a great friend of mine the
Revd.. Henry Leeves , being lately brought to a very serious sense of religion has
just entered the Church, and
having preached only 4 Sermons of truly serious piety caught
cold and is supposed to be
consumptive
– The Physicians immediately sent him abroad He is now at
Gibraltar, is going to
Malta,
Sicily
&c – He has letters to
Lord W. Bentinck, should he chance to see him, but
it just occurs to me that you would perhaps have the goodness
to name him to Lady Wm.. – He is a very elegant young Man modest, well manner'd,
&c –
Such a nice, long and truly interesting letter as you sent me had
a claim to earlier notice. But even now I must rather be contented
to thank you for it than to answer it.
I have had a severe attack of illness. To others it would have
been but a cold, to me it has
been a bad-ish fever. I am so far
on the recovery as to sit up. But I am so thankful to quit my
bed that I am satisfied to keep my room which I however hope to
leave in a few days
If I can get rid of my
cough
P.
and I are engaged to go to our dear
Dean of Wells
about the 29th., being there we must also acquit ourselves of a long promise to
stay a little with
the Bishop. there will be a little difference in these Visits!!
Mr.
Way
I trust will not be likely to come just at that time as it is the
only time I shall be from home. Indeed the Dean I believe will be
of
the Jew party at
Bristol .
I long to know how your health /is/ and whether you have gained
strength by living quietly at home.
–
I have had an Ophthalmia* most suffering. If all the dispensations of God
were not just and right, I should have said it came unseasonably
when I had so much [tear] for my eyes. I bless God they are
[tear] to me, after being consigned for some time to darkness
and idleness.
We have lately had a visit from
Mr. Wm. Parnell ,*
a most sensible and I believe pious Man ; he seems to have taken a deep interests in the improvement of
Ireland, and to be thoroughly acquainted with the existing state of
things. I am expecting him again before he returns. He speaks most
highly, that is more justly, of our friend
Daly. I hope e’re this you have made your visit to
Dublin
and the Environs. I want you much to see my very interesting
friends in that district. Pray my kindest remembrances to
Mr. Dunn
when you encounter him either by pen or person.
My poor Sister Sarah we fear is far gone
in a dropsy!
the others poor invalids.
I think I am rather the best of a bad bunch.
Love to dear
Millicent.
I commend you to God and the word of his grace
the Apostolic benediction. *
I was much grieved to hear that dear
Miss Sparrow had had an Attack.
I cannot forbear of asking you (because I promised I would do so)
whether you have heard of a
Mr. Stewart
a Scotch Clergyman who is said to have done wonders in
consumption cases,* and
to whom patients are flocking from all quarters. I am told he
quite restored a daughter of the late
Duke of Northumberland* who was supposed to be past cure.
His Mode of treatment is quite new, and as it should seem,
quite rash. Instead of starving he feeds his
patients, allows them meat and all nourishing things. The reason
he assigns for this is, that whatever increase of fever it
promotes, is counterbalanced by food giving strength to
resist the fever.
Pray remember that I should be the last person to
advise your going to
Scotland
to consult this Clerical Empyric, but a promise was extorted from
me by some Scotch Women of fashion, that I woud mention it. Every
one feels so much for you that if prayers and cordial good wishes
could restore your dear invalid, his sufferings would be removed.
But
I am well aware that there is an Almighty, All merciful Being,
who loves him better than any friends, or even than his fond
Mother and who never willingly afflicts his children, but who
sometimes manifests more love in afflicting them than in a
dispensation which to our short sighted views woud seem more
grievous.
He can make sickness a blessing both to the sufferer and
to his friends.
Nothing should have caused me to /delay/ thanking you for
your very interesting and kind letter but
a painful disorder in my eyes,
not the sight but lids. For these 8 Weeks I have not
read as many pages, and I ought not to
write. When my eyes are better I hope to say more,
and express my /interest in/ all your concerns, as nothing
that relates to you can be indifferent to me.
When your Ladyships letter arrived this dear & revered
friend was confined to her bed by
a pretty severe attack upon her Chest, which detained her there nearly Six Weeks; but she is now
restored to nearly her usual strength, & has entirely left
her chamber , she is perfectly reconciled to her change of Residence*
indeed that was the case very soon after the agitating event took
place, & she enjoys the sight of the beautiful Rocks &
Woods* from her Window, at least as fully as she did
the rural scenery of
Barley Wood. She enters enough into public concerns to lament the Religious
apathy on the one hand, & the Religious differences on the
other, which mark these portentous times, but above all, is her
mind distracted & grieved at the Spreading & Systematic
desecration of the [tear]th so deplorable in a country which calls
[tear]. She was able also to afford her full tribut[e of] [tear]
praise to the righteous & truly patriotic courage which
abolished Sutticism:*
Oh would to God she might yet before her departure have to
rejoice also over the abolition of the AntiXtian flagitious
System of Colonial Slavery or at least could have the comfort of
seeing every Bishop in this land maintaining a public &
stedfast opposition to this violation of every Xtian precept, in
his legislative capacity
– Dear Mrs.
H More desires me to convey her most affectionate regards &
acknowledgements, & with my Sister’s cordial respects I have
the honour to remain with much esteem
