health
I am gri[e]ved to find you so poorly, and the more as you were
seized too soon (humanly speaking) after
Bath Water .
I pray God to give you strength to go thro your important labours,
and to give you in abundance the comforts of his spirit.
–
Patty
and
Sally
but poorly.
You wou’d be pleas’d to see the kind and deep interest
Mr. Wilberforce
takes in the illness of your
dear Brother* – I have written to him the good news of his being
better – May God restore him!
I write a few lines to thank you for your kind solicitude about
me,
when you yourself were probably suffering so much
more.
Mrs. R. T.
confirms the account of your very oppressive cold, Which I hope
/will be removd by/
the blessing of God on this fine change in the weather,
for it is now raining green pease and goosebery Tarts: and our
grass, which on Sunday was as brown as a Mat is now as green as an
Emerald.
I thank God my fever has given way and I am again much
better,
tho I had an ague fit the night before last, as I generally
have on every change of weather.
I heartily rejoyce at
the improvd account of
Mr.
T.
Lady Waldegrave
who spent a long day
here Yesterday
(which prevented my writing)
thinks he looks tolerably. In addition to her heavy sorrows,2 she
is now involv’d in two or three /law/ suits which are this moment
trying at Our Assizes, and in which, as her Antagonist (her late
Steward) a friend of
Mr. Bere’s3
a deep designing Man has made a party against her, I fear she will
be cast. Every thing however which relates to money is a trifle
compared with her other causes of sorrow.4
Charemile
and
Lady W.
&c tell me they never see or hear of
Mrs. W
– I am disgusted at her want of decency, to say the least, in not
concealing her satisfaction at quitting a place, so pleasant so
advantageous /so congenial/ to
her husband .7 The change must be an immense expence.
W.
and I have had a good deal of intercourse a few weeks ago about
Mr. T.’s
health – We agreed in thinking, that more relaxaxation [sic]
from business without travelling about, and renouncing the
comforts and accommodations of his
pleasant home, was the best thing for him at this time of year.
I hope he does relax and that you will soon if the Spring
shoud ever begin, get to
Battersea
for your sake especially. – Shoud You see
Charemile
will you tell tell her that
I will write to her on her kind proposal soon,
and that we are soon looking out for the Barrister the Circuit
being nearly over.8 I agree with you in wondering that your
agreeable Nephew
coud overlook that agreeable girl and chuse one so inferior both
in mind and person.9 How can you read
Godwin
by way of learning to do good? An avow’d Atheist? An acquaintance
of mine,
Miss Lee
woud have married him she said had he been only an Infidel, but he
denied a first course.10 To me his writings are the blackness of
darkness. Hume by his elegance, and Voltaire by his wit and the
charms of his style are seducing. But tell Mr.
T. if he reads it, not to let others read it, for I remember at
Xt Church
Miss Creswell
and
Miss Schim
were frightened at his reading Hume’s
Essays
to them11 They were not then so strong in Religion as they are
since become. Seriously I think Plays and Novels safe
reading compared with books of subtel sophistry and promiscuous
reasoning – I dont mean that you may not pack /up/ up good things
in them. I have not yet read the C. O.12 but have run over
Ingram13
which is very good, the second part I thought
leaned a little more to Calvinism than I do, that is I
thought it woud give the C. O. a rather more
Calvinistic Air than it has lately assumed
I am glad the C. O. takes up the
Bp of Saint David’s
Plan14 – I have been in constant correspondence (when able) [wi]th
[tear] this good Bp on the Subject ever [s]ince [tear] he planned
it. It is to raise the character morals, learning & piety of
the Welch Clergy. I hardly know so pressing a cause. There will
unavoidably, to save his credit be mixd with it a little too much
High Church
but we must be glad to do something if we cannot do all that is
wanted. I subscribe and propose leaving a legacy to the St.
David’s Plan. The building a sort of Welch College was partly my
Suggestion. –
Most heartily have I sympathized, and still do sympathize with
you,
under this tedious and trying attack of
Mr. T.
We talk of it almost continually, and having heard nothing for
some time, I was willing to flatter myself that he was getting
on, but a
letter from
Mr.
Babington
yesterday
does not give so favourable a report of his progress as we had
hoped.
This induces me to write rather in a hurry to ask you to let
one of the young ones, send a line now and then till he is
better.
How mercifully have I been dealt with! and how often has that
promise occurred to me –
‘When thou passest thro the fire’ &c!
I often wonder I was not more overcome with terror at seeing
myself one Sheet of flame.
Miss Roberts’s
grievous wounds, for she was entirely burnt from her wrists to
her fingers ends and was obliged to have her ring filed off, are
healed sooner than my slight ones.
–
My shoulder and Arm only were burnt, not a single thread of the
Sleeve of my Chemise remained; it is however at present only an
inconvenience, and not a suffering – I cannot yet put on a gown
– but it is nothing more.
Thank you for noticing my young friend
Leeves. He writes with much gratitude at
the kindness he has received, and the honour of being admitted
to the Society of so much piety and talent.
How did he come off at Clapham in preeching? Much condideration
[sic] is due to him as he never before was in any /truly/
religious Society. Does
Bowdler’s
health stand this Winter?
I know a lady just returned who says the English had raised the
price of Cambric there from half a crown to 7:6 a Yard, while our
own looms are standing still –
I must say with Hamlet – ‘It cannot nor it will not
come to good’,
and that /war/ was not worse than such a peace – Especially if our
dear Africans are rescued. – I hear of a
book of Mr. Wilberforce to the
French? What is it about?
and how is his health.
If I sent you all the good wishes I am desired to send, my
paper would not hold them
I am very anxious about your own health which I fear must
suffer.
I fear too that mind has had a good deal to do with
Mr. T.
illness, or rather that previous feeling had disposed
his body to receive any illness more severely than might
otherwise have been the case
–
I am so hurried I know not what I write –
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 –
I feel quite thankful that I was enabled to keep us so stoutly
while you were with us,
as
I have fallen back into my natural, that is my bad state ever
since.
I am however better to day;
I fancy I feel more thankful for a day’s ease and a night’s
rest than those can do whose days and nights suffer no such
interruptions. Yet I am conscious of not feeling half grateful
enough for the unnumbered and undeseved [sic] mercies I enjoy.
I hope your holidays go on prosperously and that you
have an improving as well as a merry Christmas. By the way that epithet has done infinite harm. I can only
account for its introduction by the supposition, that it had not
then the meaning we now annex to it. I have observed that some of
the Saints and Martyrs of the Reformation are said to have been
merry under their trials, which could only mean
cheerful the sense in which the word was then used; but
it has unhappily apologized for increased dissipation among the
higher classes, and revelry and drunkenness among the poor. I know
Clergymen who shelter their practices under the term.*
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.
Being to day under the disqualifying dominion of
Calomel*, I can only write a
hasty line on the principal topics of your little /but/ kind
letter.
As far as two sickly human beings can venture to
determine, P. and I hope to appear to you
at
Brampton Park by the middle of
May;
but
the precarious state of
my eldest Sister
adds to our uncertainty, tho she is much /better/
I know not what to say to D. Baillie for
what I must call his elegant kindness. Do you think he
would take it rightly [if] [tear] I sent him
Christian Morals *? – has he
[tear]ren? – they at least might read it –
If you think it right, perhaps you would have the goodness to
order Hatchard to get /ready/ a copy of the
4th. Edition elegantly bound, but not to send it till
I write to you again.
Take care of your health my dearest Lady – Remember that the
constant excitement of your sensibility, and the exertions of
your mind, with people of the right /stamp/ , is more wearing
than the uninteresting insipidity of the frivolous.
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 –
Dr. Whalley ,
Sir A. Elton
our two principle neighbours are going to
France. How that abominable country is to make the old young, and the
sick well, and the fanciful[l] [tear] contented I do not know.
Poor
Lady Waldgrave
[sic] is ordered to spend the Winter at
Nice,
she is in very bad health, increased I fear by the dejection of
her Spirits on
Lord W's conduct*. She writes very piously wishes much that she could
have the benefit and consolation of our dear
Mr. Whalley 's Society there, and she thinks it might patch him up for years.
– But the thing is quite out of the question I think.
Mr.
Cunningham writes me a good account of
the female Methuens
- and gives me some hope of seeing him here. –
Pray, pray write me a full and true history of your doings
soon, and say how you are, and if you gain strength – I am
anxious about this.
– [three lines of deletions]
How can
I write to you or how can I forbear to write? I have however
postponed it, well knowing that you want no such consolations as
I can suggest .
My sincere sympathy and my fervent prayers are all I have to
offer you. My grief is softened by the knowledge of many
merciful circumstances; one is that you are surrounded by so
many enlightened and truly Christian friends; another and the
principal one, is the cheering report they all give of the
deeply submissive and resigned spirit with which you bow to this
most trying dispensation. In the midst of my sorrow
I bless God that he has enabled you to give this evidence of
your faith in him, and of the truth of Christianity itself,
which can afford such supports under such trials .
Still my dear friend, allow me to say I fear for you – I do not
fear that your resignation will diminish, or your fortitude
forsake you – I trust that the same divine grace will continue to
support your soul; but I fear for your body, I
fear that the very elevation of your feelings will be obtained,
at the price of your health sinking under your Efforts. I am afraid you will think me but a worldly counsellor when I
say, I wish you not too much to restrain your
tears, or to labour to suppress emotions which Nature dictates and
which grace does not forbid. Your life is now of increased
importance, your value to your dear children is doubled. The
duties of two parents instead of one are now devolved upon you. I
know these sort of arguments are frequently made use of to
stop the signs and outward expressions of grief, but I
know the make of your mind so well that I employ them with a view
to induce you not to put a /too/ violent restraint on your natural
sensibilities fearing the pent up sorrow may prey more inwardly on
the heart and the health.
We here, for the last month had little hope, for the last
fortnight none. Your secret misgivings we felt.
Yet the shock when it did come was scarcely less.
Patty
is deeply distressed.
Sally
who is very poorly, lost her voice when it was announced and has
not recovered it. May God comfort you and bless you and your dear children. I
know the sight of them cuts two ways; they are at once the source
of consolation and of anxiety.* Take care of yourself
that you may be spared to render them worthy of such a father. I
know this will be a motive with you. My dear friend ever
yours
Tho I have nothing /to say,/ and am not well enough to say it
if I had, I cannot forbear writing a line
to unite in sympathy with you, on the, I fear hopeless, state
of our dear invaluable
Henry Thornton *, a letter from
Mr. Wilberforce * and another from the
Macaulays
last night, leaves us little or nothing to hope. Oh! what a
chasm will his death make in the world! It will not only be
irreparable to
his broken hearted wife , and poor children*, but to multitudes of the poor
and the pious.
May God comfort us all, especially his own family, and
sanctify to us this heavy loss, by quickening us in our
preparation for our own great change!
For my own part, my hopes have been long very faint, tho in
opposition to the declaration of his eminent Medical
Attendants* I shall always think /
entre nous/ that corroding grief for
his unfortunate brother
preyed on his vitals, and laid his weak constitution open to any
disease which might attack it:
I dread that every post may bring us the final issue of this
long disease !
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.
Adieu my dearest lady –
I must end as I began – poor dear
Mrs. Thornton !
– When you write tell me if
Mr. Hodson
is at
Cambridge
Your Ladyship's
obligd
H More
Patty
who is poorly desires her affectionate respects. – My kindest regards to
your fair companion , never forgetting
Mr. Obins , of whom I rejoyce to hear such good report.
May he go on unto perfection.
I have just got a long letter from dear
Mary Gisborne
replete with sorrow, affection and the deepest piety.
How stupid, in Bowdler’s prejudiced
bigoted father* to obstruct the
very desirable plans of
Ld. Calthorpe and
Mr. Inglis to write a Memoir of
the dear departed! I have written to
Harriet Bowdler to try to soften her
brother
Bartlett’s-Buildings
heart. *
Poor
Mrs. Thornton
I hear looks sadly, has a pain in her chest and drinks Asses
Milk. I tremble for her life.
Her letters rather increase in sadness, but it is a sanctified
sadness. – I forgot to say that Mr.
H. and I agreed that nothing would so much contribute to give
Mr.
S. a habit of application as to give him a slight tincture of
Fractions, and Algebra; not to make him a Mathematician but to tie
down his attention –
I know of no person likely to suit
Lady Gosford’s friend as a Governess . You ask how I like
W. Scott’s new Poem.* I have not seen it, but do not hear it thought
equal to its predecessors.
A friend has sent me
Eustace’s Tour thro Italy .* It is classical & elegant in a high degree –
but has too much Republicanism too little of the Manners of the
people, and I think a disposition to overrate their Virtues – God
be praised for
the peace!* – but what Peace so long as the Witchcrafts of
Bonaparte are so many.
P.
is in very poor health.
We all join in kind remembrances to Yr.
Ladyship and
Miss S.
Death has again been thinning the ranks of my beloved
friends.
Mrs. Porteus
has followed
her dear Bishop, I trust to the land of everlasting rest. She was to me a
faithful and attached friend for 35 Years, and one of that sure
and steady character that, in that long period, I never
experienced from her a wry word; /or a cold look. I always spent
June with them./
She had been thro life the healthiest Woman I ever knew, and
her fine person and sound health gave you no idea of age.
She taken, and I spared! Such is the dispensation of
infinite wisdom!
Your dear Robert spent the day with us on
Wednesday.
He came without
his Mentor, who had a cold, but not without
a wise and pious Guide.
Our friend Dunn was of the party, who by
the way has never bestowed a single night on
Barley Wood, tho so long in our
neighbourhood with friends quite new compared to me. I am not
jealous however but glad he spent his time so much more
pleasantly.
I was much pleased with your Son whom I drew out to take a little
more share in the conversation, as far as related to the present
state of the world, and he expressed himself well, and with
accuracy and pleased me by taking a lively interest in what is
going on.
Dear Mr.
Dunn did not give a very good account of your health and
your letter
does not mend that account, which grieves me much. I think you
have judged very wisely, as you are not very stout, to abridge
your
London
sejour.
Dunn gave me great delight in the report he makes of the progress
of mind and growth in piety of
your dear daughter. You have laid an excellent foundation, of which I trust the
superstructure will be altogether worthy. She will, I am persuaded
make a strong character. You have now had time to form her to good
habits which will be of incalculable importance to her future
character and happiness.
Patty, who is in very poor health
does remember you with the warmest and most grateful
affection and joins me in best wishes to Miss Sparrow and
Mr. Obins . – Dunn agreed with us in liking a certain dignitary better than
his
chere Moitié* –
I was meditating a letter to you my dearest
Lady Olivia just as your very kind one
reached me; and
ever since have been prevented by shoals of company succeding
each other so quickly as to leave no interval for any thing I
liked. Alas! Alas! I did hope our summer would not have begun
so early.
I take most kindly and so does
Patty
your very feeling enquiries.
She has had a very bad winter, her state is weak and I have had
great apprehensions on her subject. Her spirits are sometimes
depressed which is inseparable from bile and fever. I am however
thankful to say that the last few days she is considerably
better, so that I hope, if it be the will of God, she may rally
with the Summer. We shall all I trust be better when we are
blessed with a west wind.
The Harfords spent a couple of days with
us last week
; from them I learnt that you do not go to
Town. I could hardly believe it, till your kind invitation to us
seems to confirm it.
The only concern it gives me is, that I fear you do not judge
yourself stout enough even for a short London campaign for that
I thought was your plan. Pray be specific on this head when you
write
But Gods Ways are not as our Ways. Poor dear
Mary Gisborne * may He comfort her – no one else can
What an effort my dear friend did you make to write me those
few kind lines.
Mr. Melville – Whom I take to
be a son of Lord Leven’s*,
finished the letter in a way that has made him Stand high in my
opinion. It was written in a fine spirit,
&
will you thank him for me
It would give you a sort of sad consolation to see how every
one who writes to me expresses themselves on the Subject of your
beloved
Husband . Sorrow makes even
Lord Gambier
eloquent.
Mr.
Dunn
who has been staying with us is always sublime . From men like these who could judge & feel his Merit one
expected it but I was pleased with an expression of the General
feelings in more ordinary Men living in the turmoil of trade which
is apt to blunt the feelings, but whose Shop is crowded with the
first sort of Men.
I mean my bookseller, Cadell, who writes
thus ‘The death of your distinguished friend has excited a
sensation of grief, more general & distressing than we
remember to have witnessed’
This was said of the feelings of the world at large – my other
letters being from religious men. Said no more than was expected
of them.
I am truly anxious about your health. Grace may enable you to
subdue your mind but I fear Your body will not be so
submissive.
Every time you look on your sweet children, this duty will be
pressed homeward to you – in a way you will not be able or willing
to resist. I know not yet whether you have returned to
Clapham. The events of these last three Weeks form the Chief Subject of
our conversation. I think much of you – at a time when I hope you
are not thinking of yourself – in the dead of night – for my
nights are in general bad.
We have paid to our departed friend the tribute of wearing
mourning – it is nothing to the dead, but may testify to the
living who are about us, our reverence for exalted piety &
virtue.
Though our friends have been very kind, they are naturally so full
of their own sorrows that it is some time since I have heard
especially of you.
If this were a world in which every one had their due, you would
long ere this have received my cordial thanks for your truly kind
letter, a letter so interesting in a variety of ways! I read good
part of it to dear
Wilberforce
who was here when it arrived he was shewing
his eldest son* the West of England.
He slept here a night or two both going and coming [deletion].
But his visits were in that hanging way which diminishes the
pleasure of seeing him
so that
the chief comfort I had was that of finding him,
for him, very well in health to which I hope the
relaxation from business and constant change of air much
contributed.
I congratulate you on your very triumphant
Bible Meeting, and subsequent festivity. I had a very satisfactory account of
it in a letter from
Miss Powys
to
her Sister ,*
who came down here on purpose
to bring poor
Lady Southampton
[sic] children,* whom she was very desirous I should
see as
the little Lord
was at home and
she was too ill to come herself; she seems to be very suffering
in body, but more cheerful in spirit. I grieve that the fine little boy is to leave
Mr.
Wind ’s* – some
Calvinistic
counsel I fear.
I was indeed surprised at this sudden journey to
Ireland: but the motive was too good not to be approved. I take a warm
interest in your account of
Lady Gosford. If ‘
this vile body’* some times presses down the Soul, it does also some
times exalt and ennoble it, and leads its immediate companion to
look down with more indifference on whatever is perishable. My
judgment of Lady G. was always a favourable one, her strong sense,
her willingness to read awakening, and heart-searching books; her
sincerity in fearing [deletion] to be thought better than she was,
and therefore affecting to make light of things which I at the
very time believed she was seriously weighing – altogether led me
draw conclusions which her present turn of mind fully justifys
I heartily bless God for a state so decidedly pious as you give
me reason to believe is the case.
I hope it may please the Almighty to grant the restoration of
her health, for the sake of her children; and I trust she may become a powerful instrument in a still
more extended Sphere by employing the influence which her rank
and /fine/ understanding give her, in bringing others to see the
same great truths in the same clear light. May God strengthen,
comfort, direct, sanctify her!
But to return for one moment to
your Bible Gala
– How I should have delighted to have made an unworthy guest at
this hallowed festival! What did
your Neighbour
say to your muster roll of Peers and Peeresses? What honour would
he have done himself by joining it! A propos of Bible Meetings –
Our excellent
Bishop of Gloucester
rode over
Mendip
one broiling Morning to invite
P.
and I to spend the week at
Wells
and attend
a B. Meeting at
Glastonbury of which he is President .
I should have liked it much but we were to
/expecting/ Wilberforce at home, who after all never came till
it was over.
I regretted it the less as the Assembly met in the Abbot’s Kitchen
of that vast and venerable ruin; which was damp and dreary.*
What a contrast between the good cheer once proposed on this now
deserted spot and the holy purpose to which it was on this day
dedicated!
Tho my own health has rallied much from the dry Atmosphere of
this pleasant Summer, I have declined all visits, but believe I
must go next week to the two Bishops at Wells if P. is better.
Her health I fear is declining, and she thinks /ill/ of
herself.
I pray God to avert this blow.
In spite of all my endeavours to avoid it by giving no
invitations, and returning no visits, we are sadly overdone with
company
but as every body is gone or going to
France* I suppose we shall live to pine in Solitude
Poor
Mrs.
Thornton
and five of her children spent ten days with us. We would gladly
have kept her longer as it seemed to do her good.
She tries to be cheerful, and exhibits a striking evidence that
Christianity is indeed a reality.
Nothing short of this divinely powerful principle could thus
tranquillize a spirit so deeply wounded.*
Marianne
is a charming girl, frank, lively, sensible, and to her poor
Mother tenderly affectionate.
Your dear Son
is in perfect health, and I believe going on as well as can be.
I have seen him twice lately. I never saw him appear to such
advantage as on his last visit.
He was without
his Mentor, and obliged to take an equal share in the conversation, which
he did with spirit and good sense and modesty on general topics.
I do not address you my dearest Marianne as a feeble
girl, shrinking from sorrow and from duty, and yielding up
yourself to disqualifying lamentation. It has pleased your
heavenly father to call you very early to service and repeated
trials; your feelings have been, and are, still tried most
tenderly, most acutely. In the lap of prosperity, in the height of
happiness, in the gay season of youth, and health, and spirits,
you have been called to make sacrifices the most costly to a
dutiful and affectionate heart. Your conduct under these
visitations has done honour to your Christian education. The
examples of your excellent parents illustrated their precepts. The
world will look to their children for more than ordinary virtue,
and I persuade myself that they will not look in vain. Your
Sainted father
is probably beholding with delight the effects of God’s blessing
on his pious labours, and your
excellent Mother
is personally feeling those effects in your Christian tenderness
and filial piety.
Do not neglect your own health
Your letter affords so little hope of the continuance of
her
earthly existence that
I think there is more true kindness in writing to you, as are
without any expectation as to this world, than to labour to
administer false comfort ; to do this would not be doing justice to your strength of
character and to the lessons of wisdom you have been so long
imbibing. Who knows but your obvious submission to the Divine hand
which has inflicted these heavy strokes may not help to confirm
these principles of Christian piety /with/ which
Mr
Penington’s * mind seems penetrated.
God grant that the convictions of this estimable Man may end in
a sound conversion!
What joy would this give, not only to the Angels in heaven but to
the two happy Spirits who may soon be united to that blessed
Society. I do love this Penington. I cannot say what a
gratification it would be to me to be with you. It is for my own
sake I wish it, that I might learn how to die.
But my own infirm health, and still more that of
Patty would make us a burthen instead of
a comfort.
With such comforts indeed you are far more richly provided. I
cordially rejoyce that you are inclosed with such a circle of such
friends, and that those amiable and excellent
Inglis’s
are about to be added. My affectionate love to the patient
Sufferer. I am more disposed to ask comfort from her than
to offer it to her.
Truly happy shall we be to see you amp; Your Sister;* a
,
daughter
of yours you cannot doubt will be affectionately received.*
You must come and spend a long day.
Mrs. Hyde
will have told you that my poor Sister
Betty,
who was before very infirm has been keeping her bed five Weeks
with a wound in her leg.
I hope in a week or two she may be better able to enjoy seeing
you.
You will write and fix Your own day when it quite suits You.
Write a few days before hand, (as the post is not always exact)
lest we should any of us be from home, a circumstance however
which rarely occurs.
I should have returned you to your native land before now, but
that
I have been subject to even more than my usual interruptions
both from visitants and correspondents
I truly rejoyce to find you have gained so much in health and
spirits by your short migration
That you are not worse in other respects I am persuaded,
tho I will not grant the same latitude to one quarter of my
acquaintance who have made the same experiment. I hope therefore
you will not fulfil your menace of ‘persuading all your friends to
go directly,’ indeed almost all mine are gone, the very tradesmen
of
Bristol, the very Curates in our Neighbourhood are spending the Summer
in
Paris. So you see Volunteers need no pressing.
We are to have our
little Anniversary Bible Meeting
on tuesday next. We shall not I fear make such a figure as we did
last year, either in company or Orators. It is a fine piece of
primitive simplicity which I wish you would be present at, in a
Waggon House at
Wrington, the greater portion of the party dine here after on cold
provisions and the White robes Nymphs and black Clericals make a
pretty motley mixture on the Hill.
We should have been gladly excused this year on the Score of
health and age but it helps to keep up the spirit of the
thing. Love to
Lucy
and the young troop. Ever yours affectly.
It was so long since I had heard any thing of you that it gave
me particular pleasure to receive your letter, and to hear such
pleasant Accounts of yourself and friends.
What a delightful Society to have so many kind Aunts Uncles and
Cousins within a ring fence.
Mrs. D. Sykes
you know was always a favourite with me. I know less of the
others. You have drawn an interesting portrait of
Miss Thompson.* She must be a fine creature. I have answered her
letter which is what I cannot always do.
The keen Northern air* is I trust bracing your body,
while so many affectionate friends cheer your mind.
I too have suffered most truly for
Mr. Macaulay ,* and am still not without anxiety for him.
Mrs.
M.
and Selina we had invited to spend a
fortnight with /us,/ and
it did her good after the fatigue of nursing her
poor Sister.*
He
met them half way back and by that means confirmed his cold and
cough into a fever.
I sent by Mrs. M. a certain
pacquet of letters which are waiting your return in a little
box.
We have had many of your friends and neighbours staying here
one after another.
The two Charles Grants – I thought the
Senior remarkably well and
I have a delightful long descriptive letter from him from the
Isle of Skie
[unclear]
.
Lord Calthorpe
his Sister and
Mr. Wilberforce (dear Creature)
spent three days with us the week before last
he was pretty well for him, all spirit, feeling & kindness as usual .
Lord C. has been at
Bath
for his health and is better,
I rather think the
Gisbornes
are moving this way.
Young Elliot* spent the day here
yesterday
– he has good Sense, a correct taste and much piety
do come, a long way commonly, we cannot send them off with the lye
– not at home.
As to health I am the best of a bad bunch.
Sally
has good days, but
P.
I fear is very declining – constant fever yet she is always
employ’d
and I believe
Dorcas* never made so many Garments. Indeed the poor [final
section of letter has been cut away]
I have not seen
Mr. Hodson
since his illness.
He now only waits for fine weather.
Mr. Sparrow dined here some
time ago. He was in good health, and very open and frank, and
bore his part in conversation extremely well.
Mr.
H wrote me he was applying mine diligently.
I expect them both every day.
I feel what you say on this subject, and think you judge perfectly
right. Another long interruption just now might be unfavourable.
If Mahomet does not go to the Mountain I trust it may bring the
Mountain to Mahomet. – Shall you be in
Town
at the
Saint’s Jubilee,* which I think includes most of the Month of May?
I am very uneasy about
Mr. Wilberforce
/he is ill/ . Much as he has done, he has not compleated his
work, and I am base enough to fear his being called to his rest
and his reward, from a world which still wants him.* I think I never was so delighted as at his present
call of Providence.
King Henry the first of Hayti,
late Christolphe, has sent to him to send him out teachers in
Natural and Experimental Philosophy, a Surgeon, School Masters
&&c Is it not marvellous?
But what most delights me in said King Henry is, that as
he has shaken off the French /Tyranny/ he wishes also to abolish
the French language. Accordingly W– has obtained of the Bible
Society to send him out
5000 Testaments printed in French and English in Columns!! Is not this delightful. The new King wants to make an
improved population, Wilbe.
to make a Christianized one.*
He writes to me about books Teachers &c. The latter it will
be rather difficult to procure as they should know something of
French. * I am charmed with the energy of poor infirm
Sir Joseph Bankes, who says if he were not so old he would go himself.*
I wish we could see more of this Missionary Spirit in our young
Church Ministers. By the way the
Missry. Meeting
lately held in
Bristol
raised, in these distressing times above £800 besides Jewels to a
considerable amount.*
I hope to see our dear
Saint Whalley once more, he has
half promised to come if he gets no worse in a week or two –
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. *
Do you know that
the Heroic Epistle to Little Sally Horne, is just republished together with the
Search After Happiness,
Bas bleu
Florio
&c in
a little Lilliputian Volume
price only half a Crown. It is printed to match
the little Sacred Dramas
published last year.
You must know that I sold the Copy of these works many years
ago to
Cadell and Davies ;
and this year some poor Needy Booksellers have published new
Editions of these Works, this is downright piracy, and is
robbing Cadell and Davies of their lawful
property. In order to counteract these pirates Cadell has
published these small editions at this low price and
I shall be obliged to you to mention it to your friends not
to buy anything of mine (except the Tracts) which
has not the name of
Cadell & D
to it. I wish [tear] you would be so good as mention it [tear]
any booksellers you may call upon. These small
Editions sell rapidly in Bristol and London, I
suppose they are got to Bath . Many are glad to get these Poems at so easy a rate as they
were before sunk in
the Mass of 18 Volumes*. I can the
better recommend these tiny Volumes as I have no interest in
them, but I only wish to have justice done to my
Booksellers . You will excuse this long story. I congratulate You on your
Son’s
progress. God bless them both!
My Sisters , who are poorly, join in most affectionate regards to You. Mine to
Miss Horne
and the young Ones
You would, were you not candor itself, think me a strange
Animal, not to have thanked you, both for your kind letter and
interest/ing/ present of books.
But in this seeming/ly/ quiet spot I can hardly give you an idea
what a scanty commodity time has been with me;
the continued bad state of my two Sisters, company very frequently, and
every interval filled with scribbling half penny and
penny compositions
. Tho I would have you to know, I am now rising in dignity and
importance, having just finished (what I hope may be my last) a
work that will be very costly three half pence, if not
actually two pence,
The Death of Mr. Fantom the new Fashioned
Reformist.* If not a very learned composition, I hope
it may be of some little use.
I should regret your absence too, but that
Mr. Wilkes
told me yesterday what great good you were doing where you are. Of
that indeed I was persuaded bef[ore] [tear] A propos of Wilkes.
Have you seen his
'Christi[an] [tear] Essays'.* They only reached me last night, so that I have had
only time to read the last Essay in the first Volume which is an
excellent Review of the character and death of my dear old friend
Dr. Johnson .*
If you approve the work after reading it, I hope you will
recommend it.
I hear
Lord C– goes abroad next week, and that he has been again much
indisposed – I am truly sorry, but cannot help feeling
nhow on this, as on all other occasions, all things work
together for good to them that love God.
How my heart thanks you for your considerate kindness, (under such
accumulated anxieties) in remembering me and causing me so
frequently to hear of your goings on. I received
Mr. Hodson ’s letter from
Falmouth
very soon after that from
Miss Sparrow
dated
Gibraltar. But tho to hear of you was a great comfort to me, I lament that
no account of comfort to yourself has reached me.
Mr.
Hodson’s report indeed of dearest Millicents Attack was a fresh
source of regret and sorrow.
Most heartily do I beseech our Merciful Father that the occasion
of this additional affliction may be totally removed, /&/
that you may not as the Apostle says, have
sorrow upon sorrow.* To the all Wise Dispenser of our sufferings as well
as our blessings, I am however deeply thankful that ‘
your Soul prospers and is in health.’*
May the Holy Spirit the Blessed, indeed the only Substantial
Comforter, continue to support, console, and strengthen you.
These troubles tho not joyous but grievous, will I trust multiply
upon you the peaceable fruits of Righteousness.
In the mean time your health is the Object of my extreme
solicitude. Be as careful of it as you can, for you have much
more to do in this world.
Did I mention in my last that our dear friend
Lewis Way, with
Mr. Marsh and two converted
Jews spent a day here lately on their road to
Petersburgh where this noble, romantic,
heroic being is going on a Jewish Mission with the above named
Companion * The Polish Jew had been ordained the day before by
our beloved
Bishop of G–
the other Jew a German, the next day sent me a very pretty English
Sonnet, correct and rather elegant.* Way proposes
shutting up these Converts for six Months to study the Russian and
other Northern languages that they may preach in those frozen
climates.
Mrs. Way
generously consents to this Crusade. Before we parted Marsh
concluded the visit with a very fine affecting prayer.
May God bless them and their enterprize!
The amiable Enthusiast has heard of some little /white/ stone
Church in
the Crimea
in which he has set his heart on preaching.
Last Week we had our
Annual Bible Meeting. It was a very good one, good collection, & good speaking We
had 29 Clergymen of the Establishment.
Poor
Patty
was not able to attend, but notwithstanding her bad health, we
supported the good cause by inviting about 60 to dinner and 120
to tea.
We had a good many
Clifton
friends.
Lady Lifford
the
Powys’s
Miss Methuen, (who looked woefully) and her brother
Tom
who made a speech. I have had a very pious letter from poor Lord
Edward* who feels his loss deeply, but submits to the
hand which inflects [sic] it [tear]
You will have felt for poor
Made. de Staël .*
W[hat] [tear] good might she not have done with those super
eminent talents! May she have found Mercy!
Sir T. and
Lady Acland came to us last week
H[e is] [tear] a fine noble minded creature, and I hope will be an
instrument of much good.
My dearest Madam now that you are no longer buffeted about by
the Waves, I hope you will recover a little strength and flesh,
two articles in which I could wish to see you a little more
abound.
I will not close this scrawl till I have insisted upon it that you
do not think of answering it. I love you too well to
allow you to write, I hope you have quite suspended the arc of
your pen; in case of any change for better or worse You will I
know cause some one to give me a line. Pray get
Cooper’s Letters* (the Sermon writer) They are admirable, both
informing and entertaining.
Bean’s Sermons* are also valuable. I suppose you have got
Pearson’s Life of Buchanan*
Wilkes’s Essays* are very good.
I have had this Frank two days without finding a single quarter
of an hour to write; this morning I thought I had secured a
little time when
unexpect /ed/ ly poor
Lady Southampton came to spend /a/ good
part of the day .
She has had so many afflictions, (one sweet daughter has had
a
one leg cut off, and the other seems threatening the same
calamity)* that one cannot but feel a particular
interest for the Mother. She is entirely devoted to religion, and
lives in so profound a retirement that I am afraid it will not be
good for the young Lord who accompanied /her./ * I have
been pleading for the young people, who being only children cannot
be expected to be quite so abstracted as she wishes. The eldest
girl is very pious and to her, confinement is no
hardship. I have run on this long to account for the very short
time /I shall have/ to desire you to thank
Mr. Obins
for his very kind letter, and to thank you my very dear Lady
Olivia for your very kind few lines; but I must request you not to
think I am so unreasonable as to expect even a single line from
your own hand till your heart is more at ease.
The accounts from
Falmouth
were not very encouraging. God grant the next may be more
favourable! I long to know the decision of the last
consultation. I do not much like your being driven out
again on the ocean in the tempestuous Season of the Equinox
which is approaching.*
I am afraid too it is bad for your own health, which I must say
is no inconsiderable thing in the account current.
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.
Poor
Patty
is still in very bad health. I am much troubled about her.
She joins me in every respectful and affectionate remembrance to
your Ladyship, Mr.
and Miss Sparrow and Mr.
Obins.
I do not trouble the latter with an answer because I write to
You which is the same
Pray tell him I think
Warner* a very trumpery fellow. He puts paragraphs from his
worthless Sermon in the Bath Paper every week, and sometimes
writes them in verse in the hope of discrediting the serious
Clergy /, which he seems to have much at heart./ *
A thousand thanks for your very kind letter from
London.
I cannot but feel rejoyced whenever I see your hand writing
and yet I rejoyce with trembling, when I reflect what an
expense of health and strength it may have been to you. Great
as the gratification is, I must beg you not to use your own
hand when you indulge me with any communication. I am sure you
have those feeling friends about you who would at once gladly
save you the pain and give me the
pleasure.
To dear
Mr. Obins
I am already much indebted on this head. I do love him.
You have I presume already been some time at Sea, exposed to
an element which whatever benefit it may afford to
your beloved patient
is not I fear good for your own delicate health.
An Object which it is more than ever your duty to consult and of
which I hope your [sic] are very careful.
I shall feel anxious to know the result of this new Voyage on the
beloved Object of your attention* You did right not to
delay your setting out, as it is at present extremely cold here;
but
blessed be the giver of every good gift the weather is very dry
and has been so for near a Month. I say we ought to live upon
our knees in continual praises for this seasonable relief.
The fruits of the earth are abundant, and trade reviving every
where but in my two poor Mining Villages* whose very
existence depends on the Brass Trade, the only species of Commerce
which is totally dead.
I think you would be pleased with
Buchanan’s Life.*
I have the satisfaction to hope that
Patty
is a little better. She is a decided Invalid, but I am
thankful for any improvement.
The Harfords have been to us since their
return, overflowing with accounts of His Holiness, and
their friends the Cardinals &c.
I hope they will now after two years wandering sit down quietly
and become a blessing to their neighbours, to the rich by their
example and to the poor by their bounty.* Not a day of
so uncertain a thing as life is to be lost.
May the Holy Spirit quicken us all in our respective duties,
support us under our respective trials, and direct us to look
for peace and rest where alone it is to be found.
You my dearest lady have been deeply exercised; God gives to you
the same tokens of his love in a /great/ degree which he gave to
the Saints of old, exercises of patience, submission and holy
acquiescence in his Will. Kindest love to your dear Companions
I trust you will pardon my long delay in answering your kind
letter. It has arisen from a variety of causes;
when I received it
I was very ill of a bilious fever ,
my two
Sisters
were confined at the same time, and we had nobody living down
stairs for near three weeks.
I am much better , but still an invalid, chiefly from want of sleep.
Patty
has a complaint on her chest, and constant fever, and is
forbidden to talk, and
poor
Sally
is in a deplorable condition. The dropsy is fallen on her legs
which are much in the same condition that
carried off my /last/
Sister .
All this is depressing to my Spirits I pray God to support them
and me during the short remainder of our pilgrimage.
Tho I have written so much to
your excellent companion, in answer to his
kind letter, yet I cannot dispatch it without a few lines to
yourself.
Accept my heartfelt sympathy and cordial prayers; poor as they
are they are at all times offered up for you and yours and
especially at this hallowed and gracious Season; may all the
blessings it was meant to convey be yours, and those of your
dear party, even the blessings of redemption and the
consolations of God’s Holy Spirit.
Oh that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly to take a peep
at you in your Conventual retreat, sleep in one of your Cells, and
take a walk with you in the delicious Garden at which Mr.
Obins’s description makes my Mouth water.
Patty, who I thank God is not worse, joins me in the warmest wishes for your health, peace and
comfort.
May the Almighty be your guard your /guide,/ the strength of
your heart and your portion for ever!
How one feels the impotence of human friendship! to desire so much
and to be able to do so little, to do nothing!
I have delay’d answering dearest
Millicents excellent letter, from a daily
expectation of this final event, else what delightful matter /in
her letter/ had I to write about!
My dearest Lady you were Providentially sent to
Nice
for the purpose of converting that valuable Roman
Catholic
who I doubt not will be one of the many who will bless you in
heaven either for temporal or spiritual benefits. The frame of
mind visible in your daughter’s letter is admirable.
For all our sakes, but especially for her sake, I
exhort you, I beseech you take care of your health. There is yet
a great deal for you to do in this world You know not to how
many souls you may be the instrument of good. God has already
honoured you in this /way/
I have just had a letter from
the most amiable and most calumniated of Bishops . His bitterest enemies can bring no charge against him but that
he preaches too often and works too hard. – Surely he may say with
Saint Paul
'forgive me this wrong'.
His health and Spirits are better, and he goes on to labour
with the zeal of an Apostle.
His assailan[t] [unclear] is likely to meet with great
promotion!!* His success will teach other worldly
clergy the way to preferment and no doubt it will be sedulously
followed up.
May God protect our Church! she is in no danger but from
herself. The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against, but her
own unworthy Sons may.
The sight of your hand writing rejoyced me the more in proportion
as the interval of silence had been longer than usual.
I do not much like this loss of ‘fat and
strength’ in one who had so little to spare of either.
I am afraid you work that delicate person and active mind more
than they can afford to be worked.
It is with no small pleasure I hear of your pleasant projects
for next month. How many things shall we have to say and to
hear! Have you not observed that when real friends meet after a
long separation, tho each is impatient to hear all the other has
to say, yet there is such an excitement in the spirits, that all
talk at once and tho much pleasure is felt little information is
gained
Mr. Sparrow spent a day with us
lately with
Mr. and
Mrs. Hodson . * I had never seen her before, she is a
pretty pleasing Woman.
Mr. S. called on us again on Saturday in his
return from their Devonshire Tour, in high health and Spirits;
his beauty rather increased than diminished by having ridden
so long a journey in the Sun, for thank God, (who has not forgotten to be gracious) we
have Sun at last, and I trust, thro his mercy in
time to save the harvest
In reply to your kind enquiries after the health of our now
reduced party, the best answer I can make to it seems to be that
at our
Bible Meeting
in
the Village
last week /we/ not only attended, but after it was over
entertained above 60 Gentlemen and ladies at dinner and about
120 at tea! Think of us poor creatures doing so dashing a
thing!!
But without such exertions we find it will not be kept up.*
The dear Bishop of Gloucester was with us
to breakfast before Nine with
Mrs. Ryder &c
We had much good speaking, and I think in a good spirit, for there
was neither acrimony nor adulation. We had twenty five Clergymen
of the Establishment and but one Dissenter, so I think
we at least shall not contribute much to overturn either
Church or State.
The Bishop and Mrs.
Ryder have very cordially pressed us to go soon to them, but
notwithstanding all my bragging just now,
I feel as if I should not [v]isit [tear] any more but be
satisfied with seeing my friends at home. For tho I am
tolerably well myself, my Sisters are but poorly , and we h[ave] [tear] not slept from home since this time
twelvemon[th] [tear] when we were at
Wells.
George Sandford
told me that the Bishop had invited him to meet you there, and
that Mrs.
R. who knows that her house and beds, have limits said, ‘he has
asked ten already.’ Dont mention this. She doubtless wished to
keep the party smaller and more select.
I hope as the attachment of these two amiable young people seems
formed on solid grounds,
that they may prove a blessing to each other, and to the parish
in which the Providence of Him who orders the bounds of our
habitation and our whole /lot/ in life, shall place /them. /
There is no character more exalted or more useful than that of an
amiable Clergyman who faithfully preaches the doctrines of the New
Testament, and who gives the best evidences
that he himself believes /them/ by living as he preaches; and who
makes his week day practice the powerful illustration of his
Sunday exhortations. Nor has the Wife of such a Man a slight
character to sustain; she will best prove her affection for her
husband by seconding to the utmost of her power his endeavours to
do good both to the souls and bodies of his people. To the poor
she will be a pattern of kindness, to the affluent an example of
prudence sobermindedness and piety. Her husband’s public lessons
will produce a double effect on his domestic companion. Will dear
Felicia forgive all this? I am tempted to it by the serious strain
of your letter which pleased me the more as I thought I saw in it
a visible growth in the state of y[our] [tear] own mind.
I pray God to increase in you more and more his grace, without
which all other advantages tempting as they may seem to the
worldly and the superficial, have no solid worth . When you see dear
Mrs.
Horne
assure her of my most affectionate respects.
My
Sister, who as usual is a great sufferer
joins me in kind regards to Miss Horne and to your fair daughter.
Mr.
Welby I am sure stands in no need of such advice respecting books
as I can give him Among the ancient Divines, I prefer
Archbishop Leighton ,*
Hopkins,*
Reynalds,*
Taylor* among modern Sermons, ,
Venns*
Cooper’s*
Daniel Wilson,*
Gallaudet,*
Bradley,*
Gisborne*
Porteus* I think
Milner’s Church History* a most excellent /work/
Had I written a few days ago
I could have given you a favourable report of my
Sister.* but she has had another of her alarming attacks
in the lungs and is just now now faint and weak.
I thank God, who is always better to me than I
deserve, that I have been tolerably for some weeks.
Your account of the increasing excesses of the Baringites is
shocking.* I begin to think now that the worse they are
the delirium they have excited will be the sooner cooled. What
between the blaze of these new lights and the frost of the worldly
clergy our poor church is sadly threatened. I would not send off
this which I cannot ever look over but that to morrow there is no
post, and
Mr. D.
may be in suspense.
Mr. Dunn has been
false-hearted, for I thought he would have looked in upon us
again . I rejoyce
Charles Grant
is so popular. He cannot be more so than he deserves. if he woud
talk more he would be perfect. I am glad his rare talents have
such a field. I am afraid tho, that it is a weedy, tho far from
being a barren field. I long to know whither the School for the
Sons of the great at which
Mr. Grant
sent me the prospectus prospers, if it does I shall hail the omen
for poor Ireland. I grieve for dear
Mrs. Grants
illness. I do love her. I am glad you nursed her so kindly
Your extreme true kindness in writing me so
affectionate a letter,
when dear Lucy was so ill
was gratifying to me.
I have now heard from
Mrs. Macaulay
that she is doing well,
but that you are under some anxiety for the valuable health of
Mrs. Inglis
. This gives me great concern which I am sure you will remove, if
you can, by informing me that she is better. Her life is so
important not only to the more intimate companion of her joys and
sorrows, but to all
his adopted family
that I cannot think of any serious illness befalling her without
taking the deepest interest in it.
I have frequently lamented that one of the worst effects of
sickness or sorrow is, that it is apt to induce selfishness, but
on this occasion I have not realized my own idea.
I suppose you know all
the Wilberfor[ces]
[tear] were here, and that
she
went to
Cheddar
with them the very day
her mortal seizure attacked her!
Mr.
W
– alone, came and most kindly staid a day
last week.
–
I hope the bathing was of service to all – I am glad dear
Bella
is so renovated.
My affectionate love to all not forgetting the
Ancient Barton
I hope to hear from you at your leisure
especially till Mrs.
I. is better.
Mrs.
Macaulay
and Selina kindly promise to come to
relieve my Solitude soon
–
My complaint in my eyes must apologize for this scrawl – This
complaint is doubtless sent as a fresh weaning and warning. The
sight is not affected, thank God.
– We can pray for each other, and prayer is one of the last
Offices of friendship – Dear
Patty
had long been much in prayer, and thought (tho she never owned it
to me) that her summons was at no great distance. May we all be
united to her and your beloved parents in God’s own time
I expect your friend Zachary this day ; from him I expect to hear a great deal about you all.
I hope dear
Lucy
has quite recovered her strength.
My love to the [sic] all, and to the
ancient Burton
when you see him. I hope she continues staunch. Do let me hear
from you sometimes –
a letter costs you little or nothing and it is great pleasure
to me
–
I owe some expression of love and gratitude to almost every
Grant.
I do love them all cordially.*
I pray earnestly that the
Brampton
Visit may prove as profitable as doubtless it was delightful to
him. – How good you were in such a state of exhaustion to indulge
me with writing! You know how I value your letters; it is in the
same proportion in which I value your friendship.
I I [sic] hope quiet will soon restore you to your
moderate share at least of health and strength. Tho the
retirement you meditate is good for your health and your mind,
Yet it does not seem the Atmosphere in which you were born to
live, in which you can do most good to others.
Wherever you are I know you will do good with your pains [unclear]
and your exertions; but you are still more wanted where your
conversation is heard, and your example seen, and I am not sorry
sometimes to hear of you in the higher circles that you may give
them a relish for something better than their frivolous pursuits.
I rejoyce with you on the comfort you must derive from seeing your
dear Children so happily settled, and about to be
settled.
I pray God to grant them his blessing, without which nothing is
strong, nothing is holy; and that blessing is abundantly granted
to all who live in his faith and fear, and who seek to promote
his glory . My love to your amiable
daughter
and to your dear excellent
Mother, who I hope has not forgotten me. As to
Mrs. Kennicott
All the accounts I receive of that old and excellent friend are
discouraging, as to any hope of improvement. I am willing to
hope however that she suffers little pain, so her neighbour
Mr.
Hallam
lately assured me.*
You gave me some hope in the Summer that I might get a sight of
you and the dear
Booker
[unclear], in a little visit you thought of making at
Blaise Castle .* I should have
much rejoyced to have seen you both . The
Harfords
however have been very little there,
her* delicate health requiring the Sea Coast. It must
be a great sacrifice to leave their Elysium for so long a
time. There are so many interesting things about which I should like
to talk with you, that I wish I could dilate upon some of them The
Protestant Church however which is erecting over the very Ashes of
that Archfiend
Voltaire* is too wonderful not to be just hinted at. That /he/
whose constant way it was,
il faut ecrasez l’Infame,* should have the Gospel of the Saviour he vilified
and whose very name he swore he would exterminate /should be
preached over his Grave;/ that the printing press which was for so
long the fountain whence his abominations were published, is an
instance of the Antidote following the poison the most
striking!!* How I honour the
Baron de Staël!
Had his
unhappy Mother
employ’d her talents, unrivalled by any
Woman certainly, in the way her Son is doing, she would
have been as much the object of love and esteem, as she always
must be, of admiration.* A propos of
illustrious Women, I have lately had a visit from
the
Mrs. Fry .* We were ready to devour each other. Greatly as I
honour the memory of Howard*, I think she is as
superior to him as the Soul is to the body.
I hope dear
Lucy
is grown stout and well. I have not heard of her progress
lately.
My most affectionate respects to
Sir Robert
and
Lady Inglis, and my love to all the Thornton’s in the world, not forgetting
Aunt Robert
who I hope goes on with tolerable health.
I am in your debt for two very kind and very interesting letters.
I feel all the value of your goodness to me in writing when
you have so many important avocations, and with such delicate
health.
With heartfelt /joy/ I hear of the delightful addition to your
domestic comforts in the Society of those so dear, so deservedly
dear, to you. The safe arrival of the expected little
invisible visitor will leave you nothing to desire as to
this world’s blessings.* And Oh! the joy to think that
these precious /blessings/ are not limited to this world, but thro
that divine grace which has sanctified your mercies, will extend
in their consequences /to that world/ where there will be no
interruption to their enjoyment, and no termination to their
continuance
I have truly about
Mr. Macaulay , am still so tho he is better
I truly sympathize with you on the affecting loss you have
Sustained on the death of my old friend your excellent
Mother. Her great /piety/ however and her
exemplary life afford a consolation to her surviving Family of
the most soothing kind. She had indeed from her early life
devoted herself to her God and Saviour I remember /her/ total
submission to the divine /will/ upon the greatest bereavement
she could sustain in this life.
I never can forget your incomparable father, either in his
delightful Society at Oxford,* or on his dying bed
at Bath, which I daily attended, and at the closing Scene took
away his mourning widow to our house .* She edified us by her patience in sorrow
inexpressible. The great age to which her life has been
prolonged* is a very reconciling circumstance to you
in losing her
From the former state of her health you could not have
calculated on keeping her so long. How timid and delicate she once was!
Patty
sends you her most sincere respects.
She is very poorly
Your last letter afforded considerable relief to my mind. Perhaps
it may afford a little to your mind to hear that the
subject has never been discussed in my present /ce/ . I have seen
several of our common friends, but it has been in mixed company,
when delicacy on all sides caused a complete silence to be
maintained People knowing my attachment to you and the degree of
intimacy with which you honour me has hitherto prevented my being
asked any questions which would have involved difficulty in the
answer.*
Mr. Way is here now on a visit
of some days . He is gone to day to preach at
Mr. Boak ’s little Church at
Brockley.*
I was sorry that neither the health of my self or Sisters
permitted us to accompany him
. He was disappointed I believe but was too humble to take it
ill, or rather too reasonable to be dissatisfied with what is in
fact a dispensation of Providence.
I began this scrawl several days ago as you will see by the
dates, but indisposition and other interruptions have
prevented my finishing it.
Our Seraphic friend Way has left us. He seems to me not so much to
be going to heaven but to be already there.
I am a little alarmed for him, tho his Mind is perfectly well,
yet he is so compleatly absorbed in the great Object*
he has in hand that I fear it will wear him out.
His Mind is so imbued, I may say so saturated with Scripture that
one does not want one’s Bible whence he is. We kept him very
quiet, but in no company that he might gain rest and composure as
he is gone on to preach at several Churches in this district. We
had talked of you in public in a general way as to your health,
where you were &c – but before his departure I took him
aside and asked if he had heard from you lately, and when you were
coming to
Clifton. He set my mind much at rest by saying he had not heard anything
about you for some time; now as he was just come from
Bath, Clifton &c I comforted myself that the thing is not so much
discussed as you feared. I have also seen
the Powis’s who dined here
but not a word was said which might lead to the Subject.
I trust this transient cloud will soon be dispersed and your
mind restored to its firm tone, I should rather say your nerves,
for your mind seems to have possessed its full vigour in this
transaction
I have no impertinent curiosity but shall be gratified to know
hereafter, that all terminated to your satisfaction I am
grateful to God that the young person herself has conducted
herself so unexceptionably. Such an experience may tend to
strengthen her character beyond a hundred fine theories.
I return you many thanks in behalf of the poor and needy and
him that is ready to perish for your kind benefaction of £25.
I should not have delayd this so long, but that
the day I received it arrived here
Lord C. and
his Sister
*
and Mr. Wilberforce . This has
fully occupied me for the last three days.
They are just gone I not only could find no time to write, but
I wished to defer it till I could say something about them.
Ld.
C. looks well, and tho he is not, as you know naturally
communicative and gay yet he seemed not to labour under the same
depression of spirits, but seemed to take an interest in the
conversation without much joining in it.
Not a word passed on a certain subject of course. Your name was
never once pronounced when we were together, nor did Mr.
W. when we were alone once advert to it nor in any particular
manner to the late indisposition. Miss C. when we were alone
incidentally mentioned your name several times on indifferent
subjects, and mentioned with much feeling, that you had been kind
and useful to her unfortunate deceased brother.* In
short no bystander would have suspected that any thing
extraordinary had passed.
Ld.
C. is still slower of speech than usual but that is all.
Unfortunately,
Dr. Perry * in whom they seem to place extreme confidence has a
bad paralytic stroke. This seems likely to shorten their stay at
Bath. Tho in fact there is little /or/ nothing in what I have said
yet I thought you would like to hear that little. I believe both W
and I were equally afraid to broach the Subject and perhaps as
things are irrevocably fixed, it was as well not. No one I have
seen from
Clifton
or elsewhere has ever said a word on the subject; this shows that
it is not generally known, otherwise it would be talked of. So I
hope you will cheer up and be comfortable and happy.*
P.
has been better for a few days.
Lest
our excellent Bishop
should have left
Sidmouth
(which I hope he has found a salutary rest from his labours) I
write strait to you. My reason for writing so soon is that you
would naturally conclude
Mr. Wilberforce
would have been here and consequently you would expect to know
somewhat of the result. But mark this fresh instance of the
uncertainty of all human things!
He had fixed the day of his coming to which we were looking
forward with that pleasure which his presence never fails to
give.
But the day before yesterday when we were looking out for him from
Bath, arrives instead of himself a letter dated
Sunning Hill,*
to which place he had been travelling nearly all night in order
to take the last farewell of his beloved Sister
Mrs. Stephen !* She
had been long declining but there was no reason to expect she
was so near her end. Her most tender and affectionate
husband implored Mr. W– to come
to her, but it was too late, she expired while he was on the
road.
Worn out as she was with suffering and disease nothing could
surpass the affection of Mr. Stephen, his grief is
proportionally great.
For my own part it is a new rent made in my friendships. For
thirty years there has been subsisted between us the
most entire and cordial friendship.
/Tho/ Always sickly and very nervous, she had a great flow of wit
and humour with strong reasoning powers. Her delight was to hold a
religious debate with
Dean Milner.* But tho fond of arguing, she was one of the
humblest Christians I ever knew. Humility and self distrust were
indeed distinguishing features in her character. She had for many
years conquered entirely her love of the world, and spent a large
portion of her time in religious exercises. She was often
tormented with doubts of her own state when I should have been
glad to have stood in her Shoes.
As to a certain subject, I hope your mind has now recovered its
tone, and your delicate frame additional strength and
vigour.
I rejoyce truly to find that her affections had not been
deeply engaged.* I do not much wonder at it, for as he
had not sought to engage them by those particular and marked
attentions which are apt to render young persons blind to every
thing but the attachment they have inspired, I do not think the
/manners of/ /the/ Gentleman in question calculated to insinuate
themselves into the heart of a very young female. His worth, his
good sense, his virtues and his piety would doubtless have won her
heart completely afterwards, and I should not have doubted of a
most perfect, because Christian Union, had the connexion taken
place. It is only in the first interviews that person and manner
are apt to produce more than their due effect.
I should like one line just to tell me of your health and
dear
Millicents and your goings on.
Sisters very poorly –
I have been in much care for a most amiable friend.
Mr. Dunne , of whom you must have heard
Knox
speak as one of the brightest ornaments of the Irish Church. He is
indeed a Gem of the first water –
His lungs being weak He was sent away from his pulpit for a
year.
His most excellent wife
was in good health, but near her time.9 She passed her confinement
very happily at
Clifton
long after which she was seized with a fever of the most
afflicting kind –
She who came over well is dead,
/he/ who was ill is recovered!
– His loss is inexpressible, so is his piety –
Mr. Le Touche
wrote instantly to me to get him here, I was thankful I had had
the thought, and /had/ written to him to come instantly – He came
but his relations being arrived he could not stay – I never saw so
heroic a Sufferer – He does indeed glorify God by his behaviour.
She was a woman of uncommon Merit, and [a] [tear] woman of
fashion. He says her whole life was employd in leading him to
heaven – Remember us all kindly to your friends
I shall expect at least half a dozen Epistles, not as fair
barter but as liberal commerce, for this long and I fear hardly
intelligible scrawl. Besides telling me what you read, and who
you see, you are still surrounded by a society (but oh how
thinned) whom I know and love, while those about me are
unknown to you, and would excite little interest were it not so.
When you write pray mention
how Robert Grant is. He gave us two
pleasant days some weeks ago but was not quite well.
I have been long wishing to write to you but was prevented
[deletion] by
many weeks of disqualifying fever and its attendant
sufferings .
Thro the mercy of God I am much better, that is I am got back
nearly to my usual state of moderate suffering .
My Sister
Patty
is very poorly with that alarming determination of
blood to the head which is so much the reigning complaint.
May it please our infinitely gracious God by these awakening calls
to remind us how short our time is, and to prepare us for a change
which must soon take place!
