Gisborne, Thomas
Hannah More to William Hayley, 31 August 1811
I have had /great/ pleasure in shewing your fine Verses to one of the nearest survivi[ng] [tear] relations of Cowper, of the pious and to whom his more devout letters are addressed.* They have also afforded a great treat to the excellent Mr. Gisborne with whom I am now on a visit. I need not tell You he is the Author of some of our best Modern Sermons*; of two valuable treatises on the ‘Duties of Man /&/ duties of women’*; and his ‘Walks in a Forest* enable him to appreciate as a Poet.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, February 22 1815
Tho I sent you a few days ago a longer letter than I write to any body else, yet I thought you would wish to hear from me on a Subject so interesting to you. The day after got my letter he and presented themselves in the morning and spent the day here. With the latter I had only general intercourse, my chief object with him being to make myself as pleasant as my state of health allowed, and to remove any prejudice he might have entertained of my being severe and dictatorial. While I sent him walking and talking with young Gisborne, I took the Tutor into my room for a couple of hours. I will as nearly as I can recollect, tell you our chief discourse. His first endeavour has been /not/ to give him any disgust, but to gain his affection. He finds him conformable and complying with his injunctions, but not in habits of application, or much given to reading He is more anxious at first to bring him to stated habits and a regular disposition of time than to force too much reading upon him till he discovers more liking to it. At half past 8 he gives him, I think about a dozen verse of the Greek Testament to study and meditate upon alone. At Nine he sets him to construe those passages to him and after they have discussed the Greek in a literary and grammatical point of view, he then expounds them to him spiritually and Theologically: then their devotions and a little walk before breakfast. I suggested that as he is inclined to sit over his Meals that a short thing, a medium sort of reading such as a paper in the Rambler* might be well taken up. His Mornings are at present engaged with Quintilion whom they study /both/ separately and together. I ventured to give my opinion that as he would fill a great station in the world, and was not much addicted to study it might be well to endeavour to imbue his mind with general knowledge such as would be useful in life, and to allure him to the perusal of history and Travels; to make him learn a passage from the Orations of Demosthenes or Cicero, in the Greek & Latin and then to translate and recite them in English, and to labour after a good manner of recitation. Mr. H. told me, and Mr. S. himself told that they had spent their time in the most trifling manner at Harrow, and that very little was required of them there. In consequence Mr. H says his habits of conversation are too frivolous, horses &c &c being the favorite theme. Before evening prayer Mr. H. reads and again expounds Scripture. This he says is all the formal religious instruction he gives, for he /is/ afraid to weary him, but he tries to make their walks, their common reading instructive. I insisted much on the necessity & importance of this, knowing it is the best way to mix up instruction with the common pursuits of life. They sometimes dine and drink tea out, but as it is in correct and pious company, I thought it better for his youth than to be confin’d to a tete a téte always with his Tutor. The latter likes his young friend who has yet given him not the slightest cause of complaint.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 25 March [1815]
* declines interfering, but says /again/ the Gisborne’s* are the proper people if any assurance is necessary, which she does not think will be the case; but she does not /see/ the strong prejudices of her brother as I, and others see them.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 25 March [1815]
Thomas and had been proposed as the authors of the planned memoir of John Bowdler.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, [20? October 1815] [incomplete]
I spent a few days with the who is going on like an Angel. We are expecting him here. Has Mr. Gisborne’s Letter to said Bishop on the Bible Society yet reached Ireland?* It is a Master piece, for argument for eloquence truth and Spirit. It will make some people wince
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 13 December [1815]
who has been with us, boasts much of some pleasant hours spent with you in Wales. He is a superior Man, brimful of information One of our best Orientalists. He is just returned from his second visit to the City of sin, whither he went to see his friend * He is going again on a Mission about the French New Testament, which I am happy to say hi /a/ s /been/ circulated by many Priests, to the amount of three Editions. – I hope you have seen ’ excellent Article on ‘The Church in Danger’ in the last British Review.* I am glad to find that valuable work is in high repute.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 13 December [1815]
In the November issue of The British Review, and London Critical Journal, Roberts published a lengthy article entitled ‘The Church in Danger’ in which he discussed several of the pamphlets written on the subject of the British and Foreign Bible Society, including the letter to the written by Thomas Gisborne (see also 'To Olivia Sparrow, 20 October 1815'). Roberts’s article featured missives from both sides of the argument, though his own view was firmly in favour of the work of the Bible Society for having raised ‘a great proportion of these neutral beings’ (by which he meant the poor) ‘into a state of positive religion’ (The British Review, November 1815, pp. 252-287 (p. 255)). (Read on Google Books.)
Hannah More to Thomas Dyke Ackand, after 1828
Those alive people are
Gisborne
Niece of from a painting of his.