Gisborne, Mary

Hannah More to Marianne Sykes Thornton, 28 November 1814

How our young friends are marrying away! I wish you could see excellent letter on the marriages in his family. So much wit! – Mary Gisborne delighted me in hers by an honest and frank confession of her happiness That Match was made in heaven. But in this chequered life all [deletion] are not rejoycing or marrying. Our friend is coming to us to day for a few days, as soon as he deposited the remains of a young creature his adopted daughter aged Nineteen on whom he doated; and over whom he has watched with fond Solicitude for a year and a half in a dropsy – She was an amiable girl and piously inclined, but he had dragged her so much into the great and gay world, that it impeded her progress. I hope this privation will have a good effect on his own mind. He loves religion and religious people, but then he dearly loves the world and after having laboured hard to make both loves agree, I trust this blow will shew him the vanity of that attempt. [sic] will be good sympathizing company for him, as they are expecting to night to hear of the death of a Niece past nineteen also, but are of the most matured Christians I have heard of; her sweet and extraordinary piety has made a considerable impression on her own family, and many who knew her.

Hannah More to Marianne Sykes Thornton, February 1815 [copy, presented to EM Forster by his great aunt, Marianne Thornton]

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. – Whom I take to be a son of ^*, 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 . Sorrow makes even eloquent. 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, , 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.