Memoir of Francis Hodgson
John Bird Sumner to Francis Hodgson, 19 July 1820
Mapledurham, near Reading: July 19, 1820.
My dear Hodgson,—Your letter was a very agreeable surprise to me. Not
that I had lost sight of you, for I heard with great pleasure of your
translation from the uncertainties of a curacy to the pleasant town of
Bakewell, and have often since attempted to strengthen my recollections of its
taper spire and the retired valley in which it stands—am I not right? We
passed through it many years ago, in ![]()
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the course of a tour
to the Caves and the Lakes. Besides which, I heard of you more recently at
Kenilworth, my native place, where a sister of my mother still lives, the only
remaining link of those large and spreading branches of our family which
formerly grew together there. I heard of you, too, in a very agreeable way, as
preaching a sermon warm from the heart, and faithful to the Gospel: and allow
me to hope that the Gospel has brought rest to your own soul, and that you are
now preaching to others the same word of reconciliation. The title of your
volume, as well as the account which I heard of your sermon, leads me to
believe that you, who could never feel anything slightly, have now felt as it
deserves the importance of that office which we are called to discharge, and of
that salvation which we are empowered to make known. ‘Sacred Leisure’1 had struck me in the advertisement before I received your letter,
and I have provided for its meeting me at Eton, where I am going, as in duty
bound, to celebrate election on Saturday next. For you must be told, and will
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hear with pleasure, that before I
had resided a year in the cloisters I came into possession of a very good and
well-conditioned living by Few’s
death—Mapledurham, four miles from Reading; and here we reside eight
months in the year in an excellent parsonage, and surrounded by a beautiful
country, the Thames flowing at the bottom of my garden. So that my lot is in a
fair ground, and I am amply repaid for the hateful trade1 which I plied for fifteen years. Mrs. Sumner
is in excellent health, and delighted with our present life and place of
residence.
You desire me to mention old friends absent from Eton, but
I scarcely remember any mutual friends remaining to us except Ekins, who is living, as he always did, in
comfort and quiet between Salisbury and Chiddingford, and perhaps I might add
Thackeray (Provost of King’s).
But if there is anyone of whom you want a more particular account, I shall be
glad if it gives you a reason for writing again to me; when you may likewise
tell me something about your own family, to whom I should wish to be known, but
I fear without any immediate prospect of becoming so. However, though you are
fixed far in the wilds remote from
1 That of an assistant-master at Eton. |
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public view, we are within easy reach of anyone who comes
towards London; and I shall be sincerely glad if you will at any time bend your
route to Mapledurham. In the meanwhile believe me, my dear Hodgson,
Most sincerely yours,
Charles Ekins (1779-1826)
Son of John Ekins, dean of Salisbury; he was educated at Eton and King's College,
Cambridge and was rector of Chiddingfold, Surrey (1803), curate of Deverill Hill, Wiltshire
(1803-10), and prebendary of Slape in Salisbury (1803).
Francis Hodgson (1781-1852)
Provost of Eton College, translator of Juvenal (1807) and close friend of Byron. He wrote
for the
Monthly and
Critical Reviews, and was
author of (among other volumes of poetry)
Childe Harold's Monitor; or
Lines occasioned by the last Canto of Childe Harold (1818).
Edward Tew (1736-1818)
Of King's College, Cambridge; he was fellow of Eton (1781-1818) and vice-provost
(1802-1818), vicar of Mapledurham (1800-1818). He translated Gray's
Elegy into Greek.
George Thackeray (1777-1850)
He was assistant master at Eton College (1801), provost of King's College, Cambridge
(1814), and a notable book-collector.
