Memoir of Francis Hodgson
Duke of Devonshire to Francis Hodgson, 6 April 1839
My dear sir,—Your letter of February 11 was here when
I returned from the East; but in the middle of last month I got the news1 which it announces. If you had seen me at Tophana
under shelter of the projecting roof of a mosque—shelter from snow
1 The birth of a daughter. |
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| LETTER FROM THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. | 249 |
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—dictating
to one of the regular letter-writers a congratulation, which he penned in
Turkish! I thought he understood me very well, and that, though some Oriental
flowers’ of language were introduced, he had truly expressed the pleasure
I felt at Mrs. Hodgson’s safety
and your little girl’s; but, on returning home, my dragoman condemned the
letter, declared it an imposition, and more about a sister than a daughter; and
I unwillingly suppressed it. How happy you must be, and how fortunate it is
that both the objects of your care are so well!
Your account of Edensor is most satisfactory. I reproach
myself with great selfishness in keeping Paxton1 away so long, but he was so
useful to me that I could not do without him. When returned to Italy I shall
make him go home without me, for he must really be wanted. My plans will depend
on the Carlisles and Burlingtons,
both of whom I expect to find at Naples.
You cannot imagine the delight of Athens. The interior of
the excavations is beyond everything; there were 200 houses and several
churches
1 Sir Joseph
Paxton, originally chosen by the Duke from a row of
village lads brought before him as candidates for a place in the
gardens at Chatsworth; afterwards the architect of the great
conservatories on the model of which the Crystal Palace was built. |
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| 250 | MEMOIR OF REV. F. HODGSON. | |
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on the Acropolis. The last war with the Turks entirely
demolished these, and now, upon the removal of their remains, treasures of
antiquity daily come out. An entire small temple was found in one of the clumsy
Turkish bastions; it was one well known by description, but supposed to be
quite demolished—the temple of Victory, without wings—but it has
been cleared and put together, and is as fresh as in the days of Pericles. The
magnificent Propylæa have also been released from the walls that concealed
them, and form a building more striking than the Parthenon itself. The same
Neapolitan artist who sketched for me in Sicily has been with me now, and I
think him very much improved; and his collection will be most valuable to me as
souvenirs of a happy time, and I should like to show them to you. Adieu.
Ever most faithfully yours,
Sir Joseph Paxton (1803-1865)
Originally head gardener at the Duke of Devonshire's estate at Chatsworth; as an
architect he designed the Crystal Palace for the exhibition of 1850.
