| 74 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
Early in the summer of 1837, Mr. Plumer Ward returned to England, in renewed health and spirits, and took up his residence for a short time at Gilston Park, though, for reasons glanced at so characteristically in the foregoing letter, he never again made it his permanent residence, and not long afterwards quitted it entirely—giving it up to his son, Sir H. G. Ward, the present Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, and himself residing at Okeover Hall, Staffordshire, the family seat of his step-son, Mr. Charles Okeover, then a minor under the guardianship of his mother, Mrs. Plumer Ward.
The following are Mr. Ward’s last letters to me from Gilston:—
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 75 |
“Dear Patmore,—I shall be too happy to oblige you in anything in my power; but I am a little puzzled to make out whether your fawn is to be killed for eating, or to be bred up as a pet. As soon as I received your letter, I summoned my keeper. Hear what he says—‘If the gentleman wishes to eat, I can easily kill; but if to have a pet, the only chance is that there may be yet one to drop, as it is impossible to catch them alive if once they can run.’ So pray tell me which is your wish, and, if for the table, you may depend upon one directly. * *
“I have been visited by such a return of my old
complaint, dyspepsia, that Halford has
commanded me to Bath, to which I should have gone by this, but for very great
distress we have been in from the threatened loss of Mrs. P.
W.’s only daughter. We hope, however, she is now out of
danger; and, as soon as we can leave her, my good wife will accompany me to
Bath. I have such frequent pain, that if that fails, I shall seek the
| 76 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
The allusion relative to his tale entitled “Sterling” (then in MS.), in the first paragraph of the following letter, refers to a suggestion I had made to Mr. Ward, that the subject and materials would well bear to be treated as a separate work in three volumes, instead of the one volume which it afterwards formed in the “Pictures of the World.”
The allusion in the last paragraph is to his “Essay on the Revolution of 1688,” which he was then composing, and which was shortly afterwards published in two volumes octavo.
“Dear Patmore,—Thank you
for your agreeable letter—agreeable to an author, if ever there was one, for it
is full of the
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 77 |
“You see that I have been selfish enough to begin with my business—now for yours. Tell me when you would have the fawn killed and sent, and it shall be done. I really did not know before that it was ever served up as a table delicacy, and only wish I could have profited by the knowledge before thinning was over. The spring was so cold and backward that we have been forced to postpone venison till the middle or end of next month, and therefore prefer the fawn to the haunch.
“I will seriously think what may be done to
‘Sterling;’
but I am anything but a
| 78 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
“But as dinner is served, you must excuse more than thanks for your letter. And so believe me,
Up to the period of his retirement from political life, Mr. Ward’s desultory reading (as I have hinted
elsewhere) had been almost exclusively confined to writers preceding those of the present
century; and though, on recovering his beloved leisure, he read with avidity most of the
good novels and works of travel of the day, his reading did not extend to the critics and
essayists of the nineteenth century, and almost as little to its poets. Nevertheless, he
felt great interest and curiosity about several of them, and was especially fond of
conversing about them with any one who happened to enjoy their personal acquaintance. The
following letter
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 79 |
“My dear Sir,—I am afraid you will have thought me long in answering your letter, but pray don’t think me negligent.
“I read your sketch with avidity—with a pleasure quite intense, and I read it immediately. But I have been more occupied, and worried too, by a rascally attorney, who has contracted for a part of my Suffolk property, and who will neither pay for it nor let me off. When I tell you he has broken six appointments to settle, and is as far off as ever, you may guess how he has plagued me.
“Certainly, among other inconveniences, he has
prevented me from writing, though
| 80 | R. PLUMER WARD. |
“I have not a scruple in saying, by all means publish, and that soon.
“As you say you will follow my opinion, doing me the honour to add you confide in it, I give it you without reserve. There is a little verbal criticism, towards the end, which you will at once find out in the shape of sentences (or rather a sentence or two), seemingly involved (from lengthenings), which I presume to point out to your observation. In all other respects the style is clear, forcible, and often pathetic—as becomes the subject; and as for the subject itself, few things are more interesting.
“Your first picture of him fixed me. Nothing I have
seen of yours, or anybody’s else, could be more graphic. All the
incidents, too, are made the most of, and we only wish there were more. So says
General Phipps (by no means a bad
judge), who was charmed with it, though he never heard of Hazlitt except by name, and disliked him. On
the strength of your sketch, however, he immediately set to reading him, and is
so
| R. PLUMER WARD. | 81 |
“P.S.—We leave home on Wednesday, and I hope to show Mrs. Plumer Ward Oxford and the Wye before we return.
“I took your hint as to the colour of the Conservatory, and the success is beyond imagination.”*
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* The Conservatory had hitherto been painted green, all the rest of the building being of stone colour, and I had suggested that the two should be made to harmonize. |
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