“You will have seen, by my last letters, that I am not exhausting myself by over-exertion. On the contrary, for many days I have been forcing myself to the more difficult necessity of bearing my own recollections. Time will soften them down; indeed, they now have, and always have had, all the alleviation which an assured hope and faith can bestow; and when I give way to tears, which is only in darkness or in solitude, they are not tears of unmingled pain. I begin to think that change of place would not be desirable, and that the pain of leaving a place where I have enjoyed so many years of such great happiness, is more than it is wise to incur without necessity. Nor could I reconcile either Edith or myself to the thought of leaving poor Mrs. Wilson*,
* Mrs. Wilson (the “aged friend” mentioned in the stanzas quoted from the Pilgrimage to Waterloo) had been housekeeper to Mr. Jack- |
| 176 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 42. |
“Murray has sent me 50l. for the La Vendee article, which makes me indifferent when it appears; and proposes to me half a dozen other subjects at 100l. each, at which rate I suppose in future I shall supply him with an article every quarter. This will set me at ease in money matters, about which, thank God and the easy disposition with which he has blessed me, I have never been too anxious.
“It is needless to say I shall be glad to see you here, but rather at some future time, when you will find me a better companion, and when your company would do me more good. Nor, indeed, must you leave your mother; her deliverance from the infirmities of life cannot be long deferred by any human skill, or any favourable efforts of nature. Whenever that event takes place, you will need such relief as change of scene can afford; and whenever it may be, I hold myself ready to join you and accompany you to the Continent, for as long a time as you can be spared from your office, and as long a journey as that
son, the former owner of Greta Hall, and she continued to occupy part of one of the two houses, which, though altogether in my father’s occupation, had not been wholly thrown together as was afterwards done. She had once been the belle of Keswick; and was a person of a marvellous sweetness of temper and sterling good sense, as much attached to the children of the family as if they had been her own, and remembered still by every surviving member of it with respect and affection. |
| Ætat. 42. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 177 |
