“How little are our lots in life to be foreseen! It might reasonably have been thought that, if any man could have been secured against ill fortune in his mercantile concerns by prudence, punctuality, method, and the virtues and habits which the mercantile profession requires, you, above all men, would have been uniformly and steadily prosperous; and yet to what a series of anxieties and losses have you been exposed, without any fault, or even anything which can justly be called incaution on your part! This, however, is both consolatory and certain, that no good man is ever the worse for the trials with which Providence may visit him, and the way in which you regard these afflictions exemplifies this.
“Since I received your letter I made my proposed visit
to the sea-coast with the two Ediths and Cuthbert. We were at Netherhall, the solar of my friend and
fellow-traveller, Senhouse, where his
ancestors have uninterruptedly resided since the days of Edward II. (when part of the present building is
known to have been standing), and how long before that no one knows. Some of
his deeds are of Edward I.’s reign,
some of Henry III.’s; and one is as far
back as King John. We slept in the tower, the
walls of which are nine feet thick. In the time of the great Rebellion the
second of the two sons of this house went to serve the King, the elder brother
(whom ill-
| 92 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 47. |
“Netherhall stands upon the little river Ellen, about
half a mile from the sea, but completely sheltered from the sea-wind by a long
high hill, under cover of which some fine old trees have grown up. The Ellen
rises on Skiddaw, forms the little and unpicturesque lake or rather pool which
is called Overwater, near the foot of that mountain, and, though a very small
stream, makes a port, where a
| Ætat. 47. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 93 |
“Old as Netherhall is, the stones of which it is built were hewn from the quarry more than a thousand years before it was begun. They were taken from a Roman station on the hill between it and the sea, where a great number of Roman altars, &c. have been found. Some of them are described by Camden, who praises the Mr. Senhouse of his time for the hospitality with which he received him, and the care with which he preserved these remains of antiquity. . . . . It was a bishop of this family who preached Charles I.’s coronation sermon, and the text which he took was afterwards noted as ominous;—‘I will give him a crown of glory.’ The gold signet which he wore as a ring is now at Netherhall. God bless you!
