‘I cannot sufficiently thank you, my dear Rogers, for your kind and long letter, knowing
as I do how much you dislike writing. Yet I should not have written now but to
say I was not aware that you had any such near connections in the Church; I had
presumed that your relatives by both sides were Dissenters, or I should have
been silent on the subject, being well assured that I and mine
| 40 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
‘Lord Lonsdale, to whom I mentioned my son’s intended marriage, naming (as I was at liberty to do in that case) the lady, has written to me in answer with that feeling and delicacy which mark the movements of his mind and the actions of his life. He is one of the best and most amiable of men, and I should detest myself if I could fail in gratitude for his goodness to me upon all occasions.1
‘I wish Lady Frederick’s mind were at ease on the subject of the epitaph. Upon her own ideas, and using mainly her own language, I worked at it, but the production I sent was too long and somewhat too historical, yet assuredly it wanted neither discrimination nor feeling. Would Lady F. be content to lay it aside till she comes into the North this summer, as I hope she will do. We might then lay our judgments together in conversation, and with the benefit of your suggestions and those of other friends with which she is no doubt furnished, we might be satisfied at last. Pray name this to her if you have an opportunity.
‘Your “Italy” can nowhere out of your own family be more eagerly expected than in this house. The poetry is excellent we know, and the embellishments, as they are under the guidance of your own taste, must do honor to the Arts. My daughter, alas, does not recover her strength. She has been thrown back several times by
1 On the 11th of October, 1830, Mr. Wordsworth’s eldest son, the Rev. John Wordsworth, then Rector of Moresby, was married to Isabella Christian Curwen, daughter of Henry Curwen, Esq., of Workington Hall, Cumberland, and of Curwen’s Isle, Windermere (Life, vol. ii., p. 232). |
| WORDSWORTH | 41 |
‘We like Mrs. Hemans much; her conversation is what might be expected from her poetry, full of sensibility, and she enjoys the country greatly.
‘The “Somnambulist” is one of several pieces, written at a heat, which I should have much pleasure in submitting to your judgment were the Fates so favourable as that we might meet ere long. How shall I dare to tell you that the Muses and I have parted company, at least I fear so, for I have not written a verse these twelvemonths past, except a few stanzas upon my return from Ireland last autumn.
‘Dear Sir Walter, I love that man, though I can scarcely be said to have lived with him at all; but I have known him for nearly thirty years. Your account of his seizure grieved us all much. Coleridge had a dangerous attack a few weeks ago; Davy is gone. Surely these are men of power, not to be replaced should they disappear, as one has done.
‘Pray repeat our cordial remembrances to your brother and sister, and be assured, my dear Rogers, that you are thought of in this house, both by the well and the sick, with affectionate interest.
