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Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Samuel Rogers to Sarah Rogers, [9 September 1834]
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Preface
Vol. I Contents
Chapter I. 1803-1805.
Chapter II. 1805-1809.
Chapter III. 1810-1812.
Chapter IV. 1813-1814.
Chapter V. 1814-1815.
Chapter VI. 1815-1816.
Chapter VII. 1816-1818.
Chapter VIII. 1818-19.
Chapter IX. 1820-1821.
Chapter X. 1822-24.
Chapter XI. 1825-1827.
Vol. II Contents
Chapter I. 1828-1830.
Chapter II. 1831-34.
Chapter III. 1834-1837.
Chapter IV. 1838-41.
Chapter V. 1842-44.
Chapter VI. 1845-46.
Chapter VII. 1847-50.
Chapter VIII. 1850
Chapter IX. 1851.
Chapter X. 1852-55.
Index
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‘Dunmore Park: Tuesday [9th September, 1834].

‘My dear Sarah,—Your kind letter I found on Saturday last on my way from the Marshalls at Ulleswater. I slept there two nights, coming back so far with Wordsworth from Lowther. At Carlisle Jno. W., who stamps there for his father, sat with me while I breakfasted, and a very amiable and pleasing young man he is. I came on to Selkirk, having travelled only eighty miles that day—a short journey for me, and next Sunday saw Abbotsford, Melrose, and Roslin, and slept at Edinburgh, where I stopt till noon on Monday to get my bandage re-adjusted, and then came on to Dunmore, where I need not say how I was received. They are all alone, and I must stay here at least a fortnight. Indeed, they will not hear of my going then—but I hope by that time I may be off, for, as the Greys are now at Howick, I must look in upon them as I go by, if they are then there. But my malady, my dear Sarah, has so damped all the little pleasure I looked for, that sometimes I think I had better give all up at once and come back to my own home directly. My foot is no better, and at every step
ABBOTSFORD AS SCOTT LEFT IT97
I have to drag it after me, but when I sit I forget it. However, when I leave this door, I have done all I came out for, and may come back as fast as I like. At Abbotsford all is as he left it, a small closet excepted, which is hung with his hat, his boots, his gaiters, his pruning-knife and gardening, or rather farming, coat—a melancholy sight, but which will become every year more and more sacred in the eyes of his countrymen. He died in the drawing-room, in a bed fitted up for him there. The house is really very prettily furnished in the old style; the walls wainscot and the rooms larger than I expected to find them. Over the chimney in his study are Stothard’s “Canterbury Pilgrims.” I made that roundabout, as I was afraid of arriving before my letter at Dunmore. Pray write, and let me know your plans, and how you are. I wrote to you from Lowther, and write to-day to Patty.

‘Ever yours,
‘S. R.

‘P.S. I have said nothing of Dunmore. It is a very nice house in the Gothic style, and the views across the Forth are very pleasing. Sails and steamers are passing continually at a quarter of a mile’s distance, intercepted here and there by the trees in the Park.

‘As for him, he struck me at first as much altered, and his first question was whether I thought so. To-day he looks as he used to do, and I forget that so many years have gone by since last I was here—twenty-two years, as the old gardener tells me. The inns in Scotland have changed greatly for the better. The hotels in Edinburgh
98 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES  
are palaces, and affect a refinement and luxury that must alarm many a poor traveller. Have you heard from Mary yet? I am glad you went to Cashiobury on every account. As for the Wordsworths, they have an affliction I was not aware of at first. Their daughter Dora looks cheerful before other people, but is in a sad melancholy way, and eats nothing, says nothing, and goes nowhere. They are very wretched about her. The elder Dora delights, as I told you, in adorning a little rock, four or five yards in circumference, with rock flowers. It is as rich as a little bit of enchantment, and when she goes, as her nephew John said very prettily, will be her monument as long as it lasts.’