‘My dear Rogers,—Ten days ago Mrs. W. (she from the neighbourhood of Hereford, and I from the North) met at this place, which we quit Saturday, 8th of next month, going together into Herefordshire, where Mrs. W. will remain with her daughter till the warm and dry weather of spring returns. Thus is our little family broken up by the troublesome indisposition of my daughter, an affection of the throat, which returns along with a cough on rainy and damp days.
| WORDSWORTH AT COLEORTON | 453 |
‘Lady Beaumont was not well a few days after our arrival here, but she is now in good health and as little altered in appearance as could have been expected. She employs herself much in the concerns of this place, and has great resources in reading and religious meditation. You will be aware how much Mrs. W. and I miss Sir George in this house and in the grounds about. There is a little picture on the easel in his painting room as it was left on his seizure there with a fainting fit, the commencement of his fatal illness, which lasted no more than eight days. Lady B. begs that you will be quite easy on the subject of your not answering her letter, as she did not look for a reply, being in general as averse to letter-writing as you are. It seems that it was a consolation to her under her suffering to write to Sir George’s friends. I sincerely believe that she did so without wishing for, or thinking about, any notice of her effusion. She took up the pen from impulse, and it was a relief to her.
‘I am pleased to hear that the Stafford Gallery is thought a bargain, but I will not trouble you
any more on the subject. Before I had heard from you I mentioned to
Mr. Page, whom I think you saw at Lowther, that I had
named this subject to you, and he engaged to knock at your door to learn
whether you were at home or in England. I thought you might be gone to Italy.
Whether he found you or not, he obligingly offered to inspect the prints
himself, and report to me accordingly. I have not yet heard from him; at all
events let the purchase be suspended at present. I know, and have often
admired, the Rubens Lord Stafford
| 454 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
‘Italy, alas! is to me an ignis fatuus; every year the hope dances before me only to obstruct my sight of something else that I might attain. Were there no other obstacle, I could not think of leaving England for so long a time till I had disposed of my younger son, who, as I have just learned from him, is bent upon being a beggar either in the honourable character and profession of a soldier or of a farmer. Could you suggest to me anything better for this infatuated youth—any situation in a counting-house or a public office? He dislikes the thought of the University because he sees nothing afterwards open to him but the Church, which he does not think himself fit for, or that he ever can be made so. Excuse th1s weary epistle, and believe me ever, with true affection,
