Henry Crabb Robinson, Athenaeum, London, to Mary Wordsworth, Rydal Mount, 12 November 1846.

12th Nov. 1846

Athenaeum. 

My dear friend

     Ten minutes ago at the door of the club I met your son William, he had just left his card for me And was on his way to an hotel preparatory to his setting off for Brighton.  I exchanged but a few words with him – He had however time to deliver a sort of unintelligible message about my not having written &c &c  – I must therefore at once begin a letter which I shall probably finish tomorrow.

     On my arrival in town on Saturday, being just seven weeks after I set out I found among 34 letters to read three which had a connection with one subject. Those from D. Q. [Dora Quillinan] & H. M. [Harriet Martineau] were written in a tone of so great satisfaction that it would seem fastidious in me to express any dissatisfaction And as it could do no good I will abstain from it.

     I thank you however for all your kindness & trouble in all things – And especially for your attentions to my friends Mr & Mrs Austen who are quite proud of the notice you took of them

     Before I proceed to the object of this letter which is to give you a brief account of my journey, I will just say that I was enabled to make it by hopes that in the end have not been frustrated my brothers health is so improved that he has even forgotten to mention it. But I never forget that he is at all times liable to a renewal of his disorder.

    I sat out on the 20th of Septr & proceeded by steam to Antwerp – The successive nights being passed at sea, Liege, Bonn, Coblenz, Mainz, Heidelberg, Strasburg, & Basel – This enumeration will point out the happy change in travelling. Formerly it used to cost me three tedious days between Cologne & Antwerp or Ostend – Now it is an affair of a single day – And in like manner I have spent three wearisome days between Heidelberg & Strasburg – In Switzerland the Rail Way system at Baden Beyond Zurick mighty works had been undertaken, which merit the poet’s indignant censure – I crossed the Alps over the Splugen for the first time – There is one point of great celebrity on that road the Via Mala which by the engineers skill has been in fact a via buona – It combines the sublimity which extreme peril once enhanced, with perfect safety – In like manner, the adjacent Pfeffor baths have been renderd accessible with ease – They are two marvellous spots – The Devils-bridge on the St Gothard Pass is between them in horrid grandeur

     We passed thro’ Chur & enterd Italy at Chiavenna – from whence I went to Colico And there embarked on the lake of Como – Mr Wordsworth may recollect my spending half a day with an old Gent who lives on the mountain above Menaggio He is still alive And I had a particular reason for wishing to see him – So much so that I returned to Menaggio from Milan in order to do so.

    I should have said that my journey as far as Como was made with a friend & two ladies – They were going further – And we separated at Como as they were going to Leyano – My visit to Mr Mylius was a delightful one I had a long day alone, rambling over the mountains And I reached a point where I could see at once the lakes of Leyano & Como And I overlooked the road we travelled Anno 1820 – I was nine days in & about Milan which has undergone no change since our tour – In Switzerland the only material alteration has been in the erection of splendid hotels at Basel, Zurick, Lucerne – These I saw & enjoyed; for tho’ they are called dear, the advance injuries is not equal to the improvement in the comforts afforded – At Milan we heard of the disturbances at Geneva; And I was apprehensive that on our return we might find Basel in a state of revolution – But the late change at Geneva was affected with unexpected ease – Credit must be given to the Rads for having not abused their victory. The fact is that at the head of their party are several very rich people who must be conservative whether they will or not – And therefore the ejected government consisting of honourable men have joined their victory against the Ultra-rads – This is a bit of politics by the bye.

12th Nov: contd

     My return varied from the outward journey only in crossing St Gothard & the lake of Lucerne instead of the journey before stated – And from Basel instead of the journey before stated – And from Basel instead of entering France I went to Freiburg & Baden Baden – This last place is not the most fashionable watering place on the Continent – But it was become like a “City of the Plague” when I was there  Forty years ago I spent several days among picturesque scenes And I was glad in a single day to renew my acquaintance with the most eminent – I then went to Heidelberg where I spent three days And to Frankfurth where I spent four – At both of these, I had friends I went again to Schlosser who lives at the former Monastery on the Neckar – Mr W: will not have forgotten the evening we spent there. The S’s asked after him – I found Schlosser rather better in health & spirits. He is so intense a Romanist that they say his health rises or falls with the prosperity or adversity of the Holy See and he is accused of being a partizan of the Jesuits  I was told that he was not friendly to the reforming Pope.  The latter imputation wod include an inconsistency – But it does not seem probable – Indeed there would be no pretence for alarm, before his holiness proceeds to teach Holy Doctrines & Holy rites.  Hitherto he has only indicated a wish to reform the flagrant iniquity of the Roman courts of Justice – He is about to introduce publicity in his court which I deem of more importance than trial by jury  It is said that the Pope will reform the finances also – And correct an abusive disregard of personal rights – Now there is no heresy in all this – Certainly a reforming Pope is of all novelties the most strange & unexpected Only to be equalled or surpassed by the fact that at this moment Dan OConnell is the great support of the English government in Ireland.  The moment he declared, that tho’ as staunch a friend to repeal as could be, he yet would obtain it by moral force only. For it would be too dear at the price of a single life he became the Aegis of great Britain in Ireland – Parliament must vote him a statue when he dies--!!!

  At Frankfurt I found some of my earliest friends still living – I made a diversion coming home And visited Spa which once was what Baden Baden is. And a pretty country it is – I also spent a day at a very pretty little spot near Liege Chaudfontain All this a very ^fine^ country And my journey a renewal of my old habits.  I took the rail to Ostend And made the voyage in 5 ½ hours. The village voyage was lengthened by a fog – so that “half it’s strength it put not forth” – This reminds me that I put Paradise Lost in my portmanteau And read it through during the journey.

     If this does not excite your desire to be again on foot, it will set others a longing – Indeed the facilities of travelling encrease so much faster than the infirmities of age; that I still hope I shall deem myself seven years hence young enough to visit Greece – I am not quite young enough now And I was decidedly too old in 1830 – This is no paradox except in words: But a substantial truth.

     Your letter mentioned Miss Fenwick being at Mr H. Taylor’s – And I was on the point of writing to her there; but I thought it safer for it to make an enquiry of Lady Rolfe And on my calling I found her ^Miss Fenwick^ there Looking I think better than I ever saw her look – I am invited to dine with the Rolfe’s tomorrow which invitation I always enjoy.

13th

     There, I have given you an account which has at least the merit of brevity.

    I have just heard from Bury that Mrs Clarkson is on a visit at her Sisters – I have heard from herself that she is an improved health. She must feel relieved from a great burthen, at the same time that will be a mixed Sensation & burthen that has been born a half a Century becomes a part of the body and of one’s self the good old man has died full of years & honour. I shall probably go down to Suffolk for a few days next week to see her. My brother is enjoying marvellously good health considering the attacks to which he has been subject.

 My best remembces to all friends

                     Affectly your’s

                                    H. C. Robinson

Text: WLL, Robinson, Henry Crabb/3, Wordsworth Trust and Museum, Grasmere. Robinson writes in his diary on 12 November 1846: ‘I was employed at home in the forenoon over my accounts till I went to the Athenaeum. At the door I met with W: Wordsworth junior on his way to Brighton. At the Athen: I began a letter to Mrs Wordsworth ...’ 

Harriet Martineau (1802-76) moved to Ambleside in 1844 and built a cottage called ‘the Knoll’. She was a prolific writer, best known for her Illustrations of Political Economy, 9 vols (1832-34), her novels Deerbrook (1839) and The Hour and the Man (1841), various collections of stories for children, and Life in the Sick-Room (1844) and Household Education (1844), as well as pamphlets on slavery. She lived largely as an invalid between 1839 and 1844 at Tynemouth, near Newcastle, suffering from a uterine tumour. She claimed to have been completely healed in 1844 by means of mesmerism. She published Letters on Mesmerism in 1845. Later works include Eastern Life, Past and Present, 3 vols (1848), History of the Thirty Years’ Peace, 2 vols (1849-50), Complete Guide to the Lakes (1855), numerous contributions to Dicken’s Household Words, and Biographical Sketches (1869). Her religious skepticism became more pronounced in the 1840s, as seen in her important volume, Letters on the Laws of Man’s Nature and Development (1851).

In 1841 Dora Wordsworth (1804-47) married Edward Quillinan (1791-1851), a minor English poet, a writer on Portugal and Portuguese literature, and, after 1841, William Wordsworth’s son-in-law. Quillinan was born in Portugal, the son of an Irish merchant. Unlike the Wordworths, Quillinan was a devout Roman Catholic; he returned from Portugal to England in 1807 and remained thereafter. He began writing poetry seriously in 1814, publishing within the next few years a series of poems: Dunluce Castle, a Poem (1814), Stanzas by the author of Dunluce Castle (1814), The Sacrifice of Isabel (1816), and Elegiac Verses (1817). He moved his young wife and family to Spring Cottage, between Rydal and Ambleside, in 1821, but his wife died the next year. At this time he became close friends with Wordsworth, a relationship that eventually led to his marriage to Dora.