1852 October 4 Henry Crabb Robinson to John Miller

Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, London, to the Rev. John Miller, 4 October 1852.

30 Russell Square

London

4th Oct: 1852.

My dear Sir,

     Tho’ you and your Revd brother J. K. M. are probably among those who do not “much delight in personal talk” – Yet with his wife in your house And his daughter in his own I cannot suppose you are uninformed of what has been the issue of our correspondence, of which your letter of July 29th is the last. That letter very much gratified me And had I yielded to first impulses I should have answerd it on the spot But it was followed almost instantly by a communication from Walkeringham – That included an invite which I accepted at once – To be carried into execution either before or after my archaeological excursion – That has taken place: As you doubtless know – And about an hour ago I received a letter from J. K. M. On which I write to you, somewhat after the fashion of a triangular duel, tho’ we do not stand in the same sort of equilateral relation to each other – It rejoices me to read that Mrs J. K. M. is about to leave you, as that is evidence of an approach to perfect recovery –

     Her absence was the only draw-back on the pleasure of my visit – For I can assure you that I heard not a single sentiment from the lips of your brother which I could wish unexpressed, or the recollection of which might make me uncomfortable – You will not of course misinterpret this into an intimation of an acquiescence or concurrence in his speculative opinions or church creed – That which delighted me at the moment And still in the calling back to my mind what passed between us gratifies me as the thought is That his benevolence was not tried beyond his power of endurance – Such expressions as no bishop ^Hurtwell^ – no Doctor ^Arnold^ – no Archdeacon ^Hare^ – No – this, that, and the other, All, individuals – whose persons or writings I especially like – are I take for granted a form of gentle or defecated Anathema – And do not annoy me – tho’ I feel it to be strange – that they should tolerate me who cannot endure those so impossibly above me – There comes into play a Sentiment which dear Charles Lamb felt intensely And expressed as he did every with, an enriching humour –

     I carried him an invitation to <–> dine with a common friend – “There will be only the three Stansfields” – “How I hate those three Stansfields” – Hate them! Why? They are three Yorkshiremen – You have never seen one of them.” “That’s the reason! I cannot hate any one I have ever seen” – I used to say to C: Lamb – I will adopt your pets – but not your antipathies – So on more serious occasions I would say to the stern asserters of doctrines my moral sense repels – And the advocates of what I reject with not a shade of ill will towards the advocate – There is a notion which you Orthodox frown at – And all the more because you cannot directly deny ^it,^ tho’ you may allege that it is not fairly put – “The innocence of involuntary error[”]– I was therefore delighted when I met with the following from citation from an ancient writer “(Aug: (?ustin:?) de Mendacia) Nunguam errari tutuis existino quam cum in mimio amore veritatis erratur” – Aug. of all the Saints in the Roman Calendar – (if he be the Author) is the least offensive to Protest: Churchmen I am rambling on without method or object – I have not gone beyond telling how much pleasure I had on my visit – But it would be no difficult matter to connect with that, every thing one had to say –

     I must not omit to say, by way of episode, that if I may take as a sample or specimen, the single daughter I saw, he must be a happy man in his family. There is an earnest thoughtfulness with no roughness of manner which gives her a singleness – That’s not the word I meant to say what answers to the French unique – But how foolish to suppose that I can have seen more than a corner of her mind!

     My visit to Walkeringham was at the end of a journey of some length – both as to time & space – I spent a week with the Archeaol: Institute at Newcastle. Witnessed a sort of revival of the Quasi regal hospitalities of Alnwick and Durham – And fed under a tent erected where Roman legions had stood – And their labourers had raised the wall to protect the enfeebled barbarians against their fiercer bretheren [sic] – I steamed over to Edinb: mainly to recover from over fatigue – I returned by way of Carlisle – where were Mrs Hutchison [sic] – And her brother John Monkhouse – I find that it is your elder brother – No 1 I might have said who has been the kind patronising friend of the young Divine who officials near  <–> you. I was not sorry to hear that in the opinion of his own relations he is more in danger of approaching too near Geneva than of running headlong into the city of Abominations – but merely as in evidence that he is not far gone on either side – Confusing, needlessly – I hope not impertinently – that on all Ecclesiastical Questions – I am very low—coming within you the wind of your hudibrastic horn – While on what respects the creed I incline rather to the high – as far as is compatible with an imputed renunciation of discipline – I do not confess the charge – but I fear is at least a plausible pretext for the accusation – I cannot admit there is any for the concluding reproach – I hope that the want of a word to rhyme with an incongruous term associated with Christian – a betrayed you in the injust charge – being very much within your authors liberal allowance

    “One for Sense and One for Rhyme”*

I may be excused with noticing in detail your very liberal comments on my answer to the charge against me made when I was just 40 years younger – It is more than I could have hoped for from ^one^ so uncompromising as you are – And I can also understand your brother’s Silence Give it its due significance And be not in the least annoyed by it – As to the other portions of your letter which have no relation either express or implied to the Sentence pronounced Ex Cathedra by J. K. M. – I find nothing to remark on otherwise than thankfully as the communication of what ought to be useful matter of the last three months I have spent more than 10 weeks in the country And this has occasioned my not having yet read the Art: in the Dublin Un: Mag: for Sept: 50 on Words: which I can procure – And shall have read soon I have no doubt – I shall always be grateful for such recommends And never willfully neglect them –

     May I beg you to request Mrs J. K. M. when she writes to her sister Mrs Stone – to inform her that I have procured Southey’s letters to her Uncle – Duppa, whom I knew at the bar, which she lent me And I have now procured back from Cuthbert Southey ? She does me the favor to call on me when she comes to town And carries away Metropolitan small talk, which in the country is worth something.

     I beg my best Remembces to Mrs J. K. M. And No 1 of the family Trio – whom I am happy to reckon among objects of interest – I confess a sort of human Yarrow.

                    With sincere esteem &c &c &c

                                             H. C. Robinson

Revd John Miller. / –

P. S. I hope you will feel suitable sympathy for poor Henry Wilberforce Having converted his wife to the true Church – (the old, original, English Church as my <–> called laundress called it) He did not doubt he had fully converted her – And she scandalously refuses to go into a nunnery – release him from his Matrimonial vows And so enable him to take holy Orders

*You make God Rhyme to Christian Rod but that shod be the G: of absolute decrees – of reprobates of John Calvin & Jonathan Edwards –

Text: WLL/2000.24.2.2, Wordsworth Trust and Museum, Grasmere.