Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, London, to Mary Wordsworth, Rydal Mount, 25 June [1853].

30 Russell Square

25th June

My dear friend

    I am quite ashamed of not having for so long a time written to you – But I have been very busy and very unsettled and not in very good health of late – not that I have been ill, properly so called; But I have been assailed by symptoms that sometimes are very significant at other times & more frequently pass away unobserved, leading to nothing – This is my best apology for not writing –

     Now something has occurred which forces me out of my torpid state you will receive I trust by the same post which is to convey [in] this letter the Athenaeum of this day. It contains a short paper of mine[1] – I hope you will <–> approve of my reproof of the heartless account given by Tom Moore of the dinner at Monkhouse’s Some thirty years ago – You were present at this dinner And may perhaps recollect something about it Had you been here I should have applied to you for assistance –

    I could not omit in a single sentence referring to W. W. as unhandsomely treated by T. M.  But C: L was the proper object of my short paper – And I find I have not written with perfect clearness or quite enough about W. W.

     It is strange how difficult it is to obtain cla certainty about ordinary incidents – According to my note it was Miss Hutchinson and not Mary Lamb who was at that dinner

     I am now all in doubt about my own forthcoming movements – Perhaps I shall go to night to Bury next Thursday the 30th – I have settled thus much; that I shall be with Mrs Clarkson next Tuesday And I shall either on 30th return here for a fortnight – Or go that day to Bury for a few days – And thus come here from the 6th to the 15th –

     Dear Mrs Clarkson is about as well as she has long been – Writes with difficulty – but is nearly as lively as ever –

     My poor brother is – as it was foreseen he must one day be – And is now the shade of what he once was – never great And therefore when that shade passes away, not the object of that grief the poet notices in his profound remark – Still you will not – nor will any of the friends of my amiable brother feel when they hear of his departure As all of us do when we are informed of the irreparable loss of the guardian protector-parent in the midst of his career of usefulness –

     Göthe has written a beautiful sentence of felicitation of those who dye young – for as men dye So they live for ever in the memories of men Achilles is forever the youthful swift-footed hero!

     I am called off and will write again soon – I have something to tell you of the Bp of Oxford

      I hardly know to whom to be spoken of for who is now in your immediate vicinity? Your most affectionate friend

                                 H. C. Robinson

Mrs Wordsworth – Rydal

The Athenaeum

My dear friend –

     I have an unexpected opportunity of going on with the letter I thought I had closed – And am returned to this place from whence the paper-stamp may have betrayed the place of my writing.

      I have not much to tell you in the way of news: But this I must say That I hope an inducement may be given you to come once more to London tho’ not for a pleasure in the vulgar sense of the word – but for the reception of a feeling intermingled of a sacred sorrow & the approbation of the highest artistic the gratification from perceiving that the highest artistic talent has been devoted to the human figure of the being most honourd & beloved by you –

     The Statue is complete in the clay And it is now about to be wrought in marble – you have perhaps heard that the Portrait of Coleridge by Alston is to be engraved – At least, Proposals are issued – My name was put on the Committee And a Meeting was held I could not attend – And I do not know what was resolved: nor have I heard what engraver was thought of –

     How do you like the engraving of Laurence’s Head of dear Mrs H. N. C:? I prefer the engraving to the picture.  It is less sepulchral There is deep feeling and character in the portrait But there is something ghastly in the colouring –

     I have had a friendly visit from J. K. Miller of Walkeringham. He & his wife breakfasted with me here. They are excellent people –

     Have you heard of the finale of the affair between the Bp: of Oxford as one of the authors of Wilberforce’s Life and myself? You recollect that he said in the preface to the Letters to W. W—that I was one of those persons whom everyone would desire to know as little of as possible.  This I duly acknowledged – And in consequence more was known of me, than otherwise there would have been to know. I was proud of the opinion expressed by your honourd husband of my share in that controversy – Judge my surprise when a few weeks since at this Athenaeum the Dean of St Pauls came to me – “Mr Crabb: R—The Bp of Oxford wishes to have the pleasure of being introduced to you.”  [“]His Lordship does me honour” – “Mr C: R: There is one subject on which you & I formerly differd in Opinion I wish you to know that all that is unpleasant in entirely forgotten on my part – And that I shall have great pleasure in offering you my hand if you will permit me” – other words of civility I could not now repeat.  There are two things I could not do of course – Preach to a bishop or refuse a proffered hand – I did not say or wish it to be thought that I had forgotten what had passed but I gave my hand And assured the Bp that I could have no motive to interfere in a concern not my own, but the belief that my friends life was in danger as Mrs C: assured me it was. And that I had no unfriendly feeling towards the name of W—&c &c  And so we bow when we meet.  This is at least an improvemt on the letter to Clarkson.

                    Adieu

The letters are called for by the Porter.

                                             H. C. R.

[1] Robinson’s essay, ‘Charles Lamb and Thomas Moore’, appeared in The Athenaeum on 25 June 1853, pp. 771-772.

Text: WLL, Robinson, Henry Crabb/27, Wordsworth Trust and Museum, Grasmere. Robinson writes in his diary on 25 June 1853: ‘Going to the Athen: I there wrote to Mrs Wordsw: And I also sent a stamped copy of the Athen: to Mrs W: And I told her of Bp Wilberforce’s overtures to me – Coleridge’s picture &c &c.’