Henry Crabb Robinson, Bury St Edmunds, to Mary Wordsworth, [Rydal Mount], 17 September 1855.

Bury St Edmunds

17th Sept 1855

My dear friend –

     You will recollect that when I wrote to you last I was on the point of making a little excursion to France – It proved as to Time longer than I intended, extending to four weeks. And as to space from One end of France to the Other – from Boulogne to Bayonne with a look at the fortress of St Sebastian in Spain which Wellington took and Stansfield painted – But as in France I did not go off the rail – The mere drive by steam was an easy thing – The One remark forced from me during my week’s stay at Paris was the utter palsy or suspended animation of the public mind – The French ought to know what is best for them – And they seem to think that a free press and a free church a free parliament and indeed all free things are mere vanities when opposed to the will of a successful usurper – And certainty of the wise use of power unlawfully gained could justify the usurpation L: N: is a lawful Sovereign and so will be “until the times shall alter” To sing the great body of the French clergy who hold their livings on the same tenure as the Vicar of Bray held his – which is a standard for endowd livings – On my return to Russ: Square on Friday the 7th instant I was met by a pressing request from my niece to come at once here where I in fact supply the place of the four attendants on Henry – neither Aunt & Cousins – They are going to the South coast but whether of Devonsh: or Cornwall is yet unsettled – And as my poor brother cannot be left alone – I shall remain here at least for the present – Until a gentlewoman of whose connections we have some knowledge can take her place at his table – His temper is happily gentle And he does not need the excitement of amusement or talk so that he is not in the absence of pain a suffering person – And where there is much more that is painful than pleasurable to recollect, even the loss of memorable [sic] is but to a slight degree an evil – his state is rather humiliating than distressing –

     I have under these circumstances nothing to tell you that can be interesting when I have mentioned our old & common friend Mrs Clarkson

    I have just compleated a letter to her, which will be sent off in doubt whether she will be able to read it herself – or even hear it read by her niece & daughter in law Mrs Dickinson – A sad declaration on my part – this; But it is what those who enter on their eighth Decennium must expect & look for  There is our common friend Sam: Rogers – A man who has been the generous supporter of so many – And the friend of an unusually large number – He is in his ninth decennium – We shall not affect grief when he leaves altogether the earth which he has so long unconsciously dwelt on filled a place on –

     On coming home I read a note of 4 deaths And of only two marriages – That of Mrs Kennedy you had prepared me for – may it surpass your fears in its actual bearings on the happiness of the parties themselves –

     As I was but a passer-through London I can have nothing to tell you of our few common friends – I saw no one in whom to take a common interest – The general feeling on public matters seems sound throughout the country – Yesterday I heard a Sermon indirectly a justification of the War – Its text might have been from the Lines

                                 “Yea! Carnage is thy daughter”

Sound – preeminently so in its place –

     But it is ^And the text was^ One of the Biblical Axioms over which I would, if it were allowable lay a veil – The preacher took his words from the Ode – the book of Nahum – [“]The Lord has his way in the Whirlwind And in the storm” he spoke of Nineveh And we thought of Sebastapol I sympathised with the preacher – tho’ I was startled by hearing a personal friend three times named in his Sermon And “Mr Layard” spoken of as if he were a Biblical Character!!!

     My kindest regards to those of your family & friends – with whom you have intercourse Mr Carter is among these of course – I shall rejoice to hear good of all or any of them – & of yourself above all others

                     Ever most affectionately yours

                                 H. C. Robinson

Mrs Wordsworth

Text: WLL, Robinson, Henry Crabb/34, Wordsworth Trust and Museum, Grasmere. Robinson writes in his diary on 17 September 1855: ‘I sent off two letters – One to Mrs Wordsworth, explaing my Situation here which I did also to Mrs Clarkson inclosed to Mrs Dickinson – These are the ordinary incidents –’