Lady Anne Isabella Noel Byron, Brighton, to Henry Crabb Robinson, [30 Russell Square, London], 2 January [18]56.

[f. 107r]

                                                            Brighton

Jany 2 ‘56

       Few new-years gifts are so welcome to me as those of head & heart in a letter. I had been saying to Mr Ross that I liked the old custom so much, & regretted to have had but one written evidence of it, when your kind letter, dear Mr Robinson, added another. –

       Mr J. Tayler needs not to ^be^ told him that one consolation cannot fail – & really I know no other, amongst all the fine sayings 2 well-meant books on the subject “let him be a servant” – Those words comprize all that mourners want to enable them to bear life’s burthen [f. 107v] “Othello’s occupation” can never be “gone,” whilst there is one to be served – There is reality in such views, beyond what can be attached, I think, by any sound mind, to the hopes usually held out by Preachers – those visions may or may not be fulfilled.  I want this present – the assurance that I am one, by reciprocal ministries, with that Human world around me which I can trust to God’s future without enquiring – What – When – Where? I do not shrink from “that undiscovered Country” – The Soldier’s feeling, as pourtrayed in S. G. O’s Letter in the Times before me, should be more cultivated than it is, in regard to the moral ills of life – “Andentior” –

Text:  MS-DEP Lovelace-Byron 109, f. 107 (ALS), Bodleian Library, Oxford.