Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, London, to [Mary Wordsworth], [Rydal Mount], 20 October 1856.

30 Russell Square

20 Oct. 1856

My dear friend

     I have been intending a considerable time to write to you – But I have been kept back by the uncertainty in which I have been as to my own prospects –

     Not a sufficient reason perhaps, but I did not like to write not knowing to what place I should wish you to address your answer –

     My poor brother still remains in a very doubtful state – his sufferings are great, but those of his daughter in law are still more severe I imagine – The sort of dead despair to which she has been reduced by the loss of her last, only child Henry renderd her incapable of action And perhaps it has been of use to her, the being forced to contemplate other objects of sorrow even terror – She left felt the necessity of being with my brother – at least the great propriety And so she made an effort And went down –

     She came up about Eight or Ten days ago to have an oil painting of Henry prepared from a photograph likeness – And during her absence my poor brother had an attack more severe & violent than he had ever had before And this it was thought would be the last as it was the severest of his sufferings – Sarah went down – Miss H: expressly desired that I should not go down during the conflict – I could do no good – And shod be in the way – My brother required restraint from the state of frenzy he was in – Sarah wrote to me on her arrival – The Doctors were in constant attendance And they declared they had seen nothing like it From this attack too he has recoverd – Even his memory has improved to a degree he knows those who are with him – It is the affections which make the man And dear Sarah has had some little enjoyment to set off against great pain – From the first I placed myself at her disposal And now she wishes me to go down which I believe I shall do on Wednesday or Thursday – My address at Bury St Edmunds is very simple I am known there by my Christian names – alone –

     You sympathise so kindly with every sort of sorrow that I make no apology for adding a new topic of sadness to those that environ you – As Miss Fenwick said last year – “No other topic could be felt by me”

     This is another melancholy topic – For her life – I have not heard of her death – is surely not matter for rejoicing –

     Of you on the contrary I hear nothing but what is delightful to every thoughtful and considerate person – You can say and I dare affirm, do say as Mrs Barbauld did nearly fifty years – I am not at all impatient but quite ready – These were her words to me when I took leave of her going to Paris – not thinking that it was a real leave taking – Mrs Plumptre and Mr Madge both speak of you in the same language of chearful admiration – I have no doubt that I shall have an opportunity of saying the same on my own observation I have not yet seen any of the Twinings – or the Cooksons but I hope to do so soon

     Vain as all earthly praise is; yet one has a right to rejoice when one sees that the high mental & moral supremacy of the author of the excursion is acknowledged every day more unequivocally – This is that happy praise that operates as an encouragement to & a premium on all virtuous & honourable striving after real glory

     On my return from my hasty trip to the Continent I saw at our club – A simple Volume – a new biography of W: W: by Edwin Paxton Hood – His admirn his veneration are both sincere & genuine It ought to have been entitled A Review of the Poetical Character of W. W. As to have had a title that ^might^ distinguish him from a biographer – Perhaps the Publisher insisted on the present title I have been running it over with my eye – The will is better than the faculty – And it is good enough to make the lovers of W. W. regret that it is not better – he cannot be of the family of Tom Hood – The comic punster but at the same time the author of the Bridge of Sighs And the Song of the Shirt! A man of indisputable genius shewn justly in these two admirable pieces –

     But of this Hood I never heard before –

     You are already aware that I did not despair of paying you a short visit – As I still hope to do – not this year but still – I have not given up the thot

     I wanted to take leave of German friends – my niece wished me to find companions – And in that I was successful During my trip I was very little alone And I was never where in case of an accident I shod not have been recognized And notice sent – Besides I was scarcely ever but with personal friends & acquaintance – The journey was rapid I was absent but 17 days – including a visit to my principal friends at Bonn – Frankfurt – Heidelberg –

     At Aix I fell in with Miss Patteson – Daughter of a retired judge And great niece of the poet Coleridge – She spoke with personal attachment of Mrs Henry Coleridge – I made in her a <–> valuable acquaintance – I saw the judge too: my friend Paynter was at Aix for his health I returned with him – And I was seldom alone Crossing the water homewards I had seventeen acquaintce on board the steam boat – But among them none of your friends./–

     I have also made short visits in the country so that tho’ you were not included – you were not forgotten – for wherever I went, you were enquired after – Never did I experience so many losses – Such numerous deductions from social comfort as during this year – The only near relation who survives with whom I have been in the habit of exchanging thoughts & sentiments is the brother I have spoken of – His daughter in law is nearer to me in affection than any of the actual family –

     Not long ago I was startled by the appearance of your Son William – who as you know has taken his sweet wife to Brighton Alas! This is a sweetness that one cannot relish – He bears his sense of her delicacy And proneness to disease in his own anxious face – I shall rejoice to hear that she derives substantial benefit from the change of air – This is a painful subject too – One is driven to such themes because one wants positive subjects in which one can delight

     I had a letter from Mrs Fletcher lately expressing a wish to introduce to me a gran Son of Mrs Kendal who is come to make his way in London  I thought he would have called on me before this time but I have not yet seen him – I was surprised by Mrs Fletcher written [sic] in so firm a hand and in [a] hand and firm a spirit – I shall rejoice to see her again, as she still is – She is the most remarkable person – that is, out of the common, in so many respects – I know now living of her generation

    I should add that at Aix I fell in with Mrs Dusautory (Sister of that charming person Mrs Derwent Coleridge –) She recognised me and we had an agreeable chat together – I saw her husband too apparently a pleasing person –

     Of public events – I dare not speak – You do not venture on so dreary & thorny a subject – A word only –

       The Republicans of the new states are running headlong into every kind of villainy – Such depravity mixed with such imprudent pretence to the love of liberty is unexampled – The less guilty set – those who do not hold slaves themselves are so base & servile that they covertly encourage what they pretend to oppose – And will I have no doubt suffer themselves to be shamefully beaten – They are but half as earnest – The worshippers of Mammon will always suffer themselves to be beaten by the worshippers of Moloch – There is a fierce grandeur in the sterner Devils – Beelzebub & Satan are respectable compared with Belial   This is the worst feature of modern life – Remembce due to your neighbours – Mrs Hutchison Mrs Arnold, Mrs Davy Miss Quillinan Mrs Rutledge – Mrs Harrison – I take no notice of males – except Mr Carr & Mr Carter who have no female to represent them –

                 Ever affectionately your’s

                                     [no signature]

Lady Richardson I hear has had her troubles – This I learn from the Bootts here – I shall try to see the Twinings soon

Text: WLL, Robinson, Henry Crabb/38, Wordsworth Trust and Museum, Grasmere. Robinson writes in his diary on 20 October 1856: ‘I kept within the district before dinner – And I wrote a rather long letter to Mrs Wordsworth –giving an accot of myself not flattering to myself – ’