Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, W.C., London, to Mary Wordsworth, [Rydal Mount], 20 April 1857.

30 Russell Square W. C.

20th April 1857 

My dear friend

    I ought to have written to you long ago in answer to your last kind letter in which thro’ Mr Carter you express your sense of my great loss in Peto. Indeed it has affected all my proceedings ever since Or rather it has caused a suspension of my now being becoming customary visits from friends, Which I never ventured on before And am afraid to begin again – I have no right to complain of their successors – I say their – for ^Mrs^ Peto could not possibly remain alone after her husbands death. The Blane’s may be for ought ^I know^ quite as good as the Peto’s – but they cannot be [the] same to me – However I believe I am well off as it is – They are not quite as young as I could wish – but they are young enough for me, if not for my house mates –

    I found the House keeper suffering from contusions she received by the Crush at Spurgeon’s temporary Chapel, the Music Gar Hall of the Surrey Gardens I asked the man how he liked Spurgeon – Oh Sir! it’s hard to say – He is very pathetic & solemn And then in the midst of it, he comes out with such odd expressions – that you can hardly help laughing – Sir James Stephen (whose Son wrote wrote [sic] that capital paper in the National Rev:) had said the same – And thinks he will do much good, in stirring up the inert consciences of his hearers –

     The Roman Cath: Church have always encouraged such preachers with their usual address – Did they nothing worse, one would gladly forgive them In the article referred to his merit is not deemed little as the Calvinistic school is tolerated by the Romanists or Anglican High Church or the Broad Church to which Sir James adheres – I am too old now to venture into Crowds – In the temper & spirit which induces a man to run risques rather than lose a high enjoyment in hearing or reading the sermons of our first rate pulpit orators – Tho’ I am very defective –

     But as already said I am comparatively indifferent into to all Speculative creeds only I would not press the Consciences of any self-styled Orthodox by what they consider as Heretical In every Community there must be those of the lax & strict observance – And they all admit of similar controversies – You would hardly think that there has been even among the Unitarians an attempt to bind the individual members by formal creeds – And I am but just returned from a journey to Manchester to protect the two chiefs of our Professors from the consequences of a religious panick – However the end was answerd And I enjoyed my trip –

     The world is in a maze just now of religious disputation – The Church finds that formal creeds effect little in the way of securing a uniformity of faith – And every where the most powerful preachers are those who excite the most apprehension – I shall rejoice if I find that Matthew Arnold succeeds in his election as Poetry Professor at Oxford If he fails, it will be that he has not been able to repress the envy & consequent ill will which splendid talents like his excite – When next not exhibited to the world with studied forbearance – Or it may be, after all, an affair of college interest – College parties run high in both Oxford & Cambridge –

     My friend Rolleston whose brother you know says that Oxford has a party of liberals, quite as marked as Cambridge –

     I had great pleasure from Miss Dowling’s call on me – She will in the decline of life enjoy the reward of her faithful & affectionate attendance on her brother in law – She gave me a good account of your spirits – As well as of Mrs Fletcher’s continued vivacity – But I hear that one of Mrs Davy’s daughter’s gave occasion to alarm – My own losses by death removals &c have been very numerous lately – And I am aware that I am myself rapidly declining not so much in activity as in the power of continuous correct thoughts I cannot possibly write without making many mistakes, which ^require^ corrections by obliteration or interlineation – My niece is come to town to be with her Sister who is submitted to a mesmeric process in which she herself has no faith – The worst state of things possible – I have been interrupted in writing And find I have lost the Post after all – I saw Mrs William [Wordsworth, Jr.] when she was here – She is a very amiable person after a were but her health of body equal to the health of her mind – She is a very amiable person

     Your eldest Son called on me with his wife – but I did not see her – So she is still a stranger – I should have probably seen her but for the sad incident which has disturbed all my plans And made me feel very dependant on the active kindness or friendly forbearance of my friends –

    I was sorry to hear of the alarm into which Mrs Davy has been thrown by the illness of her youngest daughter

     Remember me to my friends already named And to others not yet; I trust nothing will arise to oppose my determination to visit Rydal during the Summer – It might be something both serious and disagreeable

    I have on my hands what will be a trouble to me, but ought not to occupy much time – Settle my brother’s residence at Bury – his landlords death will oblige him to quit at Michas unless he can buy the house – Or rather I can buy it for him – For he has no power of acting for himself, poor man!

     Nevertheless he is not unhappy he is not aware of his infirmity his loss of memory renders him incompetent to every thing –

     But this I have said too frequently Mr Carter & Mrs Hutchinson are in their old places I hope To them and the others my best remembces

                  Ever affectionately your’s

                                     H. C. Robinson

Mrs Wordsworth

You know of course that the second of the Minters is dead  Only one remains – John a great friend to your nephew And I dare say an excellent man

Text: WLL, Robinson, Henry Crabb/39. Wordsworth Trust and Museum, Grasmere. Robinson writes in his diary on 20 April 1857: ‘I also wrote to dear Mrs Wordsworth, but cod not complete the letter – It is still to go – But is not worth sending.’ Reference above is to the temporary use by the Park Street Baptist congregation, led by the dynamic young preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92), of the Music Hall at Surrey Gardens, South London, prior to the construction of Spurgeon's massive Tabernacle at Elephant and Castle, the portico of which still stands, having survived a German bombing in World War II.