Henry Crabb Robinson, Bury St Edmunds, to Mary Wordsworth, Rydal Mount, 4 September 1857.

Bury St Edmunds

4th Septr 1857.

My dear friend

    I ought to have written to you before – not to assure you of my safe arrival – for that custom arising from distrust and apprehension has become obsolete – but to tell you that I feel as I have ever done your late hospitality and kindness And that I rejoiced to find you in so charming a state of repose under privations which to a mind less disciplined than yours, would render your latter years those of repining and discontent In you there has not been – there never will be any thing of the kind. You have a mind and a heart open to receive all the good that presents itself and you can in the mean while, supply the want of deficiencies that still remain –

     I left you in the expectation of a great pleasure which was immediately to succeed my departure And I have no doubt that your expectations have been fully realised – But I can only imagine what I cannot require any of your friends now with you to communicate in detail

     Your’s is a uniform life – I will not say a monotonous one, for that is an expression & depreciation which no one will apply to a life of which the greater portion is internal whatever want of variety there may be in circumstances which must be external, this is more than supplied by the inexhaustible fund for reflection which you enjoy – Those who have not so large a portion of this internal food will, as I do, strive to make up for this, by continuing, beyond the ordinary period, their journies – This I have now been doing – And it may <–> amuse you for a quarter of an hour to hear of my late occupations

     On Tuesday the 18th I was left by the Train for several hours at Kendal – This was not of necessity, but I preferred waiting here for the Express which would be in advance of the slower train – Here was formerly a family with which I was well acquainted And some of whom you probably slightly knew – The Thompsons, now reduced to a single daughter bed-ridden & probably not ever to rise from it a niece was in attendance on her – A sensible young woman – daughter of Dr Thompson formerly of Halifax. A physician of considerable repute Mrs Broome is the wife of a rising barrister Miss T. sent a kind message to me which I believe came from the heart – I did not chuse to steam in the dark – So I slept at the R: R. Station inn at Crew – The exterior smart – The interior desolate But I had a fund within for thought, serious, not melancholy –

     I reached Russell Square on the Wednesday in time for an early tea dinner – unexpected but not unprepared for – I could not but be struck by the comparatively few letters that might met me – I had scarcely a friend left in London so that I did not find the five days I staid there insufficient for the few matters of business I had to dispatch – Of business the chief was to have my Ankle surveyed & prescribed for by an eminent Surgeon – The result has been that I have had not fewer than five potent remedies applied to the cure of an insignificant malady, the consequence of varicose veins – And ^But they have proved^ entirely inoperative

     On Monday the 24th I went by Rail to attend a meeting of Antiquaries who as members of the Archeological Association assembled under the Presidency of Lord Albermarle Here I spent five days – including excursions to the more famous antiquities in the neighbourhood – I forgot to name Norwich – a City which was the place where I was most favorably known when I practised at the bar. But I had scarcely an acquaintance left Since I had left my practice there 29 years! Ten years ago indeed I accompanied a rival body of Antiquaries And on that occasion I enjoyed the friendly notice of Bishop Stanley and Mrs Stanley whose acquaintce I made Anno 1828 in the mountains of the Pyrenees when he was a Cheshire Parish priest This acquaintce was improved by the friendship that was formed between the Stanleys & the Arnolds as you may hear better from Fox How than from me I noticed the unfriendly feelg towards the bishop then who had too little of the prelate to please a large class of the clergy – but which dislike the bishop by the sweetness of his nature lived down – He is spoken of with great kindness – While the late ^Hon’d^ bishop does not enjoy the like favour – he was compelled by ill health to resign an office he ought not to have assumed I knew also bishop Bathurst – a character – Who almost caricatured liberality  he lived to a great age nearly 100 Some forty years ago at the rising of a balloon ^in a public garden^ he for half an hour walked supported by me & a well known Catholic of the City And I suspect he wished the fact to be noticed – If this were a fault – It is not infectious –

     On the 29th I came to Bury And fell in with Tom Clarkson Tom the third who has more of the father than of the Grandfather in him – He is however settled in the Hall where we saw our dear departed friend on your last visit

     Here I expect to remain for about a month longer My brother is as comfortable – being entirely from bodily pain – as I could expect – And enjoying a good digestion and appetite – My niece too is improving in her health – She is unremitted in her attentions to her Sister who indeed lost her own health in like attentions to her & her Child – I have not seen Dr Boott the friend of the Fletchers & Davys – This you may inform Mrs T – The Dr was in the Country, nor did I fall in with any of your friends there – Shod you be writing to your Son William – he shod be told not to use his time in calling in Russ: Square.  I suppose your grandson W: and Mr Carter are with you, One of whom will probably be your reader

     My best remembces to them To Mrs Hutchinson & her daurs the Arnolds Fletchers &c &c From some one I hope to hear of your contind good health – Ever Affectionately yours

                                                H. C. Robinson

Mrs Wordsworth. Rydal Mount

Text: WLL, Robinson, Henry Crabb/40, Wordsworth Trust and Museum, Grasmere. Robinson writes in his diary on 4 September 1857: ‘I have ... written three letters One to Mrs W: informg her of my goings on since I left Rydal – Another to Paynter on the events of the day – And to Blane desirg letters to be sent.’