Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, London, to the Rev. John Miller, [Bockleton], 12 January 1858.

30 Russell Squ:

12th Jan 1858

My dear Sir,

    I should not have allowed so long a time to elapse before I answerd your interesting letter relating the history of your weeks journey to the north, full of feeling and exhibiting your love of local beauty, if I had had any thing of a like kind to give a like pleasure –

     You had the neutral ground of a delightful country, the greater part of which was known to your correspondent – Who had an image raised in his mind by every proper name alone – sufficient to give the power of eloquence by to a word – And who had the knowledge & taste to make his selection and combination.

     Since the Autumn I have been in London but a change has come over me – Or rather is passing over me, which has been a source of trouble and anxiety by making me feel the approach of old age in the form of debility rather than acute disease – And is now obliging me to change many of the habits of my life I unwillingly take to the frequent use of the Omnibus – and the Cab, of which I feel half ashamed And resisted the practice as if it caused the necessity. In the mean while, desirous to forget one’s self and look around for the [“]old familiar faces” one meets with chasms where there should be images – And the once populous street is changed to a cemetary [sic] – in one’s memory while the actual cemetary does not gratify the heart as it should, in its plastic memorial –

     I have not seen the recumbent figure in Crossthwaite Church, and probably never shall And when memorial windows become Church-wardens artifices to secure the payment of a debt that ought not to be incurred, I shun the inspection. You are aware probably that the placing of the Wordsworth Monument has given great disgust to a large proportion of the most zealous promoters of the subscription One fact I cannot withold – tho’ it has only been brought to my recollection by an involuntary association of ideas with the word monument – The Queen gave £50 on condition that the monumt to W. W. should be placed in the Abbey – Nevertheless the Dean & Chapter exacted the full fee, as if the party represented had been a calico printer or India nabob – The precise sum I cannot now remember but it was several hundred pounds – While the fee was remitted to those who place[d] Campbells monument I suppose in recognition of his higher merit!!!  This is not all – but I have said more than enough.  I should like to know your opinion of the new edition Your friend Mr Johnson has had the advantage of connecting his own name honourably with that of the poet as Editor. It is from him I have derived my idea of your personal good humour, aided by your playful & pleasant verses and unmalignant sarcasm – speaking of verses reminds me that your criticism on the Sonnet on Night is an evidence of your sagacity in all respects – Well might there be .....

     Fortunately, waiting till the ink was dry has given me leisure to recollection that I was going to repeat the information already given I have not said already what is but in part agreed to read – that I saw lately Will: Wordsworth, going to see his consumptive beautiful wife; He seems to have caught her <–> malady – Do not repeat this – On the other hand Will: the third – Grandson of the Conqueror of the Laureate. Canon is I trust destined to a life if not of glory yet of happiness he is at Oxford & I believe will go into the Church His father you are aware has married a third wife – Irish by birth and buxom in form – His only daughter has married a clergyman Since your letter, the war has taken a turn less disastrous than one feared & might well expect – And the Church was thought to have been given over to Lord Shaftesbury as the proposer of the bishops – but it is now whispered that the patronage is supposed to have slipped out of his hands –

     But these are ungenial topics

     In haste for the post wait

     I beg my best regards to Miss Miller

                    Very truly your’s

                                    H. C. Robinson

Revd John Miller.

Text: WLL/2000.24.2.9, Wordsworth Trust and Museum, Grasmere. Robinson writes in his diary on 12 January 1858: ‘I also wrote to John Miller, the clergyman but I suspect I write ill And partook of the restraint I saw in his letter ...’