Henry Crabb Robinson, Athenaeum, London, to N. Warner Bromley, [Bansfield Hall], 18 August 1862.

London Athenaeum

18th August 1862

My dear Sir:     

       Had you remained a bachelor I should have indeed wonderd at your keeping so long away from what has been the object of a universal curiosity – But as a married man I took for granted that you were detained by your unwillingness to leave the side of your wife And that she was withheld from coming by those incidents of marriage that so much interfere with the pursuits of the married couple for the few years immediately preceding succeeding the Union: You assign a cause special and pleasant; the wish to behold the wonders of this great exhibition in the company of the parent from whom you received your first introduction into the great Museum of Nature and Art – The pleasure will be enhanced to both of you by the conversation – Mrs W: Bromley too will derive her greatest pleasure from receiving her informn if not directly ^from^ at least with you – On this topic there are some striking remarks in Paradise Lost consequent on the appearance of the Angel or Messenger on his first visit to the first parents –

       I hope I shall be in town when you come, for I shall like to accompany you on one of your attendances at the Exhibition – I have yet seen but little as I very soon become fatigued –

       And its size and the crowds that attend are an impediment to the comfortable enjoyment of the sight – Still it is a sight not to be neglected for it is what probably will never be equalled by any future display of the kind – If I may draw from my own experience any general inference – And unless this can be done it is not easy to see whence instruction is to arise, I should see that youth not age is the time when the eye should be cast on the things around us and external to us. Introspection is by far the least pleasant And by the aid of memory in some measure supplies the place of vision –– I have occasionally at the Theatre had quite as much pleasure in noticing the impression on children of the shew as in the shew itself – This applies more properly to the Shews – Wild-beasts & Punch of Bury fair which in my childhood were richer and more various than in your’s – And your child will be less favourd than yourself I have been led into these general reflections beyond my intention – You will reasonably expect some information concerning my immediate prospects – and plans – That when you come London will be left very much to its country visitors and the foreign exhibition – And there will be no harm in that. The Courts and the Parliament can well be spared while the Sights of the Season are so rare as well as numerous –

       To speak of myself I am conscious of being on the very verge if not of existence, at least of the possession of all the faculties of perception And therefore I have been desirous of taking advantage of the Season and at the same time a farewell of the Continent and the few remaining friends in it

       My friends here persist in declaring that I am looking so well – And they call me a wonder because my age is known and they say that so much life at such an age has not been seen before – If this is thought to give me pleasure – There is a mistake in this – Because the more rare it may be, the less likely it must be that it should last – I feel very differently however I may look – That giddiness of which you are aware has already had consequences which look like narrow escapes – And the remonstrance of my friends here have induced me to take a Man Servant – Valet, is his proper denomination – who attends on me alone in the house He is I believe a respectable man And certainly as to appearance does me credit But while he is a safeguard he is a restraint I now walk but little – In the day time <–> never beyond the immediate neighbourhood alone – At night not even into Gower Street unsupported by Jackson – He is always either with me or on the box according to the weather when I take a cab. So that I shall be I trust free from the annoyance of imposters who have preyed on my weakness lately to a great degree – When I dine at the Athenaeum he regularly comes for me at 10 – And he as regularly waits for me wherever I go – He has been with me but a few weeks, if I can train him to learn my ways & follow them because they are mine – This will render him indeed impayable – This is the first time I ever had a servant of my own – Whom I must enter as such as assessed tax And affix the broad B: before my name which many especially of the fair sex will look upon as a Brand I owe this change to the circumstance of this being a Servant Cousin of the Servant of the House whom I pay for his board, but whom I could not otherwise have kept in the house – You are among the very few friends to whom I thought it right to make this statement as you kindly interest yourself in me & my arrangements – Of this you have recently given so kind a proof in preparing for me that account which is not so much for business or use as to gratify a curiosity – That you continue to think occasionally of my affairs is a further proof of your kindness – My niece – that is Mrs Robinson has lately had with her – Mrs H: her widowed Sister And in addition to what we may consider the adopted Nieces, the other three daughters of her Sister – But these visitors are now gone – She has been rather over visited – but that is passed And there is scarcely anyone she will see of her country friends with so great pleasure as your mother – She lives too far off for me to see her often – And the Nieces frequently supply her place, but she is on the whole I think more tolerant of variety and bears society better than she did – You have heard of Tom – Thornton so called generally – The only lay-Son – He is the one who will play probably the most conspicuous part in life – He has been distinguished by the Governor of India – And is come over, had the D.C.L: degree conferred on him at Oxford but is in common life T A.T. Esqr – He goes back in a few weeks And it is supposed will take a domestic companion alias a Wife – with him  I have seen him but once We are however on friendly terms. He is more companionable then any other of the Males of the Family – And now let me release you from further fatigue with the Comps to Madame

       Your obliged friend

                         H.C. Robinson

N. Warner Bromley Esqr

Text: MS 2/1993, Fitzwilliam Museum, Manuscripts and Special Collections, Cambridge.