Miss Eden's Letters Part 5

_Miss Eden to the Dowager Lady Buckinghams.h.i.+re._

NEWBY HALL, _Sunday, February 14_ [1819].

MY DEAREST SISTER, I was very sorry to hear of the unfortunate state in which you have been, and in which Sarah [Lady Sarah Robinson] is, as I have a sufficient recollection of the Mumps to know what a very disagreeable disorder they are, or they is.

We have had a _spirt_ of company for the last three days, but they all very kindly walked off yesterday, and as it is wrong to dwell upon past evils, I spare you an account of most of them.

There were a Mr. and Mrs. Winyard amongst them, who were very pleasant.

He was in the army, and is now in the Church, and though they are the sort of people who have a child every year, and talk about their governess, and though she very naturally imagined, that because she was absent, the high wind would blow away the little t.i.ttupy parsonage, and the ten precious children, yet they really were very agreeable.

He sang so very beautifully though, that it made all his other good qualities quite superfluous, and I am convinced it would have touched your unmusical heart to hear him sing some of the Irish Melodies.

I have some thoughts of writing an Essay on Education for the good of my country, and I think the little Robinsons[84] will in most cases serve for example, and I must say that, tho' children, they are very nice things, and uncommonly well managed.

If at any time you will let me know how you are going on, the smallest intelligence will be thankfully received. Ever, my dear Sister, your very affect.

E. EDEN.

_Miss Eden to Lady Buckinghams.h.i.+re._

LONGLEAT [WARMINSTER, WILTS], _Monday, March 15, 1819._

MY DEAREST SISTER, This place affords so very little to say, that if this prove to be a long letter, of which at present I do not see much chance, I pity from my heart your feelings of weariness at the end of it. There is n.o.body here but the Campbells, but I imagine that the family of Thynne are much pleasanter out of a crowd. At least, we are not the least formal or dull, which from the account Mary and f.a.n.n.y used to give I thought would have been the case.

The magnificence of the house far surpa.s.ses anything I have ever seen, and with all that, it is one of the most comfortable abodes possible. It is inconvenient too in some respects, at least to me, who have an unfortunate knack of losing my way even in a house that may consist of only ten rooms, so that I cannot stir without f.a.n.n.y or some other guide.

There are several roads to our rooms. The servants make it, I think, about five and twenty minutes' walk, a little more than a mile and a quarter; but then that is a very intricate way.

Lady Bath[85] is very much out of spirits at times about Lord Weymouth,[86] who is going on very ill; but she is always very pleasant and very good-humoured....

Lady Elizabeth[87] and Lady Louisa[88] both make themselves very pleasant.

We leave this place Sat.u.r.day night, probably, which I am very sorry for, but George must be in town Monday, and therefore it is necessary to be there Sat.u.r.day. However, he is first going to see poor Lord Ilchester at Weymouth,[89] and is to rejoin me on the road, so our plans depend a little on Lord Ilchester's. London will be a little dark and dismal-looking this weather, but the FitzGeralds are coming up to be at the Meeting of Parliament, and I shall be rather glad to meet Pam.[90]

Your most affectionate

E. EDEN.

_Miss Pamela FitzGerald to Miss Eden._

[1819.]

So you are not dead at all, Emmy! I am very glad, for I can't spare you.

I have been what the people call in a great deal of trouble. Aunt[91]

frightened me, she chose to neglect her cough so long, that when at last on her complaining of pain in her side I bullied her, and sent for Dundas, he found she has a considerable degree of inflammation on her chest, and she was to be bled directly; the Apothecary out of the way, never came home till night. Aunt made a monstrous piece of work between fright and fever, and cried out, and the candles flared, and Baker stamped, and I who thought myself so courageous, I was turned upside down with the whole business.

Lucy[92] is staying at Mrs. Seymour's, luckily out of the mess; she went over for a ball Monday, and Mrs. Seymour has kept her on there.

I had a letter from Edward[93] a few days ago, written from the Slough of Despond; he has joined his regiment at Lichfield, and you may imagine the transition from Paris, poor darling. I would give the whole world to go and comfort him.

Emmy, don't you know what I mean? But when anything one loves is unhappy, it seems more particularly to belong to one.

He comes to us the 11th, for a few days, which I look to with some anxiety, after that taste, or rather distaste, we had of each other in London.

I am looking about for a conveyance to Town, because I want to buy a hat; at present I am all shaven and shorn, and shall be reduced to wear a paper cap, if I don't take care.

I am obliged to write with this pen, which is like a Chinese chop stick, because I am in Aunt's room, and she is asleep, and I dare not begin that quick rustle, which disturbs and wakes a Patient as much as the roar of a cannon, and which would be unavoidable in a hunt for quill or knife; as it is I have some trouble to keep the paper from crackling, and the few books _d'alentour_ from throwing themselves head-long off the table, which is the way of all books the moment one drops asleep.

I have had sad fits of low spirits. Spring makes one languid to a degree, that the air is a weight upon one.

The a.s.sizes were delightful. I don't think it right to carve out futurity for oneself, or else I really think I should like never to marry anybody who does not wear a Lawyer's Wig. It is proper, it adorneth the outward and visible man; those thin terrier faces, those hollow cheeks and deep eyes, are precious and lovely.

I was amused at the younglings, whose callow smooth faces look all the younger for the wig. Seriously, the interest of the most important cases to me was inexpressible. It is the reality which presses on one's heart, and makes an impression far deeper than the utmost stretch of imaginary sorrow can ever produce.

I have seen no creature, and have established my character Bearish in the neighbourhood, so they are content to let me alone....

Mr. Peel[94] could not help marrying that girl who is silly; those things fit, and are so far satisfactory they establish some sort of system in the goings on of the world, and give body to speculation. Wise men love fools.

I had done writing, and then as usual a whole heap of things came lumbering about my head. I had a high letter from poor Eliza Fitz.[95]

She has given up her dearest hopes on earth, and if she should be obliged to marry any one else, miserable, wretched, homeless, she trusts she will do her duty and be a good wife; that's the resume of four criss-cross sheets of paper. I wrote her a very reasonable letter to comfort her, for she is painfully ashamed of herself, poor girl, and there is no use in that, so I turned her over to the bright side. She has only fallen in that common error of whipping up her feelings with words, and they never can keep pace _even_, one will always be before the other.

_Miss Eden to Lady Buckinghams.h.i.+re._

_June 4_ [1819].

MY DEAREST SISTER, Mary went out last night to Mrs. Baring's[96] ball, which was not likely to do her much good, and is completely "frappee en haut" (Sir W. Wynn's translation of "knocked up") with headache and fatigue this morning. Dissipation is not likely to agree with her, certainly, but then, Sister, think of the pineapples and strawberries and ices and temporary rooms and magnificent hangings and beautiful flowers at Mrs. Baring's.

I wish I was a rich old banker; but then I would not have, or _own_, so many fellow-creatures as the Barings do. I keep my comforts a little more to myself.... We have had a most alarming visit from Rogers the Poet this morning, the very recollection of which would make my hair, black pins, combs and all, stand on end, if they had ever subsided since his first appearance. I never saw such a satirical, odious wretch, and I was calculating the whole time, from what he was saying of other people, what he could find ill-natured enough to say of us. I had never seen him before, and trust I never shall again. Your most affectionate

E. EDEN.

_Miss Eden to Lady Buckinghams.h.i.+re._

_June 10, 1819._

MY DEAREST SISTER, You will, I hope, have more pleasure or rather happiness than _I_ can yet teach myself to feel, in hearing that our dearest Mary is going to be married to Charles Drummond. It cannot be a surprise, of course, to any one, as he has certainly taken no pains to conceal his attachment; but the objections arising from want of fortune, we had not hoped could have been so well overcome as they are, quite to the satisfaction of his friends and hers also. It was almost settled at Lady Darnley's fancy ball on Monday, and concluded by letter (such a very pretty letter!) on Tuesday morning. Mary and I went down to Langley[97] for an hour for a little advice, as George was gone to his Committee; then we saw George; then Mr. D.; and, in short, everything went on smoothly, and as such things usually do go on. George has seen the old Drummonds, who were very good-humoured and quite agreeable. In short, I should believe we were all amazingly happy, only I _know_ I have seldom felt so wretched. She will be such a dreadful loss to me!

But I will only think of the advantages of the case; and George is so pleased, and it is altogether a very desirable thing for all of us, besides the real chief point of her happiness, which she ought to find, and of which she has so reasonable a prospect. The Post Bell is ringing.

Mary would have written herself, but _he_ is here, and this is their first real conversation. Sarah will excuse my not writing to her to-day, I hope, and I really have had great difficulty in making out this one letter, and we have told n.o.body else yet. Your most affectionate

E. E.

_Miss FitzGerald to Miss Eden._

THAMES DITTON, _Friday, August 13, 1819_.