More, Martha
Hannah More to William Wilberforce
Tho this is but a romantic place as my friend well observed /yet/ You wou’d laugh to see the bustle I am in. I was told we shou’d meet with great opposition if I did /not/ try to propitiate the , who is very rich and very brutal; so I ventured to the Den of this Monster, in a Country as savage as himself, near Bridgewater. He begged I wou’d not think of bringing any religion into the Country, it was the worst thing in the world for the poor, for it made them lazy and useless; in vain I represented to him that they wou’d be more industrious as they were better principled, and that for my own part, I had no selfish views in what I was doing; he gave me to understand that he knew the world too well to believe either the one or the other. Somewhat dismay’d to find that my success bore no proportion to my submissions, I was almost discouraged from more visits; but I found friends must be secured at all events, for if these rich savages set their faces against /us/, and inflamed the poor people I thought nothing but hostilities wou’d answer. So I made Eleven more of these /agreeable/ Visits, but I was by this time improved in the Arts of canvassing and had better success. wou’d have been shocked had She seen the petty Tyrants Whose insolence I stroaked and tamed, the ugly children I praised, the Pointers and Spaniels I caressed, the cider I commended, the wine I drank, and the brandy I might have drank; and after these irresistible flatteries I enquired of each if he cou’d recommend me to a house; /said/ that I had a little plan which I hoped wou’d secure their orchards from being robbed, their rabbits from being shot, and their game from being stolen /and might lower the Poor Rates./ If effect be the best proof of Eloquence then mine was a good Speech; for I met with the hearty concurrence of the whole people, and their promise to discourage or favour the poor in proportion as they were attentive or negligent in sending their Children. Patty, who is with me says she has good hope the hearts of some of these wealthy poor wretches may be touched; they are as ignorant as the beasts that perish, drunk every day before dinner and plunged in such vices as make me begin to think London a virtuous place. By their assistance I procured immediately a good house, which when a partition is taken down, and a Window added will receive a great number of children. This house and an excellent Garden of almost an Acre of ground, I have taken at once for Six Guineas and a half Pr. Year. I have ventured to take it for seven Years, there’s courage for You! It is to be put in order instantly; for the night cometh, and it is a comfort to think that, tho I may be dust and ashes in a few weeks yet by that time this business I hope will be in actual Motion. I have written to different Manufacturing Towns for a Mistress but can get nothing hitherto; as to the Mistress for the Sunday School, and the religious part I have employ’d , of whose judgment, (Demons out of the question) I have a good opinion. I hope wont be frightened but I am afraid she must be a Methodist.
Hannah More to William Wilberforce
But I must not indulge myself with thus running on, but proceed to remind You of your kind promise to set out with an Act of humility and bring your bride to visit my Cottage and my poor. The Plan I wou’d chalk out for you is to be here on Saturday either at dinner or tea, the former I shall like best, and then you may have your quiet evening walk. We can contrive to lodge an humble footman, tho not a fine Valet de Chambre and then he will be ready to dress you, and you shall have one of the Parlours for your Dressing Room. As to the , I will be handmaid myself to her, “I’ll weave her Garlands & I’ll pleat her hair On Sunday Morn You shall sally forth at half past eight Patty and I attending you in another Chaise – we go first to Shipham, then to Axbridge – then get to Cheddar, about Eleven Miles you know there to cut your cold Meat, a good seasonable penance for your I trow. The Church, School, and evening devotions will keep us there till about seven; then we call in on another little Society at Axbridge and get home after Nine. Cheddar is eight Miles from Wells; but it will not do for you to sleep at Wells on the Saturday and meet us at Cheddar on Sunday as you once thought; because in that case you can go but to one School, as they lie in a contrary direction. But if your time runs short so that you cannot indulge us by coming back hither on the Sunday Night you might in that case go from Cheddar to Wells to sleep if you find you can’t /do/ any thing /more for us./ It is very generous in me to suggest this as I hope you will not adopt it, as I shoud greatly wish to have you both here on the Sunday Night. Patty has one great trouble, half Cheddar is under inoculation and her troops for about three Sundays will be very thin. Be so good as give me a line au plutot with your plan as we shall probably perform our pilgrimage towards another point of the Compass next Sunday if we are disappointed of your Company.
Hannah More to William Wilberforce
Patty is a little acquainted with , and says she is a very worthy, respectable person, a perfect Gentlewoman, of good family and Education. She has also , a young Woman of considerable parts and literature. When I knew a little of her some years ago indeed, she was more of a Wit than a Methodist, but I really believe they are both excellent, deserving Women. Of their circumstances I cannot speak so accurately, private fortune they certainly have none. , as he was called allowed them £200 pr. An: during his Life, and we have heard that at his death he desired the Society to allow them £70 Pr. Ann: This I believe is all they have. We think they live with the who support themselves by Music, but were not comfortable Sons to . By to day’s post I shall write to a friend to inform myself more exactly as to their circumstances, certainly making no mention of you in the business. Wesley’s Society I believe is very poor, his restrictions in the Article of dress &c having always frightened away the rich and gay, where /as they/ cou’d now and then sneak into , who seemed to have judged more prudently in not acquiring any such outward and visible sign of conformity. –
Hannah More to William Wilberforce
I think it wou’d be a very pretty galanterie of you to bring and here next Saturday; Patty and I shall think you are quite a Modern Patron if you do not come and see that your poor Curates do their duty. Seriously I wish you wou’d, and we shall make you all work very hard on Sunday I can lodge you all – that is you three Gentlefolks – but ni Son ni daughter ni Man, ni Maid, but your shall have his Farm House. Pray let me know by return of post if this pretty proposal is acceptable & if has not his own horses, we are so grand as to be able to send a Carriage to Bristol to fetch him and Mrs. Grant, as we have got one for two or three Months during the very hot weather. –
Hannah More to William Wilberforce
I am gri[e]ved to find you so poorly, and the more as you were seized too soon (humanly speaking) after Bath Water. I pray God to give you strength to go thro your important labours, and to give you in abundance the comforts of his spirit. – Patty and but poorly.
Hannah More to Marianne Sykes Thornton, 28 November 1814
This is my first letter since my visitation. – not but that I could write, for my Sword Arm escaped the fire. But thro’ the extreme and undeserved kindness of my friends, I suppose there have been not much less than a hundred letters of inquiry to answer, and tho it sadly overloads P. who is not well and assisted by – yet I forbear writing to those to whom I wishd that I might conscientiously say I had written to none – this has given me a little time for my other business. I have generally managed in the same way with visitors, which I believe includes every creature /(visitible)/ within ten Miles, so that having so good an excuse I have rather gained time than lost.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 23 June [1819]
My Sister joins in all that is
affectionate – respectful and grateful to your Ladyship and dear
Miss Sparrow, with my dearest
Lady Yours most entirely
H More.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, November 30 1812
My Sister Martha who joins [in] [tear]dest respects, is laid up with a severe cold and hoarseness – So you see you took us at our best moment.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, December 29 1812
When I get a good day, which is not often that [tear] fair and alluring vision of Brampton Park dances before my eyes and P. and I actually ta[lk] [tear] of plans and measures. Should this favorite pray[er] be realized I think we should, with submission to /the will of/ a higher power manage to be with you the middle of May at farthest. Remember that I Visit you on an Apostolic principle seeking not yours but you*. So dont be anxious about company.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, March 18 1813
Being to day under the disqualifying dominion of Calomel*, I can only write a hasty line on the principal topics of your little /but/ kind letter. As far as two sickly human beings can venture to determine, P. and I hope to appear to you at Brampton Park by the middle of May; but the precarious state of adds to our uncertainty, tho she is much /better/
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, October 26 1813
Adieu my dear Lady Olivia – * desire to be presented to you with respect and kindness – P. and I often talk of Brampton,* when is never forgotten –
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, August 1814
If I can get rid of my cough P. and I are engaged to go to our dear about the 29th., being there we must also acquit ourselves of a long promise to stay a little with . there will be a little difference in these Visits!! I trust will not be likely to come just at that time as it is the only time I shall be from home. Indeed the Dean I believe will be of the Jew party at Bristol.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, January 16 1815
Patty joins me in every kind regard to dear , not forgetting our good .
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, February 17 1815
Patty who is poorly desires her affectionate respects. – My kindest regards to , never forgetting , of whom I rejoyce to hear such good report. May he go on unto perfection.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 16 March [1815]
I have just got a long letter from dear replete with sorrow, affection and the deepest piety. How stupid, in ’s prejudiced bigoted * to obstruct the very desirable plans of and to write a Memoir of the dear departed! I have written to to try to soften her brother Bartlett’s-Buildings heart.* Poor I hear looks sadly, has a pain in her chest and drinks Asses Milk. I tremble for her life. Her letters rather increase in sadness, but it is a sanctified sadness. – I forgot to say that Mr. H. and I agreed that nothing would so much contribute to give Mr. S. a habit of application as to give him a slight tincture of Fractions, and Algebra; not to make him a Mathematician but to tie down his attention – I know of no person likely to suit ’s friend as a Governess. You ask how I like W. Scott’s new Poem.* I have not seen it, but do not hear it thought equal to its predecessors. A friend has sent me Eustace’s Tour thro Italy.* It is classical & elegant in a high degree – but has too much Republicanism too little of the Manners of the people, and I think a disposition to overrate their Virtues – God be praised for the peace!* – but what Peace so long as the Witchcrafts of Bonaparte are so many. P. is in very poor health. We all join in kind remembrances to Yr. Ladyship and .
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 25 March [1815]
Patty, who is in very poor health does remember you with the warmest and most grateful affection and joins me in best wishes to Miss Sparrow and . – Dunn agreed with us in liking a certain dignitary better than his chere Moitié* –
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 27 April [1815]
I was meditating a letter to you my dearest just as your very kind one reached me; and ever since have been prevented by shoals of company succeding each other so quickly as to leave no interval for any thing I liked. Alas! Alas! I did hope our summer would not have begun so early. I take most kindly and so does Patty your very feeling enquiries. She has had a very bad winter, her state is weak and I have had great apprehensions on her subject. Her spirits are sometimes depressed which is inseparable from bile and fever. I am however thankful to say that the last few days she is considerably better, so that I hope, if it be the will of God, she may rally with the Summer. We shall all I trust be better when we are blessed with a west wind.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 27 April [1815]
P. sends her grateful regards.
Dearest Lady ever
Yours H More
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 23 August [1815]
But to return for one moment to your Bible Gala – How I should have delighted to have made an unworthy guest at this hallowed festival! What did say to your muster roll of Peers and Peeresses? What honour would he have done himself by joining it! A propos of Bible Meetings – Our excellent rode over Mendip one broiling Morning to invite P. and I to spend the week at Wells and attend a B. Meeting at Glastonbury of which he is President. I should have liked it much but we were to /expecting/ Wilberforce at home, who after all never came till it was over. I regretted it the less as the Assembly met in the Abbot’s Kitchen of that vast and venerable ruin; which was damp and dreary.* What a contrast between the good cheer once proposed on this now deserted spot and the holy purpose to which it was on this day dedicated! Tho my own health has rallied much from the dry Atmosphere of this pleasant Summer, I have declined all visits, but believe I must go next week to the two Bishops at Wells if P. is better. Her health I fear is declining, and she thinks /ill/ of herself. I pray God to avert this blow. In spite of all my endeavours to avoid it by giving no invitations, and returning no visits, we are sadly overdone with company but as every body is gone or going to France* I suppose we shall live to pine in Solitude
Hannah More to Marianne Thornton, 9 October 1815
Your letter affords so little hope of the continuance of earthly existence that I think there is more true kindness in writing to you, as are without any expectation as to this world, than to labour to administer false comfort; to do this would not be doing justice to your strength of character and to the lessons of wisdom you have been so long imbibing. Who knows but your obvious submission to the Divine hand which has inflicted these heavy strokes may not help to confirm these principles of Christian piety /with/ which * mind seems penetrated. God grant that the convictions of this estimable Man may end in a sound conversion! What joy would this give, not only to the Angels in heaven but to the two happy Spirits who may soon be united to that blessed Society. I do love this Penington. I cannot say what a gratification it would be to me to be with you. It is for my own sake I wish it, that I might learn how to die. But my own infirm health, and still more that of Patty would make us a burthen instead of a comfort. With such comforts indeed you are far more richly provided. I cordially rejoyce that you are inclosed with such a circle of such friends, and that those amiable and excellent are about to be added. My affectionate love to the patient Sufferer. I am more disposed to ask comfort from her than to offer it to her.
Hannah More to Marianne Thornton, November 23rd 1816
do come, a long way commonly, we cannot send them off with the lye – not at home. As to health I am the best of a bad bunch. has good days, but P. I fear is very declining – constant fever yet she is always employ’d and I believe * never made so many Garments. Indeed the poor [final section of letter has been cut away]
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 27 March [1817]
I hope you will write to me sooner than I deserve. My best love to dear . The Bishop told me he was not without hope that You would spend the Passion week* at the Deanery My Sisters desire their most affectionate respects Patty is very proud of her Book,* both for the sake of the donor, and because it coincides so exactly with our own views of the Subject
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 04 August [1817]
Last Week we had our Annual Bible Meeting. It was a very good one, good collection, & good speaking We had 29 Clergymen of the Establishment. Poor Patty was not able to attend, but notwithstanding her bad health, we supported the good cause by inviting about 60 to dinner and 120 to tea. We had a good many Clifton friends. the ’s , (who looked woefully) and her brother who made a speech. I have had a very pious letter from poor Lord Edward* who feels his loss deeply, but submits to the hand which inflects [sic] it [tear] You will have felt for poor .* W[hat] [tear] good might she not have done with those super eminent talents! May she have found Mercy! and came to us last week H[e is] [tear] a fine noble minded creature, and I hope will be an instrument of much good.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 04 August [1817]
Your party I find is a good deal broken. Pray remember me most kindly to my two dear young friends. They have my prayers. P. joins me in best regards to .
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 27 August [1817]
Poor Patty is still in very bad health. I am much troubled about her. She joins me in every respectful and affectionate remembrance to your Ladyship, Mr. and Miss Sparrow and Mr. Obins. I do not trouble the latter with an answer because I write to You which is the same Pray tell him I think * a very trumpery fellow. He puts paragraphs from his worthless Sermon in the Bath Paper every week, and sometimes writes them in verse in the hope of discrediting the serious Clergy /, which he seems to have much at heart./ *
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 2 October [1817]
I think you would be pleased with Buchanan’s Life.* I have the satisfaction to hope that Patty is a little better. She is a decided Invalid, but I am thankful for any improvement. have been to us since their return, overflowing with accounts of His Holiness, and their friends the Cardinals &c. I hope they will now after two years wandering sit down quietly and become a blessing to their neighbours, to the rich by their example and to the poor by their bounty.* Not a day of so uncertain a thing as life is to be lost. May the Holy Spirit quicken us all in our respective duties, support us under our respective trials, and direct us to look for peace and rest where alone it is to be found. You my dearest lady have been deeply exercised; God gives to you the same tokens of his love in a /great/ degree which he gave to the Saints of old, exercises of patience, submission and holy acquiescence in his Will. Kindest love to your dear Companions
Hannah More to Sarah (Sally) Horne Hole, 15 February 1817
I trust you will pardon my long delay in answering your kind letter. It has arisen from a variety of causes; when I received it I was very ill of a bilious fever, my two were confined at the same time, and we had nobody living down stairs for near three weeks. I am much better, but still an invalid, chiefly from want of sleep. Patty has a complaint on her chest, and constant fever, and is forbidden to talk, and poor is in a deplorable condition. The dropsy is fallen on her legs which are much in the same condition that carried off my /last/ . All this is depressing to my Spirits I pray God to support them and me during the short remainder of our pilgrimage.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, [4 January 1818]
Tho I have written so much to , in answer to his kind letter, yet I cannot dispatch it without a few lines to yourself. Accept my heartfelt sympathy and cordial prayers; poor as they are they are at all times offered up for you and yours and especially at this hallowed and gracious Season; may all the blessings it was meant to convey be yours, and those of your dear party, even the blessings of redemption and the consolations of God’s Holy Spirit. Oh that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly to take a peep at you in your Conventual retreat, sleep in one of your Cells, and take a walk with you in the delicious Garden at which Mr. Obins’s description makes my Mouth water. Patty, who I thank God is not worse, joins me in the warmest wishes for your health, peace and comfort. May the Almighty be your guard your /guide,/ the strength of your heart and your portion for ever! How one feels the impotence of human friendship! to desire so much and to be able to do so little, to do nothing!
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, [23 March 1818]
My Sister unites cordially with me in every feeling of sympathy, and takes an equally deep interest in all your sorrows, and may I not venture to say, your joys? The feeling of a child redeemed is a joy the stranger intermeddlith not with Tho I address my letter to yourself I insist that you do not think of answering it. One of your dear Party will have the charity to give me a line
Hannah More to Sarah Horne Hole, December 26th 1818
I hope as the attachment of these two amiable young people seems formed on solid grounds, that they may prove a blessing to each other, and to the parish in which the Providence of Him who orders the bounds of our habitation and our whole /lot/ in life, shall place /them. / There is no character more exalted or more useful than that of an amiable Clergyman who faithfully preaches the doctrines of the New Testament, and who gives the best evidences that he himself believes /them/ by living as he preaches; and who makes his week day practice the powerful illustration of his Sunday exhortations. Nor has the Wife of such a Man a slight character to sustain; she will best prove her affection for her husband by seconding to the utmost of her power his endeavours to do good both to the souls and bodies of his people. To the poor she will be a pattern of kindness, to the affluent an example of prudence sobermindedness and piety. Her husband’s public lessons will produce a double effect on his domestic companion. Will dear Felicia forgive all this? I am tempted to it by the serious strain of your letter which pleased me the more as I thought I saw in it a visible growth in the state of y[our] [tear] own mind. I pray God to increase in you more and more his grace, without which all other advantages tempting as they may seem to the worldly and the superficial, have no solid worth. When you see dear assure her of my most affectionate respects. My Sister, who as usual is a great sufferer joins me in kind regards to Miss Horne and to your fair daughter. Mr. Welby I am sure stands in no need of such advice respecting books as I can give him Among the ancient Divines, I prefer Archbishop Leighton,* Hopkins,* Reynalds,* Taylor* among modern Sermons, ,Venns* Cooper’s* Daniel Wilson,* Gallaudet,* Bradley,* Gisborne* Porteus* I think Milner’s Church History* a most excellent /work/
Hannah More to Marianne Thornton, 28 January 1819
Two mornings successively I have set aside for answering your letter with one or two others, but from breakfast till now when the dinner is almost ready, I have had a number of visitors one after another till I lost my patience as well as my time. However tho I have lost a few minutes (for an inflammation in my eyes prevents my doing any thing by candle light) I snatch up my pen, as perhaps you may be waiting for an answer respecting , thus he spells his name.* I am however not well qualified to give an opinion as I do not know him at all. I believe him to be a very pious young /man/ of the Calvinistic School. But he is an Irishman with all the warmth and impetuosity of his country. I should be grieved to say any thing that might be injurious to a deserving Man but it /is/ my private opinion that he would not be well calculated for the temperate zone of Clapham. He has got himself into two or three little scrapes and tho I really am inclined to think he was not the aggressor yet the habit of getting into scrapes generally indicates the want of a cool temper. If Clapham was an obscure Village I should not have said a word of this, as few villages are perhaps better supplied but he does not stay long in a place I observe. I should /think him/ not fit for so enlightened – Patty would say critical congregation as Clapham. Pray present my best regards to * and tell him I begin to fear I must wait till we meet in a better world before I shall /enjoy/ that long indulged wish of making his acquaintance I entertain better hopes as to seeing you and your admirable friends if it please God to spare me till the Summer I beg my most affectionate respects to them and love to dear who is to be of the Barley Wood party.
Hannah More to Marianne Thornton, 28 January 1819
Had I written a few days ago I could have given you a favourable report of my Sister.* but she has had another of her alarming attacks in the lungs and is just now now faint and weak. I thank God, who is always better to me than I deserve, that I have been tolerably for some weeks. Your account of the increasing excesses of the Baringites is shocking.* I begin to think now that the worse they are the delirium they have excited will be the sooner cooled. What between the blaze of these new lights and the frost of the worldly clergy our poor church is sadly threatened. I would not send off this which I cannot ever look over but that to morrow there is no post, and may be in suspense. has been false-hearted, for I thought he would have looked in upon us again. I rejoyce is so popular. He cannot be more so than he deserves. if he woud talk more he would be perfect. I am glad his rare talents have such a field. I am afraid tho, that it is a weedy, tho far from being a barren field. I long to know whither the School for the Sons of the great at which sent me the prospectus prospers, if it does I shall hail the omen for poor Ireland. I grieve for dear illness. I do love her. I am glad you nursed her so kindly
Hannah More to Marianne Thornton, October 11th 1819
I spare myself entering on the details of her four dying days – They were exquisitely painful; but blessed be God, the trial was not long, and every interval of reason exhibited. the strength of her faith and the resignation of her Soul* – She cast herself entirely on the mercies of God, and the merits of a crucified Saviour. I believe never was an obscure individual more generally lamented – this is only gratifying as it bears such a testimony to her worth. The kindness of the good is very soothing, but real consolation must come from a higher source.
Hannah More to Marianne Thornton, October 11th 1819
I suppose you know all [tear] were here, and that she went to Cheddar with them the very day her mortal seizure attacked her! – alone, came and most kindly staid a day last week. –
Hannah More to Marianne Thornton, October 11th 1819
I hope to hear from you at your leisure especially till Mrs. I. is better. and kindly promise to come to relieve my Solitude soon – My complaint in my eyes must apologize for this scrawl – This complaint is doubtless sent as a fresh weaning and warning. The sight is not affected, thank God. – We can pray for each other, and prayer is one of the last Offices of friendship – Dear Patty had long been much in prayer, and thought (tho she never owned it to me) that her summons was at no great distance. May we all be united to her and your beloved parents in God’s own time
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 11 August [1819]
[Inserted upside down between the salutation and the first line of the letter proper] Kindest regards from both to – P. sends her [sic] to you both
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, [28? October 1819]
My health improves a little, but I still chiefly confine myself to my chamber for a pretence to avoid an influx of company. In my room I receive my particular friends. Yesterday and her excellent daughters came.* spoke with delight of her visit to Brampton – Dear made me a long visit. He was delightfully entertaining with his Imperial communications,* his sanguine, not hopes, but certainties, of the near approach of the last days. While he is talking in his heaven /ly/ anticipations, sanguine as he is, one cannot help adopting his views, and hoping as he hopes. He has preached twenty Sermons and Speeches within a week or two!! At Bristol my friends say he was almost superhuman.* He kindly pressed me to go and spend the Winter at Stanstead,* as has done to pass it at Blaise Castle – but for old age sickness and sorrow there is nothing like home – Every paper I open of my blessed Sister raises my ideas of her piety.* It is plain that she had expected her great change, for in her Pocketbook for this year,* she writes, 'this is the last account book I shall ever want'! she also says, – 'May every Year’s charities increase as becomes a Christian woman'! A few hours before her death when in exqui[site] [tear] pain, she said, on some one pitying her – [tear] I love my sufferings, they come from the [tear] and I love every thing that comes from him’. In her delirium she was always giving away cloaths or Shoes to poor Men and Women; tho this was in her wanderings, it showed the habit of her mind. I never knew a more devoted self denying creature.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, [March 1820]
A kind, agreeable, long and interesting letter from dear Miss Sparrow should be answered directly but that I am in deep arrears to your Ladyship. Nothing can be more obliging than her little details, than which nothing makes letters so pleasant. Public events are just now of so complicated & overwhelming a nature that even to touch upon /them/ would fill my paper and occupy your time to little purpose. I truly pity * How surely does God at one time or other visit our errors and bring our sins to remembrance! How he will get extricated the wisest seem not to know. I have just got a letter from a friend whose habits lay open much information to him. He tells me that a Gentleman of his acquaintance on whom the firmest reliance may be placed is lately come from the Continent. Passing through a small town in Italy he stopped at an Inn and desired to see a good bed. On being shown one, he said it was not large enough for him and his Wife –"Not large enough," said the Mistress of the Inn, "why and the Baron her Chamberlain Slept in it last week, and so they have done twenty times before and they never complained that it was too small." You don’t mean that they slept together said the gentleman? Yes replied the woman I do, as they have always done." One or two such testimonies woud be proof positive. But then in what a distracted state would it place this poor country.* – I fear we are emulating France in all its parricidal horrors! What a Providential escape of the Ministers I grieve to think what a flood of drunkenness, idleness and perjury this premature Parliamentary election will introduce, – A propos. I am desired to request your vote and interest for who is canvassing your county. I know nothing of him, but that I fear he is what I call, on the wrong side. They speak well of his talents*
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 25 [September 1816]
Patty sends you her most sincere respects. She is very poorly
To Lady Olivia Sparrow [incomplete]
and dined here not long since. I heartily hope that any little disagrémens may be got over. I hope to see them soon again, with a confirmation of the favourable appearance things then were which Mr. H. hoped would be permanent. May your prayers for this amiable young Man be heard!, and may he escape the pollutions of a World which will be throwing /out/ all it [sic] baits to allure him into the broad way. To I send my best love. P. (who desires all that is kind) and I mourn over poor ’s solitude How he must miss you!
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, September 1815
P. has been better for a few days.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, [20? October 1816]
(Inserted upside down at head of letter.) My Sisters desire best respects. I fear P. is in a declining State I have not heard of . We have ten thousand Roses
Hannah More to Henry Thornton, September 12th 1799
This Subject of Money leads me to say (which I did not intend) that I believe I must desire you not to give away the Interest of Money any more but to let me have it; do not however tell her this just now. I am now engaged for such very large expences, that, humanly speaking, I do not very well see how I shall get thro it, and my faith /which is not over strong/ is kept pretty much on the sketch. Assessed Taxes and some other things have reduced my Sisters’ Income £150 a Year and they spent all before; as I shall feel it right to help towards this deficiency I shall not be able to make /the new/ addition towards the Schools which I had hoped I will not however distrust that Providence which has so unexpectedly carried me on hitherto and I hope to use these little difficulties and uncertainties as an exercise of my trust in him, You will think so when I tell you that in spite of the continued opposition at Wedmore we are building a house there P. says she thinks we tire you with our Stories, I will however tell you one which I think will be much to taste. After going on Sunday to Wedmore (30 miles there and back) on the wettest day I was ever out in we found our poor 300 Children assembled in the half finished room without a floor a door or a window, we taught them with great peace and content, not one of the Farmers condescending to come nigh us, or offering the least accommodation tho the rain was so violent /but I borrowed a Cottage/ At length the season came out – The children had /been/ trying to sing for the first time one of Watt’s Hymns, this brought a Farmer who said now he was sure we were Methodys; on being asked what gave the Parish such a terror of Methodists he said this was his answer – ‘Some years ago a Methody preacher came and preached in our Orchard under my Mother’s best apple tree, immediately after the leaves withered and the tree died; we saw at once this was a judgment, and called a vestry to see what could be done to save our Orchards; We there agreed that we shoud not have an Apple left in the parish if we suffered a Methody to stay, so we ordered the people to get all the stones and rotten eggs they could muster, and beat the whole crew out of the Parish; they did so, and sure enough it saved our Orchards for we have not lost an Apple tree since’. I have told it verbatim – This is the enlightened 18 Century! One woud put up with a little ill treatment to instruct such a parish as this in spite of itself
Hannah More to Marianne Thornton, 1816
I have been long wishing to write to you but was prevented [deletion] by many weeks of disqualifying fever and its attendant sufferings. Thro the mercy of God I am much better, that is I am got back nearly to my usual state of moderate suffering. My Sister Patty is very poorly with that alarming determination of blood to the head which is so much the reigning complaint. May it please our infinitely gracious God by these awakening calls to remind us how short our time is, and to prepare us for a change which must soon take place!