Anna Beddoes and Thomas Beddoes to Davies Giddy, 23 October 1803
[from Anna Beddoes:]
Who’s a good boy I think!! Yes you are good for letting me hear from you so soon, and for taking the trouble of culling the grecian leaves for me, they will be ever green for me, and I would rather have them than be crowned with a laurel wreath –
You desire me to tell you how I am, very lazy, that’s all, which disorder I propose curing by sufficient doses of Porney’s Elements of Heraldry. – Having been for a long time not so healthy as I hoped and wished to be, I have lost what little power of attention I formerly could command, and it is extremely difficult for me to fix my mind steadily to any thing, yet I have at present so strong an inclination to extricate myself from this labyrinth of ignorance that I do not despair of success – have you not furnish’d me with the clue! Study one thing at a time you say, and give the whole attention to it till you are master of it – well I will try my best – You have contrived such a pretty way of settling accounts that I do not wonder people are so fond of putting their affairs into your hands – And, so you are at liberty how glad I am! for I could not help feeling as if I should never see you again – Thank you for your journal I should like to have been with you to have seen Captn Bullers large ship – you have certainly interested Miss Thompson very much she tells me in her last letter ‘I said something of myself, and had he staid much longer could have said every thing’ pray Sir how do you contrive to win peoples confidence in this extraordinary and rapid manner – an utter stranger too – by the bye Dr B has told me something of you that has surprised me more even than this, and what I can scarcely believe but as he desires me to ask you when I write whether it is as he says I shall rather make you explain it by word of mouth – so don’t ask me anything about it till I see you – I have looked into Herodotus and I find the style so agreeable that when I am more at leisure I will read him through – What you said to me about those dear little Lambtons often recurs to my mind, and I suppose it is, that I believe you in spite of my senses that makes me grieve so much about it – Dr B took more pains with those children, shewed them more kindness, and exerted himself in every respect more for them than I could have supposed it possible for him to have done for any two individuals – for my own part I loved them almost as much as I do little Anna, John Lambton the eldest, I have often, & often wished had been my son so that <you> see I felt extremely interested in their fate, if they do not shine superior, I shall regret it both on the Drs account and on their own – I shall never forget that ride to Godolphin – Porny is just come, and if you will describe any coat of arms not mentioned in that book I will blazen it, (is not that the right word?) and send it for your correction or inspection, but indeed you will think me too unreasonable; you say there is not time to be thrown away upon trifles such as writing letters, reading novels, &c pray how happens it then, that you have so much poetry at your finger’s ends, this expression originated I suppose from talking on the fingers which requires great readiness to accomplish – I daresay you wish in your heart you had not quite so much suavity of disposition to suffer yourself to be tormented in this manner – Now my delight will be to plague you to such a degree by asking foolish questions, and talking all the nonsense that comes into my head, that you shall be forced to assume some of that sternness of character which you so charitably assigned to little Anna and which is more becoming in a man than in a woman, though perhaps a little sternness is not so very unbecoming in a woman either – So very great is your reluctance to giving pain, that you soften and polish down your expressions of disapprobation too much, so it strikes me at least from having seen your conduct to a variety of persons some of whom I’m sure you could not approve – But I must not forget that you love every body, and everybody loves you – this is doing things on a grand scale – Be so good as to tell me the name of Chattertons Poem, which you repeated in the carriage to me – And so you think sonnets the most beautiful species of minor poetry! I should have had some veneration for your judgment, if you had not selected a very paltry one for your favourite – my favourite sonnet is one of Charlotte Smith’s beginning,
Far on the sands the slow retiring tide
In distant murmurs hardly seems to flow,
And o’er the world of waters blue and wide
The sighing summer wind forgets to blow –
don’t you wish to see the rest? You must take the trouble of looking for it then for I cannot remember it – your sister’s favourite is Queen of the silver bow – And now please to look in your collection of poem[s] that you have Miss Phillips to read, and you will find a prayer to Indifference written by Mrs Greville that you never read, and tell me if you do not think it very pretty – Now I have plagued you enough, no not quite enough yet – One day when we were walking to the smelting house, you were speaking of the utility of certain long establish’d forms and customs, in appearance trifling or absurd, amongst others, you produced as an example the etiquette of leaving cards – but all this I had seen before and perhaps you could not guess where – – Your head is in a clock-case I suppose by this time, which in Ireland signifies your being petrified with stupidity – a situation so new to you that I will leave you to the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of it – When you get out of your clock case give my love to your Father & Mary dear – hear – and the first time you go to hear the what you had for dinner thirty years ago pray remember me to the Patriarches – Give Tom one bit more for me adieu –
If you don’t answer this letter I will write one that shall make your hair stand on end, then what a queer figure you will be!
[Postscript by Thomas Beddoes:]
Chalk & diluted muriatic acid makes muriate of Lime. This observation is connected with nothing, but Edward Giddy will understand it.
Address: Davies Giddy Esq / Tredrea / Marazion / Cornwall
Endorsement: 1803 / Octr the 23rd // Sunday / Octr the 23 / 1803 DG // single
MS: Cornish Archives MS DG 89