Anna Beddoes to Davies Giddy, written on or shortly before 31 March 1801 [1]
And now my dear new found Brother, in answer to your hose rouge. I have only to advise you to apply to Emmeline for redress since she certainly can assure you that she alone gave you, and stripped you of your borrowed plumes, in short she destroyed them, and unless Mrs Wynch rescued them from the flames you can never see what sort of a figure you cut [2] – Emmeline however says she will do what she can for you, hoping that you did not think her very impertinent for making use of your initials but that if you consider it a crime of lese majésté[3] you must proceed accordingly–
You want to know the catastrophe of the Thompsonian novel, [4] and why! I do think you have formed a sneaking partiality for this extraordinary heroine, if so, I have the satisfaction of informing you that no rival is to be dreaded – the gentleman to whom she was upon the point of being married, all of a sudden found out that his father did not approve of the match & found means to convince the passionate lover that he had much better write this intelligence to his mistress, to whom he had sworn the day before, no power on earth should prevent him from making her [5] his wife – the lady though extremely shocked immediately released him from his engagements, and desired that all her letters might be returned – she no longer corresponds with him, though he has made many attempts to renew his addresses, and many of her letters he still has in his possession — You know perhaps that this young man was in the Guards, he has lived much with Lord Lansdown [6] who has been his friend and patron for many years, he has seen a great deal of the world, and though not more than one and twenty has the cold precaution of fifty, he is very slow, naturally stupid, but has an excellent opinion of his own abilities which by dint of hard pegging, living with Lord Ls society, and a certain imposing air he contrives to set off to the best advantage, his person, which he seemed as fond of as his mistresses is handsome, very dark, heavy countenance overshadowed with the thickest of eyebrows I ever saw, excepting Lord Lansdowns — he has none of that open expression, and unconstrained manner so natural in a young man, his movements, his expressions, his very lisp seemed studied, – yet this young man was amazingly admired by all belles at Bath and Miss T. was much envied, and thought a very happy woman, to have monopolised xxxxx so [7] adorable a being – Miss Thompson is at Bath where she leads a very unhappy life with her illtempered mother – she is doated upon by all her brothers & sisters who look up to her as a mother, for they are worse than orphans, being doomed as they have been to live with their most unnatural parents.[8] — I am well aware that both you & sister Mary[9] do not look upon Miss Thompsons conduct in so favourable a light as I do – you have both such grand and virtuous ideas of duty, but tell me ought we to show the same respect and affection to such parents as Mr and Mrs T – if your heart says yes, your understanding says no in a very decided manner I am sure – at least I hope so – surely you would not countenance the secret cruelty, & tyranny of parents – if so I hope you may continue your blessed state of bachellorship to the end of the chapter for fear of accident – some people seem to think their children ought to be everlastingly <obliged> to them for their mere existence but they might say with Gilpin ‘‘twas for your pleasure I came here’. [10]
Now as a Brother, and an excellent casuist [11] in these matters I wish you would take the trouble of telling me what you think Miss T’s plan of conduct ought to be in her present circumstances; nothing that I have told you will ever go beyond your threshold so I tell you every thing with perfect frankness — She will be of age in a few months she has long intended to quit the protection of her parents, and endeavour to gain her own subsistence in some manner or other by her talents when that period arrives — Is not this a very dangerous step for so young a woman, so handsome a woman and one who has unfortunately been so long the subject of public censure — So a fine piece of work I have made of it – a whole sheet have I taken, merely to answer your few lines which chekered your sisters letter – this is not all yet – you will not come off so easily – you must go through another sheet before you have done with me – remember to tell me whether you pay double for this – even that you deserve, for your intolerable behaviour, in doing your best to make a fool of me, peppering me with ‘witty, facetious, entertaining, polite’ as you did I firmly believe to put a stop to my impertinent correspondence – but now I have my revenge you shall wade through all this – and you shall smile at your tormentor – this pleases me it is true cruelty — You say in this letter that Miss T. excess or morbid sensibility must tend to make her almost inevitably unhappy’ – she certainly has much too large a share of sensibility, which her circumstances have greatly encreased, and the habit & bias she early contracted of loving to be alone, was as her mother very justly observes the source of all her misfortunes — I am strongly inclined to think that she will yet be happy like any other mortal, it is not impossible that she may marry a man to whom she had been much attached some years ago, but who deceived her in such a manner that she would have nothing more to say to him – he was a Clergyman a very handsome lively insinuating rake who had made many women believe he was desperately in love with, gained their affections, and then laughed at their credulity – When Miss Thompson came to England which was about three years ago, she took leave of this gentleman (an Irishman) firmly believing that she should one day or other be his wife — but a letter from an intimate female friend advised her to think no more of one who had already forgotten her, having absolutely paid his addresses to this lady, though his mistress had left him but for a very short time, poor Miss T. who was really in love (which she says she never has been since was made so extremely wretched by this intelligence that she could hardly be induced out to any amusement at Bath where her mother was frisking it away at a great rate, as she is at this moment I may venture to say —
I know not whether the mind in this state is more susceptible of tender impressions, but Miss T. imagined that she never could love a treacherous man again; yet in a few months her affections were transferred to the gentleman who so ill deserved them — I believe since she was sixteen she never was without a lover. – It is said; (with what truth I cannot pretend to determine), that this man is a son of L. Lansdowne his mother is dead, she was a very handsome woman, and supposed to be very intimate with his Lordship – this story is a late fabrication as far as I can learn — Have I tired you with this Cock and a Bull story? I hope so, for I promised to punish you – ! and I have exerted all my ingenuity for the purpose —
Dr B is not yet thoroughly well, but I hope he will take care of himself, and not let the ague come upon him as he did last autumn – he is now writing a new work – Consumption which is printing as fast as h[e] [12] supplies the copy [13] —
Now if I thought you would be very good, very discreet, and very brotherly, I would venture to consult you, upon a subject which is too nice to trust with you unless upon these terms — I don’t know how it is but from the first time I saw you you inspired me with the greatest confidence – so that I do really believe you are my brother and ‘till you disown me I shall subscribe myself your affectionate sister
A M B
I had like to have forgotten to tell you that the Clergyman repented – retired into some obscure place in England – & upon finding that his letters, were returned unopened was extremely miserable – his father or elder brother is dead & he is now a Baronet with a good fortune so no objection can be found to the match by her parents, for that is all they consider he returned to Ireland where he again saw Miss T. & renewed his protestations – though at that time last year he imagined there was no hope for him thinking her upon the point of marriage — farewell.
Address: Davies Giddy Esq / Tredrea / Marazion / Penzance / Cornwall
Postmark: Bristol / MAR 31 0
Endorsement: March 31 // 1801 / March the 31st
Notes
[1] Date from postmark.
[2] Anna is here referring back to her previous letter written on or shortly before 8 November 1800, in which she told Giddy that her sister Emmeline had sent Rhoda Wynch a poetical missive purporting to be from him.
[3] The insulting of a monarch or other ruler.
[4] Anna Maria Thompson (1779–1858) was an Irish friend of Anna’s (Anna herself having been brought up at Edgeworthstown in Ireland). She was the eldest child of Skeffington Thompson (1742–1810), a country landowner of Rathnally House, County Meath, and his wife Mary, née Carter (1755–1843). She had come to England in 1798 and had become acquainted with the Beddoes as one of two sisters who inhaled nitrous oxide at the Pneumatic Institution (in 1799). Her sister was severely affected by the inhalation and was subsequently taken in by Beddoes and nursed back to physical health.
[5] This word has been corrected.
[6] The implication is that this person was the natural, i.e. illegitimate, son of William Petty, 1st Marquis Lansdowne and 2nd Earl of Shelburne (1737–1805). Lord Lansdowne, whom Beddoes knew and who donated money to the Pneumatic Institution, lived at Bowood Hall, Wiltshire.
[7] This word has been altered from ‘this’.
[8] Anna Maria Thompson was befriended by the Beddoes when her domestic circumstances became too difficult for her. Suffering from a lung complaint and from melancholy, she went, probably at Beddoes’s suggestion, to live in the mild climate of Devon where Giddy was solicitous about her. Thompson had come to Britain in about 1798 and her father had been cruel to her, possibly as a result of her engaging in an unhappy and compromising love affair. It is possible that she was an unmarried mother and that a little girl, MaryAnne, whom Anna was looking after in 1801, was her daughter. Thomas Beddoes wrote her a series of avuncular letters that demonstrate the affectionate, humorous, domestic side of his nature that rarely appears in his writings.
[9] Giddy’s sister, Mary Philippa.
[10] An allusion to the popular comic ballad about a rider whose horse runs away with him – ‘The Diverting History of John Gilpin’ by William Cowper (1731–1800).
[11] A person who uses clever but unsound reasoning, especially in relation to moral questions.
[12 ] Part of the sheet is torn away, taking the ‘e’ with it.
[13] Thomas Beddoes, Observations on the Medical and Domestic Management of the Consumptive; on the Powers of Digitalis Purpurea; and on the Cure of Scrophula (London: printed for Longman and Rees, by Biggs and Cottle, Bristol, 1801).