Anna Beddoes and Thomas Beddoes to Davies Giddy, c. 2–6 May 1802 [1]
Why do you always think in such a melancholy style? You talk of not murmuring yet this is worse, settled, never causing dissatisfaction is wickeder than a little hubbub now and then – and how dare you speak about yourself in the careless way you do, if I was really your sister you would not be so cruel, and do you think I care for you so very little, as to hear patiently your mode of moralizing – what a strange creature you are, in the same letter that calls me sister you speak of yourself as if I had not one grain of interest in your happiness, as if I were a perfect stranger. – Very unwell! are you not most tenderly beloved by every individual in your own family, are you so ungrateful as to hazard giving them xxxx the most greatest possible misery, you who can diffuse so much happiness by your society would you rob them of it forever. Did not Dr do you some good when you were so ill before [2] – it is a great way to come but not too far for health, do come again, you will find a faithful nurse and a good physician though I say it, who should not say it – come then and you shall go away as well as you wish to be – come and see my little Anna. [3] It would give me very great pleasure that is nothing to the purpose What I want is for you to be well, if you will not come so far, send your case to Dr for you shall not go on in this manner any longer I assure you it is my turn to reprove & give lectures could I succeed but one tenth part as well I should be most glad. And why is it not in your power to move from home? if you do not take care, it will not be in your power. Will not your mother & sister most willingly spare you for a little time, that they be sure of you for a long one – do not say it is impossible – or henceforth I shall have no faith in you – I begin to think you are very selfish – your mother you say is rather improved, your father [4] well, your dear sister would have been mentioned if otherwise then rouse yourself from this mental <or> moral lethargy, leave your study, & your bees [5] & come to our rocks and trees, this is by way of rhyme you sees – Two little Annas will soon let your sister have some news of themselves, and in return must have a much more detailed account of her proceedings than she usually indulges me with. I am glad to find you think the Drs Essays may be of use [6] – but I am half ready to quarrel with you for being so gloomy, if I can but once catch hold of you I’ll laugh you out of it – ‘The life or death of an individual stands only in the relation of an evanescent quantity to the universe’ [7] very fine indeed, and pray my dear moralist what is the universe to an individual – nothing nothing – the universe to him is his family & friends he to them is every thing – I have not patience with you – I have some good news for you, which you hardly deserve however in hopes of your amendment you shall be treated with it – Miss Thompson who has been you know in a melancholy pining way for some time (I did not I believe tell you the whole of her story) is now convinced that she is wasting her health time & happiness, by weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth so as how, she means to turn her back upon all this trumpery and set her but I won’t tell you no more that I wont for fear of being offensive, which is a disagreeable end – but if I find you good, you shall hear of something to your advantage by directing to A.B.
[The letter continues in the hand of Thomas Beddoes]
You must probably either have some pulmonary affection from the cold–weather or indigestion. In one case you know digitalis will answer – in the second red sulfate of iron [8] –
Shd my Essays ever see a 2nd edition I shall suppress much of the two first – but I do not see why it should be thought a hardship for one generation to take care of another – I do not consider anything like ‘Devotion’ to be necessary – I think it wd be only change of amusement. – And in truth there are parents enough who give time enough to their children only they do not go to work the best way for their <children’s> pleasure [9] –
[A note on the address page added in Anna Beddoes’s hand]
Emmeline is very good natured in writing as often as possible. Little Anna sends her young love to you – What do you mean about the picture, I do not think I understand –
Address: Davies Giddy Esq / Tredrea / Marazion / Cornwall // redirected to Calenick / Truro
Postmark: BRISTOL/ MA 802
Endorsement: 1802 / May the 6th –
Notes
[1] The postmark could read 6 May, in which case the letter was written on or shortly before that date. If the date given in Giddy’s endorsement – 6 May – is the date of receipt then it is likely that the letter was posted on 2 or 3 May (‘3 May’ is also a possible reading of postmark), and thus written on or shortly before 3 May.
[2] In 1800 Giddy had stayed in Clifton, being treated by Beddoes, in August and September.
[3] Anna’s first child, Anna Frances Emily Beddoes (1801–90), born on 24 December.
[4] The Revd Edward Giddy (1734–1814), the curate of St Erth, Cornwall.
[5] Giddy was an expert beekeeper and experimented with a glass beehive.
[6] See mid-late April 1802, note 5. Giddy had expressed some reservations about the first essays in Beddoes’ A Series of Essays on Health, on a Plan Entirely Popular (collected as Hygëia: or Essays Moral and Medical, on the Causes Affecting the Personal State of Our Middling and Affluent Classes, 3 vols (Bristol: printed by J. Mills for R. Phillips, London, 1802–3)). He had, however, stated that the latter essays were likely to do good.
[7] Giddy, a mathematician, is expressing ideas here in a form that owes much to the terminology of Isaac Newton’s mathematics. An evanescent quantity was a quantity that tended towards zero, or diminished to nothing and disappeared.
[8] Ferrous sulphate.
[9] Here Beddoes is replying to Giddy’s implied criticism, in Giddy’s letter of mid-late April, of his arguments about parenting and education in Essay on Personal Prudence and on Prejudices Respecting Health: to Heads of Families, Inhabitants of the British Isles, published 1 December 1801, and Essay on the Means of Avoiding Habitual Sickliness and Premature Mortality, published in January 1802. In both, Beddoes discussed the effects of upbringing on children’s health. See mid-late April 1802, note 5.