Anna Beddoes to Davies Giddy, 6 October 1803
Clifton
Octr 6th 1803
I have just written to your Father, I sent a letter to your sister this morning, and what shall I find to say to you, – in the first place, let me return you your money, which I have done in the manner you desired, with many thanks – What should I have done without your assistance, I was almost too proud to ask it, yet I am not one of those who consider lending money as the greatest of all possible favours, so I, who have received much greater kindness from you need not have been so shy about this – You have told me your thoughts and sentiments upon so many subjects, and upon some things in a manner so differently to what I have been accustomed, that you have made me reflect a great deal, (for such a volatile little creature I mean). [1] This is not all, you have excited in me a great ambition to improve myself, and I am determined I will no longer remain in that scandalous ignorance, in which I have been so long tremblingly alive – but hope by exciting my stagnant faculties, to overcome the obstacles that obstruct my passage – then instead of a sleepy pool, my mind will be like the animated foaming flood at Ivy-Bridge [2] – a strange simily to be sure, but that place has left so delightful an impression, that it occurs to me perpetually – I am almost ashamed at my want of taste in prefering this simple scene to the grandeur and variety of Plymouth but so it is – I slept at X [3] the day I left you, we did not get in till ten o’clock at night, and I was a little frightened too for the Bridgewater fair [4] was just over, and the road was covered with stragglers – One man with a large oak stick most obstinately kept his seat behind the carriage where he remained in spite of the Post boy’s manual and verbal remonstrances for a long time, at length after a pretty smart thrashing he found it expedient to slink away – Little Anna was very good, and still continues her favourite exclamation of Mary dear – I mean to go out walking with the two children every day after breakfast as I already find a change for the better in the young Doctor [5] from being carried in the air – If the weather is as good with you as it [is] [6] here, you will be able to reach home prosperous[ly] [7] enough. – Pray tell me whether you saw any thing more of Maria Thompson, or her sisters [8] – I stopped while the carriage was mending at Taunton long enough to write a letter, [9] and Anna put your sister’s to Miss Willoughby into the post office. [10] – What day did you leave Exeter or did you enquire again at the office for lette[rs]. [11] Dr B I find wrote me one enclosed to you with another for your sister, but I dare say she thought it too late to send it on. [12]
I hope all your troublesome business was happily concluded – I should like to hear something more about Sr C.H. [13] whether it has not been his fate to be laughed at. Oh! I must tell you one thing for your comfort, which I heard yesterday from a medical man from Leeds, that he had remarked persons liable to consumption, had generally escaped the Influenza, you were supposed liable to consumption, you had the Influenza, therefore you are not consumptive [14] – this is a clear case I asked Dr B whether he really thought you in danger when you left Clifton so very ill, he said he did not think you were in a consumption, but that if great care had not been taken you would have been in one
farewell dear Brother, yours affect.
Anna Maria B
Ah! then you you have seen Maria Thompson again, you have walked with her – I have this moment receiv’d a letter from her where she speaks with great pleasure of three or four hours pass’d in her company, I wonder if you were tired walking up hills then – [15]
Address: Davies Giddy Esq / Tredrea / Marazion / Cornwall
Postmark: Bristol / OCT
Endorsement: 1803 / Oct the 10th
Notes
[1] This point marks the end of the main text on the first page and Anna continues her paragraph in the normal way at the head of the second page. However, at this point, under these words on the first page, Anna has turned the page 180 degrees and written ‘I am still 2 pounds in your debt which you shall have in a post or two –’
[2] A village about twenty miles from Plymouth. Anna wrote the poem ‘Ivybridge’ about their visit to the river there (see ‘Poems by Anna Beddoes’ section).
[3] Referring to the town of Cross, which is about twelve miles from Plymouth.
[4] A traditional fair originating in the thirteenth century.
[5] That is, in her son, the baby Thomas Lovell Beddoes.
[6] The page is torn away here.
[7] The final letters have either been torn away or were written off the page.
[8] The Thompsons were now in Devon, at Seaton, where Giddy visited them.
[9] The poem sent from Taunton on 3 October.
[10] That is, little Anna, doubtless under Anna’s supervision, put Mary Philippa Giddy’s letter to Miss Willoughby into the mail at Taunton Post Office.
[11] Anna has written off the page here.
[12] Anna has written the following note at the bottom right of the page, at the end of this paragraph, ‘read it burn it. Dr says it is not worth sendin[g]’. But in fact Beddoes’s letter thanking the Giddys for hosting Anna and suggesting they lend her some money for her journey, sent on 2 October to Giddy’s home in Cornwall, had been forwarded to him in Plymouth.
[13] Christopher Hawkins (see 8 Nov. 1800, note 1).
[14] There was a large flu epidemic in England in 1803.
[15] This postscript is written crosswise, in the space at the head of the first page. Giddy’s diary entry for Friday 7 October records this meeting: ‘and walked with her over the cliffs we became great friends I returned to Exeter’ (Cornish Archives DG 16).