Letter from Sir George Beaumont, Keswick & Mulgrave Castle, to Mary Anne Beaumont, 1826 October 9 : autograph manuscript signed.

Describing his travels in detail, discussing, at length, the conversion to Quakerism by Amelia Opie and his observations on the health of Lord Mulgrave; saying "My mental diet has been so much confined to Clouds, & Mountains, washed down with Waterfalls, that if you should find me a little visionary I hope you will excuse it. Our weather has been more favorable than we had any reason to expect, in such a moist climate, after such a summer - Many days splendidly fine, & the others only sufficiently charged with storms to set off the mountains to the best advantage, with intervals of brilliant sunshine to give a poetical zest to the whole, & a Poet at each elbow & one behind me, with eyes in fine frenzy rolling to give these airy wonders form & shape & to turn all things as occasion required into Odes Sonnets, & elegies...We have passed a delightful week at this magnificent & interesting place (Lowther) every day has furnished us with fresh scenes to admire;" discussing Mrs. Opie's joining the Society of Friends; saying "Our Dramatis Personae has been highly interesting, But the richest character has left us (Mrs. Opie) who has for reasons best known to herself turned Quaker - to see a sensible woman of her years take so extraordinary a turn I own surprised me & the matchless intrepidity of face with which thees & thous you requires no common stock of resolution. Southey however tell us the society into which she has been cast, has prevented her hitherto from forming any rational principles of religion, & being now arrived at an age when people must begin to think if they ever mean to think at all, she has taken her creed ready made from the Society of Friends. She is much to be praised for her unremitting attention to her father during a long & painful illness the latter part of which was a state of hopeless imbecility, & she never left him day or night - Her future objects are all objects of benevolence, & she left us with the intention of travelling from one Quaker meeting to another to consult on the best means of doing all the good in her power - Such motives make ample amends for the whimsicality of her process, & I ought to condemn myself for having spent of any part of it with levity;" continuing the letter from "Mulgrave - Monday" and reporting on the ill health of his friend Lord Mulgrave; saying he "...found my poor old friend in nearly the same state as when I last saw him in London, it is really a lesson to see with what resignation he supports his helpless condition;" commenting on the devotion of his wife and daughters "...it is delightful to see the effect this produces on his countenance & the mind which does not profit by such a scene must be callous indeed;" telling her that after a stop at Castle Howard he will return to Cole Orton and to Lady Beaumont; adding "...altho I know she can always employ herself usefully I do not think I shall be prevailed upon to take such another journey without her You may well complain of this tedious Homily but in the midst of your fatigue I know you will attribute it to my anxiety to show you & dear George how much I think of you & with what regard...;" asking in a postscript that she remember him to her father, Bishop Howley, and her mother.