BIB_ID
403721
Accession number
MA 1581.280
Creator
Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850.
Display Date
Rydal, England, 1834 January 15.
Credit line
Purchased from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1959.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 22.9 x 18.5 cm
Notes
This letter was formerly identified as MA 2012.1 and was acquired with 3 autograph manuscripts of poems from Sir Benjamin Ifor Evans in 1959, five years after the purchase of the major Coleorton collection from Sir Benjamin Ifor Evans of letters to Sir George and Lady Beaumont. The four items were integrated into this collection (MA 1581) in 2018.
This letter is from a large collection of letters written to Sir George Howland Beaumont (1753-1827) and Lady Margaret Willes Beaumont (1758-1829) of Coleorton Hall and to other members of the Beaumont family. See collection-level record for more information (MA 1581.1-297).
In the hand of Mary Wordsworth.
Date of writing from published letter cited below which suggests that this undated letter was enclosed in the letter from Dorothy Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont written from January 13th to January 16th (MA 1581.279).
Place of writing derived from contents of the letter.
The signature has been cut out of the manuscript.
This letter is from a large collection of letters written to Sir George Howland Beaumont (1753-1827) and Lady Margaret Willes Beaumont (1758-1829) of Coleorton Hall and to other members of the Beaumont family. See collection-level record for more information (MA 1581.1-297).
In the hand of Mary Wordsworth.
Date of writing from published letter cited below which suggests that this undated letter was enclosed in the letter from Dorothy Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont written from January 13th to January 16th (MA 1581.279).
Place of writing derived from contents of the letter.
The signature has been cut out of the manuscript.
Summary
Saying Mrs. Wordsworth is writing for him to express his regret that neither she nor Sir George have the health to be at Coleorton in the winter and hoping that Leamington will be better for them; referring to his sister's confinement "...in her now comparatively narrow sphere of early hopes and interests;" commenting on her father saying "Our thoughts in this house turn very much upon the impending fate of the Ch: and also, as is natural, they are directed often to y'r Father, whose high office had never more anxious duties attached to it since the overthrow of the Ch: in Charles Ist's time;" asking if she had been "...told that my Son is building a parsonage house upon a small Living, to which he was lately presented by the Earl of Lonsdale. The situation is beautiful, commanding the windings of the Derwent both above and below the site of the House; the mountain Skiddaw terminating the view one way, at a distance of 6 miles - and the ruins of Cockermouth Castle appearing nearly in the centre of the same view. In consequence of some discouraging thoughts - expressed by my Son when he had entered upon this undertaking, I addressed to him the following Sonnet, which you may perhaps read with some interest at the present crisis;" sending his regards and those of Mrs. Wordsworth to her and to Sir George; transcribing fourteen lines beginning "Pastor & Patriot at whose building rise" and ending "This humble Tribute as ill-timed, or vain.
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