Letter from Mary Wordsworth, Rydal Mount, to Lady Beaumont, 1825 December 9 : autograph manuscript signed.

Concerning the purchase a piece of property; saying "We all earnestly hope with you that the time for building will never arrive, but it is an amusement to talk of, and when spring comes the employment of planting upon his own land...will be a great amusement to Wm, and stand him in the stead of driving one or two of us in the carriage, which I am sure, under existing circumstances, it is prudent to give up, as your kindness allows us to do so. The field was an extravagant price, but, lying where it does, it cannot be a loss in the end. And we did hope that the possession of it might be the means of our being permitted to remain at Rydal Mount. I fear we herein have judged wrong;" discussing their disappointment with the Merton [Fellowship for John Wordsworth]; saying "Under any consideration it would be most satisfactory to us if John's thoughts should rest upon the Church; but this is a delicate subject, and unless his own mind - in conjunction with our own wishes, which are not unknown to him, led him thither, we should think it wrong to press him into the sacred profession merely to gain a worldly maintenance. The Army is out of the question - he knows that - and, strong as his bias towards the profession seems to be, at his age, and in times of peace, he would not give way to it. You are very good to be interested, and allow me to write to you, about him;" telling her "The Bishop of Chester cannot ordain J. Carter consistently with the rules he has prescribed to himself, not to ordain any who have not been from the first educated for the ministry...;" relating news of the weather and transcribing "...a corrected copy of the sonnet suggested by you" beginning with the line "Lady, what delicate graces may unite" and ending "As pensive evening deepens into night."