BIB_ID
414102
Accession number
MA 1581.101
Creator
Price, Uvedale, Sir, 1747-1829, sender.
Display Date
Foxley, England, 1802? July 27.
Credit line
Purchased from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1954.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 23.3 x 18.7 cm
Notes
Price does not give a year of writing on the letter. Based on internal evidence, earlier catalog records have proposed 1802 as the year of writing.
Written from Foxley, Price's estate near Yazor, Herefordshire.
This item was formerly identified as MA 1581 (Price) 35.
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.
Written from Foxley, Price's estate near Yazor, Herefordshire.
This item was formerly identified as MA 1581 (Price) 35.
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.
Provenance
Purchased as a gift of the Fellows from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1954.
Summary
Expressing his sorrow on learning of the death of their neighbor Mr. Griffiths (or Griffith?) and his sympathy for his wife; describing his reaction to the news: "an hour or two after I had received your letter, & when the impression was strong on my mind, I happened to dip into that part of Ariosto where Isabella takes leave of her dying husband Zerbino [a reference to the epic poem Orlando Furioso]; while I was reading it my daughter was playing a most plaintive Welch air: the general resemblance of a wife taking leave of a dying husband, the plaintive character of the music, & perhaps also the recollection that Mrs Griffiths, as you had told me, played the Welch airs with great feeling had altogether such an effect on me that I really wept like a child"; telling her exactly which canto and stanza in Orlando Furioso he is referring to; saying "if you should happen to have [John] Hoole's translation of Ariosto you will find this part extremely well done & I know Sir George's indolence will find great comfort in reading it in his vernacular idiom; mentioning that he and his wife are thinking seriously of coming to visit them at Benarth next month, and they would bring with them their daughter and son, plus a schoolfriend of their son's who is with them for the holidays; adding that if this is too many people, Bob (their son) and his friend can stay in Conwy: "I will also mention to you that we do not mean to be what the Americans call Squatters, that is to sit ourselves down at Benarth for [a] week or ten days, but merely to visit you as birds of passage; for we intend to go on touring through the rest of Carnarvonshire & through Merionethshire to Aberystwyth; & even there we shall hardly have time to squat, but after looking at a few dashes of the tide against my rocks, & at my old friend Snowdon & his giant race, whom I see from my other window quite to Bardsey, shall return to this my true & well beloved squatting place."
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