Dear Mr. H.,—I have many a time
resolved and intended to write to you, since my last promise to do so again,
but I have doubted how I ought to direct till the other day I heard from the
Dowager Duchess of Rutland that you
were settled at Bakewell. I took the opportunity of saying how much you had
been pleased and benefited by the D. of
R.’s kindness, which I thought was what you would wish me
to do; and I had the great pleasure of hearing all the
good (no not all) that I think of
you repeated, and how much her grandson liked being with you, etc., etc., etc.
My husband has just asked me to whom I
am writing, and desires me to say that the Duke of R. has spoken very kindly and
highly of you to him, and hopes to make your acquaintance SISTERLY ANXIETIES. 39
Mr. Davies,1 perhaps you have heard, has come home. He was with B. at Geneva, and gives very good accounts of his health and spirits, though he confesses he found him gloomy. Mr. Hobhouse is still with him. He has not mixed much in society; report says from necessity, his friends from choice. You may have heard also that another Canto of ‘Childe Harold’ is about to appear. From the little I know of it I wish it may not contain allusions to his own domestic concerns, which had better have been omitted; and I fear he indulges
| 40 | MEMOIR OF REV. F. HODGSON. |
I will finish my letter in hopes of a frank, and have to add that this day’s post has brought me one from B. of the 15th Oct., telling me of his having passed the Simplon safely, and arrived at Milan. He appears delighted with the beauty of the scenery on his road, and was seeing all worth seeing at Milan. He writes cheerfully. Now adieu, dear Mr. H.
With best regards to Mrs. H.,
