“Here then I am, nothing the worse for having been
wheeled over fifteen hundred miles in the course of fifteen weeks. I no longer
feel the effect of motion in my head, nor of jolting in my tail. I have
| 168 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 50. |
“I was charged by Edith particularly to describe to her how Mrs. Coleridge looked when the fatal horn
should first be exhibited to her astonished eyes. The task which my daughter
imposed upon me, my powers of language are not sufficient to discharge. The
horn, I must tell you, was made useful as a case for Westall’s lithographic print of Warwick
Castle. The Doctor packed it carefully up with my umbrella in brown paper, so
that no person could possibly discover what the mysterious package contained;
and great curiosity was excited when it was first observed at home.
Mrs. C. stood by (I sent for her) while the unpacking
was deliberately performed. The string was untied, not cut; I unbound it round
after round; and then methodically took off the paper. The first emotion was an
expression of contemptuous disappointment at sight of the um-
| Ætat. 50. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 169 |
“Grosvenor, it was an expression of dolorous dismay which Richter or Wilkie could hardly represent unless they had witnessed it,—it was at once so piteous and so comical. Up went the brows, down went the chin, and yet the face appeared to widen as much as it was elongated, by an indefinable drawing of the lips which seemed to flatten all the features. I know not whether sorrow or resentment predominated in the eyes; sorrow as in the Dutch manner, she pitied herself; or anger when she thought of me, and of your brother from whom I received the precious gift; and whose benevolence I loudly lauded. She wished him at Mo-ko (where that is, I know not), and me she wished to a worse place, if any worse there be. In the midst of her emotion I called upon Sarah to observe her well, saying that I was strictly charged by my daughter to make a faithful and full report. The comical wrath which this excited added in no slight decree to the rich effect. Here I blew a blast, which, though not worthy of King Ramiro, was, nevertheless, a good blast. Out she ran: and yet finally, which I hold to be the greatest triumph of my art, I reconciled her to the horn; yes, reconciled her to it, by reminding her that rats might be driven away by it, according as it is written in the story of Jeffry.*
“God bless you, Grosvenor! I should probably
* See Life of Wesley, vol. i. p. 445. |
| 170 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 50. |
