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Literary Life of the Rev. William Harness
William Harness to A. G. K. L'Estrange, 11 August 1867
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Preface
Contents
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Chapter XI.
Chapter XII.
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“Scottowe, Norwich,
“August 11, 1867.
“My dear L’Estrange,

“I don’t believe you ever received a long letter which I wrote to you from London and directed to Finisterre, for you ought to have had it some days before the date of your last, which is written from some place that I never heard of before, and am not quite sure that I read correctly.

“We have moved from London at last to Scottowe with the Archdales, arriving all together last Wednesday. We left rain behind us and arrived in rain; but the fine weather set in on our arrival, and the glass is now at ‘fair,’ the sky clear,
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the wind in the east (which in Norfolk is an especial favourite), and the sun as hot and scorching as any human being could possibly desire.

“I had rather a dread of taking so long a journey at one heat; so I started on the Tuesday, slept at Ely, and proceeded to Norwich by a mid-day train the next day, in time to meet and accompany my sister and the Archdales to this place. I was perfectly delighted with Ely. I did not go to the Cathedral on the Tuesday evening, for I only arrived at my hotel (the ‘Lamb,’ a most comfortable house), in time for a late dinner; but I was up early the next morning, and spent several hours in the magnificent building. The restorations are not quite finished, but all that has been done is wonderfully well done, and though the funds do not come in so rapidly and liberally as at first they did, they are still progressing with the work. Nothing can be better than the taste and skill with which Styleman L’Estrange painted the ceiling, and the piece which he died before completing, and left Gambier Parry to do, is so well done that no eye could distinguish where the one left off and the other began. The duty was very well performed; but I hated the intoning till the Dean took it up at the Lord’s Prayer in the
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Litany, and finished the service. I then saw, or rather heard, that intoning might be made very agreeable, and that there is as much difference between the intoning of one man and another as between one man’s reading and another’s. I intend, if well enough, to go to Ely in late Autumn for a couple of nights—Saturday and Sunday nights—and have a full treat of the service. If you are good, I’ll ask you to go with me.

“I have just been reading a novel called ‘Sprung up like a Flower.’ It’s all about a decayed family of L’Estranges, very clever and very heart-breaking.

“It is my intention to stay here till September 30, making, if well enough, a short episodical visit to Clumber; and after my return we must work. I have almost finished the letters of 1838. I shan’t write any more, for I know you’ll never get the letter. But whether you do or not,

“Believe me to be,
“Yours affectionately,
“W. Harness.”