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Description
PF2.1.10
Date
5-12-1827
Transcript
Albemarle [Bow]
May 12, 1827.
My dearest John
Having the opportunity of sending to Town I will write a letter to each of my Boys instead of jointly as usual. You have both receive by this since that which I sent the beginning of this week & you have seen what indeed you already know how anxious I am about you both & how much I expect from you. You my darling John are now peculiarly called upon to exert yourself in every way. The [Chilltains] occasioned a considerable loss of time, & even before that you were behind hand. You ought to work so hard as that when you come home at Midsummer I shall see the most decided improvement in all your ways. Aubrey speaks of you with the most anxious affection & has shewn the greatest desire to assist you wherever he could, but I fear from what he says you have since Easter been less willing to exert yourself than you were before. Now my dear Boy is this right? Is it consistent with duty or kind & grateful feeling when Mamma practices self-denial in order to give you the advantages of education that you shall (even if you are foolish enough not to see the misery that will ensue to yourself if you now mis-spend your time) waste her money on which there are so many claims & grieve her head which has been broken down by so many sorrows. Oh! My dear Johnny you did not think of this I am sure, but you will think of it & will pray thus to God--
“I beseech thee O Lord to keep me in the path of duty & to give me grace to fulfil good resolutions”
I hope too that you are become active & alert at play, that you do not mope about but are brisk as you used to be, good humoured to all your Companions & ready to play with them. Remember “Henry Milner” He was attentive & diligent at business & he was full of gambols & playfulness, when business was over, & above all remember his sweetness & good humour to all, even to those who were disposed to teaze & vex him & how happy he made little Geo. Beresford. There is nothing in this world that could make me so happy as to have my two dear Boys like Henry Milner! This is entirely within their own power. What an inducement do I hold out to my darling Children for watchfulness & diligence & exertion! To make her happy who has devoted herself to you ever since you were born in watchfulness, in exertion, in love. And who will you please by such conduct? The Lord your God in whose presence you continually stand & to whom you are indebted not only for life, but who so loved you that he gave his Son that you might not perish but have eternal life!
Clifton is come into high beauty! In less than six weeks I suppose, if it please God, my Boys will be enjoying it. The foliage of the Trees is splendid & I am collecting a little Garden of green house plants on the Gallery outside the drawing Room Window. Loves from all that are here & all are filled with expectations of the improvement they will see in Johnny, especially his own affectionate Mother
E. Townsend
Recommended Citation
Townsend, E., "Letter from E. Townsend to John Townsend" (1827). 19th Century Correspondence. 5.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/correspondence_19thc/5