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PF2.1.10
Date
2-8-1839
Transcript
Hatfield
Feb. 8. 1839
My ever dear John
You will be glad to see my hand looking like itself, after the wretched scrawl that I wrote from my Bed in Aubrey’s letter-- So I will take advantage of the parcel I am about to send you ith “Potter’s Antiquities” to put in a recent line. I am quite well again, tho’ I have not yet ventured from my fireside, but I hope soon to do so. Aubrey is gone to Dublin for a fortnight to take out his degree of M.A. to do many things. It will be a most affecting meeting with old Friends. This going has touched my heart almost as much as if I had gone myself. He left with me his “Potter’s” to pack up for him & send by the next mail, as we were too late for the last. They are valuable Books & handsomely bound, & in looking at them I cannot help wishing that I could be as certain that you would take care of dear Aubrey’s affect’e gifts as I should be were such [seal] to Edward. I shall do my part, by covering them with Shamois[sic] Leather which will at once strengthen & protect the binding. I am adding to them as volume form myself-- Researches in Greece & the Levant” which in your present position, I should expect will interest you. To these I add a Manuscript which when I considered how long it may be, before you come home I could not refrain from sending. It is of too sacred a nature to allow me to dwell on the painful possibility of your not keeping it carefully--I have written it in a Book which will be safely & well under your writing paper in your desk, if your nice strong desk still retains its lock & key & hinges--if not I can only say I entreat that you will keep it where it will be secure. I have been induced to write these fragments for the sake of you & your dear Brothers. Our beloved Eliz’th was of no ordinary mould & as her deep humility never put herself or her acquaintances into prominence, & that no one could delineate her as I could, (highly as she was appreciated) I felt it to be an affecting duty to gather these few fragments of her for those she best loved. I determined if God should spare me for the work, to make four nice Copies, that each of you might have one-- & whenever they were all finished, to give to each dear Son his own, as I had opportunity, but since your letter about remaining in the Mediterranean I have felt the time of your return was likely to be distant as well as uncertain. I therefore have, at a good deal of fatigue to myself, written out the Copy which I send in this parcel. It will bring you intimately acquainted with what your precious Sister was & it will bring before you, home scenes, which a letter, however long, could never have said before you. I know the value of keeping up as much as possibly, in all its freshness, home. “When we lose sight of home, it has been remarked, we lose something else than that which Schoolboys weep for.” These convictions have [all] made me press upon you all, the constant intercourse with home by writing when it c’d not be personally. Your dear Sister gave great interest to any correspondence & would I assure, if she h[ad] [?] me, never having lost sight of [?] & would hav[e] [ma]de you feel the blessing & delig[ht] of having sa[?] Correspondence. It is one acc[ording to] the many ways in which you will throughout your live, experience her loss--your Mother still remains. It cannot be very long--it may be short--write regularly once a month-- & you can have no difficulty in well filling your sheet if you recalled that whatever you see or do-- & above all--think, is matter of deep interest to me. This is the way in which you can gratify your Mother & eminently [save] yourself. You are in very interesting quarters. All that you wrote lately of the different places you say interested me much. Your delineation of character too (which you are very capable of drawing) would be very acceptable. You never speak of any of those around you. Are there not some that you like most than others? Edward [worked] in the Ionian Isles at 19 [and] quite to make me acquainted with all around him. We have just had a most entertaining interesting letter from your dear Aunt from Bombay. Dear Isabella has most kindly offered to copy it for your amusement as it can be put into the parcel. She is indeed a blessing to your poor bereaved Mother. I do not think about the future--God, who has provided, will continue to care for me. Dear Aubrey is much liked here ^ going on very well indeed. We have not heard very lately from Edward. I expect that there were letters for us in the wrecked Packets in the late Hurricane. It was a tremendous one. In Dublin frightful-- houses [?] & walls torn down in the middle of the Town. I must end & shall be most anxious to hear that this Parcel has reached your hands in safety.
Yrs my dearest John with ever fond affection
E. Townsend
Aubrey sends you different articles extracted from Numbers of the Christian [As’n] which he thought much be interesting to you & so stitched them together, The last article /LaBorde’s Journey/ was your darling Sister’s reviewing. There were others done by her that he c’d not get at to add to the little collection.
Your letters have not been sealed lately with your [?] seal--Is that gone?
Recommended Citation
Townsend, E., "Letter from E. Townsend to John Townsend" (1839). 19th Century Correspondence. 6.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/correspondence_19thc/6