[
early
5 July, 1819]
Monday Eveng
My Father is going to Reading tomorrow to take Mama to hear the Bishop of Salisbury preach & hopes to get the
Tom Cribfor our own dear
Miss Webb In this hope I sit down to thank you all my dear & kind friends for notes past & present--I being just now in debt all round--to thank you all & to beg you to look on this as an answer general. The first thing is pleasing to hear that one dear
Friend is not worse--I hope this journey to
London will make him much better--relieve his mind & and heal his body--The next thing in this
"mingled yarn"
A quotation from All's Well that Ends Well: "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together" (Act 4, scene 3).is regret for the lost broach--I still think you will find it. Did I never tell you how
Lucy & I found a broach of my
Grandmother's with
Papa's hair which I had lost for eight months? We found it--guess where--in my empty purse--where for that eight months aforesaid it had been sole inhabitant.--The next thing is to ask if you have
heard of
Mr. Dickinson's bad accident? He was thrown from his horse on
Friday & his left shoulder dislocated.
Mr. Jackson as the nearest surgeon was sent for to reduce the dislocation--He & 6 men tugged at him for three hours without success--they then sent for
Mr. Markley who very speedily & skilfully accomplished it. Thank God
Mrs. Dickinson was away!
Papa saw him on
Sunday & is in perfect admiration of his patience & philosophy
As in Stoicism.--There is nothing I admire so much as that sort of passive courage--the courage of endurance--the only courage that belongs exclusively to the human animal. That of fighting they share with braver brutes.--
I had a charming letter from Miss James yesterday--She is just now consoling her Mother for the loss of
Susy
who is gone to reside with a family at the Lakes--gone I mean as a Governess--They send a thousand loves to you all--She wants to see me she says very much--but only think of her impudence!--She does not want me to meet Mr. Maurice because she says "there is is Mitford repeats a word here over the page break.a freebooting spirit about him which I should draw out & cherish to the extinction of graver things." Theres a pretty opinion for you! A fine specimen of partiality truly! I do really believe that she thinks of me as Edie Ochiltree said of himself--that "I should be a very bad example in any well regulated family"
--but so it is--I am misused past endurance. Mrs. Rowden forsooth saith that "my wickedness is of a peculiarly dangerous character--it is so catching"--And this Mary Webb is the worst sauce box of all. Oh dear me! What will become of me--with all these wicked wits upon me--and I such a poor harm
less civil-spoken person with no soul to take my part!--I assure you Mary dear that I was not home a moment too soon--Mama's first salutation was that she had always given me up--the ride was very pleasant but so cold that we were forced to have a fire to thaw ourselves--quite unheard of on the 5
th of July.--Mama is better--so much better that she talks of going into the Vale next week when Papa goes to the Sessions. I hope you mean to come & see me--Let me know on Saturday when I may look out for my dearest visitors, as well as as how your dear Father continues.--Poor Penelope Valpy is very ill still--the medical men are very much alarmed--Adieu my very dear friends--kindest love to all from all--
Ever most faithfully
your's
yours
M.R. Mitford.
To
Miss Webb