Coleridge, Sara (1802-1852). - Letter, from 1 Downshire Place, Downshire Hill, Hampstead, to Elizabeth Wardell (nee Crumpe), at Bank, Chester, dated 30 October 1833. WLMS A / Coleridge, Sara / 32.

1 Downshire Place Downshire Hill Hampstead

October 30th 1833

My dearest Elizabeth

It has given me sincere delight to learn your recovery which indeed I fully anticipated from the last accounts from yourself & others, & I do hope your next letter will tell me that the tiresome cough no longer reminds you of what you have suffered. How rejoiced all your family must be to see you a different creature! - but your good husband's happiness must have been restored indeed with your restoration & warmly do I congratulate him upon it. The health & promising qualities of your children must fill up the measure of your family satisfactions & I trust they will be as permanent as can be expected in this mutable world. I wish I could give you as much gratification by my report as I have received from yours! O that my dear husband could enjoy the same comfort & delight that Mr: Wardell is doing! - but he & my dear mother have still to watch me in the chances & changes of a most distressful state: - I am now writing on my back, so that you will excuse a shorter letter than I should otherwise write. Long & often have I been wishing to inquire how you were going on, & to satisfy the anxiety I knew you were feeling about me; but an over-powering languor made me shrink from adding to the fatigues of the day. Soon after I wrote to you I spent 3 weeks with my family in Bedford Square: occupying my sister's house while she was in the country: there I had the advice of Sir H. Halford, whose manners are as polished as his station in his profession is high - he was soothing & hopeful but could do no more for me than the various other medical men whom I have consulted: medicines in my disorder are generally unavailing & physicians can only give regulations as to diet & general management; they cannot cure the complaint but may prevent your needlessly aggravating it. My case is one of hysteria, & I fear will prove very obstinate; I have no disease, & I think my stomach is only occasionally deranged; it is completely & solely an affection of the nervous system, & where that is out of order a thousand miserable symptoms appear according to the constitution & habits of the sufferer. Sir Henry confirmed what indeed I knew well that my spine is not diseased; the spinal nerves have been affected in sympathy with the general derangement of the system, & thence all the weakness proceeds. I lie constantly on the sofa, & have difficulty in sitting up to meals: but I can still walk up & down stairs though tremulously. Was dear Louisa's case at all like mine? I think you said it was. Do give me some particulars when you write, & also of that of

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your friend Miss Green, whose long sofa captivity I often think of. My spirits, the affection of which is the main grievance, vary continually - always weak & low, & at times dreadfully overpowered, but in general they are now in a more natural state than at the beginning of this sad breaking down - I can take more interest in all the [[?]] goings on around me; & I have not those dreadful sleepless [[-?-]] nights which I endured for many months, though my rest is very precarious. I continued trying change of air & scene in the summer, but though oftener effectual than any other remedy, in my case, as in some others, it has proved unavailing. I had an interval in the summer when I seemed to be rallying, but got weaker again when I became in the family way & have continued growing more helpless ever since. Every one has predicted much benefit to my health from the event, but I am now more than half through my career & have received none, & I fear that after my confinement I may be still more prostrate. The infant too furnishes matter of anxiety; I dread it's partaking of my weakness, and as I shall be unable to nurse it the poor thing will have an additional drawback. But I must repress such forebodings as much as possible & ever be reminding myself that God is good & wise, & will bring all about for the best, here or hereafter, if we ourselves do not carve out our own misery by contrarying his will & forfeiting that our share in his blessed Son's Redemption. I must thankfully acknowledge that He has tempered the wind to me in my affliction, preserving the health of my husband & children & the activity of my good mother. The accounts too of my brothers, & D's wife & child have been such latterly as to cause no great anxiety.

I wish that my boy & girl could meet your little maid & her brother. Do tell me about their attainments & precise ages when you write next - The elder I suppose can now amuse herself a little with her book. We shall be glad when Herbert can do so, as his buoyant spirits, though cheering to our hearts to witness, render him at present an overpowering companion. His sister though a smaller & less forward child is perfectly healthy; she cannot quite walk alone, & has only said a few words; she was 16 months old yesterday, & Herby completed his third year on the 7th of this month. Both children inherit their papa's ruddy cheeks, but neither of them his dark eyes. Herby is very animated & I fear has too decided a will of his own, but I trust it may prove that he has no defect of temper which improving sense & moral energy will not suffice to correct & control. Such is my prayer, & certainly my hope, for his little petulances are not attended with obstinacy or any morbid degree of passion. My brother Derwent's present condition is on the whole a source of comfort & gratitude to us. His toils are great & almost continual but they are now[felicitated] by a fair share of health & strength, & animated by success. The clergy & gentry present at his last School Examination expressed even more than usual approbation & offered a subscription for the purpose of

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increasing the extent & convenience of his school domains. His girlish wife, now restored to her original health & beauty, manages the bustling establishment with all the prudence & energy of an older matron - his boy just 5 years old, is lovely & hopeful, so that all seems to smile in D's household at present. His warm friend Miss Trevenan writes us full accounts which fill up the mere out line which D. & Mary have alone time to give us. The latter has been occupied lately in providing for company, dinner parties &c in addition to the normal routine of her employments.

Hartley is now at Grasmere & writes to us in very good health & spirits. The work he was engaged in at Leeds came to a stand, quite as much through the mismanagement of the publisher as any fault of his, & they parted by mutual consent. The 3 numbers of the "Worthies" which he had completed are collected under the title name of "Biographia Borealis" - (I believe H. is not accountable for the bad taste of this title - such we think it;) his Poems have added to his reputation, indeed I think they have met with as much success as the "drug Poetry" cannot now obtain in the market: & I have no doubt that the Publisher will be amply remunerated by the sale of this and the prose volume. Hartley speaks warmly of the kindness & hospitality of his old friends at Grasmere, & in especially high terms of his new one Mr [Brancker]. Mrs: W's last letter to mama, written just after H. had been spending the day at Rydal, gave a pleasant account of him, but a deplorable one of poor Mr Wordsworth's eyes. The inflammation has lately extended to the eye ball so as to endanger sight & cause the sufferer & his friends the greatest anxiety: however I was happy to hear that the attack is subsiding without that miserable consequence. Miss W. has rallied wondrously - but if her stimulants & hot bottles were withdrawn it is feared that debility would ensue, & she will require the utmost care during the winter. She looks well in the face but is very decrepit & aged in figure & motion. Mrs: W. writes anxiously about Dora's health, who [[?]] herself out to relieve & amuse others when she needs relaxation & quietness herself. She has been an indefatigable nurse to her Aunt, as we hear from other quarters. Letters from Gretahall are full of Edith's Intended & the mutual bliss of the betrothed pair - Mr Warter has been at K. since his arrival from Copenhagen in July. All that we hear of him confirm the favorable opinion we had formed of him during his first stay at the Lakes - but I wish there was a more definite prospect before him in regard to the ability of marrying, & that my Uncle P's interest, often most useful to others, could procure him a good Living. A friend of ours who has lately visited G. Hall speaks rapturously of Kate's charms of mind & person, as well as of my Uncle's hospitality & interesting conversation - but of Bertha's health in a way which makes me uneasy - I fear she is very delicate, but I trust there will be no such breaking down as in my case. Indeed mine I believe to have been caused by over nursing. Person's whose nerves are affected often become almost indifferent to those naturally dearest to them, their feelings being benumbed by this overpowering malady. With me it has been otherwise, & the genial current of my affections have never been frozen. I have felt an excessive and morbid anxiety about the health & welfare of my husband & children, though matters of minor interest, relating to deep amusements or the little daily goings on of life had lost much

of their

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usual zest. Now however my feelings in this point are somewhat more healthy than formerly, though my body is much weaker than at the beginning of the illness. My dear father has enjoyed much more comfortable health than he used to do. He is extremely feeble, & walks & looks in figure like an aged man - but his face is not old - still less his mind which is overflowing as ever. His friend Mr. Gillman suffers much in his health & has lately recovered from a paralytic affection. My husband this year revised the Western part of Somersetshire as he did last Autumn the Eastern. He now knows the country thoroughly & has been greatly charmed both by the beauty of the scenery & the hospitality of the inhabitants. He visited Nether Stowey and saw the cottage where my parents lived soon after their marriage, where Hartley [bottled] & prattled, & my brother Berkeley, a beautiful creature who died in infancy, was born. The reminiscences of my father among the inhabitants was interesting to him. I hope your brother & sister have enjoyed their foreign tour. My best regards to them and all your family. I hope Mrs Jackson & her large little family are well. I am

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desirous to know how Louisa is going on & heartily hope she has many years of health & enjoyment before her. Mama thanks you much for your note which she would have answered if I had not. She unites with me in kindest regards and congratulations to Mr Wardell & yourself. Pray write as soon & as fully as you can without inconvenience believe me my dearest Elizabeth your truly attached friend

Sara Coleridge.

Mrs: Wardell

Bank

Chester

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Object summary: WLMS A / Coleridge, Sara / 32