Coleridge, Sara (1802-1852). - Letter, from Herne Bay and 10 Chester Place, to Edward Quillinan (1791-1851), at an unstated address, dated 5 to 10 September 1846. WLMS A / Coleridge, Sara / 43.

Herne Bay

September 5th 1846

My dear Mr Quillinan

Are you not rather a faithless man? Didn't I make you promise me a letter of Rydal news - and aught else that you might be generously disposed to stow in along with the said news, in the way of mind communication - the said letter to be despatched somewhere about a month or six weeks after your resettlement in the North? Well I must allow that a breach of promise from a gentleman to a lady, when the promise has been procured by the lady, if not vi et armis, yet insidiously & by way of sudden surprise, is a default which the fair assailant (especially when she is a person of years & experience) has no great right to resent. I even take the part of Augustus Moddle against Miss Pecksniff's hand quite spontaneously, & also put his arm round her chair of his own accord - whereas you did say "yes" to my original proposal. Pecksniffish however as it may be I must remind you of that "Yes," though without claiming performance immediately. Only don't forget that you did say it, and write me a little letter some day when you are not very much disinclined.

We came to this sea-side place on the sixth of August - I and my Herbert and Edith - and had the pleasure of Derwent's company & that of his Mary, - whose kind bright ways, when you see her domestically, are far more engaging than anything you can see of her in society, - and son Derwent, a dear boy, whom my Herbert loves as a brother & likes as a chosen friend, and Christabel, as fine and funny a "three years' darling," not particularly "of a pigmy size" as you shall anywhere see. This child reminded me of

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a saying of my Father's about your wife when she was a little one after describing me in Papaish terms, he said - "and little Dorothy is such a pretty creature! - especially when she is naughty." When Christabel is in a fury, half of fun and half of wilfulness, raising her voice and shrieking louder & louder, the more she is told not and pronouncing the words "I s ill" with an emphasis worthy of the Emperor of china, she really looks quite handsome in the wild cat or wild ocelot style. Dora used to have - as her Father said - "angelic hair" - Little Christabel's is not so sunny and so profuse, but extremely pretty in its own way as it curls down her broad white tableau of back.

Yesterday my neighbour at Chester Place, Mr Lane, looked in upon me here, & told me all about his book - about the water system, which has had such a run. I have not yet seen it - but heard about it when in M.S. - and underwent several proselyting attempts, carried on in a very friendly good-natured spirit on the part of the author - who seems to be just in the semi-feverish state of a man who has been agreeably but rather violently surprised by a sudden influx of unexpected popularity - money - a good deal wanted in his case, & praise, from clever people too, flowing in upon him in a spring tide. He has just heard that Blackwood has cut up his book & is about to see the article. All other critiques have been laudatory. Mr Lane is an engraver & this literary work is quite new to him. He is always boasting of his present health & strength , but verily his face would not answer very well as a sign-portrait for an Hygeian establishment. It is true that blooming looks do not always return even when substantial health and strength does; - he doeslook firmer & harder than before he went to Malvern - but to me a great objection to the system would be that it is not a mere discipline to be undergone for a season, but a mode of life to be adopted, & one which involves a continual attention to the subject of health - which is almost the greatest objection possible. With all my weak health I have never yet submitted to this; my cares for my health are negative - I give up doing a great deal which others do - but from morning to night I am employed in my own home, or lodging, whether wisely & profitably or not, yet certainly not in fidgety attendances on the body, perpetually scourings of the outside & rinsings of the inside of the cup & platter. Mr Lane is [unemfatible]here because the water is brackish and he can't bear the salt water - for bathing - so next Wednesday he turns his back on this fine

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bright blue sea - and all the grand sunsets, which alone are well worth coming to the coast to see, & hurries home to deluge and water-swill himself in his own bedroom. Dear me! how ill-natured this sounds now I have written it - & how ungrateful toward this really amiable man, who has been such a kind neighbour to me - in several important particulars! If I must speak what I think about him without either ill-nature or the over-partiality of gratitude, - he is one of those men, who are a little spoiled by living too soft & domestic a life. He has sense and ability, & all the potentialities of a manly character, but he is too soft on the outside; he wants a harder crust to keep his good qualities in. A man should have which my Uncle Southey used to call a male crust, - all the soft rich melting fruit of his heart & mind should lie underneath this firm covering. There are two classes of soft men - if - "Augustus Moddle" represents the one - Constantine Goddle might give name to the other.

I have gained somewhat certainly, beside the refreshment of feeling at the time, by coming to Herne Bay - though the lowering, not removal, of the heat has something to do with my betterness. I can walk much better than in the summer - three or four miles, in the course of the day, without over fatigue, & have fewer of those aches & pains which proceed from relaxation than I had during the burning season; - I still lie awake till 4 5 or 6 oclock in the morning every other night, - a thing incompatible with entire wellness.

I hope that dear Dora retains both the appearance & the reality of improved health which delighted me so in her when I saw her at last, & that you are by this time quite yourself again & can look upon your attack in France as a thing altogether past & gone. It must be most happy for Dora to be so pleasantly housed, so near Rydal Mount. I trust she will have much comfort there for some time to come - as long as we can reasonably hope or rightly desire that her dear parents days should be prolonged upon earth. Those parental hearts are irreplaceable while we tarry behind when they are gone. Kate tells me that Mrs Wordsworth is still full of activity - but she has had much to try her of late & you may see her and Mr Wordsworth more hale again than they may be just now - though I have no right to say of them now that they are below their usual mark of late years. I heard with interest, rather than regret, of their good nephew's death. How long he has lingered in deep weakness & what a purification must such a trial be where there is strength of heart left! Tell me when you write how Mr Charles Wordsworth comes on with the College in the North. When Derwent was here he and I and the young ones of our parties visited St Augustine's Canterbury, and were delighted with all we saw of the

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rising structure without and within. I should think it was the best thing that had been done in this way during the present century - at least in this country. It will open next Easter & will hold fifty students besides Wardens & fellows. The style is the same as that of the ancient Gateway - at least so I believe. Lord John Manner Mr de Vere tells me, speaks enthusiastically of [St Mules] College & gives a most exciting account of St Augustine's - Did you ever meet Lord John? I thought the sky would fall when I heard Herbert described him as a most elegantly handsome and high mannered young man - for my youth, though he has as sharp an eye for a pretty girl as for a triangle or a chorus in Oschylus, is not exceedingly given to praise and admire his own sex - except perhaps some old commentator or editor of the classics, or some modern luminary of science - a Liebig or a Faraday.

During Derwent's stay here he and I read some answers to Dr Hook's pamphlet on the Education of the People, - & drowned the voice of the sea in arguing both about the pamphlet & the answers. At the end of the discussion I am left with the impression that the educational scheme as D & other clergymen interested in Nat education, are so strangely convinced, will never answer - religiously & as the purposer wishes it to answer:- that is so fundamentally wrong, as well as open to objection in the details. What he says upon the Establishment, at least what he means to say, for he is apt to express himself in a broad unqualified unguarded way, & to look only at one thing at once, without placing it in relation to other things - I cannot think either so unreasonable or so unbecoming as his brethren in general represent - much more so, I think, is the manner in which some of them have met it - the insinuating that he has been actuated by selfish motives, which is one story, - or that he wants to raise the Church above the State, which is another.

Of course the Church of England is still formally, &, in some respects, substantially & really the established Church of this land. But is there not some truth in saying with Dr Hook that some of the grounds upon which it originally became the established Church, are moving away or becoming largely modified? It is not now, as it once was, the Church of the whole nation - it is not exclusively in possession of property dedicated to purposes of religion - Parliament admits other forms of Christianity in its members. The State, acting through the Parliament does & must support & protect other religious bodies beside those which belong to the Church. Dr Hook, seeing these things, would place the true power & dignity of the Church on less shifting foundations. But some object to such "injudicious ardour" - as if the truth in such matters could be kept under a bushel! - and if it be not the truth, its specious falsity will be made known all the sooner for its being put forth in a pamphlet by a man standing in the world's eye like Dr Hook.

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10 Chester Place Wednesday Sep 9th We returned home last Monday and I am never sorry to be at home, dim and dingy as all looks here after the fresh bright country. Edith is so growly and disdainful at the dirty green about London that it is quite trying to walk out in the Park with her. She is an unwearied walker, quite a little Shetland poney for strength, and like a wild goat among the cliffs - so fond of the water too, that there was no getting her out of it when she was once in. She fell in with another young Edith, grand daughter of Dr Estlin, an old Bristol friend of my Father; and these two had fine roamings in the sea and by the side of it. Herbert had a happy week at St Mark's & came home with his pale full of Icelandic, & perfectly charmed with the new Vice Principal, Mr Clarke, whom he declares to be "the Essence of a Brick," He is reading the pastor Fido, for the wise purpose of finding "[nobby] bits about love," that he may know how to make love by and by in good style, throwing in bits, here and there, from approved authors in that line, How do you proceed with your translation of the Lusiad? Faster I suppose than abroad. Have you read Miss Barrett's last volumes? They are much more agreeable to me than her first collection - more, human, natural, feminine and comfortable. Hearing, I believe, how I liked them she kindly sent them to me. I particularly admired the Modern love story, Bertha in the Lane, and the Cry of the Children, which is very powerful - perhaps more painful than poetry ought to be, but still quite poetically treated. I also liked the Exiles very much better than the Temptation, & many of the sonnets are highly interesting. I wish we could hear of her getting well, like Miss Martineau.

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Sep 10th. Yet still Mrs Norton is the popular poetess. Our old friend Chauncey Townshend & his party last night talked of her & Mrs Butler admiringly, & of Mrs Joanna Baillie reverentially but scarce knew of Miss Barrett, whose genius, I told them, was set above that of the first two by many poetical persons. I certainly think that Mrs Norton's is more the poetry of talent than of genius, & Mrs Butler's too - Mrs N. is wonderfully clever & makes a great deal of money, I am told by her pen. To go down from these literary fashionables to my own humble kitchen I must tell you, what I am sure you & dear Dora will care to hear, that Caroline and Martha are well and going on well. The former is the more valuable servant - she is quick & despatchful and exact too. Martha does not gain memory or forethought - & the having her wits all about her - but she is a very nice maid in many respects & her defects, in this place, are bearable; though not remediable. I think too, what I always feel as a comfort in servants, that both she and Caroline shew heart and a sense of duty in their conduct to their own parents and relations. They look after them & spare them a little money, as you also may have observed in them. Martha went from Herne Bay for six days to her family now at Sandwick, & I believe made her visit useful.

Will you give my love to Hartley when you see him, and say that his old friend Chauncey often speaks of him, & has his old merry laugh, and a face not much worse for the wear since he was last in this country. He goes abroad again in a fortnight after having made the tour of his relations in England, Hartley is in a non-writing fit at present - he owes me three letters.

Pray give also my kindest love to Dora and her parents and all that is kind from me when you can to poor dear Miss Wordsworth, and believe me, dear Mr Quillinan Your's most sincerely Sara Coleridge

I saw Mr Robinson just before I left town. He seemed quite well & lifesome, though the heat made him look white. I hear that the beauty of Mrs: Tait made quite a sensation at Rydal

Parts of this letter may only suit Dora - the rest may suit both - But such a long prose demands not immediate attention for either.

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Object summary: WLMS A / Coleridge, Sara / 43