Coleridge, Sara (1802-1852). - Letter, from 10 Chester Place, to Edward Quillinan (1791-1851), at an unstated address, dated 14 November 1850. WLMS A / Coleridge, Sara / 72.

10 C Place

Nov 14 - 1850

My dear Friend,

The sight of your handwriting this morning gave me great pleasure - first as coming from you - secondly as coming from a place and neighbourhood in which, to the end of my mortal pilgrimage, my heart & imagination will ever be most deeply interested. Keswick and Rydal - and Grasmere - then Netherhall and its neighbourhood - but the two first far before the last - will ever be the scene of the Millennial reign for me. They are my Eden, watered with my tears as they were - But

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how truly says the Poet Dew drops are the gems of morning

But the tears of mournful eve - Now there is a knock on the door! Oh how I hate those peremptory knocks, now I have no Goodman to expect, either morning, noon or night. His liquid hem - for he had a fine speaking and hemming voice - a sort of ringing harmonica sound it had to my ear, which used to make me thrill with delight in our courting days, and glow mentally with a far deeper, fuller, calmer happiness when I was a wife. Well, well! It is one comfort in sorrow that he and my dear mother had not to share my present trouble. Poor Nurse has accompanied

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me all through this thorny valley - step by step - indeed she has her own thorns and stones on her side of the way, and we mutually pity and seek to console each other.

As to the local affection, I hope I may say it is not altered for the worse. It seems quite stationary - & the sensations of pressure tightness, fullness &c - I am assured are nervous & at all events not signs of active progress of the complaint.

I think so when they are off me; but when they are on - as now, it is at present impossible to me, not to feel apprehensive. My general health has rather improved of late than otherwise at least I have not lost the improvement I gained at St Mark's. You know I was at a very low ebb indeed after your return to the North -

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far worse than you ever saw me. But this was from the shock to the spirits of Mr Green's [annunciation] -

As to spirits now I have ups and downs - the last state is a down - I never can be as I have been - as free and hopeful - while the tumour lasts, & I have little hope of its dispersing - But if it remains quiescent I shall in time, I trust, feel firmer and less tremulous than now. At present the agitation of the waters from that heavy stone-throw has not subsided.

As for your bumps - (would I had 100 such! Rather than this one of my own) You must go on taking the

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2) medicine by all means. If I were you I would take a trip to Bareges & Pan and there drink the Pyrenean waters, which are said to be sovereign for bumps & lumps of various sorts & kinds - You ought to bathe in them also -

Pan is a pleasant place, with good society & you could [[?]] acquaintance with the Pyrenees, personages worth knowing.

As for his High Holiness and his false move - & Cardinal Wiseman, & his unwisdom ([Infallibility] at fault - [[?] gypsey]!) -

I cannot help thinking that, while the Pope continues to be an Italian

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ecclesiastic, clear insight into the character and circumstances of John Bull, will never be among his gifts, either human or divine. He might have launched forth all sorts of spiritual fulminations, - John would have taken it as coolly - as a cow would Mesmerism, - I was going to say - but really after Miss Martineau's experiences - that is no longer an available comparison - but could prove too much on the wrong side - I was going to observe that this kind of territorial pretension is just the sort of thing to rouse old Johns ire. It sounds at least practical and tangible, and unless the Italian Potentate was

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prepared to take the Bull by the horns in a material and tangible way, he had best not have ventured the experiment. It was as you justly observe - (sensible man as you are in reality and Roman-Catholic by courtesy and ancestry) - "an unwise move". His Holiness should have stuck to spiritual Primacy & Supremacy - Successor to St Peter, Head of the Apostles - John would listen to all that with a stolid air - as if it went into one ear - as dear mother would say - and out at the other - But any attempt to parcel out his acres - and dispose of his Sees, which are closely connected in his mind with revenues in solid coin of the realm - any at-

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tempt of this kind enrages him; and without staying to enquire whether, after all, it is not as shadowy a thing as the reflection in the stream for the sake of which the dog let go the solid meat in his mouth, he ups with his hoofs and his horns, and plunges about in as mischievous a style as that veritable Bull, whom some enthusiast of Mesmerism lately endeavoured to magnetize into the rigid or the soporific state - and if he doesn't throw the Pope himself over the hedge not being able to get at him - he may perhaps toss & maltreat no small number of his Holiness's servants in this country. The sight of a cardinal's hat will for some time

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3) to come perhaps make him as dangerous, as a scarlet rag makes the fourfooted sovereign of the Meadows.

I have just received from John Moultrie his "Black Fence or Lay of Modern Rome" - which is in the second edition. He has made hay while the sun shine - or rather caught eels while the waters were troubled, and availed himself of the "Popish Aggression" to bring his Muse again into notice. It is really poetical - though as Edy observed, with that calm superciliousness, so common to the young and untried - "neither bound & popular

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representation of the subject."

Another friend tells me he cannot see me today because he must attend a meeting for petitioning against the Papal Aggression, and is afraid of his life that said meeting will give Dissenters an advantage, and cause the church of E. to be humbled as roughly as the Church of Rome.

But I must conclude or I shall be too late. Nurse is much obliged for your kind inquiry and inquires with much interest about your arm. She has

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her ups & downs like me, but is rather in her better way.

Edith sends best regards both to you and your dear girls.

Dear Mrs Wordsworth's firmness of spirits is blessed & wonderful.

Edy has quite impressed me with a notion of the grand baby's niceness and sweetness.

Miss Hoare was here yesterday - looking comfortable and firm.

Herbert is I hope busy at Oxford. His cousin

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writes to him in great spirits from Cambridge - Jesus College, where he is not a student.

Believe me dear Friend affectionately yours Sara Coleridge

Mr H Taylor has been exerting himself most kindly to procure [Mesmeric] information for me & I think of trying the influence.

He gave me a good report of dear Miss Fenwick.

By Mr de Vere & Mr H Marshall we have come at Bingley at Leeds & can treat for the copyright of dear H's poems.

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Have you read "Alton Locke?" Sir F Palgrave thinks it "poetry and of a high order of conception."

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Object summary: WLMS A / Coleridge, Sara / 72