Sunday Nov 7th. [sic, for 6 November.]
Sam gave me at breakfast, a note from Mrs. Boyd, which he called for yesterday. Condolences about my cold! So Mr. Biscoe’s last letter does not contain even the “affectation of feeling”! “Oh this—love! this love!” A cold thing at the warmest!— But Annie certainly must bear her part of the blame.
Bummy & Henrietta to church in the rain! Mr. Deane’s farewell sermon, as Mr. Wynn is to preach there next Sunday,[1] & call upon us in the interim. Mr. Deane versus Gregory. I will back Gregory. Nevertheless I am sorry for Mr. Deane who is an amiable unpresuming man.
The Papers come—& the cholera actually in Sunderland—15 miles from Newcastle![2] I am glad, very glad that dear Bummy did not go there, & carry Charlotte there. Surely surely God orders all things wisely! Let not the pestilence come nigh us, oh God our shield!— With such a shield we need not fear—& yet I am human & did fear in reading the paper today.
No letter from Papa. It is wonderful.
Bro & A & I wasted some yards of time today, in watching my squirrel who ate two or three chesnuts on my knee, & ran up Bro’s shoulder. I intended to go to Malvern tomorrow—cold serving—but an invitation has come from Colwall, & our carriage must take B & H & Bro & Sam there, at half past four. What a bore!— Rhyme & Reason! But I am resigned to one misfortune, by escaping another. I am not to dine there!— Huzza!
Read Hooker’s Discourse on Justification.[3] Admirable & amiable. It not only bears but dares, being read a hundred times. Read also 5 or 6 chapters of the Galatians,—& some of St Mathew’s Gospel in Greek.
1. The Worcester Herald, 26 November 1831, announced the collation of the Rev. Thomas Wynn to the Rectory of Colwall. Mr. Dean, the Curate, had been the preacher by necessity, as the previous Rector, the recently-deceased James Charles Clarke, had not visited the parish for 20 years. This neglect, and the overlooking of Mr. Dean’s strong claim to the vacant living, prompted Mr. Martin to write a savagely critical open letter to the Bishop of Hereford (see The Times, 17 November 1831). Mr. Biddulph was another of the local gentry who favoured Mr. Dean’s appointment; on 26 October he recorded in his diary that he had applied to the Bishop for the living on Mr. Dean’s behalf.
2. The Times, 5 November 1831: “We regret to be under the necessity of announcing that the cholera has at length really reached the shores of Great Britain. … Advices received this day from Sunderland, both by authority and by private hands, convey the melancholy fact.”
3. Richard Hooker, A Learned Discourse of Justification, Workes, and How the Foundation of Faith is Overthrowne (Oxford, 1612).