Tuesday. June 14th.
Henry drove me to Malvern, & Daisy filled as much as he could of the back seat in the wheelbarrow. Papa in bad spirits at breakfast. After breakfast we were about to set off—when in consequence of Papa asking me to wait for something inaudible, I sent Henry in to the library, to ask what I was to wait for. Bummy & Papa there. “What were they doing”? said Arabel. “Crying”—replied Henry. I would not, could not wait. If there is anything to hear, it must be something painful: & then I shall (“un man myself”, I was going to say) unfit myself for talking to Mr. Boyd. That was my “Thinks I to myself”—so we drove off. I got to Ruby Cottage before twelve. Miss Hurd[1] was there,—& I was shown into the dining room, to wait while she read some letters to Mr. Boyd. Annoyed!— Took up Stewart’s Resurrection,[2] with notes in Mr. Boyd’s handwriting. The poetry seems super-erogatorily written,—as far as words are concerned, but if it had been admirable, I was in a nil admiraris[3] humour. Miss Hurd came to say that Mr. Boyd was ready for me. I dont like her. Found him in the drawing room, where he spends part of every day “now that Mrs. Boyd is absent”. Two letters had been read to him: one from her, & one from Mr. Barker;[4] & as he assured me they had been merely read, & the reader disfranchised immediately afterwards, I fell into a forgiving humour. He was not in good spirits. No more was his companion—I talked however as well as I could,—& read as well as I could besides, out of the Septem Apud Thebas, which I began today in his Porson’s edition.[5] Read 78 lines. I do like reading with him. He was annoyed by my note; & because I had said in it that “perhaps I could not go to see him until the evening”, he had fancied that I was to be engaged during the morning by visiting Miss Wall[6] at Gt Malvern in consequence of a request from Eliza Cliffe!! Did my fancy ever take me so far … wrong? Very often! He said that he had felt “i wd. not have visited any one who had behaved about Miss Barrett, as Miss Wall had behaved about us”. It is amusing to think that he could think so!— As if he were likely by any behaviour, to prove a regard equal to, or greater than, the regard I feel towards him!— Impossible—at least as feelings & conduct go at present. Talked of Mr. Curzon—Calvinism—Catholicism[—]Annie. A charge against Arabel with reference to the latter, warded off by me. Some talking of her coldness to me—attributed by Mr. Boyd, to jealousy of Eliza. Fudge, said Mr. Burchell.-- No love—no jealousy! Some talking of Annie abstractedly & Miss Wall’s opinion of her!—& my opinion of her manners. Told him of the unending uncertainty about Hope End. He seemed interested in what I said—& “SORRY”! Preached Christian resignation & philosophy to me; & wondered how I could show as little as I did at Woodland Lodge[7] when the subject of our leaving Hope End was agìtated: He had been told that I had shed tears & seemed much distressed. My tears did not fall then because I was about to leave Hope End; and that he should think so, brought them again into my eyes. Mrs. Boyd will come back, probably, she said in her letter at the end of this week. While we were reading the Seven Chiefs, he observed that tho’ Plutarch preferred it to the other Tragedies of Æschylus, he could not help believing it inferior to the Agamemnon. “It is however very long since I read this tragedy; & now I shall be able to judge better”. The “now” made me sigh. Is there any chance of his reading it thro’ with me, now? I left him at 20 minutes to six—too late to call on Mrs. Trant.[8] Henry & Daisy had been running & having luncheon on the hills. Got home in time for dinner, & heard nothing about the conference. Only that more people had been here to see the place, & were sent away by Bummy. Mericks from Ross.[9]
1. Mary Eliza Heard (1816–81), eldest daughter of Robert Heard, of the Mercantile Marine, and his wife, Mary (née Lemen). The family, living at Great Malvern, included two sisters, Patience (1822–40) and Catherine (1825–90). In 1842, H.S.B. asked for E.B.B.’s help in obtaining reviews of a book Miss Heard had written (The Shipwreck of the Dryade; see BC, 6, 95–96).
2. John Stewart, The Resurrection: a Poem (London, 1807).
3. “Marvel at nothing.” (Horace: “‘Marvel at nothing’—that is perhaps the one and only thing, Numicius, that can make a man happy and keep him so,” LCL-HO/S, pp. 286–287: “Epistles” I.vi, lines 1–2.)
4. Edmund Henry Barker (1788–1839), classical scholar and friend of H.S.B. At one time, he formulated a plan to publish E.B.B.’s letters to H.S.B. (See BC, 2, 243–244 and BC, 3, 145–147.)
5. [Richard Porson, ed.], Æschyli Tragœdiœ Septem, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1806).
6. Millicent Wall was a close friend of Eliza Cliffe and had been a witness at the marriage of Eliza’s sister, Mrs. Best, in 1827.
7. H.S.B.’s previous house in Great Malvern, vacated in May 1831.
8. Mary Trant (née Barret), the widow of James Trant, was a first cousin of E.B.B.’s paternal grandmother. At this time, she was living at South Lodge, approximately one mile south of Ruby Cottage, and E.B.B. would normally call there whenever she took the southern route, via Little Malvern, between Hope End and Ruby Cottage.
9. Dr. (in 1832, Sir) Samuel Rush Meyrick (1783–1848), the celebrated antiquary who superintended the arrangement of the collections of armour at the Tower of London and Windsor Castle. His seat was Goodrich Court, near Ross-on-Wye.
