Sunday July 3d.

H A & I drove to church, where we heard Mr. Deane preach a sleepy kind of sermon. Mrs. Martin there. She asked me to drive with her to Eastnor[1] on Tuesday, in the case of Mr. Martin not accompanying her, on Monday. I wd. rather have gone to Malvern, but it is right for me, & indeed it will be a satisfaction to me, to visit poor Lady Margaret.[2] Has she not felt for me? And can I not feel for her? Too well!—

Eliza was at church, & quite inclined to go home with us. But I thought of the letter, the expected letter; & begged her not to come here until Wednesday. It appears that Mrs. Cliffe is not offended--

How hot & cold I grew as we approached the house! Is it possible? No letter!—

B & H drove to church. Arabel & I walked to chapel. A man, some heads shorter than I am, preached;[3] and if his voice had been in proportion to his size, I should not have had the headache. Vox, et prœterea nihil.[4] The sermon was very weak & bad. Its matter must however have been thought excellent by the preacher; for he repeated it again & again. The doctrine was scriptural—so I ought perhaps to have been better satisfied than I happened to be.

B & H did not get home until seven—& then we had prayers.

Settled. That I am to go with Maddox tomorrow morning early, & be left at Ruby Cottage.

Read the bible of course, but thought the bible, far less than I should do. I have left off praying for the specific object of remaining at Hope End. I pray now only that God may direct our going forth or our staying in: for the Giver of all Good must, surely, know better than I, what it is good to give. Thy will—Oh Lord!—

1. Eastnor Castle, the seat of Earl Somers, about 3 miles S.E. of Hope End. It was a modern structure after the style of Edward I, begun in 1814 to designs by Smirke.

2. Lady Margaret Maria Cocks (1792–1849), daughter of the 1st Earl Somers. E.B.B.’s epithet derives from the death of Lady Margaret’s mother, the Rt. Hon. Margaret, Countess Somers, on 19 February 1831.

3. This was the Rev. E. Elliott, who normally preached in Gloucester. On this occasion he filled Mr. Curzon’s place while the latter preached at Uley (The Baptist Magazine, September 1831, p. 397).

4. “Voice, and nothing else.” (Plutarch: “A man plucked a nightingale and finding almost no meat, said ‘It’s all voice ye are, and nought else’” LCL-P, III, 399, “Sayings of Spartans” 233A.)


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