Friday. July 8.

Henrietta à la Henriette about going to call on Mrs. Martin to apologize for not have [sic] noticed her invitation for yesterday evening. Set off at last: and in about ten minutes afterwards, Mr. & Mrs. Martin arrived here. An express sent over the hill for Henrietta, which missed her—but she came nevertheless. Mrs. Martin urged upon us all to drink tea there this evening, & meet the Miss Biddulphs. Henrietta Bro & Sam agreed: Bummy & I demurred. I was afraid lest the demurring might produce a recurring … to the point: but Bummy assured me in an asside that she wd. not go. So it was agreed that she & A & I shd. go to the Wyche instead. Nature & the Biddulphs are a contrast, & I never could doubt about preferring the former.

(No letters.) Bummy wrote to Papa to dissuade him from coming.

Arabel walked down to Mrs. Barker’s;[1] & Henrietta occupied her place in the wheelbarrow, until we had conveyed her safely to the Colwall first gate.[2] In the meantime it began to rain, which made Henrietta à la Henriette again. She wd. go & she wd. not go. I was angry & I was not angry. I was certainly provoked. She went at last. B & I returned to Arabel at Mrs. Barker’s & dried our wet exteriors by Milly’s extempore fire. The rain went off, & so did we, to the Whyche. Bummy sate in the carriage with the newspaper, on this side of it, while Arabel & I walked along the terrace on the other. We walked to the spot immediately above Ruby Cottage, & in five minutes, if I had descended, I should have been in Ruby Cottage. And in less than five minutes, I wd. have descended, if I had not thought of Bummy & the late evening. If I had not thought of them, wd. Mr. Boyd have been glad?— Wd. he indeed have been glad?

I enjoyed this walking, & the odours of the fresh evening, & the sights of the superb expanse & majestic hills, very much indeed. We were not at home until 9 oclock; & Henrietta was not, until ten. Bro & Sam arrived at the same time; so we had prayers, & went to bed directly.

1. She lived in a cottage by the south gate of Hope End and acted as gate-keeper. In “A Journal of the Adventures of our Journey from Hope End to Worthing, written in the carriage June—1819” (ms at Wellesley), E.B.B. described her thus:

And Madam Barker with the sallow cheek

The lanky shape and with the long thin neck

Sweet Madam Barker!

2. i.e., the entrance to Old Colwall, the home of James and Julia Martin since shortly after their marriage in 1819, a substantial and commodious house, “built for posterity” in Mr. Martin’s words. It was the nearest house to Hope End, the distance between the two being slightly less than ¾ mile, although they were hidden from each other’s view by the intervening hill. By road, however, the distance was 1½ miles. The house stands today largely unchanged from when E.B.B. visited it.


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