Saturday. July 9th.
Read Pindar’s 4th. Olympic before breakfast— read & digested it. After breakfast, heard the boys read Homer & Zenophon; and at twelve, drove with Bummy & Arabel to Mrs. Cliffe’s. We rounded it by the Bartons, & called there, & had to wait for Mrs. Griffith’s & Miss Peyton’s out fitting, & for the opening of the window shutters; & after all, could not get away without leaving behind us a promise of drinking tea there next monday. At least so Bummy thought, for she made the promise. Twenty necessities wd. not have torn it from me. N.B. A Bull!!
Talking of bulls, as proceeded on our road to Mathon, we met one, coming to meet us in a narrow lane, & with a bellow. Out of the carriage we all three jumped, & took refuge in a field close by. But one gate seemed to me by no means a satisfactory go-between for us & our enemy; so I climbed a very high railing with a rather deep ditch at the other side—which, if I had not been frightened out of my senses, I could by no means have done. At last a man came to our rescue & drove away the bull; & we got miraculously safe thro’ the frying sun, over the earthquaking roads, to Mathon. Mrs. Cliffe was at dinner at two, & we joined her by invitation. Afterwards I went into Eliza’s room—indeed into every room in the house—indeed into every room not in the house, for I visited the hermitage. Then I lay down on the sofa & rested my body & mind with the Literary Souvenir, while omnes prœter me[1] went out to walk. Miss Landon’s contributions are not superior,[2]—& I could see nothing else in the book which was very much so. We had tea,—& at seven Mrs. Cliffe wd. save me a shaking, by driving me to our gate in her carriage. And besides she wd. lend me the first two vols of the mysteries of Udolpho[3]before she had finished them herself—a kind of generosity which quite dazzled my weak moral sense. I have read the mysteries; but am anxious to read them again—being a worshipper of Mrs. Radcliffe. Bummy drove Mrs. Cliffe’s carriage a part of the way; so, she escaped a part of the shaking. Parted at the gate with the kind Mathon people; & found at home the Colwall ones. Henrietta had been driven by Mrs. Martin to call on the Biddulphs, & had persuaded her to drink tea at Hope End. Mr. Martin there too—playing cricket. Sate on the hay a little while,–& then went in to tea the second!
No letter today. I scarcely expected one, but did expect one. I believe Bummy’s letter urged him not to remove his family until the last, & urged him not to return home now. If that had weight with him, we may have no letter again tomorrow. I hope we may not. And yet if there is no hope & can be no hope (—and whence are we to gather it?—) it wd. be better for us to leave this fatally dear place at once—to go at once!— It wd. be better for all but me—and better for me, for every reason but one reason.
The Martins stayed until twelve. I dont know how it is. They have not the key of my mind. They are superior & feeling people; and yet I can neither think nor feel aloud when they are present. Read more than a chapter of the Mysteries, between the acts of pulling off my stockings & going to sleep.
1. “All except me.”
2. Letitia Elizabeth Landon, later Maclean, contributed three poems, “The Maiden Astrologer,” “Robert Burns and his Highland Mary” and “The Violet” to the The Literary Souvenir (London, 1831).
3. Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho, A Romance; Interspersed with some Pieces of Poetry, 4 vols. (London, 1794).
