Monday August 22d.
It must have been nearly nine when I set off for Malvern where I arrived as Mrs. Boyd was breakfasting. So Mr. Boyd is going to scold me about something! But he wont be very severe; for Mrs. Boyd told me that he exclaimed “Good creature”! when he heard of my having come. “A good kind creature” he called me, when we met. His manner very kind—“Have you any good news for me?” No, still—no, always! The scold was about my not having shewn him, my “disquisitions on Plato”, which Mr. Davidson read in ms five years ago.[1] Mr. Davidson is dreaming. “Have you brought your seven chiefs?” Why what a question! We read some of Gregory’s poems—53 lines of his poem on Nemesius[2]—the opening lines: and the concluding lines of the second long poem— on Christ[3] & then we read merely the Greek of a passage in the poem next to my favorite poem; & then Mr. Boyd gave me Meleager’s ode to spring, to read, while he “stretched his legs” in the garden. Very very happy!—Meleager’s ode is beautiful tho’ monotonous: but the monotony is much less felt in the concluding lines. Nota Bene Ba! Buy Wakefield’s Bion, & Moschus & Meleager.[4]
Mr. Wood disagreed with Miss Gibbons & agreed with Mr. Boyd about the passage in Colossions. So Mr. Boyd told me. He “cant abide” Miss Gibbons—thinks her “nauseous”—that is, he thinks her vanity & deviations nauseous. She seems a goodnatured person, & in her conversation, a religious person: but the spirit of man cannot search the spirit of man. After dinner, I was over-asked into playing on the guitar & singing— I sang Kathleen,[5] very badly, in my own opinion. When I got again into Mr. Boyd’s room, he told me that he had heard today what he had often heard about—that he had been standing at the open window while I sang, & thought that my voice was sweet tho’ low!— If I had known his “whereabouts” my singing wd. have come to an end—or at least, to a trembling. An exhortation to practise!-- I am glad he liked my singing. He seemed to like it, certainly! We talked — — I cant recollect all we talked about,—but we talked very pleasantly & on pleasant subjects. So Mrs. Boyd thinks that there is no use in his asking my opinion of any composition of his own, as I “cannot be impartial”.!! When he reported this, I answered nothing. What could I answer!—
I begged him to be less reserved to Mr. Curzon than he has been, with regard to his religious opinions; & he half promised me that he would. I hope the promise may be binding. Why should Mr. Curzon “stand in doubt of him”, as Mr. Curzon seems to do?
I told him that altho’ Mr. C did stand in doubt of him, yet that he liked his society extremely. “Then”, he observed, “Mr. Curzon is inconsistent. According to his own views he shd. not like the society of any man not decidedly & clearly religious”. My answer made him laugh. “But Mr. Curzon ranks you with anchovy sauce”! He asked me to read the Epistle to the Romans, with a humble & attentive mind,—& proposed doing the same himself,—that we might afterwards compare notes, on calvinism & arminianism.[6] I have agreed to do so. “I should like very much,” he added “to read it with you, critically”. Should I not like it? Yes indeed! But there may be no opportunity for that!—
I left his room at twenty minutes to eight: & neither of us imagined it to be so late. How happy I was today. Indeed I do him great injustice very often,—& believe at this moment that he has a true friendship & regard for me. But because I have a fault in one way, I am apt to accuse him of one in another.
“Miss Bordman says that it is a shame for me to pocket you in this manner.” “It wd. be a shame if you did’nt”— He gave me Dawes’s miscellanea critica, that I might ferrett out for him, Kidds notes on the digamma.[7] Will this be the last employment of the kind, which he will give me?
One thing gave me pain. He told me that in the case of my leaving Hope End, which he hoped (said emphatically) wd. not be the case, perhaps it wd. be better for him to have back those books that I have in my care.— And not a word of his going where we go!---
Well: everything must be borne. I was going to quote Marcus Antoninus: but what good can he do in this case--
Got home, & heard of the Cards & Walls having been here in the course of the day.[8] Their conduct when here, was more heartless than their heartlessness in coming! Miss Wall has no finely tuned & feminine feelings: & why should we expect the sound of the organ from the jews harp. Everything “after its kind”! — —
I called at Mrs. Trant’s for five-minutes—
The moon was shining exquisitely, one star by its side, before I left the open air.
1. Although E.B.B. wrote various critical comments on her readings of Plato, the manuscript referred to here cannot be identified. The Mr. Davidson E.B.B. speaks of is believed to have been the Rev. John Davison, Prebendary of Worcester, and Rector of Upton-on-Severn.
2. “Ad Nemesium” (GNO, II, 140–146).
3. “De Testamentis, et Adventu Christi” (GNO, II, 173–174).
4. Gilbert Wakefield, ed. βιωνος και Μοσχον τα Λειψανα (London,1795). Although Meleager is not mentioned on the title page, this edition contains an Idyll of his.
5. Probably Kathleen O More, an Irish Ballad (Dublin, [1830]).
6. The doctrine of Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) was largely an expression of reaction against the tenets of Calvin (1509–64). The Arminians insisted that real free-will in man was compatible with Divine Sovereignty; that Christ died for all men and not only for the elect; and that the theory of predestination was unbiblical.
7. Richard Dawes, Miscellanea Critica, with Notes by Thomas Kidd, (Cambridge, 1817).
8. To inspect the house, with no serious intention—“a party of pleasure” to use E.B.B.’s words. Miss Wall was Eliza’s friend, and her family held the manor of Cradley, Herefordshire. Dr. Henry Card, Vicar of Great Malvern, was a friend of H.S.B.
