Tuesday August 23d.
Today was as unhappy as yesterday was happy. Wheels will turn round. My first doing, was writing a long note to Mr. Boyd, to tell him about Dominick’s desire to consult him “upon the Greek historians”, & to beg him to be philosophical, if not historical, & receive his visit; & to tell him besides of Miss Wall’s amiable conduct with regard to us.[1] Heard Georgie’s Xenophon,—& read a letter from Miss Price. Had dinner—afterwards Bro said to me “Ba: here is a note for you to read.[”] From Papa!— It was to procure Bro’s & my signature to some testamentary document of my dear dearest Granny[2]—& it spoke besides of our dearest Papa having had himself a violent attack of cholera. He is in consequence weak & low, & is going out of town for two days, that change of air may recruit him. The note altogether made us all melancholy; & nobody thought until past three, that the document might be of consequence & should be returned by this day’s post.[3] Then, when it was thought of, what a bustle there was! Bro & I drove off to Mr. Deane’s, as hard as horse cd. go! What might not depend on our being in time!— And Sam was in readiness at Mr. Deane’s to gallop off with the packet, as soon as the signatures were affixed. He did gallop, & just gained the coach!—just as it was going to descend the Eastnor hill! Thank God! upon that packet, much may depend. Bro & I arrived at home safely; I very much tired with the mental & physical agitation. Hysterics kept off, however. Bro to the Martins, to dine! When we had ascertained the safety of the packet, I wrote to tell him of it, that his anxieties might not “dam up his flow of soul.”[4]
At six oclock, a large party arrived to see the house. Henrietta A & I ran up into my room, & lay on the bed. Nothing but curiosity brought them; yet we must be patient. Very soon, this kind of pain will come to an end. My pains are διαδοχοι.[5]
My parcel to Mr. Boyd, containing my letter to him & Keats’s poems for Miss Boyd, was not sent in the confusion, until seven oclock. A letter was brought back, forwarded from Annie! Nothing in it.
I was falling into a fever about Mr. Boyd’s not noticing my letter, when I found that Mrs. Boyd’s message was, “If any answer is required, I will write tomorrow”. So most probably, indeed most certainly, she had not read my letter to him. Glad, more than glad, to get to bed—& be tranquil. What a bustling thundering wretched day I have had. May God bless & preserve our beloved Papa!— Anything but anxiety on his account!—
1. For the letter, see BC, 2, 324–325.
2. E.B.B.’s grandmother, who had died the previous December, left her £4,000 (letter from Edward Moulton-Barrett to his brother Samuel, dated 15 February 1831, in the collection at Wellesley).
3. At that time, the London mail left Ledbury at 4 p.m. (Hints of Ledbury, Ledbury, 1831, p. 43).
4. Cf. “The Feast of Reason and the Flow of Soul,” from The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace, Imitated [Alexander Pope], (London, 1733), p. 17, line 128.
5. “Successors.”
