Wednesday Sept. 21st.
Very unwell—could scarcely get down stairs, my legs trembled so much. On going into the dining room, a note was given to me from Mrs. Martin, praying me to meet her at the gate, & accompany her, together with Bummy, to Bromesberrow.[1] I felt so unwell, that I negatived the proposal,—& this set B’s combustible particles on fire. She spoke crossly to me,—& I who was on the very verge of hysterics, & required only a finger touch to impel me forwards, burst into tears, & had that horrible dead precursive feeling all thro’ my hands & feet. But I made an effort—a great effort was really necessary—& got over it. I dare say Bummy thought it was all humbug. Indeed from her cool manner to me from morning to night, I have no doubt that she actually thought so. But what cd. I do!? I lay down on my bed after breakfast, because I cd. scarcely sit up— and yet when time drew near for us to meet Mrs. Martin, I sent Henrietta in to Bummy to carry my palinodia. I wd. go, if she wished it. No!—it wd. not do. If I did not feel equal to it, she wished nothing of the kind—, so she & Henrietta went instead of me. In the meantime, I read Mr. Beverley’s pamphlets which Mr. Boyd had lent to me; the letter to the Archbishop of York, & the Tombs of the prophets.— They are clever & forcible; coarse enough, & in some places too highly colored. For instance, I do not believe that the body of the established clergy are as much opposed to the reading of scriptures, as the papistical clergy are; and I do know instances of members of that body, refusing the sacrament to persons of immoral character.
I read besides a good deal of Lamartines,—second volume of Meditations poetiques et religieuses.[2] Inferior to the first. He certainly Procrustianizes.
No letter today again. How very extraordinary it is.
1. A village about 5 miles S.S.E. of Hope End. Mrs. Martin’s friend Mrs. Hill, wife of the Rev. Charles Hill, lived there.
2. E.B.B. has confused titles. The quotation given on 23 July comes from Lamartine’s Méditations Poétiques, but the poems named in the entry of 23 September prove that she was now reading volume two of Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses, 2 vols (Paris, 1830).
