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(Two messages.)

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Transcript

Yarmouth June 6. 1<812>

My dear Papa

I have very good news to tell you; poor Edward Rigby has been getting better every day and was so well that he was able to ride out and hear the guns fire for the King’s birthday on the Castle hill, which had been promised him for a long while. {1} My aunt Katharine has been so kind as to write Mamma an account of him almost every day. Mr Wigg brought me the day before yesterday Cynoglassum cheirifolia and another white flower that I could not make out as he had brought but one blossom without either leaves or stalk. Mr Hooker brought me a very fine specimen of Erica mediterranea and Andromeda polifolia, both of which I have dried with the Cynoglussum†. {2} There are several flowers out in our garden which I want to have but must not go out. {3} We have a great many Nectarin<s> set I believe 25 at least about 10 Peaches and 6 Apricots which are a great many as the trees most of [them] are not taller than Mary {4} and have not been planted above half a year at the most, and are all, except the Apricots, growing in the open air; there are very few cherries and several Plums. Mr Cotman came on Tuesday {5} but was so unwell that he did not stay much more than an hour, Maria called on him {6} to know how he did on Wednesday he was stretched on a sofa and looked very ill but he expected to be better (as he was) the next day. I have bathed twice and like it very much I bathe with my aunt Powys and Charlotte {7} who does not like it very much but I told [her] I should bring her a stone or a fish so I took a stone and put it upon my foot when I came into the machine, and she now keeps the stone as if it was a wonder for a stone to come out of the sea. Maria has seen her little Indian cousins, {8} she says that the girl is very plain, she is sallow with grey eyes the boy is fairer and more pretty. I have heard that the nurses were great curiosities but Maria has not seen them yet. We have had very bad weather ever since the 4th of June towards the evening there came on a thick sea fog which lasts still. My aunt Powys sends her love I am sure you will like her for she gets up at 6 o’clock. Sisters send their love and believe me dear Papa your very affection<ate> daughter

Elizabeth Turner

Dear Papa,

I write purposely to thank you for your letter to me, which pleasure and indulgence I had not expected; as you say, and I do not doubt it, that you are much engaged, and have no time to spare. I had certainly no way expected any thing more than a few lines at the bottom of a letter to Mamma, but I am only the more agreably surprised. To-day (Sat) is the Concert, and I could not have spared time to write to any one but you, but it is my bounden duty to do that, as you have spared some to do so to me, and I do not doubt but that your time is now more precious than mine. My uncle Powell {9} is here now, he arrived on Thursday night, and stays till tomorrow morning. Mr Eager {10} is I believe exceedingly well satisfied with our progress. I hope he will be as much so tonight. We are all, and I especially, very sorry that Aunt Jane {11} does not come as I had particularly wished for her opinion of Maria’s and my performances. We have this morning removed back into the parlour. I think Eliz is much better and believe so does Mamma. We shall all be very glad to have you back and particularly, Dear Papa, your affectionate and dutiful Daughter, M. Turner

[Superscription:] D. Turner Esq. | R. Sparrow Esq. | No. 28 George Street | Hanover Square | London

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Paper not watermarked.

{1} Elizabeth’s cousin Edward Rigby, then aged seven, was staying in Norwich with her aunt and uncle, Katharine and William Simpson. A twenty-one gun salute was fired on the Castle Hill there on 24 May in honour of King George III’s seventy-fourth birthday. See the Norfolk Chronicle, 6 June 1812.

{2} Cynoglassum cheirifolia (properly cheirifolium) is a kind of houndstongue, Erica mediterranea a kind of heather; Andromeda polifolia is bog-rosemary.

{3} Elizabeth was recovering from an illness; see Maria’s message in the same letter.

{4} Elizabeth’s sister, then aged nine.

{5} 2nd.

{6} Cotman’s house was in Southtown, overlooking the river.

{7} Elizabeth Powys and her daughter Charlotte Frances, then aged five.

{8} Not identified.

{9} Philip Lewis Powell.

{10} John Eager, a dancing-master of local celebrity.

{11} Jane Palgrave, later Taylor.

Norwich.—Agrees to subscribe to the Antiquities of Normandy.

(With a cutting and a tiny portion of another. The first contains a notice of Stone’s Norfolk Bridges (1810).)

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Transcript

My Dear Sir.

I have to beg Your pardon for not answering Your letter earlier at the same time I wish to inform You that I shall without hesitation become a subscriber to the Antiquities of Normandy having been so well satisfied with those of Norfolk.

I remain
Yours truly
Francis Stone

Norwich
January 16. 1820.

To J. S. Cotman Esqr.

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Mounted on a larger sheet (i.e. inserted into a space cut out for it), with a cutting and a tiny part of another pasted to the same sheet. The first cutting contains a notice of the publication of Stone’s The Norfolk Bridges (1831).

(Attribution and identification of original from National Portrait Gallery catalogue (NPG D7805).)

(Transcript by Turner. At the head is written, ‘The original in Cotman’s Brasses’, i.e. a copy of J. S. Cotman’s Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk and Suffolk.)

(Transcript by Turner. At the head is written, ‘The original in Cotman’s Brasses’, i.e. a copy of J. S. Cotman’s Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk and Suffolk.)

(Transcript by Turner. At the head is written, ‘The original in Cotman’s Brasses’, i.e. a copy of J. S. Cotman’s Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk and Suffolk.)

Transcript

July 18th. 1817.

My dear Sir,

At last I return you with many thanks Mr. Cotman’s letters, & I can assure you I have felt satisfaction & delight in his satisfaction & delight. Very much should I have liked to [have] been with him (yourself & some others being of the party) at Shoreham & Steyning: ¿Is there any account of ichnography of these churches? I forget whether while waiting for the packet wch was to carry you to France, you looked at any of the neighboring villages.

I thank you again for the trouble you took respecting my question about Thou & You. I do not however feel completely answered or rather I should say refuted. ¿Can you tell me when Y was first substituted for Th? ¿Is there any language, Celtic or other, from wch both the Roman & our own are, {1} derived that is wanting in the Y, or never uses Th., or uses them promiscuously?

Do not forget, whenever you see a Norman arch regular in it’s ornaments, to examine whether it be not so connected with the other parts—windows—tower—buttresses &c. as to infer the probability of it’s never having been moved—And Vice versâ.

My inference respecting the brick & flint, & subsequently brick & thin stone, radiated arches over the windows of Churches is drawn rather circuitously. I have suspected this date to be from 1480 to 1540 for some time & should much like to have my supposition confirmed by your observation. The W. window in Ormesby tower is thus radiated: it was created 1490. Potter Heigham & other windows are so: I think I can ascertain by connecting the new roof there, with that at Ludham & another at Loddon (these roofs by the bye are another help,) that they were built about 1490. The East window of the Dutch Church, Elm Hill, Norwith (finished 1460) is not radiated. The W. window of St. Andrew’s Hall (part of the same Church) evidently more modern is radiated.

At present, my dear Sir, I cannot say when the Introduction to the Brasses will be finished, because I really cannot say when it will be begun. I am so involved with domestic trifles (for they who cannot hire assistance must use their own fingers) that I feel to have no time to spare & my wife has extorted a promise from me to compile a new Sermon every week & to preach it too—this takes me up time. “very good,” you say, “but perform all your promises in rotation, & you promised me while you were single.” I shall, I hope bye & bye be able to perform all my promises.

Mrs. Layton (my Mother is in Suffolk) tho’ unknown to Mrs. Turner, yet knowing her in character & feeling grateful for her kindness to me, begs to join me in expressions of respect & esteem for her, & for yourself. Speak for me to Elisabeth also & Harriet, Hannah, Ellen, Gurney & the poor little […] {3} How is he? How fares the colony at Halesworth? How are you all?

Yours faithfully
Js. Layton.

[Added on the outside:] Obtain for me some seeds of the Pap: Cambr: {4} & a root of a double tulip wch is at the corners of the squares in Mr. Penrice’s garden & I will thank you.

[Direction:] Dawson Turner Esq | Yarmouth.

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No marks of posting.

{1} The comma is superfluous.

{2} Reading uncertain.

{3} A word, perhaps ‘babe’, has been lost here where the seal was cut off.

{4} Papaver cambricum, the Welsh poppy.

(Transcript by Turner. At the head is written, ‘The original in Cotman’s Brasses’, i.e. a copy of J. S. Cotman’s Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk and Suffolk.)

Transcript

Dublin, 28 July 1817—

My dear Sir

I was a good deal surprised, I may say shocked, at the account of Layton’s marriage—his letter to you was one of the most desperate I have ever read—he fairly renders you the halter wherewith to hang him & is indifferent whether you do or not—he attempts no justification, shews no cause & with theatrical hardihood glories in self exposure. Is it not like the act of frenzy? no one can say it is the decision right or wrong, of a reasoning being. I really am sorry for him. You justly observe that you have yet to learn the circumstances that led to the event—something no doubt remains to be told, which indeed I should like to know, for the mysterious enigma in which the intelligence is conveyed fairly baffles me. The relation of this extraordinary transaction has led you naturally enough to general observation, & for what you have suggested as a warning to me that I make no shipwreck of myself, I receive as a further instance of your friendly regard. But tho’ I agree most entirely in the view you have taken, I must be allowed to submit in my own behalf that all your reasoning presumes (in the instance in which you apply it) that there has been if not a neglect, at least an indifference to the fair opportunity which is generally extended to all. This with perfect sincerity I can assure you is not the case with me. I may perhaps be romantic, tho’ I believe I do not pass for being so, but I have feelings about marriage which have hitherto excluded me, & may perhaps for ever, from entering upon the enjoyments (& no-one more highly values them) of that state. Without meaning to underrate worldly advantages, I never could contemplate a connexion of which these were to be the main considerations—& I know I have been blamed more than once, for what was considered turning my back upon myself—Othello says—

“But that I love the gentle Desdemona
I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into circumscription & confine
For the Sea’s worth.”—& so say I.

On the other hand, peculiar circumstances which it would be long & tedious to explain have prevented my exercising a choice free from the advantages above referred to. I never could in fact have so chosen without knowing that I was acting selfishly as regards others & impudently as regards myself. Celibacy is therefore in me, a state not of deliberate preference, but of submission to circumstances which I cannot confront & do not care to oppose.—You kindly tax me & what is worse, Mrs Turner taxes me, with protracting my stay in England & not going to you, in contempt of your joint invitation. It is true I did delay (for that is the proper word) much longer that I originally intended—but it was a delay without premeditation & without plan, continuing from week to week, or rather from day to day. I never had time sufficient in prospect, to enable me to propose an excursion to Yarmouth—to have accomplished which according to my wishes & engagements, could not have been done in a day. {1} I rely therefore on your candor for an excuse, & I must make the same appeal to Mrs Turner’s. It vexes me that you have not yet got Junot’s catalogue {2}—pray remind Mr Evans when you next are in town, that Mr Crosse of Hull, more than a year ago, sent his catalogue to be marked for you—this may bring the matter to his recollection. The Dublin Society has not yet ordered Cotman’s work, but I intend to propose it the first opportunity, I think with you that it will be of use to us. I have been searching “Nashe’s Lenten Stuff” in vain, for a word which I thought I had met in that tract, nor can I now remember it—it is that which Mr Kemble was offering an explanation of—it occurs as you told me in Shakespea[re] {3} & seems to signify some kind of ship—do remind me of it, that I may puzzle myself no longer. Mr Prendergast’s eldest son is now at Lowestoff† with a Cambridge tutor, who is cramming him during the recess—he has applied to me to bring him acquainted with some of the neighbourhood & I know no method so effectual as mentioning the circumstance to you, with an assurance that whoever may do him the kindness to notice him will find him to be an amiable, well-disposed young man, reasonably gifted & cultivated according to his time of life—he has but just left school & his residence at Cambridge is to commence with the next Term. I beg my kindest regards to Mrs Turner & your young ladies, Hannah not excepted, & believe Me to be

Yours very sincerely & faithf[ull]y
P L Patrick

[Direction:] To | Dawson Turner Esq[ui]r[e] | Yarmouth | Norfolk

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Postmarked 28 July 1817, and marked with the postage charge ‘1/6’. There are some indistinct pencil inscriptions on the outside. Letter omitted from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} A few words in this sentence were torn away with the seal, and have been supplied by Turner.

{2} The catalogue of the Library of Field Marshal Junot, sold by R. H. Evans in 1816. ‘A very remarkable collection of books, printed on vellum by Didot and other eminent printers, the most noteworthy being the unique copy of Longus’s Pastoralia, printed expressly for him by Didot, with the original drawings by Prudhon, and a set of proof impressions of the engravings to illustrate the work. Sold for £37 10s.’ See F. Norgate, ‘Book Sales by R. H. Evans (1812-1845)’, The Library, series 1, vol. iii (1891), pp. 12-13.

{3} The end of this word is concealed by the guard.

† Sic.

(The name on the print is ‘M. V. F. Lamouroux’.)

(Two messages, one in French, one in English.)

(The etchings were published the following year as A Series of Etchings illustrative of the Architectural Antiquities of Norfolk.)