Copy by Margaret Holland.
Copy by Margaret Holland.
Shulbrede Priory, Lynchmere, Haslemere. - Thanks Trevelyan for his 'most useful letter', particularly since he is compiling a second volume of English [diaries] as well as the 'Scotch and Irish' [both books were published in 1927; Ponsonby's first volume on "English Diaries" in 1923]. Would be grateful if Trevelyan could lend him Zachary Macaulay's book; has got [George] Crabbe now, as well as Dorothy Wordsworth, his 'only really bad miss'; will look up [William?] Allingham and Thelwall. Think 'slightyness' certainly ought to be 'flightyness'; would have liked to have it corrected for the second edition but is too late; is happy with the other reading for which Trevelyan suggests a correction. Asks Trevelyan to let him know if he thinks of any more diaries; has found many good ones he missed before, and 'some quite amusing MSS are coming in'. They [he and his wife Dolly?] have just been to visit Logan [Pearsall Smith] at Chilling, which is a 'perfectly delightful place'; Logan seemed very well.
24 Cheyne Row, Chelsea. - Apologizes for not answering his 'kind letter' sooner. Her uncle [Thomas Carlyle] has been more ill than she has ever seen him before for 'some weeks', but she is glad that he has now recovered and 'back into his old ways', except for being forced to drive out in the afternoon instead of taking his usual walk. They have hired a fly for the drives; he keeps on his dressing gown with a fur coat on top, and with 'hot water at his feet, he never will allow that the weather is cold even the mercury fall below the freezing point'. At home he reads, and she sometimes has trouble getting to go to bed at one or two in the morning.
He 'remembers Miss Crabbe very well'; wishes that FitzGerald had come to see him when 'so near'. She read [George Crabbe's] Tales of the Hall when around fifteen, though she 'did not understand them & as was natural found them dull*. Can 'read Scott very well', but is 'by no means an enthusiastic admirer'; her 'uncle's opinion has nothing to do with mine (!)' and he always tell her she should be ashamed to say she 'never could get to the end of Waverley, which fascinated him so much that he read it straight through almost at one sitting'.
Her uncle sends his 'kindest regards'.
Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland. - Sends a cheque for twenty pounds for the carpet. Had a 'sort of hail tornado' yesterday. in which four panes of glass in his bedroom were 'blown right across the room', and a painted window in the church broken. Would like to read Hazlitt and Crabbe, particularly Hazlitt, but is in no hurry.
Merton. - Sends Wright the 'interesting letter' from Mrs Wilkinson [sister of Edward FitzGerald; the letter is probably add.MS.a/6/17]; wishes 'she could have told us more'. Asks if Wright could get 'some account of the school life' from Mr [Arthur?] Malkin.
Beccles.—Responds to Wright’s article on the word ‘bouter’ in Notes and Queries, referring to domestic arrangements at his grandfather’s kitchen at Snettingham and his uncle's farmhouse at Redenhall.
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Transcript
Beccles
2 July 1887
My dear doctor
I observe your “Bouter” note in N & Q {1}.
Are you sure that the word is “no longer used”?.
It appears, in divers shapes, (as I dare say you know as well as I do) in the dictionaries {2}.
Cole—
Bouter—sieve
Walker—
Bolter—a sieve to separate meal from bran
Bailey—
Bolting-hutch }
Bunting-hutch } a chest or trough to sift meal in
Johnson—
Bolter—a sieve to separate meal from bran or husks or finer from coarser parts
Nuttall—
Bolting-hutch—a tub[?] {3} for bolted flour.
Bolting-mill—a machine for sifting meal.
Bolting-tub—a tub to sift meal in.
A bolter I always understood was a common, if not essential, appendage to a corn-mill. In its domestic form it became a ‘hutch’—and its top might serve as a table. Hence, naturally enough, ‘bolter-table’, or bolter,—boulter—bouter in that sense.
In the scene described by Mr Crabbe I take the men stood in the scullery waiting till the female servants at the bouter had finished their repast, either for want of room or from motives of delicacy & politeness!.
I well remember the bolting hutch in my grandfather’s kitchen at Snettingham—where it was confined to its primary use. In my uncle’s farm house at ‘Pied bridge’, Redenhall, {4} the arrangements were more bucolic. Dinner was served in the spacious kitchen—for the family at a plain walnut-tree table in the centre, & for ye farm men on a long heavy oak table placed under a side window. This was about 1812.
I do not think the maid-servants dined with the men,—I sho[ul]d say, after them. [There follows a plan of the room in question.]
All this is merely an excuse for bothering you with a letter, because we are anxious to know—if you can spare five minutes to tell us—that your convalescence is complete or progressing quite satisfactorily,—your left thumb all right & prison fare no longer requisite.
Excuse bad writing.
Ever very truly yours
S. Wilton Rix
W. Aldis Wright Esq LLD.
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Black-edged paper. The missing letters of a word abbreviated by a superscript letter have been supplied in square brackets.
{1} Notes and Queries, 2 July 1887, pp. 5-6. The note concerns a passage in the Life of Crabbe (cf. Everyman ed., pp. 137-8).
{2} The arrangement of the succeeding list has been adjusted slightly.
{3} The square brackets are in the MS.
{4} Comma supplied.