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Athenæum {1} May 9. 1817.

My Dear Sir.

I have to apologize for a very long and unintentional delay in replying to your two last letters, but as it has been occasioned by three events of a different nature, though of equal importance, (my appointment as Librarian to this Institution;—my marriage; {2}—and the death of a very dear and much esteemed friend,) I confidently hope to receive your pardon.—At my success in obtaining this situation, you, I am sure will feel great satisfaction, and it is with mingled sensations of pleasure and gratitude that I inform you, I am principally indebted to you for my good fortune.—As you left me at liberty to make what use I pleased of your very flattering testimonial, I sent it with others from Mr Sparrow, and Mr Gurney, to the President of the Athenæum, {3} and about a fortnight since received a letter from him of which the following is an extract.—“I have the pleasure to inform you that you were this day, at a very numerous meeting of the Committee, elected the Librarian to the Athenæum. The number of Candidates was 96, and the number of letters and testimonials, which I had to lay before the Committee, amounted to not less than 237. You are indebted for this preference on the part of the committee, to the good sense of your communications to me, supported by the uncommonly powerful recommendation of Mr D. Turner.” {4}—The letter concludes by requesting me to assume my office as soon as convenient, and I was yesterday formally inducted.—Having thus succeeded in my most sanguine wishes, and placed in a situation, where the brightness of future prospects, offers ample remuneration for the gloom of the past, I cannot refrain from expressing my most sincere and heartfelt gratitude for the generous and unexampled friendship I have invariably experienced from you; a gratitude which my employment here will hourly increase, and where every occurrence will remind me, I am indebted to you for the happiness I enjoy.—If I can in any way, become serviceable to you in Liverpool, I hope you will not hesitate to inform me, and, if amid the numerous and more respectable claimants on your correspondence, you should ever think of me, nothing (except the pleasure of seeing you at the Athenæum) would give me great joy, than being occasionally honoured with a letter from you.—

As I am unwilling to trouble Mr Sparrow with a letter, and knowing your frequent intercourse with him, may I beg the favour of you to convey to that gentleman, my most grateful thanks for his very friendly letter to me, and for every other kindness I have received from him.

I remain Dear Sir | Yours most respectfully
Geo Burrell

[Direction:] Dawson Turner Esq— | Yarmouth

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Postmarked at Liverpool on 9 May.

{1} The reference is to the Athenaeum Club in Liverpool, not the club of the same name in London, which was founded later.

{2} Burrell married Anne Wing somewhere in Suffolk on 26 April.

{3} Either John Rutter, President from 1816 to 1817, or Jonathan Brooks, the Archdeacon of Liverpool, President from 1817 to 1822.

{4} The succeeding dash is below the inverted commas in the MS, but was probably intended to follow them.

(Undated.)

(Dated Friday. Probably written about the same time as O.13.1, No. 111.)

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Transcript

Friday morn[in]g

My Dear Sir!

Let me welcome you home again, & I wish I had better news about myself. Yet, it is not bad, for my affairs are settled; only I know not which way to turn myself, at so critical a moment, & not having been able to see my immediate friends since my arrival, without a little pecuniary aid. If you & Mr Gurney (to whom I did not choose to apply in your absence) c[oul]d assist me, for perhaps a very short time; it w[oul]d be a particular convenience to me, & w[oul]d prevent the settling of my affairs from being almost ineffectual. I sh[oul]d hope to be able to repay it as soon as I got to Town (the middle of next month, when Lady Croft returns out of Cheshire); but, not to engage for more than I am sure of, can you oblige me with £150 till October, when at Michaelmas I am pay’d my midsummer rents? You will show this to Mr G. to whom I have not said a syllable. Such kindness cannot make me more than I am,

My Dear Sir, Your oblig’d friend
H[erber]t Croft.

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Letters omitted from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

(Undated, but probably written about the same time as O.13.1, No. 111.)

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My Dear Sir!

A thousand thanks for your & Mrs T.’s kind civilities about my daughters! It was my intention to have call’d & said we w[oul]d not give the trouble of coming to dinner; but, as Mr Gurney said it was arrang’d, I acquisce’d, & bagg’d him to say we w[oul]d have that pleasure.

And, now, my Dear Sir, whose friendship it gives me so much happiness to have made here, let me beg of you & Mrs Turner to serve me in another respect. You know how well I take correction as a poet, & you shall see I will bear it as well as a father. I beg you both, of whom I think so highly, to tell me what you think of my daughters; & what I can seek to alter. They have been the whole object of my life, both before I went abroad & since. As I have no son, & my first wife’s property & my own (which, on the falling-in of ground-rents in London, must shortly be above three thousand a year) must, on my death, go among my three daughters, equally, by settlement, or to their children or the survivors; I have spar’d no expense, to qualify them for the situations they have a right to, in this odd world.

But {1} my great object has been to keep all three (of course, the eldest, principally) from being coxcombs—to give them that good sense, w[hic]h is worth every thing—& to qualify them to be a comfort to a father, &, at a proper time, to a husband. Not being able to leave this place (but I hope, now, that all will soon be settled by Lady Croft & her friends), & their mother in law being employ’d about my affairs, I made them come hither; & I own that I am nearly satisfied, considering the eldest was only 18 last august. {2} But I shall long, much, to know Mrs T.’s & your real sentiments. Both of you, as parents yourselves & now looking forward about your own children, will excuse a parent’s anxiety about his; especially, when there is not any thing I would not do to prove to Mrs T. & you how truly I am,

My Dear Sir!
your most oblig’d & affect[iona]te friend
H. Croft

P.S. | May I beg you to send me those printed papers tomorrow morning, with Mrs T.’s real opinion? My daughters know nothing about that.

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Letters missing from words abbreviated by superscript letters have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} Written as a catch-word at the foot of a page and repeated at the beginning of the next.

{2} Sophia Croft was born on 18 August 1781.

Transcript

Wednesday 22nd Jan[uar]y 1800

My Dear Sir!

My daughters particularly thank Mrs T. for the drawings. Since she was good enough to offer, & my eldest daughter {1} only mixes water colours & lead (having nothing else here), I will thank Mrs T. to lend the box of body-colours she show’d me; of which my daughter will be as sparing as possible, & carefully return the rest. Indeed, they are going away, in a week or a fortnight, with Mrs Walker & Lady Irvine: which brings me to a request.—I wish them much to having the honour of knowing Mrs T.; that they may have a claim to see her, in my house or houses of their own, hereafter, when she wanders from Yarmouth: I wish them to see a Lady, whom they have repeatedly heard me mention as a model of a wife & a mother: & I sh[oul]d like to know whether Mrs T. do not think that few girls of 18 have the good sense of my eldest daughter. The greatest obligation Mrs T. can confer upon me, is to let me introduce my children to her, the evening that I read the tragedy; w[hic]h, too, they have not heard. Never mind M. Septmonville, about whom I spoke before. The sooner we fix, the better. Mr Gurney’s poem {2} is, now, finish’d; so he will not be occupied. It will be a most creditable, elegant, manly thing. Make him keep the lines to his sister; {3} w[hic]h are Ditto, as above.

Yours ditto, as ever, very faithfully
H. Croft.

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{1} Sophia.

{2} Presumably Cupid and Psyche: A Mythological Tale, from the Golden Ass of Apuleius, by Hudson Gurney, published anonymously by J. Wright, ‘opposite Old Bond Street, Piccadilly, London’, in 1799. Dawson Turner’s presentation copy, which he supplemented with a portrait and autograph of the author, is in the British Library (General Reference Collection 11632.g.2). A second edition appeared in 1800.

{3} Hudson Gurney had one full sister, Agatha, who married Sampson Hanbury, and two half-sisters, Elizabeth, who married John Gurney Jr, and Anna. See W. H. Bidwell, Annals of an East Anglian Bank (1900), p. 400.

Written from Keswick, nr. Norwich.

AS thanks WW for his prompt action. He has signed the memorial and returned it to Mr Barrett [see AS to WW, 3 June 1863]: 'Poor Lucas Barrett's death was a national loss'. AS is feeling much better in health. However poor Hudson Gurney is nearly at the end of his journey.

AS is looking forward to the possibility of seeing WW and Cordelia Whewell in January: 'my house will be at your service'. AS will try to persuade George and Richarda Airy to come up. 'Poor Hudson Gurney left Norwich for London a few days since - It is not expected that he will ever return. Since he reached Norwich he has on the whole been better; but he is obliged to have a surgeon constantly with him - His loss will be felt by many'. AS's gout does not disturb him much now.

(The directions of the franked letters are signed ‘H free Gurney’, not ‘W. H. Gurney’, as stated in the Index (O.14.51), p. 161 et seq.)