Item 138 - Letter from Hugh James Rose

Horsham - Could WW ascertain from Mr Pricket [Marmaduke Prickett] what his views are as to a curacy. Obviously if he decides to sit for a fellowship again there is an end to the matter, but if not would he be interested in HJR's curacy? He has been ill and reading Napier's [William F. P. Napier] 'Peninsular War': 'What for a man! as my friends the Germans say - A coldblooded, long headed, Scotch Whig! What a combination of detestables! The cold admission that the war was unjust - the regular determination to defend every French act of atrocity as necessary severity - and to systematize the outbreakings of Spanish indignities as mere savage ferocity - the resolute and cold hearted depreciation of all the heroic efforts of the Spaniards at the beginning - and (with all their defects) their unbroken resolution and constant rallying under defeat'. Napier 'is a Scotchman writing for the Duke of Wellington and therefore determined to make him everything and the Spaniards nothing'. HJR would like to know what Charles W. Le Bas is preaching about: 'I envy you all being able to hear him'. HJR expects 'Eastlake [Charles Lock Eastlake] the painter here everyday and wish you could meet him'.