Eliza Fenwick, Penzance, to Mary Hays, 20 Hatton Garden, 17 December [1802].1 Penzance Decr 17th Most grateful & exhilirating to my temper & feelings my dear, dear friend was your long expected letter, for when Autumn faded from us & the Cornish winter of perpetual rain set in & deprived me of my pleasures in viewing a fine country I began to feel most forcibly & despondingly that three hundred miles spread between me & every human being whose habits tastes & sympathies were in unison with mine Then your silence appeared the result of indifference & I have by me a large sheet of paper nearly filled with complaints of the untowardness of my own fortunes & reproaches of your neglect. A latent sense however of the justice I might be doing you & the pain I should inflict on one but too familiar with suffering caused me to delay from time to time sending that letter. And glad indeed I am it was delayed; your vindication is so entire to my affection that I should have been most unhappy to have added such a weight to the cares that already beset you. Do not suffer one moments
anxiety respecting the dedication.2 I feel my triumph in your friendship just as
forcibly without it. I confess I was most highly gratified by your No, my
barren imagination & still more barren situation, will not furnish any hint
towards a second work for you. Literature must be pursued either from
necessity, from appetite, or for pleasure. From the first & last my present
situation equally exclude me My
comforts here are very greatly extended by the renewal of an intimacy mistake
had interrupted between Mr T F & a Mr Vigurs4 of this town which has introduced me to the bride of Mr V— an elegant pleasing
& accomplished woman. She was born & educated in France where her
father carried on some mercantile concern & lived splendidly. The
revolution destroyed <–> ^the chief of^ his property & drove the
family to England. Herself & Sisters to leave the parents all the comforts
of their narrowed income dispersed themselves one went as Governess to Lady
Caroline Galway sister to the Marchioness of Blandford, another as companion to
Lady Dashwood but Miss F. Clarsie ^now Mrs V^ who loved independence
preferred the offer of a man of fortune in this neighbourhood who had received
many favors I was always apprehensive your removal would not increase your conveniences. I long for you to have a house. I wish I could be sheltered under the same roof & had some regular & quiet pursuit which could provide my subsistence & allow us generally to join our hours of recreation. I really contemplate (only to myself remember) Eliza and I coloring prints together for a living in some cheap lodging I know the respect that several people hold me in would bring me those attentions that would prevent the solitude & obscurity from gnawing upon my heart. I confess to you, but to you alone, that some such combination presents itself whenever I think of happiness. Eliza
has been at Falmouth since the beginning of Novr She is well &
happy. I sent her your message & she writes that with thanks for your hint
she begs you will send her some instructions how she is to pursue the study.
She has often wished to learn botany but I know nothing of it. If you can
purchase any elementary books & will send them for her with yours I have a
little fund from which I will gladly pay you. Lanno grows fast & is very,
very lovely. He makes no use of this house but to sleep in & not always
that. He roams from place to place & a young man in business here has so
won him by his fondness that he passes whole days & nights with him. No
father I have arrived at the limits of my paper without naming many subjects in yours in which I feel an interest I must defer them all. Remember me to Mr Frend5 & tell me if he is recovered. Tell me as many minute circumstances that concern yourself as you ^can^ & do not defer writing for the purpose of waiting for a frank. From the little fund above named I will purchase joyfully your letters. I am terribly teized with a fatiguing Rheumatism. I almost <–> ^case^ myself in flannell (till I did that I was very bad) yet I cannot wholly withstand the influence of the rainy weather & a cold damp ill accomodated house but Cornish air & exercise have given me very good looks & revived my former strength. I walked 16 miles last Sunday & I can bear a gallop of 25 miles to dinner at Falmouth very well Adieu Adieu! truly yours E Fenwick Address: Miss Hays | 20 Hatton Garden | London. Postmark: Illegible
1 Fenwick Family Papers, Correspondence, 1798-1855, NY Historical Library; Wedd, Fate of the Fenwicks 13-14; not in Brooks, Correspondence. 2 Hays had contemplated dedicating her soon-to-be-published Female Biography to Fenwick, but at some point altered that intention, either by her own decision or that of the publisher, Richard Phillips (probably the latter). Fenwick was flattered by the offer yet graciously accepts the reality of the situation. 3 For Anne and Annabella Plumptre, see their entry in the Biographical Index. 4 Two possibilities exist for Mr. Vigurs: A Thomas Vigurs, victualler, and a John Vigurs, Gentleman, a member of the Common Council (Universal British Directory 1791, 4.283-84. Reference here appears to be his son and his bride, Miss F. Clarsie. 5 Another reference to Hays's continued relationship with William Frend.
|
MARY HAYS: LIFE, WRITINGS, AND CORRESPONDENCE > MARY HAYS CORRESPONDENCE > 1800-1809 > 1802 >