Eliza Fenwick, [5 Tavistock Square], to Mary Hays, Wandsworth Common, Thursday Evening, [postmark 24 April 1812].1
You & Orlando
both took my reproach more seriously than it was meant. I was far from
supposing you either idle or inconsiderate. But this proves how vile all sorts
of I begin to suspect
that this Ireland is to be my fate. Would you believe that the family have
open’d another negotiation with me? I am just come from visiting at her own
request Mrs
Hewitt of Tavistock place, an elegant pretty little woman the sister of Mrs Honner. The
latter it seems fell so much
in love with my letters that she cannot endure the thoughts of any other
Governess and has left her Children still at <–> school at Hammersmith in
the remote hope of still inducing me to go. Mr Honner is a native of
Ireland but has been in India where these Children were all born. The eldest
girl is near 14, the second 10, the third 8. These are my intended pupils. Little has been done for them yet in the way of
education for they have only been 18 months from India and the Lady ^with whom
they are^ tells their Aunt that they are beginning
to be humanized. I dont dislike the
idea of civilizing these little savages because less will be expected than
where education is ^to be^so laboured & diffuse. Mrs Honner,
(says her Sister) is beloved by every one who knows her, gentle amiable &
affectionate but extremely indolent (that I like) & disliking Irish
accents, blunders, & manners sees very little Company. This last clause was
I was shewn a fine
view of Lee Mount. It stands on the
side of a Hill, sheltered to the North by a wood. The grounds slope down to a
river on the other side of which rises an abrupt precipice crowned with the ruins
of a fine old Castle. The background, of a range of mountains shuts in the
whole. In a painting What ought I to do? Well, I shall see you
on Saturday week & I hope on Sunday Morning we shall have the enjoyment of
a tete-a-tete to talk over all our I long believe me for Saturday week. My mind has been strangely set upon it for this month past. No letters from Eliza! No Packets! But running ships have come from Jamaica. How dreary is this interval Yrs very truly E F Address: For |Miss Hays | Wandsworth Common Postmark: Illegible 1 Fenwick Family Papers, Correspondence, 1798-1855, New York Historical Library; Wedd, Fate of the Fenwicks 84-86; not in Brooks, Correspondence. 2 Fennick will leave the Mocattas and journey to Ireland to become governess to the Honner family. The Honners had been living in India, where Robert Honner had been an officer in the Nineteenth Regiment of the British Army. The Honners had four children: three girls and one son about a year younger than Fennick’s son, Orlando, all having been born in India. Honner had been charged with inappropriate behavior toward another officer in India in 1807 and was discharged from the Army. The Honners had returned to Ireland and in 1811 settled into an impressive estate, Lee Mount, just outside Cork. Honner's pleas for reinstatement were to no avail, so by the time Fenwick was approached about coming to Lee Mount as governess, he had resigned himself to life as a country gentleman, though his schemes for the property would not materialize as he hoped. Fenwick will leave the Honners in 1814, and shortly thereafter the Honners left as well. |
MARY HAYS: LIFE, WRITINGS, AND CORRESPONDENCE > MARY HAYS CORRESPONDENCE > 1810-1819 > 1812 >