Eliza
Fenwick, Lee Mount, to Mrs. M. Hays, at T. Hays, Esqr, Mill Street, Dock Head,
Southwark, 13 April 1814 [note here to Crabb Robinson about Fenwick’s son,
Orlando].1
Lee Mount April 13 1814
My dear Friend,
I congratulate you heartily on
your farewell to Northamptonshire and your prospects at Clifton and I should
when last dispatching a letter to Eliza have written some of the crowding
thoughts that yours had occasioned in my mind, but that I had difficulty to
bear the exertion of a very few lines to her from the effects of a violent
attack chiefly in my head resembling in anguish last years visitation but attending
attended with more fever. Either nervous or bilious it must be & was I
think brought on by a foolish ^unfounded^ fright which I now have not time to
explain. I am <–> perfectly recovered by but some casualties have
rendered it impossible to write, as I wished, much, yet selfishness will not suffer me to delay any longer
asking for that kind that ready assistance which has ever been prompt &
zealous for my benefit. Time pressing so much I cannot at present enter into
the details of why I think it my duty not
to allow Orlando to go to the West Indies. Mr Rutherfords &
Eliza’s intentions & wishes are as generous and sincere as ever, but some
unlucky contingencies have fallen in their way & struggling as they are in
the outset of life I will not burthen their labours with such an expence as
from the answers to my direct
enquiries I find it would be to push Orlando forward in the Law across the
Atlantic. Nor will I use any portion of their money, unless fortune should
become very lavish in her favors to them. Yet it is as you justly say high time
to fix him & I am looking round with indescribable anxiety and
embarrassment as to the means. You are I suppose visiting again your family
connections: Do I make a troublesome or injudicious solicitation when I ask you
to enquire among them or of any commercial acquaintance for a vacant situation
that this boy can fill. You know him and love him but do not recommend him too
warmly lest he seem below your estimate. 16 he will be next month, with a sound
constitution and not an untractable disposition. He has (& it was his own
plan) latterly applied himself to learn book-keeping under a brother of his
school master who was principles chief Clerk in some irish Commercial
house. Of his progress I do not pretend to judge but if it were incompetent I wd
get him lessons from Tate of Throgmorton Street who I remember to have
heard is an eminent teacher of Counting house business. Orlando himself I must
tell you is of opinion that he needs no further instruction beyond what
practice will give him. I do not imagine that at first he can look for much
remuneration, nor shall I be reluctant to bear the chief burthen of his
maintenance till he shall be deemed equal to such employment as will provide
for his support. Bear in your mind my dear friend that I do not attempt to
choose. Situated as I am I must look to casualties for the fixing his
destination. I name offices & counting houses as places that occur to my
mind, not as directing you or any benevolent person who would assist him to get
forward how he is to be <–> established. I will say no more, than that he
is very decently equipped in point of Wardrobe & I hope & trust will
not in any way disgrace your recommendation. If you think proper to mention ^it^ to Mr Hays
pray offer my Compts & good wishes. I could send him
Orlando to London speedily to London, but unless any thing shd
offer I propose keeping him till next month here.
Now my dear friend
excuse this short & selfish letter. I have many extracts I long to send you, & much to say on my own views. Eliza has begun a school at Barbadoes to try, very prudently, whether the
support that has been promised will be given to such an extent as to secure me
such compensation as will indemnify me for risque & inconvenience. More of
this when I write again which shall be soon.
Public events seem
little short of miraculous. Engrossed by my own affairs I yet cannot help
looking at them with great emotion.
Your letter demands much to be
said on various points, but as I said before I can only now sympathize in your
escape from Oundle And however envious of the Clifton Lady’s superiority over
me2 I shall not easily believe you will love her better than you do your
affectionate
E
Fenwick
I have written a line to Mr Robinson about Orlando in the
cover of this letter.3
Address: Mrs M. Hays | T. Hays Esqr | Mill Street | Dock Head | Southwark
Postmark: 23 April 1814
1 Fenwick Family Papers, Correspondence, 1798-1855, New York Historical Library; Wedd, Fate of the Fenwicks 154-56; not in Brooks, Correspondence.
2 Hays's stay at Mrs. Mackie's school for girls in Oundle did not go well, and she had already broached the idea of living with Penelope Pennington in Dowry Square, the Hotwells, Bristol, at the base of the hill upon which Clifton sits; Fenwick had also proposed the idea that she and Hays would form their own school and live together, and this idea Fenwick would continue to float for the next decade and more, her last proposal occurring when she and young Eliza were living in New Haven, Connecticut.
3 The cover is no longer extant.