МЕЛБУРН: Писма на Каролина Нортон до Виконт Вилијам Лемб II

The Letters of Caroline Norton to Lord Melbourne

 

[Maiden Bradley] August, 25 [1831]

Dearest Lord,

A thousand thanks for your kindness with regard to the picture, and indeed I blush to think that my innocence so misled me as to make me suppose there was but one penitentiary in the City of Crime of which you are an inhabitant and Poodle Byng Commissioner [sic] of Supplies. I have written to bid Chas Norton instantly purchase it from the hands of the fair widow & I am very glad it has turned out a true portrait. Its faults will be of no consequence in my mother’s eyes & I doubt not but that she will discover a likeness in the child to my father when she married him; so once more many thanks for Georgia & myself.

Your assertion respecting your youth is curios: When I was whipped in days of yore, I always defied consequences, but the fingers of the whipper in, and rushed to repeat my crime, - which proves that it was good for you to be whipped and very bad for me. I can recollect no single instance in which I was subdued by harshness and I think it is a general mistake, governing children by “force of arms” which restraints the weakest only till their strength & and yours are nearly in pair. My boy is a little better, but he is a very sickly child, and he has been so since he was six months old, when Norton drove us down on a Xmas visit to Hampton Ct in an open gig. The child got an inflammation on its lungs and was given over by all medical men who saw it in consequence of this journey. Till that time, it was so very pretty with its dark eyes and red cheeks, that the villagers at Long Ditton called it “Mossrose”, seeing that its rosy face was surmounted by a green velvet cap of my manufacturing. Mothers always grow fonder – I believe – of their offspring, in proportion as they are sickly, plain & unengaging to strangers. I scarcely cared then to have it with me for above an hour or two in a day, when everybody admired and begged for it as a plaything, but now they never notice it, except to ask what ails the creature, I can’t bear it out of my sight and think everything it says is a miracle. But enough on so small subject. What you say of the affection subsisting between members of a large family is I think perfectly true; and the one that is gone, always seems the favorite of all. Faults are so soon forgotten when they have ceased to irritate us; and works and looks, that were indifferent to us while they were familiar things, seem lost treasures when they are remembered. The very empty place which we were accustomed to see always occupied by the same form, brings more bitterly home the reflection “they are all there by him” all – why should he be taken from amongst his companions. I think it is almost worse than losing an only child, for then the mother may sit down silently in her sorrow, while in the other case, she is constantly listening to the laughter & voices of her remaining children, and missing he one laugh & the one voice which she alone remembers to have mingled in the confused sounds of merriment. It keeps one’s sorrow alive, which is a think Seymour particularly objects to, and is constantly lecturing about as if it were a sin to lament more than one week for any relation. – The post is just gone so I must fold & seal.

Ever yrs. truly

C. Norton

 

Maiden Bradley

August 26 [1831]

I was cruelly interrupted yesterday by Mr. Fleetfoot, the aged Postman, when on the point of replying to that part of your august epistle which relates to my regretting that I had not done as well as I might have done. “My good man” (as my mother say[s] to her sons-in-law when she is very angry) I would not give a fillip to be a Duke’s wife tomorrow. If it was mere position in the world which I had desired, and in which I had been disappointed, depend upon it I should not have expressed it to you; as I should be ashamed of that feeling, tho {though? z.b.} not of my vanity so much as you could wish. I am amply content to be Mistress N, even without the Honble and have even a pleasure in feeling when I am in company with your proud ones, that little as I am, I am as satisfied as the best of them, perhaps more so – that I wish for nobody’s place or lot in preference to my one, and know that they can take nothing from me, or humble me in any one way. At least I have never been humbled yet.

My regret for past disappointments is of different nature, and happily does not prevent my having a very tolerable share of interest in the present & the future; a life is not wrecked at twenty; it is venerable persons like yourself, who look back most bitterly at lost opportunities & and talented misused – we get over it. The only misfortune I ever particularly dreaded, was living & dying a lonely old maid, which I am happy to say, has been prevented. I am a first object with one person (Mr. Norton), and a secondary object with a good many – more, I do not desire. An old maid is never any one’s first object, therefore I object to that situation. I like to be coaxed and petted & made much of, to whip my children & give them doses of rhubarb, and to correspond with noblemen who direct to me Mrs. Norton. My Lord, I am contented. I have not The Faerie Queene with me, but as it is a favorite of mine, I will look into it the first thing on mu return, while my maid is unpacking my trunk. Many remarks have been made upon our acquaintance, but never one (in my hearing) of the satisfactory nature you suppose – nevertheless I am quite willing to believe that I am wonderfully benefitted by it, and at any rate as it is a great pleasure to me, I can the better bear doubt on the subject from “my friends and the public”. Your remarks on the dangers incurred by Sir R. Adair, were I presume intended to teach me refinement on my Grandfather’s play. Eh? Old boy? – Defend yourself with that mixture of mendacious eloquence and assurance which is so striking a feature of your mind.

 

27^th

I have just received the agreeable intimation (are there two e’s in agreeable? Seymour says there are) that our house has become so tempting that yesterday morning between one & three A.M. it was broken into, and our small stock of plate stolen therefrom; together with a silver & ebony stuff box by Nortons; a bunch of seals of different sizes with crest & arms of our illustrious ancestors etc.; a small parcel containing merino dress for my little child, which I have been dying to have, as the weather is so uncertain here and he suffers so from cold, and a silver teapot belonging to the late respectable & long lamented Ld. Grantley.

I could not help being a little amused after the pains we took with our outside, to have our inside so cruelly plundered, and as we believe by the very man who did all our improvements, and who we know hear is the greatest rascal unhung; was refused as a policeman, on account on his bad character, and has been before the magistrate on suspicion on theft, more than once. Norton is greatly concerned [sic], and is now sitting with folded arms wondering what is to be done, while I, as soon as I have finished talking to you, mean to write to the active Tom Walker and beseech [sic] his assistance to revenge the theft of my bay’s blue [dress] which is the part of the burglary [illegible] au coeur [or in vulgar English stick in the gizzard]. Charles Norton has taken every step which was necessary and if we recover any of our spoons, we shall of course be obliged to melt them into a plate or medal to present to him for a token of gratitude. Good bye. God bless you.

Yrs ever truly

Caroline Norton

 

28^th

I have just got yr long epistle of this morning. I am alarmed {b.b.} at your taking a respectable male companion to Brocket. It looks as if you wanted to fit up yr house for a respectable female one. Don’t be extravagant. I dare you say it will hold everybody as comfortably as possible & suit the lady’s maid up stairs.

 

(“The Letters of Caroline Norton to Lord Melbourne” - edited by James O. Hoge and Clarke Olney; OHIO State University press 1974, Library of Congress)