Miss Eden's Letters

To be sure – the luck of having you as my editress, my shield, my sword, my everything. You know everybody, and are good friends with them all.

Miss Eden to Lady Theresa LewisCHILD’S HILL, HAMPSTEAD, Monday [August 1859].

MY DEAREST THERESA, The important enclosure arrived safely this morning, and I sent Ellis forthwith to get the money and pay it in at Drummond’s, for fear Bentley should fail to-day. But my belief is that he is a wealthy Bentley; and he has behaved like a gentleman, and evidently is not discontented with his bargain. And so, all’s well that ends well, even if it be only a Semi-Detached House.

Thank you again and again, dearest Theresa, for all the successful trouble you took. Nobody but you could have brought the affair to such a good end, and I now fondly think that between this and November you will work up the Harcourt income to £4000 a year! You made £100 out of the £25 I expected, therefore, etc., etc.

You all sound very happy at Harpton, and Lord Clarendon had given me the same account, and said how much his girls573 were taking to their new cousin, and how pleased they were with Thérèse’s perfect happiness.

The house in Pont Street is a good idea. Thérèse will be so handy for you to fetch and carry, and it will be such a mere step for her to Kent House. I do not mean to settle yet what my little offering is to be. I want to choose it myself when I go back to town. And then I have rather set my heart on a china dessert service, but if anybody else steps in, I can easily set my heart on something else. There are so many duplicates in wedding presents; such unnecessary quantities of inkstands and cream jugs; that I think it better to wait a little and hit the spot at the end. I began life by giving my sister Mary a dessert service when she married on £900 a year, and settled in that little cottage at Neasdon; and in all their after wealth Mr. Drummond never would have any other, but went on filling up the breakages in the old pattern to the end. And so it has been my usual wedding cadeau since, and I gave one to J. Colvile574 when he went to India, and as I look on Thérèse as a niece, I should like to go jogging on in the old dessert fashion; so, if anybody consults you, say that is bespoke. So Mr. Harcourt may have one. But you will let me know in the course of time. The Sydney Herberts called here yesterday. They had slept at the Grenville farm and he came very good-naturedly to assure himself, he said, that I was aware of the complete success of “Semi,” which seems to have taken his fancy prodigiously. He said it had become a sort of byword in London, and that if anybody talked of taking a house, the answer was, Semi-detached, of course. I have not seen him for 12 years, and he is not the least altered in looks. They were going to dine with Florence Nightingale575 at Hampstead, or rather at her house, for she has come quite to the last days of her useful life and is dying of disease of the heart. Every breath she draws may be heard through her closed doors, but when she can speak she still likes to talk to Mr. Herbert of soldiers’ hospitals and barracks, and to suggest means of improving them. Ever your affectionate

E. EDEN.Miss Eden to Lady Theresa LewisEDEN LODGE, KENSINGTON GORE,Saturday evening, November 1859.

MY DEAREST THERESA, Between Lena,576 and Lady Ribblesdale,577 and Eddy and Theresa, and all the maids in the house, I am mistress of every detail of the wedding, and I am so very glad that it all went off so beautifully. Lena says it is the most interesting wedding she has been at; there was so much feeling and family affection floating about; and I hear dear Thérèse looked very pretty and very pale. But it is you, my old dear, that I have been thinking of all day – thinking so much that I am obliged to write to get the subject off my mind. I am so sorry for you, but only just at this moment. And, after all, the wedding is not so bad as the day of proposal to the mother. Then you had nothing to look to but her going away; and now your next prospect is her coming back; and in the meanwhile you have done all in your power to secure her happiness.

God bless you, dear. This does not require an answer, but I could not resist writing, and I thought you would like to know that I was as well as could be expected; after the fatigue of being at Mrs. Harcourt’s wedding this morning. I really feel as if I had been there. Your affectionate

E. EDEN.Miss Eden to Lady Theresa LewisRICHMOND,Monday evening [October 1860].

MY DEAREST THERESA, It is just bedtime, but I must write a line of warm congratulation on the advent of the grandchild and our dear Thérèse’s safety;578 I missed the announcement in The Times this morning, and it was not till the middle of the day that Lena, with a railroad sort of screech, made the discovery, and then with infinite presence of mind I said, “Then Theresa cannot be come to town and I shall hear from her this evening.” And so I did.

What a discovery chloroform is. By the time we are all dead and buried, I am convinced some further discovery will be made by which people will come into the world and live through it and go out of it without the slightest pain.

Don’t you think that if Thérèse continues to go on as well as she has begun you will be able to drive down here? Lady Clarendon sometime ago got an order for Lena to see Strawberry Hill, but as Lena only returned from Wells on Saturday I made no use of it till to-day, and then we found Lady Waldegrave was living there. However, an imposing groom of the chambers showed us the pictures, and Lena saw the rest of the home, while I was all the time longing to ask him if he knew anything about Thérèse, but felt too low in the scale of creation to propound such a question to him.

My best love to her. Do come here. Your affectionate

E. EDEN.Miss Eden to Lady Charlotte GrevilleEDEN LODGE, KENSINGTON GORE, October 24 [1863].

MY DEAREST LADY CHARLOTTE, A sudden wish has seized me to write to you – not that I have an atom of a thing to say except the old hacknied fact that I am very fond of you, and also that I heard constantly of you when I was at Richmond through your sons,579 and the Flahaults,580 and that now I do not see how I am to hear of you at all, except somebody at Hatchford (not you) will have the kindness to write to me.

Barring the loss of the view, and the drives in that beautiful park, I do not miss my Richmond so much as I expected.

There is always something intensely comfortable in home, and my own books and things, and I am very busy with a new sitting-room that I have made upstairs, by throwing two small bedrooms into one. It has made a very pretty warm room, looks clean and bright, and then there is the fun of furnishing it. It is painful to look out of the window. Those dreadful Royal Commissioners have cut down all the fine trees belonging to Gore House581 and are running up a blank wall 20 feet high, for their new garden.

My own trees are the only ones left in this neighbourhood, and though the blank wall is better than another row of houses staring into my garden, the general effect is that of living just outside the King’s Bench Prison. I look upon a man who cuts down a large tree in London as capable of committing murder, or any other crime, and have a vague idea that the Road Murder582 might be traced home to Prince Albert and Lord Granville, or one of these Commissioners.

It will interest Lady Ellesmere to know that Lena583 has returned to her navvies, and has been greeted with the greatest warmth. Indeed, I should prefer a little more coolness in her place, as they all insist on shaking hands, and I imagine washing is a virtue they do not practise more than once a week. However, they are an interesting race, very grateful in their rough way; and the Controller and Clerk of the Works both say that there is a great improvement in their habits, and are very eager now to encourage the readings. A great deal of the work in these gardens has now passed into the hands of London bricklayers and carpenters. They steadily declined listening to Mr. Ward, the missionary, and were very rude to him.

He was very anxious Lena should try and tame them, so she began by collecting the débris of her navvies, and sitting down with them under the old tree (which they have killed of course), and some of the bricklayers gathered round and began to laugh, so she told them very quietly that they need not come out of their shed to listen to her if they did not like it, but that if they came out she could not allow any laughing at such a serious subject. And they took it very well and said they did not mean to jeer, and that if she would come to their shed, they would listen if they might smoke; and the navvies in their gentleman-like way advised her to go, and said they would go with her, and they made a path with planks and put up a sort of seat, and showed the bricklayers how the little lady, as they call her, was to be treated. And it all went well. She read them a tract called Slab Castle, which always touches them, and when she came to the chapter on the Bible, half of the bricklayers were in tears, particularly the ones who had laughed, and they conveyed her to the gate, begging she would come again, and clamorous for copies of Slab Castle – which I advise her to decline giving for the present. But they have been extremely civil and attentive since, and she has certainly heard such satisfactory accounts of her old congregation, that it is an encouragement to go on. My love to Lady or Lord E., and believe me ever, dearest, your affectionate

E. EDEN.

I hope Alice will not insist on my liking Miss Yonge’s new book.584 It is more unintelligible than “The Daisy Chain,” though not quite so tiresome. But she brings in too many people. There are four generations of one family, and her moral is quite beyond me. Those that are well brought up turn out wicked, and the worldly family produce a crop of saints. I am proud to say I am quite incapable of construing the slang she makes her ladies talk.

Miss Eden to Lady Theresa LewisEDEN LODGE, KENSINGTON GORE, Monday, December [1863].

MY DEAREST THERESA, It is obvious that I must write and wish you and yours a happy New Year, and a great many of them, and one happier than the other; but barring that I do not see that I have anything else to say. London is so utterly empty during Christmas week, everybody thinking it right to go to somebody else’s house, and it is always the most solitary week of the year to me. But I feel so comfortable in the thought that I am not passing it in bed as I have for the twelve preceding years, that it seems to me a singularly merry Christmas.

I suppose you are all rehearsing and acting. Lady Derby writes word that she hears Alice585 is well enough now to think of acting on the 11th, so I hope she has made great progress in health since she got home. Lady Derby gives rather a poor account of him; he gains strength so slowly, but she says that after being confined to his own room for three months, he was now able to get about the house at times…

The only two people I have seen this week have been Lord Brougham and Sir C. Wood.586 Lord Brougham was only in town for two nights on his way to Cannes. He is quite enthusiastic about my father’s papers, and has written something about them in the Law Review, and he was rather good-humoured and pleasant. But on going away he always cries so much at the prospect of our not meeting again, that he leaves me in a puzzled state of low spirits. All the more, that I have not the remotest idea whether it is his death or mine that he is crying over; but he looks so well, I think it must be mine.

By the bye, your old Dean Milman587 came hobbling into the room on Saturday, full of abject apologies to Lena, whom he chose to suppose he had affronted, and taking great care to ignore his real grand sin of abducting the papers without asking leave. However, he came to say that he was most agreeably surprised that Mr. Hogge has done his part well,588 and that he and Mrs. Milman had been greatly interested, etc., which she amply confirmed. I like her very much, and she is still so handsome… Good-bye, dearest. I did not write sooner, as I had just written to the Grove when your letter came, and as everything is public property there, this counts for a letter to Lord Clarendon as well as to you. Your affectionate

E. EDEN. Miss Eden to her Niece, Mrs. Dickinson. 589 Eden Lodge, Kensington Gore [1864].

MY DEAR MRS. DICKINSON, I am charmed with your letter, I wanted to have one from you. Dear old Longleat! I should so like to see it again. I passed so much of my youth so very happily there, and I do not think I ever attained loving anybody more than Lady Bath,590– not this one591– but her mother-in-law, and the daughters pay back to me the affection I had for their mother…

I suppose they told you about the Horticultural Fête? I saw and heard nothing but the crash of carriages, and linkmen went on screaming for them till nine at night. I have not heard linkmen screaming for the last thirteen years.

Yesterday Lena got leave from one of her friends working in the garden, to bring me in thro’ a little obscure door into the great conservatory, which we had to ourselves, and I really could hardly believe the flowers were real, they were so unearthly beautiful, particularly the geraniums and roses, great round stools of flowers of the brightest colours. Some day I have a fancy that I shall be well enough to go down and visit you, my old pet. What a bore for you! Your aff.

E. E.Miss Eden to Lady Theresa Lewis March [1865].

MY DEAREST FRIEND, I would rather write to you myself. I am so thankful I saw and took leave of dear Mary. She wished it so much herself, and was as loving and as dear as ever. You know we had always been the greatest friends of the family, and till I went to India, we had never missed for a single day writing to each other. It was an intimacy that only two sisters nearly of an age can have, and she referred to it again on Tuesday, and told me still to be a mother to her children. They always have been like my own children. But I am most thankful I was able to witness such a really happy deathbed as hers, so calm, so peaceful, and her mind as entirely clear as it ever was in its best days. And to see those six tall sons, four daughters-in-law, and her three daughters all round her bed, the sons more overwhelmed even than the daughters, and she thanking them, and saying how happy they had made her, it was a scene that quite comforts me for her loss, and her poor daughters had quite the same feeling. I saw them yesterday after the case was hopeless and they were quite calm.

Dearest Theresa,592 I do not think it good for you just now to go through more melancholy scenes, otherwise you are one of the few I should like to see. I depend on you so much. Is it not strange that with my health I should have outlived my six sisters – all, except Lady Godolphin, in perfect health when I came from India? Ever, dearest, your affectionate

E. EDEN.Miss Eden to Mrs. DickinsonEDEN LODGE, 1863.

I have been out only four times since I came to London. The very ordinary looking women who inhabit London at this time of year, with last year’s dirty little bonnets put at the back of last year’s dirty little faces, and with dirty gowns to match spread over absurd hoops, make me quite uncomfortable.

The “Semi-Attached Couple” was written in that little cottage at Ham Common. I do not exactly know who Mrs. B. was at this moment, but all our Camp ladies were always lying-in, and it is a very easy business in India.

I do not exactly see unless I turn back, and grow young again, that I shall ever visit you at Berkley,593– Richmond is looked upon by doctors as an immense journey for me. I am very much pleased my book altogether amused you. I have such quantities of old letters of thanks for it, from people I had forgotten. I had a grand letter from Lord Houghton (Monckton Milnes) in praise of my pure facile English, among other things Slang was not invented in my day.

You are quite right to make your children’s childhood happy, and as merry as possible, but please do not spoil them. Life does not spoil anybody, and so teach them early to take it as it comes – cheerfully. Your aff.

E. E.

[Miss Eden died in August 1869: her friend Lady Campbell three months later.]

THE END

1

Life and Letters of the Fourth Earl of Clarendon. by Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

2

William and his seven brothers and three sisters, were brought up by their mother, his father having died when he was only eleven years of age. (Lady Eden was the daughter of W. Davison of Beamish Park, Durham.)

3

Sir Gilbert Elliot (1751-1814). In 1806 he was appointed Governor-General of India, and created Earl of Minto in 1813.

4

Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Bart. (1806-1863), of Harpton Court, Radnorshire. On his father’s death in 1855 he succeeded to the baronetcy; he became Chancellor of the Exchequer the same year, Home Secretary in 1859, and Secretary for War in 1861.

5

A full account of this time is given in Life and Death of Lord Edward FitzGerald, by Thomas Moore, also in Edward and Pamela FitzGerald, by Gerald Campbell.

6

Hon. Eleanor Eden, married in 1799 Lord Hobart (Earl of Buckinghamshire). He died in 1816; she was generally known as Lady Bucks.

7

Anne Isabella, daughter of Sir R. Milbanke Noel, married Lord Byron, January 2, 1815. He had proposed to her and been refused in 1812.

8

Miss Eden’s sister, who married Charles Drummond the banker in 1819.

9

Nicholas Vansittart (1766-1851), Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1812; he was created Baron Bexley in 1823; he had married Miss Eden’s sister, who died in 1810.

10

Miss Eden’s brother, Lord Auckland (the comical dog); he succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Auckland in 1814. He became President of the Board of Trade in 1830, First Lord of the Admiralty in 1834, Governor-General of India in 1835, First Lord of the Admiralty in 1840.

11

By Claude de Ruthière.

12

Daughter of Robert, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire; she married, Sept. 1, 1814, Frederick John Robinson, second son of Thomas, Lord Grantham. Created Viscount Goderich in 1827. He became Prime Minister after Canning’s death.

13

Her father, who died May 28, 1814.

14

Her sister, Charlotte Eden, married Lord Francis Godolphin Osborne in 1800.

15

George, subsequently 8th Duke of Leeds.

16

Daughter of 3rd Lord Bessborough, married W. Lamb (Viscount Melbourne) in 1805, and finally separated from him in 1825. She died in 1828.

17

Near Dorchester, belonging to Lord Ilchester.

18

In Berkshire, belonging to Colonel Arthur Vansittart, who married Caroline Eden.

19

Miss Eden’s brother.

20

Count Meerveldt was the Austrian Ambassador; he died the following year.

21

Widow of Spencer Percival, who was assassinated in 1812; she married, secondly, Mr. Carr (Lieut. – Col. Sir H. Carr).

22

Lady Elizabeth Fox-Strangways, widow of Mr. Talbot of Laycock Abbey in Wiltshire, married, secondly, in 1804, Captain Feilding, R.N., afterwards Rear-Admiral.

23

Amelia, daughter of Viscount Melbourne, married in 1805 5th Earl of Cowper.

24

Lady Sarah Fane, daughter of 10th Earl of Westmoreland, married in 1804 5th Earl of Jersey.

25

Lady Louisa Fox-Strangways married in 1808 Henry, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne.

26

Lady Louisa Fitzmaurice.

27

Earl of Kerry, aged three.

28

Caroline married in 1831 3rd Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe, and Horatia married in 1850 Mr. T. Gaisford.

29

A Treaty of Peace was signed at Ghent between England and the United States on December 24, 1814.

30

A great friend of Lord and Lady Holland, born in 1764.

31

Sir George Onesiphorus Paul (1746-1820). “One of the prettiest places” was Hill House, Woodchester, Gloucestershire.

32

Juliana, daughter of the Hon. and Rev. W. Digby, Dean of Durham.

33

Charles Hanbury, a diplomatist and writer; he took the name of Williams in 1729. He was knighted in 1744.

34

Lady Susan Fox-Strangways married Mr. O’Brien, a handsome young actor, in 1764.

35

Miss Eden’s sister Mary, aged twenty-two, and her brother Lord Auckland, were staying at Melbury, Dorchester, with Lord Ilchester.

36

Lady Theresa Strangways, married in 1837 9th Lord Digby.

37

Miss Grant, Lady Ilchester’s mother.

38

Miss Eden’s nephew, aged ten.

39

Sir G. Paul was only sixty-eight years old.

40

Morton and Bob, Miss Eden’s two brothers.

41

Lord Auckland was auditor of Greenwich Hospital.

42

Dropmore belonged to William Wyndham, Lord Grenville.

43

The Corn Law of 1815 which closed the ports to the importation of foreign grain till the prices reached eighty shillings a quarter.

44

Miss Eden’s brother-in-law.

45

The battle of Waterloo had been fought on the 18th June.

46

Magdalene, daughter of Sir J. Hall, Bart., married Sir William Howe Delancey, K.C.B., in March or April 1815. He was mortally wounded at Waterloo.

47

William, 15th Earl of Erroll.

48

George Elliot, son of the first Earl of Minto; married in 1810 Eliza Cecilia, daughter of James Ness of Osgodby, York. He commanded the Chinese Expedition in 1840.

49

This was a party badge.

50

Thomas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, married, 1807, Jean, daughter of James Wedderburn Colvile. He was Lady Delancey’s uncle.

51

Sir William Delancey died in a cottage in the village of Mont St. Jean a week after he was wounded. His wife wrote a description of his death, which was published in 1906: A Week at Waterloo in 1815, edited by Major B. R. Ward.

52

Lady Louisa Fitzmaurice, married in 1845 Hon. James Kenneth Howard.

53

The Austrian Ambassador died on July 4.

54

Lady Delancey married, secondly, in 1819, Captain H. Harvey.

55

Thomas Heaphy, 1775-1835. He painted on the spot Wellington and his officers before an action in the Peninsular War.

56

Lady Katherine Douglas, sister of Lord Selkirk, married in July 1815 John Halkett, Governor of the Bahamas.

57

The tutor.

58

Chancellor of the Exchequer.

59

Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, Prime Minister. He married Louisa Theodosia, daughter of the Bishop of Derry (Earl of Bristol).

60

Lady Sarah Robinson, Lady Buckinghamshire’s step-daughter.

61

Miss Eden’s sister, Mrs. Colvile.