June 29-30, 1819 MRM to Elford: image sequence

[ebeshero]

For @lmwilson , here's the sequence of images for this super long letter!

1 - 487 ends with "you give your reasons — which reviewers by profession never do —& have"

2 - 488 : top: "quite fortified me in my old opinions by telling me why I thought so" . . .

bottom: "Another fault which I think I have mentioned before is the sameness of her characters— they all say"

3 - 490 top: "one thing 20 times over. In some Russian Travels—I don't remember whether Dr. Clarke's or Sir R. K. Porter's—there is an account of a concert of wind instruments performed by an almost countless number of Vassals of some great Lord each of whose instruments has but one note so that the living machines form themselves the entire musical scale. Now Madame D'Arblay's characters are like these."

bottom: "Perhaps this promise, which was made and broken once before in the preface to the Antiquary may be kept this time—then one looked on it as a threat—now it seems a promise”

4 - 492 top: "so much have Rob Roy and this Bride of Lammermoor diminished the influence of this author of Waverly."

bottom: "But then there is one man of flesh and blood—a certain Captain Dalgetty & his horse Gustavus in whom I delight. I don't know which"

5 - 496 top: "I like best. Tell me if you are not amused with Captain Dalgetty."

bottom: (after a jerk): "My dear Mama has been into Hampshire last week to pay a bridal visit to an old friend of ours a perfect giant who has just married the prettiest fairy in the world—a very Queen that—Mama says she might almost go into his pocket. This dear Mama is not quite well—the journey & the" 


6 - 498 (whole address leaf with two writing panels)

7 - 500: (panel that continues from 496): top: "heat and perhaps the variety of strange fares did not agree with her—she is better since her return…"

bottom: signs off.

8 - 499 (other panel on address leaf: appears to be a postscript): "I can't let even this little "way bit" go unresolved, so I must tell you…"
... ends with "Goodbye!"