MRS. ROGERS'S LETTERS 17 health, and I hope spirits. Dr. Price returned home on Saturday evening in perfect health, but his complexion has received a very different hue. He preached on Sunday morning, and Mr. Pickbourne in the evening. Mr. and Mrs. Burgh dined and drank tea at Dr. Price's. . . . We went to London yesterday morning, and called in Friday Street. Mrs. Bowles told me she has at times suffered great uneasiness on account of the criticalness of trade, but that Mr. Welch had been extremely kind to them in giving them assistance. Mr. Bowles. came upstairs, and seemed in exceeding good spirits, and said, I think, that he wrote to you on Saturday. Bessy goes to school on Thursday, so I asked Mrs. Bowles to dine with us, and offered to send the chariot for her. Mr. Lisle's house is again disposed of to a Mr. Coxe, a refiner in Little Britain. Did you ever hear of him? My expectations are mighty small. Mr. Farmer has resigned Salter's Hall, his health not permitting him to continue it. . . 'I suppose you will receive poor Sammy's letter to-morrow. You will easily perceive that it was entirely his own. He told mee-a little rascal!-that he was determined to tell his papa that I had left off dipping Maria. 'Adieu! my dearest T. R. Be ever assured of my sincerest affection, and continue to love and think of your number five and your own The letters continue in the same strain. On the 25th of July she tells her husband of Sammy's illness from the speckled sore-throat, which seems to have been one of the terrors of the time. She had heard a good deal of city news,' one item of which was that a new bank—' Sir Richard Glyn's house '-was to open, with my Lord Mayor at its head.' In the next letter she reports that Sammy's throat is still bad, but that he continues in charming spirits, and has no fever. 'Dr. and Mrs. Price spent the evening with us last night, and Dr. Price was speaking on what very advantageous terms they were granting annuities on the Douglas and Heron bank -provided the security was good-upon which he and Mary Mitchell agreed to go to London this morning to ask Mr. Welch's opinion of it, and if they should hear a satisfactory account of it to risk about 200l. apiece.' Dan and Tom had gone to Mr. Burgh's, as Mr. Burgh was too ill to come to them. On the 29th, the day before Sammy's birthday, Tommy begins a letter, but his fluency failing, as his mother says, she completes it, complaining that the postman had slighted her, and reporting a visit from Mrs. Cockburn, wife of the schoolmaster, to say that Tommy had fainted at school, but was better again, and the doctor had advised some bark. The last of this series of letters is dated on the 1st of August. She tells her husband of a drive she had taken to Southgate, to see the Miss Birches, but not finding them at home she had gone on to Mrs. Jones's, on the Chase, where we were received in a very polite and friendly manner. It is quite a sweet situation, and the walking about so pleasant that it was nine o'clock by the time we reached home, rather too late an hour now.' She adds I am afraid my T. R. will think me a racketting female, MRS. ROGERS'S LETTERS 19 but everybody admires the appearance of the horses, and Richard says he is sure they have not too much work.' Another item of city information is that Mr. Steed, of Tower Hill, stopped a short time, to the great astonishment of many, but he now finds that after everybody is paid he will have an overplus remaining of 10,000l.' This letter was written on the 1st of August, 1772, and on the 1st of September Sarah Rogers was born. She was the ninth child, but, as three had died, the five of whom Mrs. Rogers speaks in one of the above letters formed at that time her whole family. In the succeeding summer Mr. Rogers was away from home during the months of August and September, spending the earlier part of the holiday in a journey to Scotland, and the latter part at his father's house. Scotch tours were then just coming into fashion. Mr. Thomas Pennant made his first tour in Scotland in 1769, and the beautifully illustrated quarto in which he gave the public a lively account of his travels, was published in 1771. It was very widely read, and may be said to have turned the tide of holiday travel northwards. His second tour was made in 1772; but the three quarto volumes in which he told the amusing story of his journey were not published till 1775, the year in which Johnson published his Journey to the Western Isles.' Thomas Rogers went in August 1773 over much of the ground covered in Mr. Pennant's first tour, and his wife sitting at home, traced his course with Pennant's volume in her hand. Her letters, of which a dozen are preserved, are full of domestic, social, and business details, and give further glimpses of the family life at Newington Green. The earliest speak of the ailments of the children, of visitors, one of whom had come unexpectedly to dine because he was sure he should not meet his wife, and of a lawsuit which had been decided in which Mr. Rogers was interested. fourth letter is as follows Mary Rogers to Thomas Rogers. The 'Newington Green: August 17th. 'My dearest T. R.,-It is not in my power to express sufficient thanks for the happiness your two last letters afforded me. To know that you are well always gives me sincere pleasure, but to give me so near together two such strong proofs of your remembrance to your happy M. R. was indeed peculiarly kind; and I can with sincerity say, my dearest T. R. that on receipt of your last letter I felt an affectionate gratitude that no words. can express. The children all continue well, and your M. R. is also quite stout, though still but poorly. Mrs. Newman and Misses Sarah and Ruth Raper are come in to dinner, which will oblige me greatly (and much against. my will) to shorten my letter. I have had letters from M. M. [Mary Mitchell.] She returns home this week or next and desires her love to you. Mrs. B. [Bowles] took Patty to London on Sunday. She has got the measles. in a very favourable way. Mr. Field attends her.'1 Dr Price is returned from Lord Shelburne's; he entirely cleared up his conduct relating to the India Bill. 1 Mr. Field, apothecary of Stoke Newington and Christ's Hospital, father of Henry Field of Christ's Hospital and of the Rev. William Field of Warwick, the biographer of Dr. Parr; grandfather of the late Mr. Edwin Wilkins Field. MRS. ROGERS'S LETTERS 21 He entirely disapproved of the measure, but the Duke of Richmond said the Parliament had no right to make such a Bill, in which respect Lord Shelburne differed with him and said they had a right. 'Mr. Burroughs has accepted of the living. You said I might give Dr. Amory' an invitation to come and take a bed sometimes on Saturday night, which I mentioned to him on Sunday, and I don't know whether he will not accept of it next Saturday. We have had violent storms of thunder and lightning, which have in many places done much damage. Mrs. T. Rickards and her little boy are gone to-day to Brighthelmstone with Mr. Maitland's family. I assure you, my dear T. R., I have been a great house-keeper (I wish I could say a good one). I have scarcely been off the Green since you left me, not above twice or thrice in the coach. Adieu! my ever dear T. R., And always believe me to be 'Your constantly affectionate 'Thomas Rogers, Esq. 'Post Office, Inverness.' The next letters were addressed to Inverary, Dumbarton, and Glasgow; the last containing the news of the death of that worthy and great man, Lord Lyttelton,' and of a visit from Mr. Rogers the elder. In another, dated September 4th, she says— 'I had a letter from my sister Mary [her husband's sister at the Hill] on Saturday evening. She says Mr. Rogers is but indifferent, though rather better than he 1 1 Dr. Amory was the morning preacher at Newington Green. |