My dear Fanny

I am in some hopes that we may have a letter from you today & I hope it may bring us word that you are returned to Clapham for there is no saying how long you may be kept there. Ellen & Caroline are with us now, they were very anxious about her for several days but now they think it may go on for another fortnight. It was really too goodnatured of you offering to be with Marianne & I am a little vexed with her for letting you come which I think she ought not to have done.² Do mind & take care of yourself & above all keep out of the way of being frightened & never mind if you happen to be out of the way at the critical time as she cannot want you then.

We enjoyed Charles’s visit uncommonly we had been very handsome in inviting all the outliers of the family to meet him & the last morning the chaise from Tern hill did not come and we persuaded them to stay & had just made ourselves comfortable & planned a walk when the chaise arrived, however we got them to let us send it off though Caroline felt it to be rather naughty & we had a very nice snug day of them to ourselves.³ Charles talked away most pleasantly all the time we plied him with questions without any mercy. Harry & Frank⁴ made the most of him & enjoyed him thoroughly. Caroline looks so happy & proud of him it is delightful to see her. We had her a whole month & I never enjoyed a visit of hers so much she was so very nice & settled herself more at home here than usual. Uncle Allen & my Aunts⁵ came on Friday. It was a pleasant surprize seeing Fanny as your letter was the only hint we had heard on the subject.⁶ M^rs Holland and Louisa⁷ are amused with the Tollets & like them, but poor Ellen is very poorly today & I fully believe she is going to have the chicken pox as Caroline has lately had it so we shall not be so brilliant this evening I am afraid.

I had a very tidy visit at Betley Court of one day last week. M^r & M^rs Butt & Cath. Edwards & the Tollets were there so it was not dull at all, but I am not fond of Catherine & I dont approve of her mother.⁸

I have heard such a melancholy account from Frances of poor Maria Acland who was taken ill soon after she got to Kingscote & they had great difficulty in persuading her to move to Glocester.⁹ Frances only is with her & I can fancy nothing more melancholy for her as Maria’s spirits are extremely depressed & she constantly thinks herself dying & though the D^rs tell Frances that it is entirely a nervous feeling she finds it very difficult to help being alarmed she mentions her lying for an hour quite white & cold but not faint. I must say in excuse for Mrs Acland & the sisters that the D^r desires she may have nobody else with her & made some difficulty in allowing Frances to stay & she has sisters within her reach at Bristol.¹⁰ Mamma¹¹ is quite uncommonly well & talks a great deal to Uncle Allen. I am very glad it happens that she is so well for all their sakes.

Charles was quite angry with Charlotte’s¹² picture. He studied it many times to see if he could find any likeness & said, “I hope to fate she is not like that picture.” I suppose he has rather a poetical idea of her for the picture is certainly very like. Eliz.¹³ desires her best love to you & thanks for yr letter. She wants you very much to go home & let things take their course. It will be very bad for you & with Miss Vaughan & Georgina she can’t want you.¹⁴ Mamma wants Hensleigh to look at a handsome edition of Shakespear with prints by way of a wedding present to M^rs Tom,¹⁵ or if there is any other book he can think of. I w^d not make the prints a sine qua non as they are really not the least improvement

Thursday. Poor Ellens malady turns out to be the chicken pox so she is confined to her appartment. I fully expect to have it but it does not much signify as it is very trifling. I shall direct this to Clapham as I dare say you are gone back. M^rs Wicksted is foraging for recruits for the Newcastle ball but as her own sisters in law will not go, duty does not call me.¹⁶ Jos¹⁷ is in a bustle so I can write no more. I heard of you at the Aldersons from Uncle Baugh.¹⁸

How wonderfully Marianne keeps up her spirits | Yours affectly | Em W

My dear Fanny

I hope Hensleigh has not set me down as very ungrateful and ungracious, for taking no manner of notice of his prompt and capital execution of my boa commission. I thought it a remarkably nice one, very pretty looking and so excessively soft feeling and light. Will you thank him much for his trouble and kindness; the price I thought wonderfully cheap. Emma says that if I pay her she will manage the transmitting the sum to Hensleigh, so I hope it may reach him safely in the course of time. We have had a very pleasant week with the Darwins at Shrewsbury whom we left on Monday last, we were much pleased with the lion, Charles, who has excited the curiosity of the whole county apparently for during our stay there he was constantly employed in [rotating] levees of lords and all the great people round. I hope to hear that you are relieved from your anxious post which you have so good naturedly undertaken. Believe me cousin to remain with love to Hensleigh | Yours affec^ately | Louisa Holland