To Robert Allen   Monday May 20th 1845

Mrs Wright | Ferguson Street, Halifax | Monday May 20th 1845.

My dear Bob,

Here I am once more, having ended my pilgrimage in London. Your kind and welcome favour reached me at Covent Garden, you must have written to Sayers at the same time as on the following evening I received a note from him requesting me to call to see him. I paid him a visit on Saturday week and found him the same harum scarum¹ devil as usual. I spent a pleasant day with him, he lodges at 47 King street, has a nice garden to walk in and employ his botanical propensities, he brought me through the Dockyard and showed me everything worth seeing; on my way I paid the Great Britain Steam Ship² a visit, inspected her from stem to stern and trod the same planks that our gracious Queen stepped upon three days before. I spent Whitsunday³ at Richmond;⁴ 4 of us including governor⁵ hired a coach and went out there in the morning; oh! it is a paradise! Upon our arrival we called at the Star and Garter Hotel and ordered dinner to be ready at 4 o’clock, then set out through the park, scoured it all and returned along the banks of the Thames. I am quite unable to describe the beauties of Richmond as seen from the river side, it stands upon a hill or rather upon a terrace ground, the houses receding one above another in beautiful order – perhaps disorder would be a better expression; the houses are not continuous but isolated while the intervening spaces are filled with trees of the most beautiful foliage, evergreens and flowers – these basking under the influence of the May sunlight looked charming. We arrived at the hotel at the time appointed and after a preparatory wash entered the dining room. This is a superb concern; the fact of its requiring not less than twenty waiters to attend the guests may convey to you an idea of its extent – At one end there are three large windows which can be raised so as to admit visitors out upon a circular balcony which commands a view of nearly 30 miles. The waiter stood our friend, tho’ there were 50 gentlemen and a sprinkle of ladies in the room when we entered it, the very best table was kept in reserve for us – it commanded a complete view of the Thames and scenery outside – Here we pitched into a sumptuous dinner, salmon cutlets, stewed eels, roast mutton, maids of honour, rhubarb and apple pie and half a dozen etceteras – After the cloth was removed we sat for two hours over our wine. Champagne, port, and sherry sparkled in abundance of course we all became elevated and could I only catch a gleam of the spirit which bounded within me at the time I would make the dull page sparkle under my pen. At one moment I was up to the ears in discussion with governor respecting the reflection and refraction of light, the topic being suggested by the rainbow hues dispersed through the room from the 10 thousand and one lustres which hung pendent from the ceiling. Sometimes we amused ourselves watching the transient shadows of a May afternoon shedding their ever-varying effects upon the wide woodland before us – now the horizon would appear in deep shadow while the foreground came forward in the richest sunshine – anon a patch in the centre would become shaded while the back and foreground were dashed with a flood of light and glory from the descending sun. Oh! Bob it was lovely I felt more than once influenced by the genius of the spot and unconsciously murmured –

‘On Richmond Hill there lives a lass

More bright than May-day morn’⁶

Surely if ever external nature was calculated to refine the heart of man, to subdue the brute within him, and to cherish his softer sympathies the spot of which I write must have that effect. And now in conclusion, let me give you the amount of my estimation for this scene in contrast with a position alluded to in your letter.⁷ The smile of nature is fair, but being common to all loses its personal interest. Give me the smile of my heart’s pure planet; my own ÷------÷⁸ before heaven’s sunlight – Give me the music of her tongue before the melodies of the murmuring Thames – Give me the hue of her lip before the rose of Sharon, and the assurance of her love before an amalgamation of them all together! Without it happiness cannot be mine – with it the desert becomes a fruitful vine.

RI MS JT 1/TYP/11/3485

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