To Thomas Archer Hirst   17th. June, 1856

[Vine Cottage] Broughton, 17th. June, 1856.

My dear Tom

The concert¹ is already numbered among the things that were. Heaven smiled upon Queenwood and gave them a glorious day. After the concert a terribly long winded gentleman – Spooner’s father² – addressed the boys, and was eventually coughed down by Fox and others. Mr. Edmondson in his wisdom had given this gentleman permission (on his own application some days previous to the concert) to address to the boys some words which were to be for their good. He came charged with the usual platitudes and wearied every body. Any body but Edmondson would have inferred that the man who would make such an application was just the man likely to accomplish the result which he accomplished. However the thing passed away, and the tea arrangements on the lawn were excellent. A tent of home manufacture embraced by its white walls those who wished for an extra shadiness; but the day did all that was required. Light clouds drew themselves over the sun and thus tempered his glare. Many talked of you. I did not know indeed that you were so much beloved and respected by the Broughton people. Mrs. Lee³ was fervent in her expressions of regret. So was Lee⁴ as far as his wooden nature would permit him. Various suggestions were made. Mr Best,⁵ who was here with his fine daughter,⁶ feared the changing winds of Italy, and thought the Isle of Wight would be more suitable for Anna. Lee proposed an experimental trip with one of Anna’s own relatives, leaving you to work at home. My answer to all was that you would do as your feelings prompted and in time you would do right. The gymnastics passed off well and afterwards Debus entertained us for an hour with his experiments. They all proceeded, though I was in terror half the time lest some of his fire should sputter over the light dresses of the ladies who were two feet in front of him. He also forgets that ladies are no lovers of smoke and smells; but on the whole his proceeding was very successful.

I brought down the apparatus which I had ordered for you it is simple and would have given Edmondson an opportunity of shewing his scientific knowledge, but he let the opportunity slip. I told him on Sunday that I had brought the things – ‘Well,’ said he, ‘Richard Wright will pay thee for them’ – and this in a tone as if my sole object in telling him of them was to obtain payment. I said I took it for granted that they would be paid for, that I had not paid for them, but that the maker of them would doubtless send in his bill in due time. So they were not used but are still in my bedroom upstairs. After Debus’s lecture as it was approaching 10 o clock I turned my steps towards Broughton thinking an early bed would be the best thing for me, but on reaching the bottom of the hill I said when shall I witness another day of this kind. Tom is gone and thus the chief tie which linked me to the place is cut in two. I will turn and see the day’s proceedings out. I came back, and sat alone in the tent upon the lawn, watching the moon sailing through a mottled heaven and the people at supper moving to and fro across the window blinds. Some camping boys came near me and declaring there was a ghost in the tent vanished again. Here I managed to get some of the chlorine of the lecture out of my lungs which was really a source of unpleasant irritation. I watched the proceedings, mixing them with other thoughts, for an hour. With its light and its warmth, and its friendliness I still felt Queenwood becoming strange to me, and with a calmness which had something of sadness in it, yet without a trace of any thing approaching to unhappiness I resigned myself to the thought that a day was coming when I should have to strike the roots of my affections elsewhere. The appearance of the boys was not such as to drive this feeling away. I have looked at them once or twice in line, and seen them pass me one by one. To my eye they are on the whole far below par; many of them with rude and rather animal countenances; but among the number Charley Cumming⁷ shone like a blessed little star which still kept a man's hopes aloft. There are some other nice looking boys, but they appear to be in sad minority.

I know not how matters will tend. Wright is fearful – He sees most clearly the shock Queenwood has sustained by your departure. When I think of God’s goodness to me he once said, and see in Tom a far nobler and braver man so smitten and afflicted a kind of shame fills my heart. Had he the means he declares that he would go along with you to Italy, and Fanny⁸ should nurse Anna with the loving tenderness of a sister. He sees the danger of a collision between himself and Haas. Debus thinks that Queenwood is about to become a Swiss colony.⁹ I have had no communication with Haas. He is a hard worker, and if his other qualities were commensurate with his zeal, Queenwood would be safe in his hands. But they are not, he is narrow, ungentlemanly and egotistical, and the more the pity.

To my terror I find it is near 10 o clock. I thought I could not do better than spend this morning in writing to you – when the spirit moves me I will do so again – an engagement calls me now to Queenwood. Affectionate remembrance to Anna.

As ever Your | John

RI MS JT/1/H/459–60