| Description | She is sending a letter with Sir John and Catherine, but she cannot visit with them and will not let Eleanor do so. Eleanor is 12 years old, and thinks that at 14 she should be able to go to "all sorts of balls and parties and picnics" but Lady Jane disagrees. Writes at length about her concern for Sir John's health; she sleeps in the next room to him and hears him coughing at night. Disagrees with the way he is treating the illness, he should be drinking less wine, but he is unable to resist temptation. Would rather he were going on an Arctic expedition than to the governorship of Van Diemen's Land, as he would be more temperate, which would be better for his health. Hopes to see Mary Richardson before she sets off [to van Diemen's Land], she likes her and wishes she were going with them. Asks Hannah to make sure Sir John is home by 15th, otherwise people might think he is not to be depended on "for he has failed much already" and he is due to go with her to Greenwich on 16th. |
| Recipient Location | Ingoldmells [Lincolnshire] |
| Transcript or Index | My dear Hannah
I write not let your brother and Catherine visit you without sending you and Mr Booth my kind adieux and best wishes. I am not able to accompany your brother, nor can I think for a moment of letting Eleanor go without me. She is I trust growing a strong healthy girl and her mind is developing more rapidly than her physical growth. She begs her love when I ask her what I shall say for her, but she is not ready at dictating my papers, any more than I was at her age. She is 12 years old today, and thinks that is no reason whatever why at 14 she should not go to all sorts of balls and parties and picnics quite as many young ladies in Guernsey do, an idea which I tell her she must get as quickly out of her little head as possible. I trust she will prove a blessing to her father and me, and that we shall bring her back with as l [crossed out by three lines] with a free heart 5 or 6 years hence from V.D. Land, tho’ I tell your brother I shall have many fears on that head if his stay is delayed beyond that period.
Your brother is not so well as I would wish him. It is the influenza which has lately affected him, but he has at all times a chronic cough, perpetually disturbing his rest at night which cannot fail to give him me uneasiness – he will deny this if spoken to on the subject, but you have only to sleep in the next room to him to be convinced of the fact. It seems as if it proceeded both from the stomach and the lungs, and both these ought therefore to be carefully attended to- his system of getting into perspirations whenever he can, to do himself good, are his doctors says, the worst scheme he could possibly hit upon – his facility of getting into these perspirations is a sure sign of his weakness, all hot drinks therefore of whatever description including even innocent water gruel should be carefully avoided – half a pint of wine a day is as much the doctor says, as he ought ever to have, and if he has much mental business to do, he shd take less. Spirits and hot water are of course ruinous to him. I mention these things because I know that the slightest temptation or solicitation he is unable to resist, and this wont of firmness on points so essential to his health is the most painful reflection have to make when I think of the situation he is going to occupy, and the excuses he will make to himself for over indulgence. For his health’s sake, I would rather he was going on an Arctic expedition than to the governorship of V.D.Land, and this because I believe the preservation of his health and life to be depend solely, under God, to the temperance he observes.
You will excuse my giving you these hints for the sake of the interest we have all at stake in the preservation and improvement of your brother’s health. I do not speak unadvisedly, nor because I have nervous fancies in my head, as he would try to persuade you, but on the strongest and on multiplied medical authority – it is on all others that and subject on which he is the most touchy, and your advice must be (? given) with management. I hope to see Mary Richardson, her boy, who is an exceeding great favourite of mine, and her baby before we set off. I wish they were going with us. Your friend Miss Briggs sends you a box. I like her very well indeed, but I am not likely I think to have occasion for her services in my new domestic family. Let me beg of you not to beg and persuade your brother to stay so as to prevent his being home on the 15th. I am afraid by public (?news) and others he will be thought not fit to be depended on if he does not, for he has failed much already and he is engaged with me at Greenwich on the 16th, and every thing is at a standstill till he comes back. With kind love to Mr Booth and very kind remembrance to your friends and neighbours, particularly the Charles’, believe me your affectionate sister Jane Franklin. |