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Archive Reference / Library Class No.D8760/F/FEP/1/3/1
Former ReferenceD3311/28/3
TitleLetter from Sarah Henrietta Kay to her sister Eleanor Anne Porden, concerning criticism of one of her poems on the grounds of indeliccay of its subject matter
Date4 Nov 1811
DescriptionExplains her objection to a piece of text relating to a sexual aspect of botany.  Makes a link to the purity of the mind and potential indelicacy of the subject matter
Extent1 sheet
LevelItem
RepositoryDerbyshire Record Office
SenderSarah Henrietta Kay
Sender LocationBedford Street
RecipientEleanor Anne Porden
Recipient LocationNo address
Archive CreatorEleanor Anne Porden, later Eleanor Franklin (1795-1825)
Gell family of Hopton Hall, Wirksworth
Related MaterialFor draft response by Eleanor to her sister's letter seed D8760/F/FEP/3/3/1
Transcript or IndexI have been intending for some days to answer your letter but my present situation with respect to my little darling has so unhinged my mind, that I have not, been, nor do I now, feel equal to enter upon it so fully as I could wish, but as you are in haste, I ma perhaps be able to say enough to assist you. My objection to the passage in question in your 3rd Canto arose from your having, (in my mind) entered rather too minutely into that part of Botany which relates to the sexual system. You might have detailed much more of the science itself without having made any allusions of the kind, and which I think would have been more consistent with public reading in a mixed soicety, the majority of whom are young, and also with the delicacy of the Authoress who will one day be announced. I am pleased with the candour and freedom of your letter and shall use the same myself, without fearing to hurt you in any way. You are perfectly just in your observations, respecting the lectures but I heard it observed that perhaps scarcely any other man than Dr Smith could have entered into the science so much, & so thoroughly as he did, & with so much delicacy, so as not to make it unpleasant to a mixed auditory; and even he was sometimes at fault, & embarrassed.
The error with respect to yourself, my dear Eleanor, arises from, what all who know you intimately, prize as one of our chief ornaments; I mean, the purity of your mind & thoughts. I feel it an awkward subject to write upon explicitly myself, but I think you cannot be so totally ignorant of the intercourse that must subsist between the sexes, not t feel that all such allusions must carry an appearance of indelicacy, and in my mind that is much heightened when connected with inanimate things as plants may in some degree be considered.
I have just thrown a few ideas together as they have occurred to me and am sorry I am prevented entering more into the subject but, I may perhaps resume it, if you shall require weighty arguments. I don’t care for your [?] Lack Hall laugh!
Ever your affectionate sister
Sarah Henrietta Kay
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