1842] Jessie at Tenby 73 



I carry with me too sick a heart and too wearisome a deaf- 

 ness to repay their affectionate reception, and would rather 

 hide myself from my friends, as a poor dying dog does, 

 than show myself to them. But to my purpose in writing. 

 I am always flying off to my complaints, and I am most 

 ungrateful to murmur, for I have many mercies from 

 heaven to be grateful for. My very grief is precious to me, 

 and I would not change it. Like Ld. Southampton of his 

 son, "I would not change my dead husband against any 

 living one," then why complain ? 



Sismondi wished you to have his Miltons, that his dear 

 Mr Jos, as he used to call your father, gave him, and he 

 said, "I would give my Camoens to Mr C. Darwin if I 

 found any way of sending them to England." Now I shall 

 send off a box of books for myself, tell me if I shall put in 

 any other books for you ? I have all the English classics, 

 which your father gave me, is there any of them wanting in 

 your library ? God bless my dearest niece. 



Jessie came to England after winding up Sismondi's 

 affairs in Geneva and decided to live with Harriet Surtees 

 at Tenby. Fanny AUen wrote (Feb. 8, 1843): 



"It was a satisfactory visit which I paid to Jessie and 

 Harriet. I am convinced the former is as happy and 

 comfortable as it is reasonable to expect she could be 

 within a year of the loss of a person who loved her so 

 entirely and passionately as Sismondi did. She told me 

 that she was surprised herself how calm she was. She had 

 suffering and perhaps a violent burst of grief in the course 

 of a few days, but that in the intervals she is frequently 

 cheerful without effort. She is very much engaged every 

 morning, reading and taking out or copy Lag things from 

 his journals that might serve Sir F. Palgrave for his work, 1 

 or which must be erased from his journals, as they are to 

 be placed at Pescia with the Desideris. I think Jessie is 

 making an idol of him now; it is her nature to do so. It 

 seemed odd to me that when she was mentioning circum- 

 stances which required an indulgent feeling for his weak- 



1 An article on Sismondi by Sir Francis Palgrave, the historian, 

 Vol. 72, Quarterly Review, 1843. 



