128 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, ix 



though I cannot more take my enjoyed walks on the 

 Penally shore, I look upon myself as a wonderful old 

 woman. One cannot keep entirely from those one lives 

 with day by day all one feels and thinks, but I do not tell 

 E. and F. all I believe. They know enough not to be taken 

 by surprise. At our age there cannot, perhaps there ought 

 not to be, the security of youth, but I should grieve to take 

 from them an atom of what they may reasonably feel now 

 in the enjoyment of their pretty place, in which perhaps I 

 enjoy myself more than either of them. It is a daily, I 

 may say an hourly, enjoyment when the sun shines for 

 there never was a more cheerful spot." 



In every letter during the summer and autumn of 1850 

 there was mention of Elizabeth's gifts for the house in Hey- 

 wood Lane into which the Aliens were moving. After an out- 

 pouring of gratitude Jessie Sismondi wrote (21 Nov., 1850): 

 ' Do you know that we have bought a whole equipage 

 since I have written to you, chaise, ass and harness for 9. 

 I am going out presently in it. If you had seen Harry 

 [Wedgwood], the very day he departed, so busy in arrang- 

 ing the purchase for us, you would have doated on him. 

 I really believe he was backwards and forwards between 

 this and Tenby six times, and when he brought it up at 

 half-past 5, his little baby in it, his face glowing with love 

 and pleasure, there was nothing of his own packed, tho' he 

 was to sail at 9. It was impossible to look at his bright 

 face unmoved." 



Fanny Allen to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



CRESSELLT, March 8th [1851]. 



... I debated with myself to-day after my dinner 

 whether I would go over to see James [Allen of Freestone] 

 and his wife, or walk down to the wood and enjoy the 

 utter solitude of the place, and I chose the last and realized 

 my age, which is a very useful lesson now in the gloaming. 

 The woods are in nice order, and all the walks and garden 

 very neat. Seymour and his wife are improving the place 

 very much, and making the village, which was truly Irish, 

 more tidy and respectable. I feel somewhat like St Leon, 

 wandering about, a stranger in familiar haunts. What a 

 curious state we have been in politically lately ! Patty 



