



66 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, v 



and I, on my part, hope I shall ever continue to be 

 grateful, as I am now, to Heaven, for having given you 

 to me. . . . 



Here is a very pleasant letter from Sally to you, which 

 we thought it was a pity should go for nothing, and so we 

 opened it, and so we read it. We are in a very reading 

 humour at present, having done the same thing by Jenny 

 [Wedgwood]'s to Fanny [Allen]. We were very glad to 

 have both, as they gave us late intelligence from Baring 

 Place, and as you are now at the fountain-head it would be 

 no use to send them to you, but Jenny's is gone into the 

 fire and Sally's is just going. 



Mrs Josiah Wedgwood to her sister Emma Allen, at Baring 



Place, Exeter. 



[THE MOUNT], SHREWSBURY, June 28, 1815. 



What a flood of good news, my dearest Emma. I feel 

 quite overwhelmed with it. I am obliged to Elizabeth 

 and you for two most welcome letters, but yours has the 

 prior claim. We are particularly grateful for the good 

 news of Tom, which we received with the most heartfelt 

 pleasure. Oh how much do I sympathize with our dear 

 Jenny upon what she must feel, at not only hearing that 

 her little hero is safe, but that he has behaved so well in 

 this most severe engagement [Waterloo, 18th June], and 

 not the least of her pleasure (I ought to use a much 

 stronger word) must be the consideration, the thought he 

 shewed of writing from the field of battle to allay the fears 

 of his family, and lastly his modesty, after all that he has 

 gone through. We should be very glad to see his letter, 

 which perhaps you could send us through London by a 

 frank. It will be a feather in his cap as long as he lives 

 to have been in this battle, perhaps the most glorious 

 England ever fought. What they must have suffered in 

 being 48 hours without food, and fighting all the time ! Tell 

 Jenny (and John if he is returned) that we congratulate 

 them with all our hearts. Yesterday we were put upon 



