1827-1830] Bessy's Illness 217 



lotte give way to the two young ones in amusements and 

 going out. . . . 



About this visit of Emma's to Clifton, Catherine Darwin 

 wrote (28 Sept., 1828), "I have no doubt your going to 

 Clifton will answer to you, as you have an unfeigned passion 

 for gaiety and novelty in my opinion." 



In the winter of 1828-9, the Wedgwoods had for the first 

 time a regular pair of carriage horses, which was a great 

 pleasure to Bessy, and Emma wrote to her aunt Jessie that 

 her mother will " tire the roads driving about." It seems 

 strange that living with so much comfort and exercising so 

 much hospitality this luxury should not have been hers till 

 she was 64 years old. 



In March 1 829 Bessy went up to London with her husband, 

 staying a night at his lodgings in Palace Yard, and going 

 on the next day to visit Lady Mackintosh at Clapham. 

 Hensleigh came to act the part of a daughter to her, and 

 do her little errands. His mother wrote: " Dear Hensleigh, 

 I don't wonder some people like him, he is so sociable 

 and so pleasant. He has just been buying me a sash and 

 a watch-ribbon to save me the going out, which I never 

 like to do in London except in my coach." 



After the visit to Clapham, Bessy went to her niece Lady 

 Gilford at Koehampton. While there she had a mysterious 

 seizure from which it was feared at first she would not re- 

 cover. The anxiety about her illness continued for some 

 time, and they were thankful as soon as she was able to 

 return home. 



Harry Wedgwood to his sister Emma. 



MY DEAR EMMA, igth June ^ 1829 ^ 



. . . Jos will carry you this, having taken his dose of dissi- 

 pation with the rest of the world, I don't think he has 

 seen much, certainly not when compared with the never- 

 enough-to-be-sufficiently-fatigued Darwins and even they 

 have not seen the first of all London sights, Greenwich. I 

 had the melancholy task of seeing them out of London and 

 though Susan had hypocritically dressed herself in black, a 

 merrier parting never took place the young ladies were all 

 in roars of laughter as they came downstairs and we drove 



