1832-1834] Bessy's Illness 255 







About this time my mother received four or five proposals 

 of marriage, after a girlhood passed entirely without any 

 love affair. She said to me once " we got quite weary of it," 

 and then described how one of the rejected, a neighbouring 

 curate, walked Elizabeth round and round the Pool, half 

 crying, and asking what Emma found to object to in him. 



In the spring Bessy and her daughters paid long visits 

 to her married children, Charlotte still at Ripley, and 

 Hensleigh at Clapham. Seeing both her children so happy 

 seems to have soothed her anxious mind. She also visited 

 other relations settled in or near London. Whilst staying 

 at Lady Gifford's, she had a fall, followed by a serious 

 illness. This must have been a seizure of an epileptic 

 nature, for, from now onwards until her death in 1846, she 

 suffered from attacks of this malady. In this fall she 

 broke some bone, and was never able to walk again. These 

 thirteen long years of helplessness are sad to think of, but 

 the anxieties which had weighed on her quite left her, and 

 the brightness and wonderful sweetness of her nature made 

 it a pleasure to be with her, especially to Elizabeth. My 

 mother felt more and more, as time went on, the sadness 

 of her increasingly impaired mind. 



Emma Wedgwood to her aunt Madame Sismondi. 



Aug. 5, 1833. 



It is such a pleasure to send you such a good account, 

 for I am sure nobody will feel more (or so much) joy than 

 you at my dear Mamma's recovery. We feel impatient to 

 be able to see the time when we can return home, but we 

 must not think of it yet, and it is very lucky Mamma does 

 not feel at all impatient to move. Fanny and Hensleigh 

 have been coming constantly, and she is the nicest nurse 

 possible, and endeared herself very much to us by her 

 affectionate feelings for Mamma and joy at her % recovery. 

 Papa is not able to come as often as he wishes, as he is on 

 a Liverpool Committee and the Slavery Bill in the evenings ; 

 so he is only able to come on Saturdays and stay till Monday. 



Harriet [Gifford] and I went to the Ventilator to hear 

 O'ConnelTs quarrel with the Reporters, whom he accuses of 

 reporting his speeches falsely, whereupon they say now 



