284 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xx 



upon plate and a ball and supper afterwards. The pole of 

 their carriage was broken in coming to the door, so they 

 were rather in a quandary. Everybody went away but 

 those who were staying in the house, when young Sir 

 Watkin, who was very tipsy, offered them his chariot, which 

 they thankfully accepted. It was rather a squeeze and 

 Susan came home sitting at the bottom of the carriage. . . . 

 I find a week long enough at Shrewsbury, as one gets rather 

 fatigued by the Dr's talk, especially the two wiiole hours 

 just before dinner. It is best to be there in the middle of 

 summer, as one has more sitting out with the girls. The 

 Dr has been as pleasant as possible, and I never saw [him 

 enjoy] anything so much as Susan's account of all her 

 gaieties. . . . The days have been passing very snugly 

 since I came to Onibury. I quite enjoy the novelty of 

 reading a good deal, and have the luck of finding Scott's 

 life here and several books I wanted to read. Charles 

 [LangtonJ's hands are very full of business, what with the 

 organ, setting up a bath in his dressing-room with a patent 

 invention of his own for pumping up hot water, altering the 

 kitchen grate and all the other grates in the house, with 

 another patent invention to avoid draughts, the cow being 

 confined &c., he is very busy, and has only time to study a 

 little of Pickwick between whiles. Charlotte is getting a 

 proper degree of interest about the cow r s, and is very 

 dutifully gone this morning to see the new-born calf. 

 A dinner-party is gradually brewing here, but it takes so 

 much screwing up f their courage that it will not happen in 

 my time. 



Poor [Harriet] Martineau seems going down the hill 

 with Hensleigh and Erasmus, so I hope you will stick by 

 her. The Dr read the first article in the Westminster Review 1 

 before he knew it was not hers, and wasted a great deal of 

 good indignation, and even now he can hardly believe it 

 is not hers. I am sorry to say I wish to read the Vicar of 



1 The article is a passionate call to the Eadicals to rise against the 

 Whigs and to get enacted the measure which is to save the country, 

 the Ballot. " We had faith in the Ballot, even without the Reform 

 Bill. We had no faith in the Reform Bill without the Ballot." 



