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Nancy Hunter letter to Marianne Hunt, 1830s

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Title	Nancy Hunter letter to Marianne Hunt, 1830s
Creator	Hunter, Nancy
Date Original	1830/1839
Description	Concerning Bessie Kent's bad temper and strange actions; her rude treatment of Miss Grant; her intentions of living alone, intimating it would be convenient step towards destorying herself; her loss of power over Leigh Hunt; Nancy's fears and trials; Mr. Hunter's allowance; Leigh Hunt's great service to him; her thanks for the books.
Personal Name Subject	Hunter, Nancy Hunt, Marianne Kent, 1788-1857 Hunter, Rowland Kent, Elizabeth, 1790-1861 Hunt, Leigh, 1784-1859
Chronological Subject	1830-1840
Type (DCMIType)	Text
Type (AAT)	Correspondence
Type (IMT)	jpeg
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
Contributing Institution	University of Iowa. Libraries. Special Collections Dept.
Archival Collection	Brewer-Leigh Hunt Collection
Collection Guide	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/resources/Brewer-LeighHunt.html
Location	bound MsL H945h leaf 17 (previous call number MsL H945h no. 4)
Rights Management	Educational use only, no other permissions given. This letter is owned by The University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department, and is provided here for educational purposes. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the Special Collections Department.
Contact Information	Contact The University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department: lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Height (cm)	22.8
Width (cm)	18.4
Number of Pages	8
Number of Sheets of Paper	2
Digitization Specifications	Scanned with Ricoh Aficio 2335 scanner at 600 ppi, 24-bit color. Archival tiff image available.
Date Digital	2009-02-18
Transcript	Friday morning - My dear Marianne - I should have written yesterday, but my morning was taken up in a way I could not avoid, and, in the afternoon, just as I was going to begin, Caroline Orger came in, and of course prevented me the whole evening - I have so many things to say to you that I do not know how to begin. The best place is at the beginning - You must know that I have been in a dilemma about Betsey. - Last Sunday evening, Miss Grant came to tea; - poor Bess was very much out of humour, and attacked me with great virulence about some trifle, I believe not seeing a glass which she desired me to give her immediately - Miss Grant looked very much annoyed, but sat silent for some time, when finding the storm not very likely to subside, she began to try to soften Bess, and make excuses for me. This only had the effect of turning part of the displeasure upon herself, and to my great distress, the end of the matter was, that Betsey treated Miss Grant with extreme rudeness, and even told her (I forget the exact words) that her visits were more frequent than welcome. Miss Grant went away, of course, in high wrath, and I was the more sorry because ever since I lost my mother she has been (as well as [page break] Miss Rose) particularly kind to us. At the time of making the mourning she helped us as I believe you know, very materially, and since then she has insisted on making linen for me, which she knew me to be in want of, and without leisure to make. - And beside all that, she has taken great interest in all our troubles; /and/, in fact, no person could have been kinder than they have both been. Next day a still more violent scene took place before Tom, who was indignant, but judiciously refrained from saying what he thought to her, and very goodnaturedly took a long walk with me to look for lodgings, which I dislike doing quite alone, and which Betsey refused to help me in. - It is of no use going into all the particulars of such very disagreeable things as quarrels (or rather violent scenes, for I positively will not quarrel), and I should not have mention-ed them at all, if they had not left me in a perplexity, about which I want your advice & Mr. Hunts. - Tom & I were not successful, but after he went I set out by myself, and looked at lodging after lodging, till, at last, I was ashamed to knock at any more doors. However I found one that seemed as if it might do (the one [page break] we have taken). Next morning (Tuesday) my father went with me to see it - but before we set out Betsey who had not spoken to me for the last four & twenty hours, told me that I need not trouble myself to take lodgings for her, as she intended to have separate ones. - I did not like the idea of that at all, for she has but £2.0.0 in the world, and that would be gone long before she could find any employment. I tried to persuade her to give up so wild a plan, and asked her reason. For some time she would say nothing but that "my pet friends should never again reproach her with living upon my father" (alluding to Miss Grant, who said nothing of the kind) Afterwards she told me that she had a particular object in being alone, quite in a solitary lodging, and as plainly as possible gave me to under-stand that she only wanted a convenient opportunity of destroying herself. - I however at last prevailed upon her to give up the idea of leaving us for the present, but since she has been here, she has gone out alone, and tried to find some single room cheap enough to answer her purposes. Last night too, she got angry and renewed her hints and threats. - Now, I do not know what to do - If I let her do as she says, which my father would be delighted at, I should live in constant fear that she would actually keep her word. I think she is quite capable of it, especially as she finds that her breaking with Mr. Hunt has produced no great sensation. It would be a certain means of gaining a kind of power over him, which she has at present lost. She would be sure of exercising a strong influence /---/ or rather, I mean she would know that [page breaks] she would frequently be in his thoughts, and in a very intense manner, and as to the pain it would give him and every one else, I think she would be glad of that with respect to him, and indifferent as to us. - She is a very strange person. Sometimes when she is angry with me, or even out of humour generally, she speaks with a virulence, and looks at me with an expression of malignity, that seems as if I were an object of actual hatred to her, and at others, she laughs and talks, and behaves (with the exception of a good deal of constant petty tyranny) as one sister should to another. However to return to my alternative: If I keep her at home, it can only be done, at the expense of really slavish subjection, and trials of temper so incessant and so severe as /---/ actually to make life bitter; and I must not only bear them patiently, but after every one, I must persuade and implore, as a great favor that she will condescend to remain with me, and make me miserable. - It is a difficult thing to manage too, for I cannot without hypocrisy pretend to ask her not to leave me for my own sake, and if I speak of anxiety for her, she seems more affronted still, and tells me I need not trouble myself. Then again, if she were to go away, and do any horrid thing, I should all my life reproach myself, and think, if I had but had patience with her, I might have prevented it - [page break] I do not know that her life gives much pleasure to herself or any one else - but I should be sincerely sorry if she were to die, and I would not for the world have an iota of responsibility if she were to get rid of it. - Can you or Mr. Hunt tell me any way of slipping through the horns of my dilemma? Or shall I go on bearing as well as I can? - To speak of less unpleasant subjects - my father has at last received his allowance, but it is so small, that we could never manage to exist on it, alone. - Fortunately they have paid him the arrears from the time of his bankruptcy, which supply the deficiency for the present, but the whole will stop on the 30th of September, and my father expects to be employed on the affairs of the estate as they call it beyond that time, and to be obliged also to pay an accountant at a guinea a day for some time, (the shorter the better) without which he cannot pass his accounts: that is he is not allowed to do them all himself - There is some part which they insist on his employing an accountant for. - I do not think I shall be able to pay you a visit tomorrow, or I would have spoken instead of writing all this letter, but my father is very desirous of going to Willesden, and to Kilburn (the latter on business) and I feel pretty sure that if the weather [page break] will allow of my going at all, he will want me to go there with him. - I wish there was any hope of seeing Mr. Hunt and you in our little lodging. I should like it the better ever after/ward/. It is, though, as plain as possible, and in many respects even shabby, too dear for us to remain long in. We have taken it for a fortnight, and I hope (though not very sanguinely) that by a week later, we may have been able to save some part of our furniture and then we can move into unfurnished lodgings, which is a great object. It is impossible to put all the things I want to say to you into a letter; I must wait till I see you. I'll tell you, where would be a good place for our confidential walks - but then we must let each other know beforehand - Either Gray's Inn or Lincoln's Inn Gardens. - My time is so much more at my own disposal now than it has for a long time been, that if you were to let me know by one of the young gentlemen (in a note of course) the evening before any day that you felt sure of coming to town, I dare say I could meet you (so as to be home by three), and if not, I could tell you so. - Of course I only mean when business brings you. - Saturday evening . I left off writing this morning, and open my sheet again to finish it for Percy who has just called for any letter that I might have. [page break] In the first place, dozen's of thanks, the warmest, for the great service I have just heard of Mr. Hunts having done us this morning - It has relieved me of an extreme anxiety. I knew my father would never have the courage to take the necessary steps, and if I could have made up my mind to interfere myself, I was sure, however glad he might have been of this result, he would have after suspected me of meddling in his affairs without his knowledge. - With Mr Hunt, there can be no danger of any such ideas - My father is as delighted and as grateful as I should wish him - It has put me quite in spirits - and it is the more pleasant to [have] [1] the benefit of such a friend - My father tells me that [he] [1] has engaged to dine at Chelsea tomorrow week, and I shall come with him and have a dayful of pleasure, I hope. I am very glad too that my father will meet Mr. Hunt next Wednesday - No one does him so much good. - Now for more thanks - for all the books. I did not mean to ask for such a quantity I hope you understand, but only for any two of those I mentioned, but I must say I am very glad to have them all. I like to read one, and look at all the others at the same time, and to have the embarras du choix, as to which I shall begin with - [page break] They take all the desolateness out of the little lonely lodging - How very glad I shall be to see you all again! God bless you. I must finish this enormity of a letter, or I shall keep Percy as late as I once did before. If you have any time at all write me a line or two, and if you have time enough, write me a long letter before next Sunday week - and get Mr. Hunt to add a bit; I like to have a letter from both of you at a time. - Give my love to all the old young ones - "old Jule, old Vincent, and old Jacintha" and to all the young old ones, and to all, if there are any, who are in neither one state nor the other, and believe me to remain, dearest Marianne, your affectionate sister, Nancy Hunter. - Love to Anne Gliddon whom I hope to see very soon . In charge of Mr. Percy To Mrs. Leigh Hunt No. 4 Upper Cheyne Row Chelsea
Transcript Notes	1. Tear in letter
Transcript By	Brewer, Luther
Transcript Location	University of Iowa. Libraries. Special Collections Dept.

Title	Page1
Relation - Is Part Of	Nancy Hunter letter to Marianne Hunt, 1830s
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
File Name	h945h-17_Page1.jpg
Transcript	Friday morning - My dear Marianne - I should have written yesterday, but my morn¬ing was taken up in a way I could not avoid, and, in the afternoon, just as I was going to begin, Caroline Orger came in, and of course prevented me the whole evening - I have so many things to say to you that I do not know how to begin. The best place is at the begin¬ning - You must know that I have been in a dilemma about Betsey. - Last Sunday evening, Miss Grant came to tea; - poor Bess was very much out of humour, and attacked me with great virulence about some trifle, I believe not seeing a glass which she desired me to give her immediately - Miss Grant looked very much annoyed, but sat silent for some time, when finding the storm not very likely to subside, she began to try to soften Bess, and make excuses for me. This only had the effect of turning part of the displeasure upon herself, and to my great distress, the end of the matter was, that Betsey treated Miss Grant with extreme rudeness, and even told her (I forget the exact words) that her visits were more frequent than welcome. Miss Grant went away, of course, in high wrath, and I was the more sorry because ever since I lost my mother she has been (as well as

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Nancy Hunter letter to Marianne Hunt, 1830s

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Nancy Hunter letter to Marianne Hunt, 1830s

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