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<title TEIform="title">"Letters to Mrs. Carr" <date TEIform="date">(1797-1822)</date>
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<name reg="Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia)" date="1743-1825" place="UK" TEIform="name">Anna Letitia Barbauld</name>
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<publisher TEIform="publisher">King Library, Miami University</publisher>
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<date TEIform="date">20040609</date>
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<p TEIform="p"> Miami University makes a claim of copyright only to original contributions
                        made by the Poetess Archive participants and other members of the university
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<addrLine TEIform="addrLine">Judith Session, Dean</addrLine>
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<addrLine TEIform="addrLine">Miami University</addrLine>
<addrLine TEIform="addrLine">Oxford, OH 45056</addrLine>
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<title TEIform="title">The Poetess Archive: An Electronic Resource</title>
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<name reg="Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia)" date="1743-1825" place="UK" TEIform="name">Anna Letitia Barbauld</name>
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<title TEIform="title">Letters to Mrs. Carr</title>
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<name reg="Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia)" date="1743-1825" place="UK" TEIform="name">Anna Letitia Barbauld</name>
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<title level="m" type="main" TEIform="title">The Works of <name TEIform="name">Anna Letitia Barbauld</name>.</title>
<title level="m" type="subordinate" TEIform="title">With a Memoir by <name TEIform="name">Lucy Aikin</name>.</title>
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<name reg="Aikin, Lucy" date="1781-1864" place="UK" TEIform="name">Lucy Aikin</name>
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<p TEIform="p">This copy is transcribed from the volume held by the University of Cincinnati,
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<hi TEIform="hi">Letters to Mrs. Carr</hi>
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<name type="place" TEIform="name">Pit Cot, near Bridgend,</name>
<date TEIform="date">July 18, 1797.</date>
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<p TEIform="p">...... We flattered ourselves with seeing some of the beauties of South Wales in
                    coming hither, but we were completely disappointed by the state of the weather.
                    This country is bleak and bare, with fine views of the sea, and a bold rocky
                    coast, with a beach of fine hard sand. We have been much pleased with watching
                    the coming in of the tide among the rocks, against which it dashes, forming
                    columns of spray twenty and thirty foot high, accompanied with rainbows, and
                    with a roar like distant cannon. There are fine caverns and recesses amongst the
                    rocks; one particularly, which we took the opportunity of visiting yesterday, as
                    it can only be entered at the ebb of the spring-tides. It is very spacious,
                    beautifully arched, and composed of granite rocks finely veined with alabaster,
                    which the imagination may easily form into a resemblance of a female figure, and
                    is of course the Nereid of the grotto. We wished to have stayed longer; but our
                    friend hurried us away, lest the tide should rush in, <pb n="117" TEIform="pb"/>which it is supposed to do
                    from subterranious caverns, as it fills before the tide covers the sand of
                    adjacent beach. I was particularly affected with the fate of two lovers, (a
                    young gentleman and lady from Clifton,) whose friends were here for the sake of
                    sea-bathing. They stole out early one morning by themselves, and strolled along
                    the beach till they came to this grotto, which, being then empty, they entered.
                    They admired the strata of rock leaning in different directions: they admired
                    the incrustation which covers part of the sides, exactly resembling honeycomb;
                    various shells imbedded in the rock; the sea-anemone spreading its purple
                    fringe, -- an animal flower clinging to the rocks. They admired the first
                    efforts of vegetation in the purple and green tints occasioned by the lichens
                    and other mosses creeping over the bare stone. They admired these together; they
                    loved each other the more for having the same tastes; and they taught the echoes
                    of the cavern to repeat the vows which they made of eternal constancy. In the
                    mean time the tide was coming in: of this they were aware, as they now and then
                    glanced their eye on the waves, which they saw advancing at a distance; but not
                    knowing the peculiar nature of the cavern, they thought themselves safe; when on
                    a sudden, as they were in the furthest part of it, the waters rushed in from
                    fissures in the rock with terrible <pb n="118" TEIform="pb"/>roaring. They climbed from ledge to ledge of
                    the rocks, -- but in vain; the water rose impetuously, and at length filled the
                    whole grotto. Their bodies were found the next day, when the tide was out,
                    reclining on a shelf of rock; he in the tender attitude of supporting her, in
                    the very highest accessible part, and leaning his own head in her lap, -- so
                    that he must have died first. Poor lovers! If, however, you should be too much
                    grieved for them, you may impute the whole, if you please, to a waking
                        <emph TEIform="emph">dream</emph> which I had in the grotto.</p>
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<name type="place" TEIform="name">Bristol,</name>
<date TEIform="date">August 1797.</date>
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<p TEIform="p">We are here very comfortably with our friend Mr. Estlin, who, like some other
                    persons that I know, has the happy art of making his friends feel entirely at
                    home with him: -- he and Mrs. E. follow their occupations in the morning, and we
                    our inclinations. The walks here on both sides the river are delightful; and the
                    scenery at St. Vincent's rocks, whether viewed from above or below, is far
                    superior, in my opinion, even to the beautifully dressed scenes that border the
                    Thames, though these exceed it in fine trees .....</p>
<p TEIform="p">I have seen Dr. Beddoes, who is a very pleasant man: his favourite prescription
                    at present to ladies is, the inhaling the breath of cows; and as he does not,
                    like the German doctors, send the ladies <pb n="119" TEIform="pb"/>to the cow-house, the cows are to be
                    brought into the lady's chamber, where they are to stand all night with their
                    heads within the curtains. Mrs. ---, who has a good deal of humor, says the
                    benefit cannot be mutual; and she is afraid, if the fashion takes, we shall eat
                    diseased beef. It is fact, however, that a family have been turned out of their
                    lodgings, because the people of the house would not admit the cows: they said
                    they had not built and furnished their rooms for the hoofs of cattle.</p>
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<name type="place" TEIform="name">Hampstead,</name>
<date TEIform="date">Oct. 1801.</date>
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<p TEIform="p">My Dear Mrs. Carr,</p>
<p TEIform="p">Though I hope the time approaches when we shall be within reach of one another
                    again, I feel the want of our accustomed intercourse too strongly not to wish to
                    supply it in some manner by a letter. Besides, I want to wish you joy on the
                    peace, which came at last so unexpectedly, and almost overwhelmed us with the
                    good news. We have hardly done illuminating and bouncing and popping upon the
                    occasion. The spontaneous joy and mutual congratulations of all ranks show
                    plainly what were the wishes of the people, though they dared not declare them.
                    And now France lies like a huge loadstone on the other side the Channel, and
                    will draw every mother's child of us to it. Those who know French are <pb n="120" TEIform="pb"/>refreshing
                    their memories, -- those who do not, are learning it; and every one is planning
                    in some way or other to get a sight of the promised land.</p>
<p TEIform="p">Our Hampstead neighbours are returning to us from the lakes, and the sea, and the
                    ends of the earth. I have been puzzling myself to account for this universal
                    disposition amongst us to migrate at a certain time of the year and change our
                    way of life; and I have been fancying that we English lie under the same spell
                    which the fairies are said to do, -- by which during a month every year they are
                    obliged to be transformed, and to wander about exposed to adventures. So some of
                    our nymphs are turned into butterflies for the season, others into Naiads, and
                    sport about till the sober months come, when they resume their usual appearance
                    and occupation of notable housewives, perhaps in Cheapside or Borough. As to
                    you, you carry your cares with you, and therefore must be pretty much the same,
                    except the dripping locks of the Naiad; but Sarah, I imagine, is at this moment
                    skimming along the shore like a swallow, or walking with naked feet like a
                    slender heron in the water, or nestling among the cliffs. Wherever she is, my
                    love to her.</p>
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<name type="place" TEIform="name">Southampton,</name>
<date TEIform="date">July 10th.</date>
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<p TEIform="p">My Dear Mrs. Carr,</p>
<p TEIform="p">Have you ever seen the isle of Wight? if not, you have not seen the prettiest
                    place in the king's dominions. It is such a charming <emph TEIform="emph">little</emph> island!
                    In this great island, which we set foot on half an hour ago, the sea is at such
                    a distance from the greater part of it, that you have no more acquaintance with
                    it than if you were in the heart of Germany; and even on the coast, England
                    appears no more an island to the eye than France does; but in this little gem of
                    the ocean called the isle of Wight, you see and feel you are in an island every
                    moment. The great ocean becomes quite domestic; you see it form every point of
                    view; you have it on the right hand, you look and you have it on the left also;
                    you see both sides of the island at once, -- you look into every creek and
                    corner of it, which produces a new and singular feeling. We have taken three
                    different rides upon and under high cliffs, corn-fields and villages down to the
                    water's edge, and a fine West India fleet in view, with the sails all spread,
                    and her convoy most majestically sailing by her. We saw Lord Dysart's seat, and
                    Sir Richard Worsley's: at the former there is a seat in the rock which shuts out
                    every object but the shoreless ocean, -- for it looks towards France: at the
                    latter there is an <pb n="122" TEIform="pb"/>attempt at an English vineyard; the vines are planted on
                    terraces one above another. Another day's excursion was to the Needles; we
                    walked to the very point, the toe of the island: the seagulls were flying about
                    the rock like bees from a hive, and little fleets of puffins with their black
                    heads in the water. Allum bay looks like a wall of marble veined with different
                    colours. The freshness of the sea air, and the beauty of the smooth turf of the
                    downs on which we rode or walked, was inexpressibly pleasing. The next day we
                    visited the north side of the island, richly wooded down to the water's edge,
                    and rode home over a high down with the sea on both sides and a rich country
                    between; the corn beginning to acquire the tinge of harvest time. In short, I do
                    believe that if Buonaparte were to see the isle of Wight, he would think it a
                    very pretty <emph TEIform="emph">appanage</emph> for some third or fourth cousin, and would
                    make him king of it -- if he could get it.</p>
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<name type="place" TEIform="name">Stoke Newington,</name>
<date TEIform="date">Oct. 1882.</date>
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<p TEIform="p">My Dear Mrs. Carr,</p>
<p TEIform="p">I think I never was so long without seeing you since we were acquainted. May I
                    hope that it will not be much longer? I want to know of the health and welfare
                    of every individual of you ...... My love to your young ladies; tell them <pb n="123" TEIform="pb"/>I am
                    sorry they must wait to be married till Parliament meets again; but every body
                    says it is the most difficult thing in the world. Dr. ----, indeed, has
                    accomplished it in spite of obstacles; but he is a man of energy and
                    perseverance. Englishmen are said to love their laws; -- that is the reason, I
                    suppose, they give us so many of them, and in different editions.</p>
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