LETTER TO PROFESSOR REED.

1844.

In your last letter you speak so feelingly of the manner in which my birthday (April 7) has been noticed, both privately in your country, and somewhat publicly in my own neighbourhood, that I cannot forbear adding a word or two upon the subject.  It would have delighted you to see the assemblage in front of our house, some dancing upon the gravel platform, old and young, as described in Goldsmith’s travels; and others, children, I mean, chasing each other upon the little plot of lawn to which you descend by steps from the platform.  We had music of our own preparing; and two sets of casual itinerants, Italians and Germans, came in successively, and enlivened the festivity.  There were present upwards of 300 children, and about 150 adults of both sexes and all ages, the children in their best attire, and of that happy and, I may say, beautiful race, which is spread over this highly-favoured portion of England.  The tables were tastefully arranged in the open air[204]—­oranges and gingerbread in piles decorated with evergreens and Spring flowers; and all partook of tea, the young in the open air, and the old within doors.  I must own I wish that little commemorations of this kind were more common among us.  It is melancholy to think how little that portion of the community which is quite at ease in their circumstances have to do in a social way with the humbler classes.  They purchase commodities of them, or they employ them as labourers, or they visit them in charity for the sake of supplying their most urgent wants by alms-giving.  But this, alas, is far from enough; one would wish to see the rich mingle with the poor as much as may be upon a footing of fraternal equality.  The old feudal dependencies and relations are almost gone from England, and nothing has yet come adequately to supply their place.  There are tendencies of the right kind here and there, but they are rather accidental than aught that is established in general manners.  Why should not great land-owners look for a substitute for what is lost of feudal paternity in the higher principles of christianised humanity and humble-minded brotherhood?  And why should not this extend to those vast communities which crowd so many parts of England under one head, in the different sorts of manufacture, which, for the want of it, are too often the pests of the social state?  We are, however, improving, and I trust that the example set by some mill-owners will not fail to influence others.

[204] The fete was given by Miss Fenwick, then at Rydal.

It gave me pleasure to be told that Mr. Keble’s Dedication of his ‘Praelectiones’ had fallen in your way, and that you had been struck by it.[205]

[205] See Memoirs, c. xlv.

It is not for me to say how far I am entitled to the honour which he has done me, but I can sincerely say that it has been the main scope of my writings to do what he says I have accomplished.  And where could I find a more trustworthy judge?