Thornhill, Toronto, Upper Canada,
July 14, 1835.
My much-endeared Brother,
WE were in some measure prepared for the communication conveyed to us by
your letter of the 20th of April, and which reached us yesterday evening;
for our Shropshire friend had heard the report of our beloved mother’s
departure, and had made allusion to it in communications received some
weeks since. Well, her happy, holy spirit, is at length released.
Fulness of days has been granted to her, and, though they have not been
unattended with labour and sorrow, yet has her kind Saviour been with
her, and as much of outward alleviation and inward serenity and peace
have been experienced by her as her circumstances and state of body would
admit of. And now has she entered into the fulness of her gracious
reward, and her sainted name must ever be inhaled as the precious
perfumed ointment, by all who know how to estimate her deep, consistent,
and exalted piety. And where shall we now look for her fellow? For the
race of the distinguished and peculiar few seems now to have become
extinct. In vain shall we look for a Cooper, a Rogers, a Fletcher, a
Lefevre, or one like our equally distinguished mother. A prophet indeed
is no where so little esteemed as among his own kindred. And yet I am
persuaded that there is that in the heart of my endeared brother, which
will fully respond to the encomiums which have thus unintentionally
escaped me. * * *
Your letter bears the goodly inscription of “Thornhill Parsonage;” but,
alas! it is a sound without locality. It exists in my kind brother’s
imagination, but nowhere else. A house indeed has long been talked of,
and was at length erected, but a mere laical abode. But I am happy to
say that matters are now likely to be on a proper footing. I have
purchased four acres of land (at £50 an acre!!) near the church, for
which the Lieutenant-Governor in Council has consented to allow me an
equivalent in wild land, as well as for a sum not exceeding £500 for the
erection of a parsonage. And operations have commenced, but when they
shall be terminated I know not. The lumber must be sawn and seasoned,
and continue seasoning till next spring, and we are told that a finished
habitation will be ready for us in the fall of the next year, October the
1st, 1836. But what a distant period! my hand misgives me while I write
it; for my whitened locks and weakly frame point to a far different
abode. May my affection combine with my judgment, and may my short
residue of days be so numbered by me, that wisdom’s lessons may both
diligently and effectually be learnt!
When I sat down I was purposing a tolerably close imitation of your own
very lengthy (eleven-lined!) epistle, and was about to find some
convincing, or at least plausible, reason for my shabbiness. Happily,
however, my pen has kept sliding on; and finding myself so near the
conclusion of the third side of my closely written sheet, I may assure
you with a tolerably fair and unblushing front, of our unabated and most
affectionate regards to yourself and all your endeared family, and not
least, those of your sincerely devoted brother,