"My very dear Clare,--If this excellent little book, and the others
which accompany it, do not speak sufficiently for themselves, it
would be in vain to think of offering you any further earthly
inducement to study them and seek the truth. The grace of God can
alone do this, and Heaven grant that this may not be wanting! So
prays your truly sincere and affectionate Radstock."
Similar inscriptions accompanied a copy of Watson's "Apology for the
Bible," Bishop Wilson's "Maxims of Piety and Christianity," and other
works of a corresponding character.
"A SOUL FEMININE SALUTETH US"
Soon after his arrival in London Lord Radstock took Clare to see Mrs.
Emmerson, who had already been in correspondence with him, and thus
commenced a friendship the ardour and constancy of which knew no
abatement until poor Clare was no longer able to hold rational
intercourse with his fellow-creatures. Mrs. Emmerson was the wife of
Mr. Thomas Emmerson, of Berners Street, Oxford Street, and afterwards
of Stratford Place. She was a lady in easy circumstances, and
occupied a good social position. [3] Being of refined and elegant
tastes, and singularly generous disposition, she associated herself
with young aspirants for fame in poetry, painting, and sculpture, and
to the utmost of her power endeavoured to procure for them public
notice and patronage. She was herself a frequent writer of graceful
verses, and her letters disclose a sensitive, poetic mind, a habit of
self-denial when the happiness of her friends was concerned, and a
delicate physical organization liable to prostrating attacks of
various nervous disorders. Clare preserved nearly three hundred of
her letters, the dates ranging from February, 1820, to July, 1837, or
an average of one letter in about every three weeks; and the Editor,
having read the whole of them, feels constrained, a different version
of the relationship having been given, to state his conviction that
no poor struggling genius was ever blessed with a tenderer or a truer
friend. No man of feeling could rise from the perusal of them without
the deepest respect and admiration for the writer. The style is
effusive, and the language in which the lady writes of Clare's poetry
is occasionally eulogistic to the point of extravagance, and was to
that extent injudicious; but all blemishes are forgotten in the
presence of overwhelming evidences of pure and disinterested
friendship.
Although by no means insensible to the reception given to her own
verses, Clare's literary reputation lay much nearer to her heart. She
firmly believed that he was a great genius, and she insisted upon all
her friends believing so too, and buying his books. She very soon
began to feel an interest in his domestic affairs, and to send him
valuable presents. She was godmother to his second child, which was
named after her, Eliza Louisa, and for years the coach brought
regularly, a day or two before Christmas, two sovereigns "to pay for
little Eliza's schooling," another sovereign for the Christmas
dinner, and a waistcoat-piece and two India silk neckerchiefs "for my
dear Clare" with many kind wishes "for all in his humble cot." At
another time Patty's eyes were gladdened by the present of a dozen
silver teaspoons and a pair of sugar tongs. These were followed by a
silver seal, engraved for Clare in Paris and mounted in ivory, while
under the pretext that he must find postage expensive she several
times sent him a sovereign "under the wax." At one time she would
appear to have given him sufficient clothing to equip the entire
family, and when in 1832 Clare made his venture as a cottage farmer,
his thoughtful friend gave him L10 with which to buy a cow,
stipulating only (for the kind-hearted little woman must be
sentimental) that it should be christened "May." After that, she
strove hard to obtain for one of his boys admission to Christ's
Hospital, and in conjunction with Mr. Taylor discharged a heavy
account sent in by a local medical practitioner.
But in higher matters than these the genuineness of Mrs. Emmerson's
friendship for Clare was demonstrated. The poet poured into her
listening and patient ear the story of every trial and every
annoyance which fell to his lot, not concealing from his friend those
mental sufferings which were caused solely by his own indiscretion
and folly. Under these latter circumstances she rebuked him with
affectionate solicitude and fidelity. In perplexities arising out of
matters of business she gave him the best advice in her power, and
when her knowledge of affairs failed her appealed to her husband, who
was always ready to do anything for "dear Johnny," as Clare came to
be called in Stratford Place. When he complained of being distressed
by wild fancies and haunted by gloomy forebodings, as he did many
years before his reason gave way, she first rallied him, though often
herself suffering acutely, and then entreated him to dispel his
melancholy by communing afresh with Nature and by meditations on the
Divine greatness and goodness.