Collections - Letters
Letters of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bevan, 1804-1811.
Letter Number 45
Dated: 21st July 1810 from CB Ceuta
Addressed to Mrs C Bevan, Money Hill, Rickmansworth, Herts
Our weather now, My dearest Mary, begins to grow so very warm that I
hardly know what to do with myself but grumble – You will be glad to
hear that I have hitherto felt no inconvenience from the heat, and
indeed our men are recovering rapidly from their late sickly state. This
I conceive is owing to the weather being much more settled than we have
experienced it for some time. I begin to have a rather better opinion of
my health than I used to have, I fancy it is more my present than God
that humbles us all (difficult scrawl) – For this there is no remedy, at
least none we here may reach – I shall henceforth put up with what I
cannot get rid of – I hope you continue well – I am very anxious for
accounts from Money Hill especially of yourself – Your party I hope will
prove agreeable and not incommode your way of life. Oh! My good friend
why will my destiny not allow me to share with you the comforts of
domestick living – That damned Money (thickly underscored)! But I will
not torment you with the old subject! I hope you hear something from our
working (?) cousin of Inglewood, and I, as sincerely hope that she is
well – I do not know more than half a dozen people in this world who
deserve to be happy, She is certainly one of my Number.
I shall hardly know my poor little men when I return to England, they
will be so much grown – could I but f-(word torn by seal) them a good
education I should be (word torn out by seal ?less) anxious on their
accounts – But God knows what is to be – I hope its for the best, but
hopes
“Hope, like a gleaming taper’s light,
Adorns and cheers the way,
And still as darker grows the night
Emits a brighter ray” Goldsmith Hamm!!!
How happy are those whom fortune has placed in a state of independence –
but how equally often is that state abused, disturbed and – blighted –
It is but very expensive in life, and a knowledge of the most that one
learns duly to appreciate the happiness of a calm and settled life - -
I believe therefore that a young man should be always employed in some
active, busy life, so that he may as he’s “Yellow leaf know how to be
satisfied with peace and friendship and a good wife I ask a one as I
know.
I have not heard from Paterson, nor do I know how to write to him – I
have some idea of going to Cadiz for a day or two & perhaps (?speak?)
Gen Graham – I hear something of him. I hope Mrs Dacres and all the
Dacres family are now quite well – Pray offer my kindest love to all
Now does my friend fancy a Bride Love to Mama & (kittens?)
Kiss our men for me and believe me your C.B.
NOTES BY TRANSCRIBER
i) Goldsmith – CB has the quotation from The Captivity Canto II more or
less correct – the for a in line i and our for the further down
ii) Yellow Leaf – clearly another literary allusion which pleased CB –
perhaps Byron who wrote ‘My days are in the Yellow Leaf’ in a poem ‘On
the day I entered my 36th Year’
iii) CB’s philosophical ramblings present difficulties for the
transcriber who is often forced to guess – which is easier with his
military career.
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