Seaham Hall (October 5 1814)
‘Your “factor’s letter” was satisfactory (I did not mean a pun) as far as satisfaction is to be derived from pounds, shillings and pence…
I have some genius for them, and when the science comes more into my practice that it has hitherto, expect to be as nearly as good as a proficient as if I knew nothing else, which is commonly considered the only surety for female economy.
My father talks of writing to you – to suggest the possibility that a knowledge of his affairs might tend to the more convenient arrangement of yours.
He is most anxious to afford every accommodation in his power, which I suspect does not extend as far as he wishes…
I will however leave his meaning to his own exposition.
My idea of pecuniary comfort is not in the more or less, but in freedom from embarrassments, which are destructive to independence…
Amongst the antitheses of your skull the Craniolo-gist might perhaps find humility and pride – but not vanity surely. I begin to think that a little more of that quality would be very advantageous to us both.
At least it would have brought us sooner to a thorough understanding.
My Mother is nearly well.‘
Sources Used:
The Life and Letters of Anne Isabella, Lady Noel Byron Ethel Colburn Mayne (London: Constable & Co Ltd 1929)
The Regency Recondite 