Letters, References and Notes (1844) 
Relating to Anne Marsh (Marsh Caldwell)

The following is a listing of letters, references and general notes, from 1844, relating to Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) and her family, in particular her husband Arthur Marsh and their son Martin Marsh.  For notes relating to other years please go to Letters, References and Notes (1780-1874).

Foreword

The following letters from the year 1844 have been taken from a collection spanning the years 1840-1846.  This particular selection deals in the main with the correspondence between Anne and her son Martin, during his last year at Eton. Although many of these letters are not dated they appear to have been placed in chronological order to form a kind of on-going journal.  It seems this was in fact Anne's intention as she notes it down in one of these letters to her son.  Amongst this correspondence there are interleaved various other family correspondence, from her daughters, her husband and other related persons, each script being carefully placed to maintain the correct chronology. 

These letters have been transcribed to the best of my ability however the deciphering of some words has eluded me and in each case three dots  . . .  have been inserted in place of each missing word.  Extra notes have been added, some times in the text, in which case [square brackets] have been used to enclose the words added.  Notes added before or after each letter do not have square brackets.  In general I have used the words and spellings (or nearest guess at the spellings) as in the actual letters.

 Background to the Year 1844

By 1844, the period charted in these letters, Queen Victoria had been on the throne for 7 years, she was still only 25 years old and Sir Robert Peel had taken over as Prime Minister, following the resignation of Lord Melbourne in 1841.  Britain was now a world power, both in the production and export of manufactured goods, and in the strength of her armed forces.  Military campaigns were underway in many far off places including Afghanistan, where there had been constant skirmishing before and after the retreat from Kabul, in early 1842.  In China the Opium Wars had come to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking and Hong Kong had just been leased to Great Britain.  Advances in scientific thought had also begun.  Charles Darwin had returned from his voyage on the "Beagle", although his publication Origin of Species did not appear until 1859.  On the literary front William Wordsworth had taken over from Southey as Poet Laureate.

During this period Anne was approaching the height of her novel writing career, in the company of other women writers, many of whom, like Anne, have now been lost in literary history.  Anthony Trollope's mother, Fanny, began an extensive literary career in 1833 and during the year of Anne's correspondence with Martin, Mrs. Trollope published Jessie Phillips, The Laurringtons and Young Love.  Other important writers of the period were, Catherine Gore, one of the main women writers of "Silver Fork" novels, Sarah Ellis, generally known for her conduct books, and authors such as Caroline Grey and Hannah Maria Jones who contributed to the Penny magazines. Women were also producing moral literature for children, as well as novels for adult audiences, one of these writers, Mary Howitt, even translated the works of a Swedish novelist, Frederika Bremer, into English.  In 1844 Ellen Pickering published The Grandfather, Anna Eliza Bray released the last volume of her Historical romances and Elizabeth Sewell produced Amy Herbert.  These women had all established a literary reputation in the wake of Jane Austen, who had died 27 years earlier (1817) and a number of years before either the Brontë sisters or Mrs Gaskell had begun their writing careers (1846 and 1848 respectively).  1844 also saw the publication of Coningsby, a novel by an up and coming Tory politician, Benjamin Disraeli, a book discussed in one of the letters included here.

Novel writing flourished and with the advent of Penny Postage (and the first postage stamps), introduced four years earlier by Rowland Hill, letter writing too became increasingly popular.

Here is a general background charting the fortunes of the Marsh family during the period prior to 1844.

Exactly 20 years earlier in 1824 the family banking firm of "Marsh Stacey & Graham" had crashed and Anne's father in law, William Marsh, along with the other partners, had been declared bankrupt.  Although Anne's husband, Arthur Marsh, was not a partner, he still lost most of his money due to an agreement made in 1816 whereby he had guaranteed his father's credit.  The complex legal aftermath of this bankruptcy had continued for many years, generating much heartache for all the family.

Throughout this trying time Arthur appears to have found it difficult to readjust to his changed circumstances.  Despite having had the privilege of a Cambridge education, he was not able to apply himself to any particular vocation and therefore was unable to earn enough for his family's needs.  Eventually, in the late 1830s, Anne and Arthur left England to take up residence in Boulogne, where the cost of living was generally considered to be cheaper.  To improve their circumstances, Anne had started making money by writing books and it would appear that she gradually took an increasing role in managing the family affairs.  In 1834 she had published her first novel Two Old Men's Tales  (Saunders & Otley, London; Harper, New York).  This had been an instant success resulting in a second edition being hurriedly printed in the same year.  Anne's next publication followed in 1836 Tales of the Woods & Fields (Saunders & Otley, London; Harper, New York).

In 1838, in Staffordshire, Anne's father James Caldwell had died, leaving the family estate of "Linley Wood" to Anne's brother James Stamford Caldwell, along with a small legacy of £5,000 to Anne.  With this and the proceeds from her writing, the Marsh family were able to move back to England in 1841, purchasing the estate of "Eastbury", near Watford, Hertfordshire for £13,000.  By January 1842 they had taken up residence and their letters from this date are addressed from "Eastbury" or "Eastborough Lodge" which presumably was the name of the mansion house on the estate. 

At the time these particular letters were written Anne had finished writing Triumphs of Time, which was published during 1844 (R Bentley, London).  Her son Martin makes a reference to reading it in July.  Anne had presumably also finished editing The Nevilles of Garretstown by Mortimer O'Sullivan, which was also published in 1844 (Harper, New York).  Anne's next book "Mount Sorel" was to be published the following year in 1845 (Chapman & Hall, London) so we can probably assume that this was the book she was hard at work on during the time that the attached letters were written.

At the beginning of 1844 Martin was 18 years of age and in the process of finishing his school education at Eton, where he had been since January 1840.  Academically he was doing very well, coming runner up the previous year for the Prince Consort's Prize for French and German.  He appears to have also been participating in sport and later in 1844 he was to come third in the Eton Sculling Sweepstakes.  During the period of these letters he was attempting to gain a "Postmastership" to Merton College Oxford, a scholarship which would have reduced the fees required for his education at such a prestigious University.

At the beginning of 1844 the approximate ages of the Marsh family would have been as follows:-

Anne Marsh was 53 years old. 

Her husband Arthur Cuthbert Marsh 57.  

Her father-in-law, William Marsh 88.

Anne's children would have been: 

Martin William James Marsh 18.

Eliza Louisa Marsh 26, referred to as Lax.

Francis Mary Marsh 24, referred to as Fanny.

Georgina Amelia Marsh 23, referred to as Georgy.

Rosamond Jane Marsh 20, referred to as Posy?

Mary Emma Marsh 17, referred to as Mary.

Hannah Adelaide Marsh 15, referred to as Adelaide.

Anne's brother, James Stamford Caldwell 56.

There appears to have also been a small boy living in the Marsh family, by the name of George, who Anne refers to as a son?  There are no other records of Anne having a son called George.  Presumably he was a relative, possibly George Cuthbert Marsh who was a nephew of Arthur Cuthbert Marsh.

The Letters

Part of a letter from Martin Marsh to his mother Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell). The letter reads as follows:

Eton College February [1844 added in pencil]
Dearest Mother
As Monday was passed in writing English verse I had not time to write on it so I defer it till Sunday . . . day.  It has been snowing and thawing all the day and it has not yet made up its mind what it will do.  I did not go out at all so I cannot tell how it felt out of doors it looked bad enough.  I intend to send you my attempts at versification and so I will explain them before you see them.   They are taken from a chorus of  E . . . 's play of the "Seven Chiefs against Thebes".  The chorus (a body of Theban woman) are here supposed to be in the temple of the goddess Pallus.  The tutelary deity of Thebes praying for her aid, complaining of her desertion of them and begging her again to return to . . . loved Dirce a fountain close to Thebes and averting the impending calamity to rout the foe.  The transitions are rapid and will . . . probably strike you as inharmonious, but the reason of this is that that is the spirit of the tragedians chorus and 2nd that my pen is not skilled enough to do them justice however I hope that you will just expunge all parts that are very bad.  There are some too I'm afraid.  It is now enough of this subject.  Today we went skating and after I had been on the ice 20 minutes I fell in, which was a great loss as it spoiled all my fun.  Fortunately I was not drowned as it was only two foot deep.  The treacherous ice let me in on all fours.  It was close to Mr S . . . my farmer friends house who kindly ran out his gig and ran me home in . . . He told me that the . . . about here was beautiful but he hoped it would not get too proud.  He liked the frost and hoped that it would continue.  . . . home and changed and did some . . . on the same subject the . . . chorus . . . now am going to bed as soon as I can so good night.  Wednesday.  It has rained today and done for our skating and out of door amusement so I stayed in again after 12 and did one or two stanzas and polished up the ones I had done.  This occupied me after 12 and after 4.  I did do for it was very horrid and although I attempted a walk it was not to be done.  They say that English verse is sometimes . . . in the scholarships and if we are only to have the very chorus would not that be delightful.  I got Mary's letter today for which I am very much obliged as it is a pleasing interlude, a bulletin from the home of my father's of you all and . . . dear dogs.  However I am very happy indeed.  My little friend is such a pleasure to me, so nice he is and helps me all he can in every way.  I never expressed the great pleasure of having a younger friend that you watched and guided as much as one's weak hand can.  And then to know that all your kindness is returned as it is by kind for I am sure he likes me very very much.  One day I said to him that I thought old copies that is old copies of verses were a very bad thing for your versification as well as a . . . on your tutor.  Well he being young and thoughtless said he didn't agree with me.  I said in stronger terms that it was not only an idle shuffling but also a dishonourable thing.  This made him angry and he said that it was very unkind of me and all that sort of thing.  I said very well you'll think of it and then you'll see I'm right.  No he said he did not think he should.  About a ¼ hour afterwards he came to me took my hand and with tears in his eyes said you were right and you are very very kind to me.  But it is all over now.  I have destroyed them and so I shall never do an idle or dishonourable thing.  And then poor fellow we began to cry for his verses had been got together with great care and pains.  And it cost him a very hard struggle to do it.  Though he did for me he said.  Was not this a charming trait and how can I help liking and loving such a friend as he promises to be and it is his society that gilds my Eton . . . which I should else pain solitary in my suffering.  I hope you will know him some day and only like him half as much as I do.  That will go a great way.  Many other things of this sort I could tell you all in his fashion but he is coming to bid me good night, ie I stop.  Thursday.  Dearest Mother thank you for your letter.  I am so glad that I could give you some pleasure by doing what you like.  I wish I could always do it.  I'm sure I'll try.  Inviolate is your finish, as to the other I am not sure because he ever looks the Poulty is it.  The . . . I have not an idea of.  I am sorry that I did not go and see the . . . Indians as you say they are so very well worth seeing.

[Possibly a further page or pages missing?]

Part of a letter from Martin Marsh to his mother Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell). The letter reads as follows:

Eton College
February 12 1844
My dearest Mother
Tonight I have time to write to you that Monday is a whole school day.  For I have had some luck with my verses and seen them off rather quicker than usual.  Pray tell Mary that I would have sent her a note on Sunday but that I have to read so much divinity now on that day that my time is fully occupied.  My tutor was ill yesterday so we had no private.  I suppose that his life must be rather a hard one, as it is usual contrary to experience for a school master to be taken ill under ordinary circumstances.  My verses are on the "witching sirens" which is not a very hard subject though somewhat trite.  I think I shall take up a new system of letter writing and not cross my letters as usual, for if you have a pleasure in reading them that must be somewhat diminished by the fact of them being almost illegible.  I have some thoughts of sending a piece of my hand writing to Miss Clough or some such name who can tell your character . . . Two of my Dames had theirs done so and it was really extraordinary how true they were.  You enclose two shillings which she devotes to a charity for which she is collecting.  If I do I will send it on to you, that is if it is a true one.  I wonder how people acquire this extraordinary power?  Mrs Greenwood wants me to send it.  At least she told her son in a letter to ask me if I should like to do it, so I suppose she wants to know what sort of a character her son's friend has, and I have since discovered that it has been done by several at Eton, and has answered beyond all expectation.  My tutor has not looked over my English verses yet, and so I am still in doubt on this subject whether they are passable or not but none . . . good enough.  Tuesday . . . holiday began the day by . . .  .  We are doing Agamemnon, a very fine play of Euclylus and more over a very hard one.  My tutor saw my verses this morning and said "he was very much pleased with them indeed, that there was a great deal of very good and very rigorous expression" besides other . . .  . . . to mention.  Thank you very much for your letter which I got today.  I am so glad that you find some of my verses good ones, for I would rather have your praise than anybody's in anything, and I hope you will adhere to your proposal of telling me all my faults as it will be very improving and at this golden period I cannot lay up my store of learning to bring it out in terms of . . . when I can learn no more.  I read some Pindar to night.  Have you ever read any?  I mean any of Theleus translation I think it is.  He is a noble poet perhaps one of the finest of the Greek poets.  His religious feelings are really extraordinary for a . . . never in Pindar is a word let fall that breathes anything of disrespect to the gods while in the later tragedian we find them made a laughing stock of.  In a word he is a model of . . .  . . . and it is a great advantage in "modern" education that we can read such a book by dent of the many excellent editions of it and among the best that of WG Cookesley  my good tutor.  And so Emily will be a brides maid with either of sisters in their ensuing nuptials.  Do Mr GH such as to ask.  He has travelled

[Possibly a further page or pages missing?]

Letter from Martin Marsh to his mother Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell). The letter reads as follows:

March 20th 1844
My dearest Mother
I first write you a line to say that I am quite safe & well here, and hope that you are the same.  I shall not now write a long letter as I will do that in my Journal, commencing next Monday.  All the same here as usual.  I have a youth named Pearson in my room, not a very bad fellow, but that does not matter much as one's room is not much occupied in this half.  Greenwood came back on Tuesday and is very well.  We have got a capital lock up and anticipate vast pleasures.  Have you lost Max.  I thought I saw him in Uxbridge on Thursday night and sent James after him, but said that he thought it not him.  How is dear Tippy.  I hope he does not take on very much about his dear mow.  Tell him his ma awoke on Friday morning in expectation of finding his dear dog there and was very much disappointed not to have found him there.  Dear fellow, Adelaide take care that no unjust jurisdictions deprive him of his dinner in future.  And now dear Mother not to spoil my Journal letter, I will stop.  And with my very best love to all and kisses and commendation on behalf of the Rippy Tippy Dog
Je suis votre tres
Affectionate fils
M Marsh
Eton College
March 20 /44
How do the crops look after the rain, and what next of Arcadia?

Letter from Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) to her son Martin Marsh.  Filed after 20 March 1844 and from the content must have been written before 28 March 1844.  The letter reads as follows:

We have no other paper in the house dearest boy so my letter will be like Sybil's leaves.  I did not write yesterday because Louisa had written & as I was very busy, about the book & exceedingly tired I said to myself, he will like better to have my letter on Tuesday & so Louisa's letter did not go by a mistake & so you will have all together & will probably not have time to read as I did not get your charming 2nd letter till I came home on Friday evening & then on Sunday I got your journal letter, which was still more delightful, so I have two to answer.  I don't know whether I am to consider your breakfast with Mr Coleridge  as a plumb, or not.  I am tempted to think it so, but don't know whether it is a class affair or because you are a clever fellow.  I was much pleased with what you tell me of the boats, dear children all may you find as I trust you always will find a sweetness in the acts of self denial which your position imposes on you, which may repay you, for the want of many pleasures, which your parents would so gladly procure for you "Sweet are the uses of adversity which the toad ugly and venomous, bears yet a precious jewel in its head".  This is a very . . . quotation indeed, but as you are not very deep in Shakespear yet, I venture it to you, so don't be disgusted.  I am, too, very glad, as you were sure I should be, to see you engaged in kind and tender offices to your poor sick friend.  I am glad he is better.  I had not a very prosperous meeting with Mr Bentley  after all, and shall I fear get much less for my poor little Tales than I had hoped.  I am still uncertain whether I will accept his offer or not.  So these . . . that matter suspended.  In the happy scale to balance this . . . I have an invitation from dear kind Mrs Holland for Posy & Mary to come and spend a fortnight with her, that Mary may have some showing before she is to go and show in a class, and be taught as artist are taught, young amateurs learn in this class too.  This will be a great improvement and a great pleasure.  I saw no one while I was in town, but Lady A . . . and Miss Edward's (or Favante as she is now called) sister.  Every place at the opera is already taken for the night of her first appearance, and she is expected to make a great sensation.  At Naples the enthusiasm she excited was quite extraordinary.  It is very pretty to see in the midst of all this success how they return their grateful feelings for your Grand Papa and Aunt Georgy .  They have reserved for your Grand Papa one of the best places in the house and there he shall be near a gentleman of his acquaintance to take care of him.  Aunt Georgy is provided with a place in the boxes.  They expect much pleasure.  I am glad they should have it.  Yes we will work hard at our mathematics when you come home.  I shall I hope go through the 2nd and 3rd at least before you come to be in force for you. My little leaves come to an end.  . . . love and duty.  Mat distinguished himself yesterday in the . . .  . . . flying at . . . almost as being as himself in a most gallant manner.  Your father says Georgy hopes this will illustrate the simple tear in your eyes.  Farewell my best and beloved.  Love your tenderest Mother.

28 March 1844.  Agreement on Copyright between Anne Marsh and Richard Bentley regarding "The Triumphs of Time".  The document is not written by Anne but is signed by her.  British Library 46614f221.  The agreement reads as follows:

Memorandum of an Agreement made this day between Mrs Marsh of Eastbury Lodge, Watford, Herts, on the one part and Richard Bentley of 8 New Burlington Street, London, on the other part. 
The said Mrs Marsh having written a work entitled "The Triumphs of Time in third series of Two Old Men's Tales" agrees to dispose of and the said Richard Bentley agrees to purchase the 1st edition of the said work to consist of 500 copies for the consideration of One Hundred and Twenty pounds payable in the said Richard Bentley's promissory note at six months date, receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, and nineteen copies of the work to be delivered to the said Mrs Marsh.  In witness there of the before named parties have hereunto set their hands this 28th day of March 1844.
Anne Marsh.

Letter from Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) to her son Martin Marsh.  The letter reads as follows:

Eastbury Tuesday  [April 29th 1844 added in pencil]
My dearest boy
I am as busy almost as you are, and thank god you are a good deal stronger than I am, so that I am obliged to brush my engagements with you when you dear fellow, miss yours with me.  I really was so . . . up after correcting a bundle of proofs yesterday that I could not write my Monday letter.  I will now begin by answering yours.  I quite agree with you as to what you say of the necessity of arrangement and classification of knowledge, and I believe that without something of this sort that one never feels that one has ones knowledge in a distinct earnest form that one can apply and use as occasion requires, but when your friend in the book proposes to lay the foundation of knowledge by the study of Herodotus, I confess I am quite at a loss to comprehend what he means.  Father of history, he is certainly called, but his history is, though very curious, full of old women's fables, even as a history, and in order to generalise ones ideas upon history the foundation should be built I should think rather by reading the last than the first Author who had written upon it.  I myself believe that during youth the best thing is to read much as you have done, get a quantity of facts into your memory and your imagination and now, when your lesson is beginning to demand a something more connected and well arranged in the chain of your ideas, than to read some of those books which give a general bird's eye view as it were of the whole, and to draw up with your own pen, some systematic plan, which will serve to arrange your recollections in their proper places, "Reading makes a full man, conversation a ready man, writing a correct man" says Lord Bacon.  When you come home I should advise you to take up some of your time, in making a review of the knowledge you do possess by composing a sort of abstract of history for your own private use.  You will find that nothing will supply to you what you want so well - Tytler's Elements of General History - a book I have will show you what I mean.  I shall like much to see your Students guide.  Your account of it however leads me to suspect that he is in error again, where he seems to undervalue your darling poets and tragedians.  Now certainly history is a very excellent and useful study, but after all it is but the chronicle of the Actions of men.  That higher wisdom which displays the inner nature of man, must be found in the higher poets and tragedians.  The study of the historians alone should tend very little to improve the mind unassisted by this finer wisdom.  Lord Bacon says upon this subject "For as the active world is inferior to the rational soul, so poetry gives that to mankind, which history denies.  For upon a narrow inspection poetry strongly shows, that a greater grandeur of things, a more perfect order, and a more beautiful variety is pleasing to the mind than can anywhere be found in nature since the fall . . . whence it may justly be called of the divine nature as it raises the mind by accommodating the images of things to our desires, and not like history subjecting the mind to things".  Then the riches of the imagination arising from the early impression of these beautiful images and pictures upon the mind.  How much too the mind is enlarged warmed opened and prepared for the highest culture by this early striving.  So never think the time you have bestowed upon your favourites thrown away.  Proceed cheerily on your path.  Heap together stores of ideas.  The time for arranging your stores is coming, and provided there is plenty of stuff, you will soon get your silks in order, and we will hope dear boy that your life will be worked up into a well ordered picture, and be the result of a plan.  As for early success, you have not any of those qualities I think that lead to any very remarkable early successes.  I do not mean to undervalue such.  All the gifts of the mind are good but they are often rather brilliant than solid.  That you will ultimately succeed in life, I have not in my own mind the slightest doubt.  That is, if the virtues of your boyhood are carried into manhood.  If in spite of the thousand temptations which will now beset you, you have the virtue to persevere steadily in your habits of application and industry and self denial and preserve your other precious virtues of temperance, innocence and purity.  Oh my child when I think of you how, about to launch into the great vortex of the world, what prayers, at least of your poor mother's wait upon you.  I will say one word more of your book, that reading by fits and starts which he reprobates, has its good side too.  Dr Johnson's advice was "Whenever by chance you take up a book and find anything that interests you, read on.  Never trouble yourself to go back to the beginning.  What you read in this manner you will never forget".  Both are good, systematic and discursive reading.  I quite agree with you in what you say of the effect produced upon the mind by your tutor's habit of running down, or perhaps painting in their true colours, the heroes of antiquity.  The ideal was so beautiful, that it is a pity to destroy it.  Nothing ennobles the soul like the contemplation of excellence.  I liked the old Grecian and Roman worthies, as they were looked upon in the less well instructed days of my childhood and I am sure Brutus and Metius and Leonidas etc exercised a very . . . desirable influence in making me generous and disinterested.  Perhaps your tutor like many others think it due to Christianity to show what were the errors of the greatest and best under a different system, but I doubt whether he does lose more than he gains in effect upon the mind.  Shall you think this a long prose.  Now for Domesticus.  We want rain sadly but the weather is enchanting.  Nothing can exceed the beauty of our woods.  Every green that can be conceived of blended in the softest beauty.  Dear Sir Hyde has been down here for two days and he was quite in a rapture with us.  He declares it the most beautiful place he ever saw in his life.  He was strolling about and sitting under the trees all day long.  I am going to London tomorrow to visit Mrs Booth and shall stay till next Tuesday.  So will you direct your next letter to York Gate.  Your Grandpapa seems to enjoy being here very much.  He sits in the bow window looking out and admiring all day long.  Farewell my boy.  Your dog is well.  Sir Hyde is delighted with his accomplishments and docility as displayed by Adelaide.
Dearest love ever your tender Mother.

Letter from Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) to her son Martin.  This has been dated in pencil, May 17 1844 (presumably added at a later point in time).  The letter reads as follows:

My dearest Martin
I did not get home till very late yesterday and so I have not been able on the usual day to answer your most interesting letter, this being my first morning at home too.  I have been as you will suppose very busy, and have little time left so this will be a short and shabby return for your most dear one.  Never make excuses for writing of yourself and your feelings.  No subject can be by possibility so interesting to me or indeed to all of us, but to me more especially and to your dear father to read in your heart all your feelings and purpose is inexpressibly interesting.  You know it is my firm faith that whoever will may.  That is granting them only fair moderate abilities, but as your father says in the story "I did not say . . . when" . . . the when depends upon many chances of fortune some earlier some later, break through and mount upwards.  But those who will always do mount sooner or later.  As for this Postmastership, I fear it is more a matter of interest than we had anticipated.  Your fortune will decide whether there are many or few favoured candidates.  If the number is great you chance will be small.  I wonder whether Mr Sydney Smith is likely to have any interest.  I think I probably did mistake your friend.  One is apt to do that from the extracts of another.  I was sorry to see that you thought you must give up your beloved pets and I was persuaded that was a mistake but his object I mistook and probably your way of representing it.  I am here with only your Father, Mary and Adelaide.  Louisa and G. come home on Saturday.  We hear very happy accounts of the nouvelle Mariée relating her house a garden and setting down to be thoroughly comfortable.  It is almost prosaic that marriage it seems is thoroughly without troubles.  I have spent a most agreeable week in town, out sometimes to three parties at a night visiting among all my old friends.  It has been quite a refreshment to my spirits.  I am now come home again and once more absorbed in delightful Eastbury, which certainly is looking most lovely.  I think I never saw the foliage of the trees so heavy and thick though the earth is parched for want of rain, I think we still have a tolerable crop of oats, but the masgel and potatoes have not shown the least signs of life.  Your Arcadia is so baked that you might as well dig the floor.  I don't know what crop you will put in there.  At least it will be matter of experiment to discover what will succeed in such a season.  We are all full of pleasant expectation of Merton [Oxford University].  We shall I hope be with you about 9.  Just tell us in your next, when we ought to be there and what we are to do.  I hate to feel new and raw, which I certainly shall do without much previous instruction.  Shall we stop first at your dames and deposit your sisters and then proceed to your tutors your father and I.  When once landed there we shall have nothing to do but to follow the crowd.  I mean to send James over early, in the cart, that he may be ready to meet and attend upon your father.  When he arrives he is to bring George who is in raptures dear little fellow at the idea of coming.  Louisa and Georgy having had the wedding give up the Montem, so all is comfortable and we think four girls as large a number as can reasonably be brought anywhere.  I am so tired and sleepy.  I can no more but am resolved not to miss this post so farewell dearest dearest Martin, ever write as the moment inspires,  that charming openness and nonreserve is so delightful.  Your dog is well and looked properly grave upon my shaking hands with him on his birthday.
Ever your most tender but half asleep Mother. 

Letter from Arthur Marsh to his son Martin, 21 May 1844.  This is in what appears to be its original envelope postmarked Watford, May 21, 1844 and Windsor, May 22, 1844 and Paid, May 22, 1844.  The envelope is addressed as follows:

Martin William James Marsh Esq
Mrs Horford 
Eton College
Berks

The letter reads as follows:

Gayton Hall near Ross Hertfordshire
May 21
My dear Martin
You must have thought me lost but I have been waiting from day to day to hear from my friends Mr & Mrs Hoysay[?].  When they go abroad business still detains them and they could not be certain but they thought they should not be later than the first week in June setting out but they would write again the moment they know but perhaps Mr Herr Doll would like to know the whereabouts at present and the certainty afterwards if you deem it right to write to him.  When I saw them there the . . . [Hoysay's?] talked of going by Antwerp but still that would not delay them above a couple of days more.  I should think their destination is Kepsingen which is I think much further on more South than Scott's.  It was lucky they had not set out, for Scott, who is here with me, would have been laid up with one of his bleedings which he is so subject too which he had a few days ago for 12 or 14 hours.  He is out again but has not got up his strength.  He says he should like much to meet you supposing he is not gone.  I think you said the 4th of June you left Oxford.  Do you go direct to town as perhaps you might meet there.  It would be just about the time of their starting if not June I should think.  I am here at Charlottes (who desires her love to you) till next Wednesday when I go to Giffords and then to Johns who is now become a Reverend hes a curasey in Worcestershire, and then make my way on to town.  I hope to be with your mother some time in June.  Jane and Cassey are in town.  They expected to meet Fanny and Mary your sisters at some place on Monday last.  Will you give me a line here whether it is the 4th you go or whether you write to Herr Doll.

Ever yours affectionately ACM.

Letter from Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) to her son Martin.  This has been dated in pencil, May 21 1844 (presumably added at a later point in time).  The letter reads as follows:

Mr dearest Martin
I was busy copying out some papers that it was necessary should be finished yesterday and when I had done I was so tired that I broke my rule of writing and put it off till today.  I now sit down dearest of sons and hope not to make so short a letter as my last was.  It is raining charmingly today.  A nice warm penetrating rain, which will bring up all the crops and bring forward the grass and do a world of good I hope.  There is not a potato up or one seed of marzel.  Mary whose potatoes were planted early will I fear lose the crops all together, but as ours were in later I hope they will not have decayed in the ground but shall be saved.  We are in the meantime in great distress for food and do not know what to do with our sheep and lambs, but we are not worse off than our neighbours.  Louisa and Georgy came home on Saturday night.  They have been out five weeks.  How quickly the time has slipped away.  They spent about ten days at Holland Park with old Mrs Holland and Louisa Holland, very quietly, and then went on to Dumbleton, Mr Holland's .  They describe it as a fine house and a very fine estate comprising indeed a whole Parish, the government of which engages his whole time for it is in fact a little Kingdom, added to which he farms 500 acres himself, so that he lives the really useful life of a country gentleman.  There was nothing however very exciting to others in this.  But they admire his qualities and virtues and they like Mrs Holland much.  I think however it is a great advantage to be so near London as we are.  It just makes Eastbury perfect.  Louisa & G thought they saw nothing so pretty while they were away.  Louisa's eyes are not well so tomorrow I am going to take her to town to Mr Alexander with Adelaide also who has got a return of her bad headaches.  We must get her well for Montem to which she is looking forwards with her usual rapturous delight.  Rain as it may I trust we shall have a fine day for that.  I shall be very glad of your programme which cannot be too minute.  Little George has got a new suit of clothes making and I hope will turn out quite spruce.  His joy is great as you may suppose.  I am sorry you look so ugly in your cocked hat.  I dare say it makes your thin face look quite wizened but I shall like the face look as it will.  I am sure if you do not succeed in life I will burn my books.  I always hold that those who fail, fail for want of energy rather than from want of ability.  All the distinguished people I have ever come across in life have been remarkable for their energy and the indefatigable pains they took with themselves.  You must send us work in good time what papers and certificates you will want for this Postmastership.  I suppose there is nothing to be done by us in the way of interest.  I can only think of Mr Sydney Smith among all our acquaintance, as being the least likely to know anyone there.  I suspect it does go a good deal in that way.  Here I was called out to walk with your father in our lovely Eastbury Wood all refreshed with the rain, so lovely the hanging beeches the yellow oak, our little planted children coming into leaf though some what tardily.  I think our very little children do not do that.  It is better to sow seeds or to plant larger trees, as I did last Autumn.  All those larger trees are very flourishing.  It really is the most lovely evening. I can write of nothing else.  There is no news at the farm and the only news in the country, but that really is news which you must not tell again, is that Emily Milman  is going to be married to a Mr Fowler a clergyman.  We have not yet seen him but I believe it gives great satisfaction.  She looks very happy.  Charlotte and her George are got to their house which is in Herefordshire.  They seem exceedingly happy, are busy gardening and housekeeping.  They have put themselves I think a little too much out of the way.  Your dog looks grave and as if he thought entering upon his sixth year a serious affair.  The Ma . . . was in such a rapture at meeting Georgy again that we thought he would have eaten her up.  Really my boy what with tooth ache and what with downright stupidity I am making a most unworthy return for your dear dear letters, written when often so tired as you are always so pleasing to me as proof of your love and desire to make me happy.  I will try to write no more for my brain is like a bit of wet paper.  Farewell my dearest dearest treasure ever your tender loving hoping vain glorying Mother.

The following is a poem written by Martin Marsh.  It is written on paper that is different from the other letter paper and perhaps was a piece of his school work.  It is not dated but was filed between 21 & 29 May 1844.  In a following letter Anne comments on his writing style.  The poem reads as follows:

1

Just as some trembling bird that flies

The serpent's deadly tongue,

Still flutters near, still fondly tries

To guard her helpless young,

And thinks alas! Poor injured dove

If it but equalled half her love,

Her little strength might still arrest

The spoiler in his fierce attack.

And peace and happiness bring back

To her once tranquil nest.

2

Thus when the clang of brazen spears

Disturbs my native plain,

My throbbing heart is filled with fears;

Pale phantoms throng my brain:

Fear of the too remorseless foe,

That threatens ever endless woe

To us, and all who raise on high

The dirge of mingled grief and prayer,

And those bold warriors who prepare 

To save us or to die

3

They come, they come, with mighty sound;

Like some white crested wave.

With giant tramps they shake the ground;

Who? Who is there can save?

Hark how the ceaseless iron showers

Pour upon our illfated towers:

Struck with the sound the earth recoils;

Its echo strikes the vaults of heaven.

Mark, how the chosen warriors seven

Burn to divide the spoils.

 4

Who in this hour of need can save?

Who standeth on our side?

Whose hand shall now assist the brave.

To crush the foemans pride?

Ye gods with irresistless might

Leave at our prayer the realms of light,

Hurl panic, hideous rout and flight,

Against the argive warriors front:

Haste, Pallas, to loved Dirce's font;

Lead, lead us to the fight.

5

And hast thou then despised us

In this the trying hour?

Wilt thou not aid and rescue us

From Argos dreaded power?

And do our prayers unheeded rise

To those bright worlds beyond the skies?

What Deity fights for us now?

Deserted at this last extreme

By those who once loved Dirce's stream.

And are we fallen so?

6

Is there in Greece a sweeter glade

Than that which Dirce loves?

Where lend the groves a cooler shade

Than round it's glittering wave?

Ah! no, Then seek again this spot

Once so beloved.  Forget us not,

But turn this time a favouring brow

On Thebes and Theban suppliants.

Turn once again, in pity grant

Deliverance from the foe.

7

Alas! there now too sad a fate

That Cadma's ancient towers,

Crushed by the foemans deadly hate

Perished as fleeting flowers;

But now the fairest of the land,

Till severed by some thoughtless hand

They fall to die, thus fades our power:

Our walls a moul'dring heap of dust;

Ourselves led captive.  Is this just?

Pallas, avert that hour.

Letter from Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) to her son Martin.  This has been dated in pencil, 27 May 1844 (presumably added at a later point in time).  The letter reads as follows:

I have got a bad headache today my Martin so your letter will be a short one, in return for your charming letter which you end by saying has no plumbs.  It had a Plumb, the praise of your English verses, which pleased me as it encouraged me to be satisfied with my judgement upon those you sent me.  I return them now and have put in a page with them the alterations your Father and I suggest, to show you where we think them defective.  The closing line but one, Is that just?, I do not like but could not invent an amendment.  It is rather too trivial mode of expression to finish a chorus, which should like a strain of music close with a certain solemnity.  There are two other lines I have scored under which we do not like for they are also too trivial in their mode of expression.  The rest we like very much and we liked it more when we were sitting studying and criticising it than we had ever done before.  I think you will be ready now for your provision basket, and we will send it you this week, if we can get what we want if not the week after.  I hope dearest of all sons that now your time is so short to this fellowship that you will not write much to me, at least do not let your love for me lead you ever to write when you are tired.  I think you have got rather a wrong impression of George Holland.  What I saw of him last summer here was very little but I thought it very pleasant and promising.  I feel sure he will make dear Charlotte very happy and I quite agree with you as to her value.  You see I am . . . your letter but my head is so bad it will be a most confused stupid letter.  We have sold one of the ricks of hay and a part of the other for £120.  It really looked something like a . . . to see that lump of bank notes in your dear Father's hand.  We must make as much hay as we possibly can, for that will always bring a lump of money.  We have I believe 17 lambs.  Your Father is . . . up the upper F . . . That one beyond the paddock going Fam way.  It is to be sowed with peas and beans together.  Peasy beans as they call it this country.  Old Mr White is the adviser upon this occasion and he says he walks about the country like an old spy and your father said he wished he would come and spy about his farm.  He said he should like it very much if he did not think it would be troublesome, so I heartily hope he will.  Yes we will go to those dear angles and parallelograms at Coster.  I think of it with the greatest pleasure.  It is quite a delight to me.  I love Mathematics so much.  There is something so beautiful to my mind in perfect demonstration but knowledge of any sort is delightful.  How the intellect rejoices itself in wholesome food.  Don't you find it so, perhaps at this moment not, because you are working a little harder than nature desires, but you will soon.  I have no news to tell you, we are living so very quietly.  My negotiation with Mr Bentley [publisher of "Triumphs of Time", 1844] has not yet come to a conclusion, but I hope for a happy one.  If he does not I have another plan, which will do very well for second best.  I must give over this is indeed a shabby letter son of my heart but my head will not bear more and I will not put off till tomorrow.
Ever and ever your loving happy mother.  
Sprite sits at my feet and sends his love.  Oh he is just gone away.  You will find the remarks on the verses on the other side.
Most of the alterations are on the sheet that you sent.  Just read it through till you come to where this should be inserted.

Stanza 4th  Lines 5th and

Ye Gods! avengers of the right

Leave at our prayer the realms of light

That hideous panic, rout, despair

Upon the Argive warriors might

To thy loved Dirce's fount repair

Lead Pallas to the fight

Reason for alteration, you cannot properly hurl flight at an army front does not rhyme to font.  Our lines are not good, merely to show you.  You see our alterations are few a very little more Art would have made it excellent.

Letter from Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) to her son Martin, dated 29 May 1844.  The letter reads as follows:

Wednesday 29th May 1844
My dearest Martin
This morning we have found this under the head University Intelligence in the Times.  You will find the mention of the time of the Postmastership at the end of list of names.  Georgy had cut it off and I have fastened it again with a wafer.  You see Tuesday the 4th is the day fixed and you must be down at Oxford Monday the 3rd.  I have got Mrs Holland to interest herself among her friends most kindly but alas! the time is tenably short.  Still perhaps their influence may be of some help.  The grand thing however is, so to go through the examination as to do yourself credit, for which I am sure you have spared and will spare no pains.  Must you have your £50 with you, it is in readiness for you here.  Your Father is today in town but comes home this evening.  He will take care to prepare and provide in time the necessary papers on his side.  You must have letters of recommendation from your tutor and I should think it would be well to obtain one from Dr Hawtrey .  Consult with your tutor about it.  Let us leave nothing undone to forward our success.  So much is lost in this life by inattention to the smaller matters which ensure success.  I think to go to Oxford would be so agreeable to yourself, that I am very desirous of it on your own account.  But it is of great importance in every point of view to succeed in ones enterprises.  So we will all do what we can.  I am so provoked that I did not think of applying more early.  However let us cheerfully do our best now.  My heart and head are full of you in your dear red coat yesterday.  I could not help liking you in it.  It was so pretty.  We had a most happy day with you my dearest child.  Don't be made nervous by thinking I have set my heart upon your getting this Postmastership, for I have not got it if you possibly can, and if you cannot, why let us turn cheerfully to other objects.

Letter from Arthur Marsh to his son Martin, 31 May 1844.  This letter was loose, was not filed chronologically and was not tied up with string.  The letter reads as follows:

. . . Club
31 May 1844
My dear Martin
I enclose your baptismal certificate, a note for Dr Hawtrey and the half of a £50 bank note: acknowledge the receipt of the letter to Louisa at Eastbury and tell her to what address she is to send the corresponding half to you at Oxford, which she will do thereupon.  Your mother with Fanny and Mary set off this morning for Linley Wood.  I shall follow tomorrow afternoon, but hope to be home again on Wednesday or Thursday.  I shall be most anxious to hear how you get on at Oxford; so pray give me a note (however short) on Tuesday or Wednesday, on the aspect of affairs.  You will of course take with you from Eton the best testimonials you can procure and from as many of the Masters as you have been up to.  I don't know whether Hawtrey will give you one; but you will know whether it is usual, no doubt Cookesley  will give you a good one.  I prefer sending you the money to your taking it up from your Dame.  I trust heartily that you will have occasion to use it: if not, return it - by halves.  Should you be elected you have only to join the two halves by means of a slip of paper at the back and 3 wafers.  God bless you and grant you success my dear boy.
Ever most affectionately
ACM

Letter from Arthur Marsh to his son Martin, dated 9 June 1844.  This letter was loose, was not filed chronologically and was not tied up with string.  There are two copies.  The letters both read as follows:

Eastborough 
9 June 1844
My dear Martin
The newspaper of yesterday announced the result of the Merton examination, so that your note this morning did not give me the first intelligence of your failure.  Had I been aware that there was but one vacancy (the newspapers speak of 2 elected) I should not have been so sanguine as to guess success as I was: Fourteen candidates for one Postmastership make long odds against any one.  I hope however that your examination was creditable, although you have not succeeded I shall then be satisfied.  I am sure that you have worked hard.  Should they offer you an admission at Merton; I shall hail it as a proof that you have done yourself credit; and I would have you accept it.  I know my dear boy that you would strive to make the allowance I can make you, suffice; but I also know that Merton is in some respects an expensive College.  If therefore you enter, you must make an arrangement with your mother and sisters (the particulars of which I will explain when we meet) whereby the expense may be met without inflicting an injustice on them.  In the propriety of such an arrangement I am sure you will readily concur.  Let me hear from you immediately as to offer or no offer.  I shall be most anxious until I do.
Ever most affectionately yours
ACM
I don't quite understand whether you will remain at Oxford until you can secure this, so I shall send a duplicate to Eton.

Letter from Martin Marsh to his mother Anne, dated 9 June 1844.  The letter reads as follows:

Eton College
June 9th
My dearest mother
I will now at my ease give you a detailed account of all my proceedings at Oxford and all about the Postmastership.  The examination lasted 4 days about 9 hours a day and was universally allowed to be a very hard one.  At last I could see it was about double as hard as the one of last year and added to this there was only one to be disposed of for classical attainments which was a great falling off from our expectations and was the chief cause of the failure.  My friends were all excessively kind to me and did all they could.  After the thing was decided went to the fellows and Warden  and told him my case.  That in this case I could not belong to the University of Oxford at all.  My Father only wished me to be of a good college and the Warden said that that quite altered the case and that he was very sorry but that it could not be helped etc.  Richards said that I was an only son thinking that might be something.  The warden said then he can become a gentleman commoner anywhere.
Richards. But his father is not a rich man and has a large family of sisters.  Warden. That made a great difference and that he was really very sorry.  The thing that pleased me most of all and I tell it you, was that they all seemed so friendly to me and so anxious that I should get it.  They really spared no pains afterwards and did a great deal for me in the way of exciting an interest in my case.  And although I did not get it I was paid the highest complement in its being asked by men who did not know me "Well I hope Marsh has got it" and " Oh what a confounded bore that he is sold of it" etc.  This Richards told me and I only tell it to you as if to my own mind, not to be divulged because although I find an excuse in telling you and feel the greatest pleasure in doing so and feeling that it was said of your son, yet it does not sound well as coming from my mouth to other ears.  Well I was exceedingly disappointed.  Not sold because directly I heard that there was only one I knew I could not get it, as Richards had told me that the set of men were really clever above par and this is no lame excuse for myself but the fact.  I will now relate what passed between myself and the good old Warden and you shall judge for yourself how I did.  After I had had your letter about not refusing rooms, I had a long talk with Richards about the expense and whether I should take them if offered.  He said yes that as I was a reading man my chance of a fellowship was good if I behaved like a gentleman etc.  That the Postmasterships though they did save were not so good as was expected and for myself all the men appeared so steady and such though gentleman, so different from the run of Oxford men and every man urged me to do so.  I went on Saturday morning to the Warden and laid my case before him, when the following conversation ensued.  M. Sir my case is a very important one.  It alters my plans for life and must lead to very material alterations in all my prospects as they lie.  That I should have to go to Cambridge on a very short notice and that I could get into no college at Oxford now.  Warden.  What, Sir have you been round to all this morning?  M.  No Sir but I would not belong to a moderate one or a bad one.  I must be at the best and this college my father fixed upon in his idea, the best at Oxford, and as I have failed in this Scholarship could you hire me rooms.  You would find me to be I trust a reading man.  This is the course my friends have advised me to pursue.  Warden.  Who are your friends.  M.  Mr Richards, Stapylton and Heygate.  W.  Ah Richards, a very good man and Stapylton, ah yes Stapylton is a very good man and so is Heygate.  Yes sir you passed a very good and a very creditable examination and I should have been most happy to have elected you, for I have had a most complimenting letter from Baron Clarke a very old friend of mine and your testimonials from Mr Cookesley, your tutor is he not? are of the highest order.  Indeed the first two days your papers were excellent and I had thought that you would have been the successful candidate and great pleasure it would have been to me to have given it to you.  But how came it that an Eton boy made two false quantities in his verses, and you did not seem to be much up in Herodotus.  M.  No Sir I was not.  I had to read by myself with no help whatever and was told that Thucydides and Demothenes which I have read were required rather than the other, as both verses, they are the clog upon me everywhere and rock I always split upon.  That I had combated the difficulty long but was unable totally to overcome it.  W.  Ah! Sir that will prove no excuse.  M.  None whatever Sir but it is a reason.  W.  Then Sir in those long hard papers you did not seem quite aufait at them, how to set about your work and concentrate your efforts.  M.  Sir I have not had much practice at that only up for one scholarship before.  W.  That is certainly a great excuse and much allowance to be made for it.  However Sir you have passed an examination highly creditable to yourself.  Your bit of Latin was the best and your essay very good and I should be most happy to give you rooms but my books are full till 48.  However as I really should like you to belong to my college, I will give you the preference the first vacancy occurs and write to you before the end of the month, or rather you write to me, and I will tell you.  Of course this is with your Fathers concurrence.  M.  I said yes.  I had had a letter that morning telling me to take rooms if offered me and I did not like to make a chance of it again so I said I would write to him before the end of the month.  Of course if Papa does not wish I can only write to him and say that I am exceedingly obliged to him but that my father wishes me as I am not a Postmastership try to Cambridge, or any excuse as his books are full and it is not a promise on either hand.  But I think Papa will not refuse, when he considers that all were interested in me very much there and as I did do myself credit and would (you know me) try to continue hard at work and do myself greater and lastly my earnest wish, it would not be wise to refuse it, for I must live on my allowance as I could.  Oxford does not make the man expensive so much as the man Oxford.  You will answer me and decide what is best to be done and I await that decision with all humility.  The Warden told me too.  Tell Dr Hawtrey and Mr Cookesley from me that you have passed a very good exam and have done yourself great credit.  And Mr Deacon is Mr Deacon an Eton man.  Say that he passed a very creditable examination so I am not without a kudos, and it has been balm to my disappointment of not belonging to such a gentlemanlike community.  Hicheny came up to me this morning and said I am glad to hear Marsh you did yourself and Eton so much credit at Oxford.  Ah Sir I said but I did not get what I tried for.  Oh don't be disheartened said he.  You did yourself great credit and that is the great thing.  This was very kind of him was it not.  My tutor was very kind too when I told him I had not got it.  He took me by the hand and said never mind.  When I told him that I had written the best bit of Latin and had to tell him from the Warden that I had done myself great credit, he shook my hands and his face brightened up and when I bid him good night he said good night Marsh, god bless you.  That was excessively friendly and kind.  All the fellows here were too, and so my wounds are salved.  Now I have written a most egotistical letter, nothing but I I in it but you will only let Papa see it because I am his son and I think he will like to hear it, and the me was often.  I heard from Blackett the tutor what he said to Stapyton but as I have said enough and pleaded my cause as well as I could I will say goodbye.  One little thing a think I had a little ill luck too.  I had read Thucydides & Demosthenes not a word of either.  I had read the Greek theatre.  Strongly advised to do so.  Not a question from it.  No Greek Iambics my last forte in Compos but Latin ones my . . .  No Greek prose which I had taken great pains with and a cramming examination which I am not calculated for.  I made a mistake too.  I sapped too high if you understand.  I paid attention to things that were above the standard required and so failed in simpler.  And this is all I have to say, pros and cons, and I await your answer and . . . with love to all ever your most affectionate son.
M Marsh.

Letter from Martin Marsh to his mother Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell), dated 12 June 1844.  From the text it would appear that this was written to her in the knowledge that she was staying with her brother James Stamford Caldwell at Linley Wood.  The letter reads as follows:

Eton College
June 12th 1844
My dearest Mother
Thank you very much for your kind letter which I got today, and which has very much restored me for although I did not confess to it, I did feel very much so disappointed and although I would not let it conquer me, I did feel disheartened.  There is only one thing now to keep this as quiet as possible.  I mean about my getting rooms at Oxford, at Merton, as I am sure the Warden who was so very kind to me really wishes me to have rooms and so nothing need be done.  If he can he will.  He said so.  And if other parents hear of a mans getting rooms whose name was not regularly down they get jealous and write to say they want rooms for their own sons.  So you understand me dearest Mother, our best policy is silence.  I never mention to any here only told my tutor and to my three friends particular.  If I must tell you what Blackett said I will out with it "When Stapylton went to him an talked to him about my hard case etc and said why Sir he did very well did he not and then Sir I am sure that he would go up for honours (Blackett was opposing me) and work hard.  Ah said Blackett, "I see he is one of your clever men.  I can see that he did some of his papers very shiningly but think of his having made false quantities in his verses.  I'm sure he must be very careless and I fancy idle".  Now you see as the matter stands really, as I have no hesitation is saying that I am not idle really.  This was the greatest kudos I ever had.  To be considered clever by a Merton Tutor was very gratifying to me and I heard it after I had failed and it was balm to me.  Then I can assure you this is what he said and mind, you asked me to tell you of it.  Thank Uncle Stamford very much for being so kind as to take an interest in me.  Shall you be back by next Friday fortnight it is then that I and Greenwood come over to see you if we can?  It is the only time I can come so I hope dearest Mummy that you will be at home.  But I will write more of this anon.  Now I have told you all I have to say, I am very tired now and will therefore stop and with best love to all at Linley Wood and again many thanks for your most encouraging and delicious letter.  And believe me ever dearest Mother your most affectionate son
M Marsh

Letter from Arthur Marsh to his son Martin, dated 13 June 1844.  This letter was loose, was not filed chronologically and was not tied up with string.  The letter reads as follows:

Eastborough
Thursday 13 June 1844
My dear Martin
I found on my return here yesterday evening both your letter to me and that to your Mother.  The latter has answered all the bitter chagrin that your missing the Postmastership had occasioned, and now that I know that you have gained credit, I am quite satisfied and happy.  I think that all that you said to the Warden was very judicious and I quite approve of your conduct in the affair.  I would have you write to him about the 25th of the month, to remind him of his promise (with all imaginable respects' intended) and enquire whether any vacancy has occurred or is likely to occur.  The girls say there is some probability of your being here for a day or two before the holidays.  I hope that your Mother will be at home again by that time and we can then talk over and arrange all matters. 
Ever my dear Boy most affectionately yours
ACM

The following note, written by Martin Marsh, was filed after 12 June and before 18 June, 1844.  It is later referred to by Anne as Martin's Journal.  It reads as follows:

Monday.  Imprimis thank Adelaide very much for her nice kind bulletin of the dear beloved dog and say that if I can squeeze out a corner of time I will send her and Mary a note between them to answer their nice ones.  I forgot to tell you about the ice that I am for your sakes as well as my own excessively cautious, as I should not like to be drowned under the ice in winter however pleasant it may be in a hot day in summer.  The place I fell in was very shallow not 3 feet deep and the pond I ventured upon equally so.  One thing I want to do next holidays that is go and hear a debate in the house of Lords or Commons as I have never heard it and I should like to discover much do you think there is any promise of it?  Lord C . . . and Lord Brougham have been at a "set to" as Eton Politicians would say.  We have a most stupid question in our Parliament "Is duelling justified" a stupid thing for of course it is not.  We have had p . . . tonight and I must set to with out one . . . and I hope to finish it tonight all that I have to do for the scholarship.  That will be a great relief.  Something done you know what that is in farming and you can sympathise with me in sapping.  And now dearest Mother Horace is calling so loudly that I can't stay any longer and so with my very best of loves.  Love to Papa and all sisters and hoping that your cold will be much better when you get this and as to dear . . . I hope he is well and that he does continue to love his ma as his ma loves him.  I am your most affectionate no plumbs this time son M Marsh

The following note (Journal), written by Martin Marsh, was filed after 12 June and before 18 June, 1844.  It reads as follows:

Thursday.  Long Holland  and I went on with the intention of having a delicious run but we had not got above 2 or 3 miles from College across country when an untoward circumstance occurred.  We went blindly at a hedge, I leading.  To my surprise when in the air I found about 10 feet water under me and so I had to make a desperate spring in the air and just cleared it leaving one foot in the water.  Holland laughed long and hearty.  Now said I try your turn.  He did, rushed at his jump, didn't gather himself up enough, he hit his mare with his knee, left both his feet stuck fast in the hedge and fell with his head in the water.  He struggled and splashed and at last got out but left his hat and gloves a little fleet on the water.  I was convulsed with laughter.  He rather enraged, however I tried to soothe him and proceeded in my kind endeavour taking his hat to shore to fill it with water while he was stanching the mingled blood and water from his head and nose.  But that did not much matter as his head was wet and so ought his hat to have been.  We then turned round and went home.  This has been the principle feature of the day.  After 4 I stayed in and did some more lyrics and so after tea and . . . succeeding in polishing up 10 stanzas.  I then learnt my Homer and went to bed after having read over my Pindar again to fix it more in my mind.  If only awaits above 4 weeks to the scholarship.  I wish that we had had the Easter holiday to sap for it but perhaps it is better and we will just about do a spell of mathematics that I may take them up to Merton in some force as I am sure that it is a thing they could not expect from an Eton boy.  How badly I do write but I am surprised ten times really . . . a good deal has he not.  They say that in Brook Street he rose Mrs [Saba] Holland's and Emily's  chaff on the subject very well indeed, which raised him in their estimation.  I & Frank [Holland] would like to go to the breakfast and we have both agreed that nothing shall prevent us sharing Emily's.  But as I have a very hard piece of Catullus to learn by heart, and set about it I must.  Wednesday.  Today I have been near Tolleners to call at Mrs Fosters where I met Foster's sister and lunched.  He has quite finished his home work, all except the popery which is rather an important part is it not for sometimes it turns mouldy and sometimes it curls up and drops off all the font in going fast but I hope that it has been of some use to you and that the lambs are safe through it.  There are a good many lambs about here and all are very busy carting out manure.  I have been over some stupid lyrics all this evening and am rather cross and tired for I cannot get over them.  A horrid stale old subject Pallas Athene.  I am so glad that you speak so kindly about my friend and I hope you will like him when you do see him and I truly think if you knew him as I know him and if you only knew how he likes your son, at least I think so, you would like him for that reason.  Then your . . . by your letters and saying "perchance I may figure by the sides of spirits some day" set me on fire.  No prayer of mine is more earnest than that I might become something.  But we are often disappointed in a lot we most expect as it is such a good lesson and now good night dearest mother.

Letter from Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) to her son Martin, dated 18 June 1844.  It would appear that she was at this moment on holiday and staying with her brother James Stamford Caldwell at Linley Wood.  The letter reads as follows:

Linley Wood
Newcastle
Staffordshire
Monday June 18th 1844
My dearest boy
I begin again my regular Monday letter writing, though I cannot have a journal from you to answer.  I do not expect that you will have one to send this week, having already sent me two letters, but next week I hope the usual and most valued journal letter will arrive.  I wrote my answer to your Oxford history in a considerable harry of spirits for I think in the course of my varied life I never had such a complete passage from sorrow and anxiety, to satisfaction amounting almost to exultation.  The approbation I felt for the way you had conducted your affairs, was the leading or greatest satisfaction, or perhaps I can hardly say whether that you had done yourself credit in the examination was not a greater.  It was the first time I felt that you had passed out of the circle of those who knew and valued you to step into the great Arena and shine before indifferents with strangers.  My opinion of your real powers must I felt depend greatly upon the result and my anxiety to know how you had really acquitted yourself was intense.  That my gratification has been equal to my anxiety is to say everything.  Your Manly resistance to the first feelings of depression, have also my most sincere approbation.  In short my dear love, your defeat has in this rare instance proved more of what you may hope from yourself than a victory would have done.  So rare an exception to the common course of things is the effect of the honest and sincere efforts after a good education which you have made.  May it act, as I know it will, to cheer you on to continued and persevering exertion.  May you become, what without these virtues no man can become, a light and a treasure to your race.  And may that blessed sentence at length be yours "Well done good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things . . .  . . ."  These false quantities however annoy me a good deal.  I see the effect of an early mistake, the result of our narrow means.  It was on a principle of economy that your poor mother taught you Latin herself as a child, instead of hiring a tutor.  It was on a principle of economy that you were kept at Blackheath, to diminish the expense of Eton.  The cause of the matter lies there.  But as you justly say "Not an excuse but a reason".  The matter in itself is trivial enough, but in its effects it is indeed serious.  Men have agreed to accept it as one test of a good Classic, because no boy receives a good classical education, without this being made a radical part of it.  I was quite struck with the importance your Uncle Caldwell attached to it, saying justly "It is of no use Anne talking of its intrinsic value.  Men have agreed to consider it a standard, and Men will be judged by it.  Tell Martin from me that I see he is a perfect gentlemen.  That I believe him to be a good scholar, but a finished scholar he cannot be considered till this point is overcome".  He suggests reading a good deal with a good classic.  Tell me candidly, do you ever make a mistake in the quantities in speaking Latin, or only in making Latin verses?  Write me word as soon as you can come home.  I had not intended to be home quite so soon, but if you can come home, which I hope you will be able to do, I shall certainly break through every engagement, and return on Wednesday the 26th to meet you.  I would not miss your visit on any account.  I need not suggest to you the necessity of omitting no steps that can assist in procuring an admission into Merton.  I have asked your father whether a letter from himself should not accompany yours to the Warden.  It strikes me that this sort of paternal sanction after what passed with regard to your father's circumstances would be proper as regards you and that.  And that a request from him would be a proper mark of respect as regards the Warden.  Do not let time slip away and be too late in writing.  Your Oxford friends will put you in possession of the proper when and how of the business.  And so my own hidden heart's treasure, I will say no more upon that business.  We lead a very quite life here.  Your Aunt Roscoe  is gone.  We read talk stroll and work at Sir H P's ottoman which comes on bravely.  I have been reading Sir Walter Scott's life.  I have read it before.  His letters are full of excellent plain sense, and his advice to his sons, on the different occasions of their lives as they arise must be read with profit by any young man.  I shall endeavour to buy the book for our library at Eastborough and recommend it to your idle reading.  We want rain here, and I suppose you do in the south, but there is more grass in the meadows here than with us.  Chiefly I think because the grasses are of different species from those which prevail with us.  My knowledge of botany which small as it is, is still useful, enables me to distinguish those which are the most productive, and will enable me to give your dear father the names of those seeds of grass which are most desirable to buy to scatter according to Talbot's advice in the bare places of the meadows at Eastbury.  I have always found knowledge of every sort comes in, in life besides the happiness, which a mind with light in its chambers affords to the possessor.  Prices are here so much higher than with us as to fill a farmers heart with envy.  Hay never less than £5 a load and at this time £7.  It is true the load is I believe 4 Cwt, which means C weight or hundred weight as you perhaps remember more than ours the Middlesex ton of hay being 18 Cwt and this I believe 22.  But still the difference is surprising timber, show, the same.  I am surprised to find the neighbourhood of a manufacturing district raise prices so much more than that of a great metropolis like London.  I have sent your letter on to Eastbury, so do not recollect if there is anything more to answer.  I think you quite right in your desire to presume silence about your affairs till the grant matter is settled.  Don't lose time, that means, take care to know when the proper time is to address the Warden, and be not a day behind it.  Ever your tender loving Mother.

Letter from Arthur Marsh to Dr Marsham  of Merton College Oxford, dated 20 June 1844.  This letter was loose, was not filed chronologically and was not tied up with string.  The letter reads as follows:

Eastborough 
Watford
20 June 1844
Sir
My son has made me acquainted with permission you have given him to hope that in the event of a vacancy you would receive him into your college after the long vacation.  Your kindness has been a great consolation to me under my disappointment at the result of his examination for a Postmastership, as I flatter my self that not withstanding his failure on that occasion, you thought his examination was not discreditable to him.  I have no warrant for asking such a favour from you, but I hope you will permit me to express how great a gratification it would be to me and how fortunate I should esteem him, if circumstances should allow you to admit him as a member of Merton College.
I have the honour to be Sir,
Your very obedient humble servant
Arthur Marsh

The back of the letter is addressed:

Dr Marsham
Merton College
Oxford

Letter from Arthur Marsh to his son Martin, dated 23 June 1844.  This letter was loose, was not filed chronologically and was not tied up with string.  The letter reads as follows:

Eastborough
23 June 1844
My dear Martin
I would have sent my note for the Warden of Merton earlier had I been aware that you would have written to him before the 25th.  As it is, you had better now destroy it and I will write another when your fate is decided.  I seal enclosed the application for leave for you and Greenwood.  Let me have a line here on Thursday morning to say at what hour you will be at Drayton.  I am sorry to say that James Hart is laid by the by again, so that I must go myself to meet you, being at present the most idle and good for nothing person on the establishment (Fletcher excepted, who cannot drive).
Ever most affectionately yours
ACM

Letter from Martin Marsh to his father Arthur Marsh, dated Tuesday 24 June 1844.  The letter reads as follows:

Eton College
June 24th
Tuesday
My dear Father
You will I am sure be glad when you read the enclosed note from Dr Marsham, intimating that he can provide me rooms and that I must go up to be matriculated tomorrow.  I know you will see in his own handwriting that he is pleased with what I did in the Merton Postmastership Examinations.  About leave, I am afraid that I shall not be able for the Doctor says that it is like a Whitsuntide holiday.  However I will tell you to a certain after I have spoken to the Doctor and showed him the Warden's note.  I have spoken to the Doctor and he will give us leave.  I'm sure we are both most excessively obliged to you for being so very very kind as to come and meet us.  No father but you would do it I'm sure.  But dearest father cannot you send anybody, anybody or anything.  We are not proud and would sit with anybody, or anything in order to save you the trouble.  I declare I almost repent of coming, if it is at that cost.  However if all hands are occupied and you must come, we shall be at Uxbridge by about ½ past 6 or ¼ before 7 and I am sure if you knew the great pleasure it gives us to come and drive back with you, it would I flatter myself take off from some of the disagreeableness.  I have to go to Oxford tomorrow to be matriculated and shall come back on Thursday from Oxford and meeting Greenwood at Slough go with him to West Drayton and join you together at Uxbridge.  And hoping my dear father that you will be pleased with this note of the Warden's and hoping for much pleasure from seeing you and talking with you all when we meet.  And with best love to all I am your most affectionate son M Marsh.  I hope the bold Timmer is well and will be glad to see his Maw.  Please thank Mamma very much for her nice kind letter which I got this morning, and give my best love to all.  My tutor was very much pleased with the enclosed as it is a written and substantial proof of the Warden's good will, not mere words.

Letter from Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) to her son Martin. Filed after 24 June and before 23 June 1844 (these two letters not being in correct chronological order).  The letter reads as follows:

My dear Martin
I am going out very early to the hay field with your very best of fathers, so I shall have only time to write a few lines, as we are to meet so soon, in the first place.  My advice about the dilemma between your friends is by all means bring both.  We shall be most happy to see them and I hope dearest of sons and boys we shall have three happy days together.  Your father proposes that you should come to London on Friday, meet him there, come down altogether and the carriage meet you at the Pinner station.  Write to me by return of post to tell me what time you can be in London and whether you can be with us to a half past six o'clock dinner, or whether you must be later, as I must arrange my dinner accordingly, and write to your father to meet him in York Gate to tell him what hour you can be there.  Do not forget you forgetter to write to me, because my dinner arrangements, which to the good mother expects her best beloved son and his friends, is a matter of great importance, must depend upon the hour you can arrive.  With what joyous pleasure do we think of having you all, my bosoms Lord does indeed sit lightly on his throne at this expectation.  Your letter fills me with joy and your dear father with pleasure.  I rejoice to see the determination, the manly energy which my beloved son shows, to conquer difficulty in every shape, be it labour coolness, command of nerve quietness what ever the business of life requires, glorious struggle.  Your account of your tutor in school is really beautiful.  How I do long to know that man.

Letter from Dr Marsham, of Merton College, Oxford, to Martin Marsh.  The letter reads as follows:

Merton College
June 23, 1844
Dear Sir
I hope to be able to provide rooms for you in . . . term and beg therefore that you will apply to Dr Hautrey for leave to come to Oxford on Wednesday next that you may be matriculated on Thursday morning and return that day to Eton.  Pray present my best regards to Dr Hautrey and tell him I have done my utmost to . . . for you, in consequence of his and Mr Cookesley's strong recommendation and of the examination you passed for the Postmastership which led me to argue well of you.
I remain dear sir
Yours truly
Robert Bullock Marsham

Letter from Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) to her son Martin Marsh.  Written from 11 York Gate, the home of Arthur Marsh's half sister, Georgina Nelson Marsh.  The letter reads as follows:

11 York Gate
Regents Park
Monday July 8
I am staying in London my dearest boy and have just got your letter to which I am replying with a pen such as you see and shall be almost illegible however nonobstonte I proceed.  We did see but little of one another dear boy, but I saw a vast deal of you, during your visit, for I think my eyes were rarely away from you, while I was in the room where you were.  I saw you as I . . .  . . . purest in strength and beauty, with a certain manliness of manner and appearance that was to my eyes enchanting.  My fond eyes, which thought never youth like my son combined so many charms and graces.  Was I not a fond foolish mother.  I thought too you looked so happy.  I rejoiced to see you reaping the first you had so justly earned, your first success in your first trial with men.  For your family do look upon this as a greater success than to have gained your object in the ordinary way.  I hope and believe it to be an earnest of future success.  Indeed on this point hope with me is fast changing into certainty.  I look upon you as the roof tee of our house and trust your sweet sisters may be sheltered by the brother of their hearts in a position singularly different for us all.  You are young my dearest to be called upon for so much manly thought and care, but your success and your well doing will not be alone an advantage to yourself, but will shed its brightness upon them.  I do not wonder at your regret on assuming the manly role.  I remember feeling it so strongly myself and clinging to my childhood till I could be a child no longer and even now I look back upon those days with a fondness not to be expected, but it is a very great privilege to have had a happy bright childhood.  He who looks back with pleasure looks forward with hope.  It lays the foundation of that impression that life is a happy thing after all and that whatever the cases of the moment happiness will come again, which has helped me through many a dark hour.  For you, I expect you to find your manhood as happy as your boyhood.  Carry your virtue, your good principles, your purity, your temperance, your moderation in pleasure, your innocence, your industry, your perseverance, with you into the new scenes and among the new temptations to which you will be exposed, and you will find the manly power which now will be yours, only a means of enlarging the sphere of your happiness.  The careless joy of boyhood, will be over, but the peace the more solid and reflective happiness of a nobler being will be yours.  A good mans life is even in this world a very happy thing, in almost every instance, those storms and reverses of fortune which shipwrecked your dear father's happiness, are events of exception rare in the history of man.  To such reverses you will not be exposed.  A man is far happier than a woman in this, that he can if he will command his destiny.  A woman must depend for hers upon others in great measure, and I feel for your sisters, what they feel for themselves, that they can do nothing.  However enough of this.  We will employ our time well, please God, during your vacation, let us set to work soon, divide our time, so as to fulfil all our various duties, and as you well say, obtain knowledge upon those points in which the routine of schools and Universities leaves the mind deficient.  Modern history and the history of your own country especially, will be the first object.  Our best poets, declamation, another Algebra, and Euclid another.  In arithmetic I think we shall find you much advanced readiness in the simpler parts of it, we shall soon see whether you have acquired for one may have gone through the abstruser parts and yet never have attained that.  French and German I leave to Lax, except that I shall look after your French composition a little.  You do not write it correctly I think.  I am glad Greenwood liked his visit.  I was very much pleased with him.  I think his understanding is very ripe for his years, and have seldom met with a boy of his age with whom I had so much pleasure in conversing.  Now for adventures we came up on Friday that is Georgy, Rosy and I to Mrs Creed's ball.  It was a very pretty ball and your sisters danced Polkers and enjoyed themselves very much.  There was a Mr Elphinstone there, a son of Sir Howard Elphinstone whom I met there before.  He is attached to the Russian Embassy and is a God son of the Emperor Nicholas which by the by makes him a Colonel in the Emperor's Guards by right of God sonnery.  He Polks of course beautifully, having practised it in Hungry and at St Petersburg from a child.  He asked Posy to Polk, and off they went.  Posy Polking as she waltzes, light elegant, pliant, and true to the music in perfection.  You never saw anything so pretty.  Her partner was enchanted and says he has never met with any Lady in England who Polks so well.  They sat down a little and then danced a second Polka, to the admiration of everybody.  I never saw anything so pretty.  He dances very quietly but with a . . . , that is beautiful, and steers through the crowd as if he was steering a . . .  Never coming athwart any one, no small dexterity being required for this.  I was flattered at Posy doing so well what she had learned so little.  A proof of her quickness and elegance.  The dance itself is really charming.  On Monday I came up for the concert at the Duchess of St Albans.  It was Maude Bury's concert the house being lent to her through the influence of her friend Lady Capel.  I suppose we met the whole Capel set and the Clerks.  We had some beautiful music indeed.  I do not know when I have had so great a treat, in that way.  While we were there came that storm of thunder and rain.  They had it too at Eastbury, where the fields have been thoroughly saturated.  Your father has got in his turnips in the place of the Mangel which failed.  The little looks like that of a garden (little means little ground).  His potatoes are coming up and the grass growing.  I hope we shall escape pretty well.  We came back to Easbury that night.  The Huttons were arrived and stayed till Friday when we brought them to town again.  I stay till Wednesday here and then go down with your father home to be very busy.  Now farewell dearest dearest boy.  Your Grandfather and Aunt Georgy send kind love. 
Your ever loving mother.

Letter from Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) to her son Martin. Filed after 8 July and before 15 July 1844.  The letter reads as follows:

My dearest Martin
Your letter was indeed a delight to your father and me.  It is very very gratifying to us both from such a man as Pickering, and he not being your own tutor.  I trust you will get sent up for good next half and then one great object of ambition will be attained.  No sweetest of boys you had not been so very naughty as to deserve to be banished a day.  Nor were we all so coldly indifferent to meeting. But the fact is this, when I was in town last week a lady asked me to a party on Wednesday to meet Sir Lytton Bulwer.  You know how desirable I think it for you all to seize every opportunity of introducing myself and you to the eminent in any line, so though it was the very Wednesday after you were to come home I accepted.  And as I am coming up to town with Lousia and Georgy for this purpose your Aunt Georgy thought you would perhaps like to stay, and your father and I think it well for you to see all of human kind you can see, and therefore rather wish you to go to this party.  Still it is all optional.  Do just as you like best.  Come home Tuesday perhaps Wednesday, or with me on Thursday just as seemeth you best.  I thought if we were in town together we could see a few sights but do exactly what you like best my love.  The reason I did not mention this in my last was that poor Aunt G had been so poorly.  I waited to hear from her again before I decided upon this little plan.  I shall be pleased anyway, so please yourself if you decide to come home on Tuesday.  Let us have a line as soon as you receive this that we may come or send to meet you.  I shall drag from your modest mouth, what you wish other mouths could tell, other mouths will I hope in time tell me what you would rather others should tell than yourself.  In the meantime let love overcome reserve and for the delightful pleasure it gives me say what you have to tell over our fire together.  Your poor old grandpapa sits in his armchair thinking as he says upon as all and rejoicing that Martin "who may be called the roof tee of the family" is promising so fairly, "I cannot hope to live to see the fruit, but I am thankful to see the promise.  What a thing it will be for his dear sisters if he prove a valuable and successful man".  We are all springing into greenith with these fine April showers.  Our lambs are well our dear little green children beginning to bud but will not be in leaf when you come but will be before you go.  God bless and keep my darling son, his affectionate Mother.  I have written in confidence about the plan I will explain briefly.  I come up with Louisa and Georgy in the carriage on Wednesday, stay all night and return on Thursday to dinner.  Will you stay and return with me or come down on Tuesday?

Letter from Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell) to her son Martin. Filed after 8 July and before 15 July 1844.  The letter reads as follows:

I should have written to you on Monday as usual my dearest treasure but I was in London and did not get your dear letter till I came home, yesterday.  Mary would tell you that I was desperately busy, at the Seiret [possibly a reference to her novel "Mount Sorel" published the following year] about which I went to London and I hope I have made an opening to a treaty which will secure to me the great object of my exertions, enough to start you comfortably my love.  I asked M . . . who is an Oxford man, what the start requires and he seems to think about £100 is enough, so that is comfortable.  Your letter my love was full of plumbs and I thank you for your tenderness, in writing to me in the way I so much like.  It is so pleasant to sympathise with all your thoughts and feelings the letter to begin, with low spirits about your Greek compositions and then before it ends to find that you have had praise for that very thing.  Your good marks with Stephen too please me very much.  In short my dearest boy, you seem working manfully and keeping the reward in continued . . . and success, and may God bless you in your course and keep you from all evil.  Do not however my love ever tire yourself to write to me.  Your health and the power of resisting the fatigues of these exertions is indeed now a thing of the first consequence and I should be miserable if I thought your love for me made you do what was a fatigue when extra fatigue is so much to be avoided, so do just what is best at the moment my love.  Well I went to London on Thursday.  My first day was spent in business and in making Sunday calls, among others on Lady Coltman, where I saw Charlotte Coltman who is a very nice girl I think.  I dined at Mrs Booths, among a whole nest of Radicals and felt as Conservative as ever you (Contumacious Tory as you are) could desire.  The next day Aunt G and I went to see those Indians that I advised you to go and see and that you would not go and see.  I assure you they were very well worth seeing.  7 of them there were.  Remarkably fine men and a squaw and a little girl.  I was very much interested by what I saw.  They shook hands cordially with us, and all painted red and blue as they were did not look very terrible.  They had a sort of helmet of feathers on their heads that is some of the warriors, were painted in stripes, and the great warrior had blue round the sockets of his eyes which made him look horrible.  They wore a sort of loose trouser figured down the sides with hair, from the scalps of their enemies.  It seems horrid that their fine chest and shoulders only covered with a sort of Baldrick or belts crossing embroidered in beads and porcupine quills.  The . . . part of the costume was an immense number of  brass Thimbles pierced and hung upon little strings forming tassels and ornaments all over their chests which jingled whenever they moved.  So you see a thimble is a manly ornament and so you may append yours to your watch.  We saw their dances, very odd and horrid and their warlike instruments which show much more skill in their manufacture than I had any idea they possessed.  When the show was over they walked round the room and shook hands with us all.  I believe the poor fellows are persuaded that we come merely to pay them a complementary visit.  I wish you had seen them for the Americans are chasing them from the face of the earth and the Red Man will soon be no more.  A story of  M . . .  Gentleman to a young Lady:  Pray when you were abroad did you see the A . . . of D . . .  Lady: Oh yes we came up the Rhine in it, but I did not know whose it was.  Do you know what is the best colour to preserve a secret in .  Why is a man on the cross of St Pauls like the . . . look.  Why is . . . the engineers on a Railroad be a good master of . . .   With this . . . and as it is quite dark I . . .   I have Sarah away as fast as I could.  The fold yard is full of all the beasts and 9 lambs are lying in the rick yard, under the ricks and looking very nice and comfortable.  Farewell my darling dearest son, your loving mother.

Letter from Martin Marsh to his mother Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell). Filed after 8 July and before 15 July 1844.  The letter reads as follows:

My dearest Mother
I really have not time to send my usual journal to you this week as I have had so very much to do and time has slipped away, but I must . . . out a 5 minute to mail a line and thank you very much for your nice pie and cake and Louisa very much for her picture which is exceedingly admired by all who see it.  Greenwood is ill so I cannot try the . . . cake but it smells very good indeed and again I must thank you very much for the nice addictive tonic mouthfuls and with . . . more thanks and dear Tip.  Thanking all sisters and gallant . . . for their letters.  I am in all . . . hurry your most affectionate son
M Marsh.
I will answer all your nice letters on Sunday, goodbye.

Letter from Martin Marsh to his mother Anne Marsh (Marsh-Caldwell). Filed after 8 July and before 15 July 1844.  The letter reads as follows:

Eton College
July
My very dearest Mother
You cannot think how sorry I was to go away yesterday from you.  For what with my friends etc I hardly got a glimpse of you at all.  However we will make it up by a long and unbroken holiday and if we can we will do a good deal.  I am very sanguine of doing something then and something too that every school boy does not get done at his school.  At the end of the week I am going to sap hard with Frank at Arithmetic, Euclid and Algebra.  Not that I expect to gain much credit but it is such capital practice doing the work and all in preparation for our working together on Monday 3 weeks after I have taken up my bit of tether by going to see Lords Cricket Matches and then to the Shafts.  The Doctor has said nothing to us all today, for he has had the 4th form to teach and that is enough to drive all other things out of his head.  Thus we have escaped all interrogation as to our "escapade" so I think Papa's kind recommendations to mercy will be nearly useless.  We had a very pleasant journey to Drayton but were sadly too early.  However I do think Johnny in spite of dullness enjoyed his visit.  Most thanks due to Mary and Adelaide whom he declares he likes very much and who were most kind to him.  He says and regrets that he did not learn the Polka since he saw Mrs Freeling dance it.  And now dearest Mother actions for tonight.  Tuesday . . . holiday.  We began it in due form with persistent and hard rain, hurrah. So I hope you had rain at home.  All about here begins to look green again, parched to deep yellow ochre as it was before.  While I think of it, Greenwood has left his sponge behind him.  Can you send it by any means, as it is a very good one and sponges are expensive.  You can form no conception of the pleasure with which I look forward to our next long holiday.  I am very sanguine. Perhaps for that reason I shall be disappointed for many things have happened in this year in which although hoping for a satisfactory conclusion I have been disappointed and this makes me feel a little distrust of the future and never to indulge in anticipations.  But in this case the thoughts of working with you and Sisters does give me such pleasure.  How shall we divide our time?  So as to be most profitable, do not let us confine ourselves to Euclid alone, but get at Algebra and Arithmetic particularly, the most essential.  But this we will arrange orally, for it is too long an affair for a letter.  Now I like your book particularly Previsions and the Soldier's Fortune .  I was forced to finish them for really I did nothing till I had.  Johnny does not like the Provisions.  It is too much for him.  I think not at all the book for a young boy.  But he does like the Soldier's Fortune excessively.  Now I like the Provisions excessively too, for it is a book that contains so much more than a mere story.  Well I hope this rain has got to the potatoe roots, although the other seeds must I am afraid be dead and buried now.  Polkamania at Eton.  Mr Marsh has been giving lessons in this fashionable and elegant "dance" to his two friends Mr Francis Holland  and John Greenwood N.B. they decidedly do not improve.  My dame caught me Polking one night.  Dancing Mr Marsh.  Yes mam the fascinating Polka.  What? Has the Poker come here too, dear me, however, goodnight now.  Wednesday.  Did my verses this whole holiday (read say schoolday) in order to have a fair start with Frank at the . . . etc.  Tomorrow I shall take up those two books of Euclid we sapped at so hard and as much of the third as I can do well.  Euclid is my best point, the others I am very deficient in.  Then there is my Tutor's examination.  I must do something for the Agaimence, part of Tacitus and some of Paul's Epistles.  That is the week after so my time will be fully occupied till the end of the half.  Then comes the nuisance leaving.  How very very sorry I shall be to go.  You cannot think how one gets bound up in Eton and then I must leave my young friend, no one to guide him or take such an interest in him as I flatter myself I do.  But then to be sure, he will grow older and wiser and won't want any help.  But when shall I see him again.  I shall have to leave my kind old Tutors and all my friends.  Deary me I shall cease to be a boy, the thoughts of which I do not fancy at all.  I hope we shall continue our journal system when I am at Oxford, and then you can compare the spirit of them then and the present.  I think of the rain here, upper Cricket Club ground like a puddle and as soft as a pudding.  Greenwood does not cease praising the kindness of all to him particularly Mary and Adelaide and as to Rosy's waltzing he is in raptures about it.  Won't I practice the Polka next holidays oh no.  That shall be among my studies that . . . the bow - and after this night of resolves all else will appear tame, so Adieu.  Thursday.  I had a letter from Adelaide today and very glad I was to see her handwriting again.  So long since I have and so you have had rain.  Well that is good news and you have learnt the Polka, very good, and so I can learn it and last but not least my friend was such a favourite.  Well I am truly delighted "He . . . delighted" as Harry would say.  I wrote to Aunt Holland and have had back a most kind answer, so you see, Baron Parke's recommendation was owing to her.  I . . . and I sapped all after 12, all after 4 till a ¼ to 9 when we both being quite muddled as to our intellects, went and played hard at fives for ½ an hour.  We did a good deal in the Rithmetic way though going through all fractions.  Tomorrow we are at it again but I am sadly tired now and neat black rings under my eyes.  I look a beauty.  It was very hard work particularly for me, for it was such an effort disliking the study so much as I do.  But I have schooled myself to feel that it is indispensable and must be done, and therefore do it as cheerfully as I can.  I think I only abused the . . .  . . . 4 times, and that was pretty well for me.  I invested 6d in a slate and we did fire away.  But fractions are very complicated and tough to do when you pick out the hardest example in each rule.  Some of the log rules were really worth the assistance of Stephen himself.  I . . . and I hope that Frank will get into the . . . and have a swinging good breakfast with Stephen.  I am sure he deserves it, for he does work very hard with Stephen "Remmer a . . .  . . ." I am glad that Rippy Tippy dog is so well and that his allowance of victuals grows so small.  Tell Adelaide that Johnny is very fond of Remmer and now that I can talk to him he likes him much better than the dog . . .  . . .   Lax with my love that he thinks Terrible Booge very beautiful but too savage.  He had been bitten and the place festered.  Has Papa written to the Warden? and will he ask him when he expects me to come up.  Mind that it is . . . "Dr Marsham".  He is a lay brother.  However I have naught else to say now and so good night.  Friday.  . . . school day and a very nice day.  But I was too done to stay in after 12, so I played at cricket and after 4 we did some miscellaneous examples.  We are going to sit up tonight though.  . . . to Mrs Hansford's so don't tell my dame and we will get such quantities there as will make up and more for the loss