| Description | [Diary Transcription]
152
1822
November Wednesday 20
7 20/60
11 35/60
L
Vc
Before Breakfast out at 8 20/60 — walked to and from Lightcliffe church — talked a long while to Jackman going to new pave the
barn-porch near the new stable door, and came in at 10 — Letter from Mrs. Norcliffe (Langton) a few lines — to say Charlotte
will not go to York till Monday instead of Friday, when they shall be most happy to see me — Mrs. Norcliffe seems obliged by
my going thinks it ‘kind in me to accede to her request’ — My uncle better this morning — going on very well —
put my hair in curl — Dawdled over 1 thing or other — at 12 40/60, took George in the gig and drove to Mrs Taylor's — sat for my likeness
perhaps 1 1/4 hour — very well satisfied with the sketch — there is something very characteristic in the figure — paid for it — 2 guineas — Went from Mrs. Taylor’s to Mr.
Stansfield Rawson's — sat with Mrs. Rawson and Catherine till after 5 — returned in the gig and got home at 5 40/60 — Neither Mrs. Rawson nor Catherine thought
it a good likeness — found great fault with the mouth, and at 1st with almost every part of the whole thing — Left it with them for Mr. Rawson to see —
they will send it to Mrs. Taylor early in the morning, and wished me to go and breakfast with them — I had not returned from my walk this morning before
it began to rain, and continued raining almost without intermission till near the time of my leaving Mr. Rawson’s — my uncle and aunt say
there has not been so much rain this afternoon here — fair evening, but very damp — Barometer 4 degrees below changeable Fahrenheit 41° at 9 1/4 p.m. —
In the evening read aloud from page 345. to 368. volume 1. Jenkin on the Xtn. [Christian] religion — ‘Abraham was the 1st that was called a
Hebrew, from his passing over the river Euphrates, when he left Chaldea.’ page 361. Came upstairs at 10 1/2. E…o —
Thursday 21
7
11 40/60
V
Before Breakfast out at 8 1/4 down the old bank to Mr. Stansfield Rawson’s — breakfasted there, and sat talking to Mrs. Rawson and Catherine till
very near 11 — (Mrs. Catherine Rawson came in just before I left) — thence to the Saltmarshe's — shewed them my picture — they did not like it at
all — thought it very silly-looking — the mouth a little open was frightful — not at all like me — what was meant to be teeth
seemed like the tongue hanging out — went to the bank to get some small notes and sovereigns — Mr. Stansfield Rawson (whom I had
merely spoken to at his own door before) thought a very strong but very unpleasing disagreeable likeness — From the bank went to Mrs.
Taylor — returned to her in an hour (having been at Northgate in the meantime) sat nearly an hour during which she closed the mouth improved the
picture exceedingly, and made it an admirable likeness — a few minutes at the library settling with the librarian about the ticket for
my father — then went to Whitley’s — Got White’s veterinary dictionary and staid a little while till the shower (it had rained ever since
my leaving Mrs. Taylor) was over and then returned up the old bank and got home at 2 25/60 — the likeness struck me as so strong, I could
not help laughing — my aunt came up, and laughed too, agreeing that the likeness was capital Ditto my uncle — we are all
satisfied let others say what they may — Settled with Davis about what she had to sew for me and set down
what I spent this morning and except cutting open my book spent all the rest of the afternoon in looking at my picture thinking how
pleased Mary would be etc. etc. — apparently a good deal of rain last night — rained a little at 7 this morning, and a shower
between 1 and 2 — highish wind towards night — Barometer 3 1/2 degrees below changeable Fahrenheit 40 1/2° at 9 10/60 p.m. In the evening wrote all the
above of today — Thought Emma a vulgar this morning — Mrs. Taylor told me yesterday, that Mr. Carlisle (Nicholas)
secretary to the antiquarian society, Somerset house, in consequence of the great fault found with some of the genealogies in Dr.
Whitaker’s Yorkshire, meant to publish a work entirely on the genealogies of the Yorkshire families, and that he would be
thankful for information — Came upstairs at 10 40/60 — E…o —
Friday 22
7
Vc
Before Breakfast out at 8 20/60 — down the old bank up Horton street to Mrs. Taylor’s — left my picture, and called again in 1/2 hour, after having walked
direct to Black wall thence up west parade, and returned down what I used to call Callista-lane past Saville row and Barum top — staid about
10 minutes with Mrs. Taylor, pointing out 1 or 2 insignificant things said my uncle and aunt thought it an admirable likeness — Got home at 9 40/60 —
Mrs. Priestley of Kebroyde called before 10, and staid about 1/2 hour — went upstairs at 11 10/60 — Another letter from Mrs. Norcliffe this morning
to say Charlotte was obliged to alter her plans (the 3rd time) and must now be in York on Sunday instead of Monday that I must
153
1822
November
go tomorrow a chaise ordered at Benson’s, to go from Fisher’s door at 9 1/2 — all the day getting my things ready — pothering
over 1 thing or other — my patent inkstand I bought in London does not answer at all — not so well stopt as if there was a cork in it —
Just before dinner (6 p.m.) wrote the 1st end and part of the 2nd of my letter to Miss Maclean begun last Saturday — the following, beginning midway page 3, is what
I had written respecting Horsley’s sermon 20 volume 2. — the 2 ends on this subject written tonight just before dinner from minutes on a loose scr
ap of paper — ‘It will long ago have occurred to you that, in mentioning Horsley’s sermon on Hades, it was the 20th, the very one
that seems to have struck you so much, to which I alluded — Like most other people, I had thought little or nothing on the subject before I read Horsley
5 or 6 years ago; but so entirely did his reasoning and a few references to scripture satisfy me, that, in my own mind, I have ever since used the old-
and-new-testament word hades to signify the place of departed spirits generally, because, through prejudice and common usage, there is a something
in the very sound of hell, which, as you observe, reminds one of nothing but ‘a most horrible abode’ — It is not, however, as you will
see from another reading, that ‘hell and paradise mean the same,’ — that they are by any means synonymous terms, but that the one is
a part of the other, hades, or, as our translators have it, hell being the name of the whole region, and paradise 1 of the names of that division of
it allotted to the righteous — who would not be shocked to hear it said, that the patriarchs Jacob and Joseph did certainly go to hell? and yet
it was hell or hades to which (Genesis xxxvii. 35) Jacob said he would ‘go down unto his son; and it was hell or hades to which he said,
his sons would bring down his gray hairs with sorrow — In fact, in the Septuagint version of the old testament, the place of departed spirits
collectively, is always, I believe, rendered hades, whether we translate it hell or the grave, and it is left to the context to shew —
as, doubtless, it always does very clearly, — which is the portion intended, whether that of the righteous or the reprobate: — and, surely,
there was no one in the psalmist’s days, who could believe the royal prophet’s meaning to be, that his soul should not be left in
that portion to which they would humbly hope it should never go at all — But the writers of the new testament never trust merely to
the context to explain whether they mean the place of torment or not — ‘For the place of torment by itself they had quite
another appellation,’ that is (in one word) Gehenna, which means the valley of the son or sons of Hinnon, the valley
of crying, where was ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ — the valley of Hinnon metaphorically from that place of abomination near Jerusalem,
where were practised the horrid rites of Molech. (Joshua xv.8. 2 Kings xxiii.10. 2 Chronicles xxxiii.6 Jeremiah vii. 31, etc.) — Perhaps,
my dear Miss Maclean, (Friday night 22 November 1822) ’tis well for you that I have somewhat lost the thread of my story; for I remember, I
was just going to give you several new-testament references pointing out where the original has the word hades, and where Gehenna; that, if you
have any curiosity on the subject, turn to the French translation — it is more exact in this particular than ours, for, if I mistake not, the word
Gehenna is there always rendered Gehenna, and hades enefer, evidently derived from the Latin signifying inferior or lower regions, — the abode
of the shades below, — the dominion of Pluto, Dis, Hades, or by whatever other name they designated the infernal or
rather subterranean sovereign; for we seem to have limited the original signification of the word infernal as we have done
that of hell, forgetting the more extensive, or, according to Horsley ‘the good sense of the word’ — But this abode, as the learned
bishop observes, was certainly divided into 2 separate regions by the heathen poets and by all antiquity — the names of Elysian and Tartarus
are familiar to us all — If you happen to have Dryden’s, or any other translation of Virgil by you, turn to the 6th book of Æneid —
perhaps you may be amused by reading it over again — I would also refer you to Pope’s 11th book of the Odyssey, but the translation is
even more ungallant than the original — yet how I am again running on on this subject! How easily the mind recurs to that with which it has
lately been familiar — you made me take down Horsley, and because you made me I did it with the most pleasure — I shall merely add that
I like the rendering the word translated prison ‘a place of safe keeping’ that I think the criticism on ‘being put to death in the flesh’ § . . . etc. admirable
and that I know not what exceptions you can fancy me to make to sermon 14. In our saviour’s preaching to those particular spirits in
[margin text] § i. Peter vii.18. page 161
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