Questions of Means

Jamaica Terrace, Sunday Morning (Sometime in 1849)

My own Dearest Affectionate Maria,

I hope, dear Maria, you have not been hurt at my not writing to you before and will not attribute it to any want of affection on my part but I have been so busy that I have not had the time to collect my thoughts sufficiently to address the dearest object of my affections and wishes upon the all important subject of our marriage. My beloved, I feel more than ever the …. I cannot express my feelings to you enough on this – you are constantly in my thoughts even when it would be better to think of other things that I am about but this cannot but be the case when I consider what a treasure of a creature I am now addressing – the love I… to you… the confiding love you have given to me and, believe me, dearest, that it has pleased God that we should be united in heart and sentiment together and cannot but receive his Blessing when united by the holiest of ties… the more I think of it, the more convinced I am, we shall be fully justified in what we are about to do. 

Consider our position - simply as members of society – a man and a woman. We know we love each other tenderly, truly, not only so – but we have confided the most thrilling and important secret of our hearts into each others’ bosoms – we have mutually confessed our love to each other – and with the kiss of confident hope and love cemented that love by declaring – dearest – we cannot find room in our hearts for another’s feelings – Is this not true, my beloved? How then, by what law, what reason can dissolve a love we cannot quell but which the more we see and know of each other strengthens and expands itself – it is so, dearest, with me. I hardly know dearest how to state my feelings – it is a feeling words cannot express and which can find vent only in the …… joy and embracing kiss of our mutual love. – 

But, dearest, there is one thing I feel, and that most keenly, and which I think and fret about a great deal. It is whether I have the means to provide a home good enough for one I love as… as yourself and for whom I consider nothing in this world good enough. I did wish, dearest, that we should wait until I had furnished my house equally as well as your mother’s (Harriett Wombwell), but my friends tell me I ought not to expect to begin the world where other people leave it… they say I have sufficient for comfort and happiness if not for display and I can keep my partner comfortably. I believe dearest I have sufficient means to keep us independent… and if you are satisfied with this, you will relieve me of an anxiety which troubles me a great deal. We have determined to marry, dearest, so pray make up your mind and do so at once – for you can make me happy when I am now only miserable and fretful. You can make me prosperous when I am now making … dearest Maria, on you depends all… and I believe I may trust in your consent that we shall unite our happiness and forward without any more delay. 

I have much more to say, dearest, but I must wait another opportunity. I hoped to have heard from you beloved before this. In the meantime, believe me, my own beloved Maria… 

Your affectionate and devoted admirer… Henry.

This letter is a little earlier than the previous one. The question of elopement certainly seems to have been raised, but the detailed plans yet to be drawn up. Henry, in the meantime, continues to marshal his arguments – and even seems to succeed in turning God into a willing accomplice. The issue of means and money though hangs over all the adoring phrases and expressions that he can muster. Can Henry match Harriett for home comforts? The answer of course is: No, he can’t, at least not yet, and here again we sense the tension in the air, the disapproval of Harriett Wombwell, her sense that the beloved Maria could do better, and the growing resentment of Henry that leads him to diverge from his romantic stream of consciousness to acerbically observe that ‘my friends tell me I ought not to expect to begin the world where other people leave it’, the emphasis very much, one senses, being on the connection between Harriett and ‘leaving the world’. Wishful thinking.

One other thing seems sure on this evidence though, which is that it was Harriett who reigned supreme in her household, and that husband Charles John Robinson had only a walk-on part.

Jamaica Street is on the far right, and presumably Jamaica Terrace would have been adjacent. From: http://london1868.com/weller47.htm. The street name reflects the Caribbean trade destination.