Pakenham History : Joseph Alfred Hardcastle MP And Nether Hall

Part 6 - Nether Hall : Discussion of Rights

14
Memorandum of Discussion as to Right of Henry Hardcastle's
Right to go to Nether Hall, March to April 1870

About the beginning of March 1870, Henry Hardcastle one day informed Joseph Alfred Hardcastle that he was desirous of going to Nether Hall after Easter for Maria's confinement. Joseph Alfred Hardcastle acquiesced and nothing more was said at the time.(91)

(91) While the date of this memorandum is unclear, it probably dates from 1915, when Henry Hardcastle was reviewing the exchanges of the years between 1865 and 1873.

Towards the end of March, Mrs Hardcastle and Maria got to discussing Henry Hardcastle's alleged right to go to Nether Hall when he pleased. Mrs Hardcastle said she had never heard anything about it before; and a day or two after the interview Mrs Hardcastle wrote to Maria the letter of 30 March.(92) In answer to that, and to explain what was necessary, Henry Hardcastle wrote to Mrs Hardcastle the letter of 1 April.(93) On 4 April, Mrs Hardcastle wrote again to Maria and, in consequence of that letter,(94) Mrs Hardcastle, at Maria's request, came and saw Maria at 4 Chesham Street on Wednesday 6 April. An account of the interview is contained in Maria's letter to Henry Hardcastle of 6 April.(95)

Mary Hardcastle (Bath Archive Pictures)

In consequence of the interview Mrs Hardcastle, for the first time, spoke about the matter to Joseph Alfred Hardcastle, who immediately wrote to Blood. Blood went up to see them at 54 Queens Gate Terrace on Saturday 9 April. Henry Hardcastle saw Blood on the previous Wednesday at Shoreditch Station and urged him to settle something. N.B. Henry Hardcastle had seen Blood on the previous Wednesday at Chelmsford with Thomas Usborne, and had had some conversation with him on the matter.

(92) No. 15, below
(93) No. 16, below
(94) No. 17, below
(95) No. 18, below

After seeing Blood, Mrs Hardcastle wrote the letter of 9 April to Maria and on 10 April Blood wrote to Henry Hardcastle the letter of that date.(96) These two letters were received on Monday 11 April and then Henry Hardcastle wrote the letter of 11 April to Blood and also a letter to Joseph Alfred Hardcastle.(97)

In answer to Henry Hardcastle's letter, Joseph Alfred Hardcastle, on Tuesday 12 April, wrote a letter to Henry Hardcastle of an offensive and unkind character.(98) This letter Henry Hardcastle received on Tuesday evening about 7 p.m. Immediately after dinner, Henry Hardcastle took the letter up to 118 Westbourne Terrace and shewed it to Mr Haldane and Mr and Mrs Corsbie.(99) On their advice, Henry Hardcastle and Maria each wrote to Joseph Alfred Hardcastle the letters of 12 April.(100) In consequence of receiving those letters, and also one from Mr Haldane, Joseph Alfred Hardcastle, on Wednesday 13 April,  came to see Henry Hardcastle, who at his request and in his presence burnt the letter of the previous day from Joseph Alfred Hardcastle to Henry Hardcastle.

Joseph Alfred Hardcastle then admitted the correctness of everything contained in the letter of Henry Hardcastle to Mrs Hardcastle of 1 April. On 14 April Henry Hardcastle received the letter of that date from Joseph Alfred Hardcastle and sent him the answer of that date.(101) On 16 April, Henry Hardcastle received another letter from Joseph Alfred Hardcastle, which terminated the discussion.

Together with these letters are tied up the ticket taken by Henry Hardcastle on Wednesday 13 April for the purpose of going down to consult Thomas Usborne; but the ticket was not used, as Joseph Alfred Hardcastle stopped Henry Hardcastle at Shoreditch Station, just as he was starting. There are also two other letters of Joseph Alfred Hardcastle to Henry Hardcastle;(102) and one from Lady Herschel to Maria commenting on the correspondence and discussion.(103) 

(96) No. 19, below and no. 20, below
(97) No. 21, below and no. 22, below
(98) No. 24 below
(99) Alexander Haldane, Joseph Alfred Hardcastle's step-uncle by marriage, and John and Emma Corsbie, both cousins of Joseph Alfred Hardcastle.
(100) No. 25, below and no. 26, below
(101) No. 29, below
(102) No. 28, below, and possibly no. 32, below
(103) No. 30, below

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15
Mary Hardcastle to Maria Hardcastle
54 Queens Gate Terrace, 30 March 1870

Original
My dear Maria, In thinking over our conversation yesterday, in order that I might have yours and Henry's views clear in my mind, I find there are one or two points on which I do not quite clearly understand you.

You corroborated what I had heard, viz., that on the arrangement between Henry and his father being made as to Henry paying £500 a year in regard of Writtle, he proposed adding that he and his should go to Nether Hall when they liked – which his father declined to agree to. So far our stories are the same, but then you go off into a vagueness which I want you to explain. What do you and Henry imagine that he did promise, though he refused to agree to that clause?

Then you proceeded to say that you quite understood that if you and I did not like one another, and living at Nether Hall was unpleasant, it would actually become impossible and 'then some other arrangement would be made'. Now here I fail to catch your meaning. It sounded like a hint that Henry considered his father bound to find him a country house and that, if he did not take him in at Nether Hall, he (Henry) was not bound to pay £500 – but this is directly contrary to the agreement.

Please clear up these two points in very distinct black and white, that I may not misrepresent your views when I come to talk the matter over with Joseph. I quite understand that it is very irksome to all the family no longer to have Nether Hall as a hotel, coming and going as they like and treating Joseph something like a headwaiter, or not quite so civilly; giving him notice or not, as they liked, of their arrival. But I know that you feel, quite as much as I do, that style of thing cannot go on when there is a mistress of the house. Other points now quite clear to both of us I think: I see your objections to Mothersole's;(104) and you see that he would not agree to let anyone else add to our house for us; nor to make any arrangement for taking in lodgers.

(104) Mothersole unidentified.

I hope you sympathise a little with my passion for lists and for making all arrangements perfectly clear, and you will not think me very cross and troublesome for writing all this. I am eagerly desirous to do everything within my power that is kind to you and Henry and your children; and I rejoice that your having Nether Hall will enable you to let your town house and have a country house. At the same time etc, etc, I need not add now. Only please be still more explicit than you were yesterday and I will promise still to remain your affectionate mother in law, Mary S. Hardcastle.

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16
Henry Hardcastle to Mary Hardcastle
Chesham Street, 1 April 1870

Copy
My dear Mary, Before answering the two questions contained in your letter of yesterday to Maria, I have one word to say about the agreement. You speak of my paying my father £500 a year, but you forget that in fact I pay him more than £1110 a year. In addition to the £500 out of the profits of the Writtle business and the £100 a year (and upwards) paid for life insurance, there is another £500 agreed with the trustees of our marriage settlement I am entitled to receive from my father, but which we waive so long as the mutual arrangement as to Nether Hall is carried out.

The written agreement is by no means the whole of the agreement and in fact secures nothing more than the second and post-obit mortgages on Nether Hall for our £10,000.  Now the agreement of which the written agreement is a part was made long before your marriage was thought of and for the express purpose of preventing the necessity (then imminent) of selling Nether Hall. It was distinctly understood that, if we came forward at that crisis to assist in making an income for my father, we should have the option of going to Nether Hall as often and for as long a time as we pleased. On that understanding we have up to the present time always acted and have always gone to Nether Hall whenever we liked, as we considered we had the right to. At the time of your proposed marriage, I particularly wished the written agreement should comprise not only the pecuniary parts of the arrangement but also what related to the right to go to Nether Hall, which was in fact the basis of the whole arrangement.

My father, however, and Mr Blood both thought this unnecessary after all that had passed. It was not the kind of stipulation that could be enforced in the event of any quarrel. It was thought pleasanter for all parties that the understanding should remain as it was, an unwritten honourable arrangement. Not one word, however, was said about my father declining to agree to it or wishing to put an end to it.

In answer to your first question, therefore, I say that we consider that we have still the option of going to Nether Hall whenever we like and stopping as long as we like. And to your second question, that we do not consider my father bound in any way to supply us with any country house other than Nether Hall. If we should find it unpleasant to be there, we might if we liked stop away. But as long as we are allowed to go there when we wish, this is all we expect.

As to whether I should be still bound to pay the £600, in the event of us not being permitted to go to Nether Hall when we like, is another matter altogether. We desire to look upon the whole arrangement, so far as it affects both parties, as an honourable understanding, without entering upon questions as to the exact construction which might in a legal point of view be put upon a document, the interpretation of which depends on our marriage settlement and partly on the special circumstances in which it originated. I hope this statement is as intelligible as you wished Maria's answer to be.

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17
Mary Hardcastle to Maria Hardcastle
54 Queens Gate Terrace, 4 April 1870 Monday

Original
My dear Maria, Henry's letter is very clear and explicit; and I hope I shall soon understand the subject as distinctly as you wished I should. There is one more question I would ask. When you first began going to Nether Hall, you were of course a small party. Does 'the right to go whenever you like and to stay as long as you like' extend to an unlimited number of children and servants? And do you claim it for your children and servants when you and Henry are not there? I am not now raising any objection; but, as you choose to put it as a matter of claims and rights, it is necessary that I should know what our liabilities are likely to be. 'An honourable arrangement', though unwritten, will always be treated with regard by me, however uncomfortable and distressing it may render my own position.
Yours affectionately, Mary S. Hardcastle.

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18
Maria Hardcastle to Henry Hardcastle
4 Chesham Street, 6 April 1870

Original
Well, my dear, it's over (and it's not a boy nor a girl). So don't frighten yourself. Mrs Hardcastle has been here an hour and a half and a pretty time she has had of it, I fear. She began very high and mighty, which being the case I went off on our distressing position, and finally with tears; protested there never was a lady just in such a position. After which she had to come down and I explained that my sympathy with her was enormous, principally because I had gone through a course of equal surprises etc as herself and that I was most sincerely anxious now that she should take her own line; and, as she understood precisely what our opinions and views were, it was now in her power to speak to her husband and make any arrangements for the future which she thought proper. We had no wish to do anything to make her postion disagreeable. On the contrary, there is nothing so pleasant as waiving rights when once they are understood, or in giving up in small things to make life happy to her and Mr Hardcastle.

She said various horrid things about the way Mr Hardcastle was treated, and every time she said so, I deliberately fired up and would not growl again until she said, 'Well, well. I will never say so again'. Altogether I do verily believe that this time I have come off unbeaten, but it upset me dreadfully; and when she said, in a sort of happy way, 'that Mr Hardcastle was so fond of me and Henry', I burst into tears à la héroïne and said I did not care a straw for a man saying so and leaving me and Henry to bear the brunt of such a trial as this without the slightest provocation on our part.

She finally went away looking very queer (not angry with us, but disgusted). I said goodbye as I kissed her, hoped she would forgive me if I had distressed her in anything I had said. Nothing but an eager wish on our parts to have no concealments from her for her sake would have made me speak at all. She then, in a high and mighty way, said you ought not to have allowed her to be brought to a country house which was not hers. I asked her plainly whether she thought you should have gone to her or to her brother yourself and said, 'My father is not telling the truth – such and such is the case', without Vaughan Johnson's replying that he believed Mr Hardcastle's statements, not Henry's, and that Henry wished to prevent the marriage evidently for, heaven knows, what ulterior motives. She did not answer but seemed impressed.

She has not shown your letter yet to your father and said she did not mean to. I left that to her. At the same time she thought she might as well, or he would be in the dark, as Henry could not go and say anything to him – having no excuse. She also said, 'The time to be explicit was when the agreement was signed'. I said yes and you had been so much so that you had at first written in it about Nether Hall, but that William Herschel and Mr Blood thought that, after all, it was sufficiently understood and you (Henry) wrote the last letter on the subject embodying that wish to go to Nether Hall whenever you liked; and to that I added that, on my honour, neither of us had heard one word returned, good or bad, of declining or disagreeing and what could we do but conclude it settled?

She went away having two or three times repeated that she saw no possibility of altering anything. It was merely that all the pleasure of invitation etc was lost, and I agreeing and sympathising every now, suggesting to her: why should she endure such an arrangement if it was so utterly distasteful to her. (For she never seemed to care about our sacrifices.) Why should not she, like any other wife, protest to her husband that it made life unbearable and by so make some changes? (I said this to drive her to think of the obstacles, i.e. that but for this particular agreement on our part, they would lose still more income and be worse off; and that therefore she had best put the best face on it). She answered, 'I can make no change, if my husband has put it out of his power to alter'. That was a strong admission on her part, but I said in answer, for ought she knew, it might be in his power. At any rate, she had not even told him all this, so could not be sure if there was such a remedy. She said sharply, 'Do you wish me to tell him of Henry's letter?' I said she might do as she pleased. Bye bye. I'm so tired, your own Maria.

Maria Hardcastle

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19
Mary Hardcastle to Maria Hardcastle
54 Queens Gate Terrace, 9 April 1870 Saturday

Original
My dear Maria, As you wished me to show Henry's letter to his father, I did so. The consequence was that the question had to be thoroughly gone into. I have now seen the agreement; heard the correspondence on the subject of Nether Hall which passed last year; and have learnt from Mr Blood what had passed on former occasions before my marriage was thought of. From all this I can come to no other conclusion than that you have been under a misapprehension in thinking there was any stipulation or honourable understanding which gave you and Henry 'the right' to come to Nether Hall, and that you have simply been on the footing of honoured and welcome guests.

I will not enter into the details of Henry's letter because, as you appealed to Mr Blood, it is better that you should receive explanations from him. I will only add that, though I do not consider Mr Hardcastle in the slightest degree pledged to have you or your children at Nether Hall, except when it is convenient and agreeable to himself, I hope we shall spend many happy days there all together, and forgetting all claims and painful explanations, be as good friends as ever.
Yours affectionately, Mary S. Hardcastle.

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20
J. Howell Blood to Henry Hardcastle
Witham, 10 April 1870

Original
My dear Henry Hardcastle, I was sorry not to be able to reach you yesterday. I was too late, having been engaged a long time at St Mary's Terrace, Kensington. I saw your father and Mrs Hardcastle and went fully into the question of the Nether Hall rights. I will endeavour to put the affair and the misunderstandings which exist in as fair a way as I can. I gather from your letter to Mr Hardcastle, of which you gave me a copy, that you consider you have a right to stay with your family at Nether Hall, when and for as long a period as you please, and that you are not bound to consult the convenience of your father and Mrs Hardcastle as a matter of right on their part; and further I learn, from that letter and our conversation, that you consider this right established by arrangements made prior to the agreement with your father dated 27 April. You further, as I understand, consider that the area unresolved and a claim in the agreement, giving you such a right, arose from my having thought such a clause unnecessary and inexpedient.

You say in your letter to Mr Hardcastle, 'The arrangement of which the eventual agreement is a part was made long before your marriage was thought of'. No doubt you are correct in saying that. When and after Nether Hall was purchased, you had every reason to expect a residence there. I am not aware of any arrangement or specific agreement about it, but I quite admit Nether Hall was purchased as much to further your views as your father's; and you no doubt remember our conversation on the subject.

The arrangements so far as I know were not reduced to any clear understanding till your father's engagement. I need not go into the various negotiations, plans and alterations of plans that took place. You reduced what you thought should be your terms into wording and it is sufficient, for my present purpose, that I confine myself to the Nether Hall residence question. By your proposal no. 2, you claimed the right of residence. That claim I struck out not on the ground you supposed, that I thought it unnecessary and inexpedient to put such a clause into the agreement, but because I thought it impossible to carry out such an arrangement: that the fact of two families having equal rights (for that was what your claim amounted to) over the same house was a complete absurdity. I remember using the expression 'it could not last one day'. And therefore I say I did not omit to insert the clause because I thought it unnecessary but because I thought the claim unenforceable.

If you remember, we discussed it fully at Mr Haldane's and afterwards you quite agreed with me that such a thing could not be. I most certainly said no doubt you would spend a good deal of time at Nether Hall and would have consolations, but since the purchase, in a letter to your father, written on 1 April, I say, 'Henry quite relinquishes the assumption of right to go to Nether Hall, but he hopes to be invited, but that is all'. This was my impression as conveyed to your father the day our conversation took place.
From yourself I had a letter dated 2 April in which you say you had shown your wife a copy of the agreement and proposal of yesterday, and she thought it very satisfactory. And you go on to say, 'My wife quite agrees with me now that it is better to make no stipulation about Nether Hall, it being borne in mind that it was mentioned to show what we wish but that we intend to say no more about it'
.
In justice to myself, as no doubt I expressed myself strongly about visits, I quote a letter from your father to me in 1869. After saying he could not admit the right to visit, he adds, 'while if there is no compulsion, no visit could be too long; for Maria is the best company in the world, and has borne all the unpleasant results of my folly in such a way as is beyond all praise'.

One other matter I have read, you will find that the £500 a year, or rather the two £500s, have no reference to living at Nether Hall or reference to the papers which show all about that. Do not for a moment suppose that I wish to interfere in the gentle passages of arms between the ladies, but you asked me to settle something and let you know what was done. I can therefore only say that the result is that matters stand as they did a year ago; and that the Honourable Mrs Hardcastle is to all intents and purposes mistress of Nether Hall, and expects to be so treated; but I believe I may add that there cannot be more welcomed guests than you and your wife. You may depend upon it that this is the only way to read the affair. Any other plan is as utterly impracticable as it was a year ago. Of course I have no right to dictate. I merely, as asked, give my opinion and endeavour to bring several facts to your mind which may have escaped you.
I send back your letters. I had yours this morning. Believe me yours sincerely, J. H. Blood.

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21
Henry Hardcastle to J. Howell Blood
Temple, 11 April 1870

Original
My dear Mr Blood, I have your letter and I have written to my father asking him to see me and saying that from the tone of your letter I rejoice to believe that there is no practical obstacle in the way of a settlement of the question in a satisfactory manner. I don't agree with all that you say in your letter, and I am not prepared to admit that there is anything incorrect in my letter to the Honourable Mrs Hardcastle, but under the circumstances I don't think I need trouble you now with any further discussion of the matter.
Believe me yours sincerely, Henry Hardcastle.

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22
Henry Hardcastle to Joseph Alfred Hardcastle
Temple, 11 April 1870 Monday

Copy
My dear Father, I have had a letter from Blood this morning, and I rejoice and believe from the tone of it that there is no practical obstacle in the way of peace and good will existing among all the members of the family. Blood says, 'the result is that the Honourable Mary Hardcastle is to all intents and purposes mistress of Nether Hall, and expects to be so treated' (tho' I say that we have always treated as such and desire to continue to do so).

As to the expression in her letter to Maria as to the way in which we (among others) have behaved to you, although it gave us great pain at the time, we are willing to believe that it was written in haste and consider it now withdrawn.

I should like to see you tomorrow at any time and place convenient to you.
Your affectionate son, Henry Hardcastle.

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23
Maria Hardcastle to Mary Hardcastle
11 April 1870

Copy
Dear Mary, While we are not prepared to withdraw one word of our letter (I say our, as I agree with Henry), which before it was sent it was seen and approved by Winnie, Miss Pyman and Mr Corsbie and Mr Haldane, and since that by Mr Woodhouse and approved, we are at the same time quite prepared to come to any understanding which will preserve the family peace, if possible.(105) As for appealing to Mr Blood, I distinctly deny having done so. He just spoke to Henry on the subject, and on then accidentally meeting at the station, told Henry he had been telegraphed by Mr Hardcastle; and Henry then said perhaps he would settle something and let him know. We don't consider ourselves bound by anything he may have said.

(105) John Corsbie was a cousin of Joseph Alfred Hardcastle, married to the eldest daughter of Alexander and Emma Haldane. Thomas Woodhouse was a director of Sparrow's Bank in Chelmsford.

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24
Joseph Alfred Hardcastle to Henry Hardcastle
12 April 1870

In answer to Henry Hardcastle's letter, Joseph Alfred Hardcastle, on Tuesday 12 April, wrote a letter to Henry Hardcastle of an offensive and unkind character. This letter Henry Hardcastle received on Tuesday evening about 7 p.m. Immediately after dinner, Henry Hardcastle took the letter up to 118 Westbourne Terrace and shewed it to Mr Haldane and Mr and Mrs Corsbie.(106) On their advice, Henry Hardcastle and Maria each wrote to Joseph Alfred Hardcastle the letters of 12 April. In consequence of receiving those letters, and also one from Mr Haldane, Joseph Alfred Hardcastle, on Wednesday 13 April, came to see Henry Hardcastle, who at his request and in his presence burnt the letter of the previous day from Joseph Alfred Hardcastle to Henry Hardcastle.(107)

(106) Alexander Haldane, Joseph Alfred Hardcastle's uncle.
(107) Sentence ends with 'for the present' crossed out. No copy of Joseph Alfred Hardcastle's intemperate letter of 12 April 1870 survives.

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25
Henry Hardcastle to Joseph Alfred Hardcastle
12 April 1870

Copy
My dear Father, After your letter of this evening we neither of us feel we could dine at your house tomorrow, or in fact tax your hospitality any more.

As to my behaviour to you last autumn, I have tried in vain to think of anything which you could have taken offence at. I can only say that I am very sorry that you should ever have occasion to consider me wanting in respect. I humbly ask your pardon.
*
The letter to which this and Maria's letter are answers were burnt by me in my father's presence on 13 April on his apologising to us and admitting the validity of our claim to go to Nether Hall.

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26
Maria Hardcastle to Joseph Alfred Hardcastle
12 April 1870

Copy
My dear Mr Hardcastle (Father, I cannot say, for I value the word too highly). I consider your letter this evening both heartless and personally insulting to Henry and me. I pass by the first point, about the results of reversing the positions of parent and child, with the one remark that the only point to which you did not at all object in the agreement last year was the principal point which covered yours and Henry's positions: namely your consenting to take from your son a large sum per annum. I do not taunt you with this, as I cordially cooperated then, but I mention it as a piece of plain truth. But you personally insult me when you say 'that the way in which you were treated last year is explained now by finding that we considered ourselves masters not guests and that it was no wonder that a lady who had always lived in a family where parents were treated in an old-fashioned way should be surprised'. I defy you to make such an accusation against me in the presence of my father, Sir John Herschel, and I yield to no lady in respect for parents.

I do not wish to enter into each point of your letter, but I only ask you if you dare, as a man of honour, say our prospects are now the same as you represented them to my father at the time of our marriage, or are 'unimpaired by your imprudence', to obviate which we are called upon to pay you £1100 a year. I now wish to say that the pressing circumstances of the case alone led me to adhere to the first arrangement made this year: that we should go to Nether Hall after you leave at Easter. As soon as I am well enough to travel, I shall leave the house and never return voluntarily until there has been an ample apology made to us for all these accusations and for all that you have made us suffer these three weeks.
I finish with a quotation from a letter of yours of 11 March 1869, 'So wish me joy, my dear son, though nothing has yet been said. I remember that it is to your kindness that I owe my present happiness. May God bless you first is the prayer of your affectionate father, JAH', and ask you to contrast it with your letter to the same person of 11 April 1870.
Your affectionate daughter-in-law, Maria S. Hardcastle.
I have sent a copy of your letter to my father and of my answer.

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27
Henry Hardcastle to Joseph Alfred Hardcastle
14 April 1870 Maundy Thursday

Copy
My dear Father, Your letter did not arrive at chambers till after I had left, so I did not get it till this evening. My view of the arrangement is my being at Nether Hall should be entirely subject to your convenience (the meaning of that word having been, as you say, fully discussed). I understood you that you wished always to have the house at your entire disposal for the whole month of August at least. I will therefore put it in this way, that from say the 15 July to 1 September we will never come to Nether Hall either by ourselves, children and servants, except by special invitation; but that from, say, 1 September to the say 15 October, we desire and expect to be allowed to be there.

I hope that I am right in supposing from your letter of yesterday that Mary will be able to acquiesce in the arrangement now understood between us without finding it absolutely intolerable! If this is so, we rejoice in the prospect of this opportunity not only of enjoying your society ourselves but also (a thing I specially wish) of bringing up our children to know and to love their grandparents.

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28
Joseph Alfred Hardcastle to Henry Hardcastle
54 Queens Gate Terrace, 14 April 1870 Thursday morning

Original
My dear Boy, Mary is under the impression that Maria claims full use of Nether Hall from August to October inclusive for herself and children, not this year but any subsequent year; and this of course makes a very unpleasant feeling – and in fact takes away all the feeling of ownership and enjoyment, as is natural.

I understood distinctly you saying that your claim was to be subject to our convenience. In fact, if you remember, we had a long discussion as to that word.

I should be glad if you will send me a line to Nether Hall putting the matter as I believe we both agreed upon it. I am sure Maria does not wish to disturb Mary's pleasure in the place, or to usurp her place as mistress. Please answer by this night's post if you can. Yours affectionately, JAH.

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29
Joseph Alfred Hardcastle to Henry Hardcastle
Nether Hall, 16 April 1870

Original
My dear Boy, I think your letter quite carries out my view which is: (1) that we should not be expected to invite you here from the time we come here from London till about the 1 September; (2) that you should expect to be invited for the shooting season, say 1 September to 15 October; and (3) that, during the rest of the year, you should have the use of the house when we are absent, subject to convenience.

I cannot bind myself always to stay away till 15 August, as I might wish to bring the children down some weeks earlier if they were tired of London, though this is not very probable. This, which I may call a business view of the matter, is not to preclude our asking you at other times when we know that you wished to come and when we could conveniently manage to do so.

I send you a letter as to poor old Mrs Allen(108) Only think that my nurse should survive your nurse! Also one from Thomas, which I hope will be as satisfactory to you as it is to me. Yours affectionately, JAH.

The picture of my grandmother has not turned up. I thought you said you had sent it.

(108) Louisa Allen, childhood nurse to the Hardcastle children. Maryanne Ayton, Joseph Alfred Hardcastle's nurse, died on 19 July 1870.

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30
Lady Herschel to Maria Hardcastle
Collingwood, Hawkhurst, 20 April 1870

Original
Dearest Maria, I tell you frankly that I have taken copies of these copies and, as you did not give me leave, I took it and I shall seal up the whole packet for your own or my own benefit at some future time.(109) I wish I had kept the copy of my own letter to Mr Hardcastle on Good Friday 1869 when I showed up the hollowness of appearances.

Well, my dear children, you see I am not the son of JAH Esq., but I admire very much the conduct of his son, who has not said 'it is Corban',(110) but has helped his father at his need; and that father's conduct and conscience may be left to their own nemesis. I must say I pity the poor lady who has now only learned the whole truth, tho' (to say truth) she 'inherits' many a moral obliquity from her own immediate ancestor.

(109) Lady Herschel was Marie Brodie Herschel, née Stewart (1810-1884).
(110) See Mark 7: 11-12.

Heigh ho. 'Whoso loveth the world, the love of the Father dwelleth not in him' is a verse which is very often borne in upon me. And now that you are battling the waves in the mid ocean of life, it must be very difficult for you to believe that there is a calm haven of rest waiting those who do not grow weary in well doing.

Your 'retreat' just now in Suffolk will be such a blessing to you, poor darling, and Rosie will be another Engelkind to you, until the little Roscius comes, who seems very promising as a wedge-shaped parley-vous with the children. I hope, however, that Rosie and Henry can manage the Royal Academy, the opening evening whenever that is. I don't mean that she is to stay until June, for I shall long to know how the first week goes on, and I feel that I have seen so little of the dear child myself.

We are cutting down so many trees and I hope that your papa will make me a greenhouse for them or nearby it, but Heaven is my Home. So remember the rendezvous, your Old Mother.(111)

(111)An additional letter, preserved in Templehouse Collection, P11, is from Sir William Herschel, Bart, to Henry Hardcastle, dated 25 June 1870.
'My dear Henry, What I wanted more immediately to know was what amount per £ of rental per annum for gas charge in London generally or in your district amounts to, and whether this is levied as a parish rate (i.e. by the whole parish in vestry assembled); or (2) in virtue of some special power lodged by Act of Parliament in the Gas Companies.
To this last (2) your note seems to supply a negative response. Yet, if I understand it right, it is proposed to light the village with gas and to carry it down to just beyond our house to Mr Loyd by a rate of some sort to fall on the owners of land and houses on either side of the way lighted. While it seems to me as if a parish vestry i.e. the whole parish had the power of taxing – not all the land and houses in the parish – but a specified portion of it, to carry out a purely local so-called improvement by which only a small portion of the whole population will be benefited. I cannot persuade myself that vestries have this power.
I believe in London gas in the rate is charged for under a rate for paving, lighting and perhaps other purposes in a lump. Still I should like to know for instance what per £ rental per annum (i.e. the totality per £ if levied quarterly within one year) amounts to. I find a very old memorandum for Marylebone for a house I once inhabited of 8d. in the £ for these items, but that was forty-five years ago.
Love to Maria and the children and believe me, yours affectionately, W. Herschel.'