Yours sincerely,
William Collins
Longbourn,
near Meryton,
Hertfordshire.
20th July, 1796
Dear Sir,
The world has gone mad! Mr Collins, I have such a tale to tell you.
On our return last month, we were met on the very first evening by Mr Jenkins who practically invited himself to dinner and told us the very tragic news that his wife, Diane, was dying. We were saddened to hear it and, I must confess, my first thoughts were whether he would return into Hertfordshire and continue his work, as I had grown fond of the man, or whether he would be freer after her passing to move wherever he wished. May the Lord forgive my selfish thoughts when I should have been thinking of his heartbreak and worry. He was very glum that evening and was leaving for London the following morning.
Knowing that what lay ahead for him would be a painful, drawn-out business and considering he may be very many weeks without a salary, I decided in the morning to write to my brother-in-law Gardiner and request that he might drop in on the young man and offer his assistance, for he is well-connected in town. I knew that he did not have his exact address but knew the street on which he lived and would, therefore, be of much greater use than I could be in Longbourn.
The response I received back, the following week, was as follows: that Mr Gardiner eventually found Mr Jenkins’ former residence (where he had lived until moving into our locality eight months ago) but that he had lived there alone and had never been wed. He confirmed this account with the store downstairs where Mr Jenkins had an account – there was never a wife, only a man in single lodgings.
I could not imagine what this was about and wondered what other lies this young man had told us and whether he had stolen something valuable from the school or elsewhere and perhaps had made good his escape. But who to tell and what to tell, I could not think, for I had nothing to accuse him of and, therefore, decided to say naught for another week or two to see if the blackguard would return.
And return Mr Jenkins did, the following Monday evening, in full mourning attire! You can imagine my alarm, for I did not know what to say as I watched all others sympathise with him. I beckoned him into my library after dinner and interrogated him there, showing him Mr Gardiner’s letter and demanding a full explanation of events.
It transpired that Mr Jenkins was completely and utterly in love with Mary and had been from the first evening they had met here for dinner. But as he was accustomed to being deemed an eligible bachelor in every town he worked, causing two widows to get into quite a scrape over him at his last place of work, he swore that when he took up another post he would pretend that he was a married man. I was in a stunned silence, which he interpreted as permission to talk, so on he spoke. He had been torn in agonies. Even if he disclosed the fact that he was a bachelor, Mary had confided in him, early on, her secret plan to join a convent in Spain once I depart this world. But he was convinced that Mary and he were like two tuning forks vibrating on the same note. He had felt his “own heart beating within her ribcage”. I requested he stop at this point for his language was becoming ungentlemanly and besides, to my mind, our practical Mary, unaware of his feelings, would think him quite mad. But he pressed on and asked me for her hand in marriage once he took up a new post which had become vacant as master at the large school in Meryton. He also had a moderate income from a small farm which he leased out in the south of the county that an uncle had left him. I conceded that if Mary wished to have him and loved him, I would content myself, then I asked him to wait in the front room while I spoke with her.
Mary, my sensible Mary, whom I believed I knew all of her life, began to shake and cry on hearing the news I disclosed. She confessed that on meeting Mr Jenkins that first night she felt an upheaval of emotions, an unearthly belonging. This was the reason, she told me, I had discovered her in such a state the following morning – sick at the thought that she would never have him and guilty that she even wished it.
Her delight in hearing that Mr Jenkins wished to marry her was truly moving and when I reunited the two, their genuine devotion, kept hidden so long from each other, poured forth until I felt I was imprisoned in a novel of some sort. These young people are so passionate nowadays that I wonder what ever became of smiling at a girl across a ball room and securing her affection with a dance.
I will bore you no more, cousin, with the tale of two young lovers, for I know how deeply you once felt it yourself, but suffice to say that the absence of neither long walks nor long sermons were at the root of Mary’s ailment and, it would appear, that only love could cure it.
I have not room, mental or on paper, for to tell you much else other than Mrs Bennet has not smelling salts enough to support her through the shock she has just received and I only regret now that I had not placed a wager on Mary becoming wed one day.
Our love to all at Hunsford and we look forward to meeting you (and Lady Catherine) in August.
Your affectionate cousin,
Henry Bennet
Lucas Lodge.
9th August, 1796
We are come, dear cousin, we are come!
Sir William and Lady Lucas have requested that I include in this note (announcing our safe arrival into the glorious Hertfordshire countryside) an invitation for you all to dine with us tomorrow evening at Lucas Lodge for my sister-in-law, Maria Lucas, is just now engaged to Captain McCarthy and we wish you to join in our celebration of the good news.
I look forward to our meeting for I found your last letter most lacking in useful information, choosing instead to go into far too great detail with regards the emotions of one young couple. And although few, and Charlotte may vouch for this, understand the burning fire of love and the depths of fervency as I do, you must remember, sir, that they were acting in a most improper and sinful way to hold passionate, nay, lustful thoughts about the other while the pretence of Mr Jenkins being married was believed to be true: James 1:15 “… after desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin …” I am most alarmed at Mary. You certainly encouraged vice and were I you, I would have punished them both most severely but, on mature consideration, what is one to expect from a man who teaches that nature is of greater importance and standing than the word of God?
I would have much preferred to have learned from your letter (rather than hearing it from another source) that both Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley were asked to run for parliament, that Mr Gardiner has closed a most lucrative deal with the admiralty and that your grandson George Wickham Junior is to come live with you from Michaelmas to Christmas.
I look forward with great enthusiasm to seeing you on the morrow that we may discuss the arrival of Lady Catherine de Bourgh into the county for to inspect Netherfield Hall and how best to impress her while here. I expect a letter by tomorrow’s post for she has promised to write to inform me of her itinerary and plans for Hertfordshire.
Yours sincerely,
William Collins
Longbourn.
10th August, 1796
Dear Cousin,
We would be delighted to join all the Lucases for dinner this evening and to celebrate Maria’s engagement to an outstanding man, Captain McCarthy (whom I once witnessed gargle ‘God Save the King’ with the most astonishing clarity). We had heard the happy news in the first instance from my sister-in-law Philips who dropped in last week to inform us, in her usual thunderous tone, of the engagement some three days before the couple in question had come to an understanding and got down on one knee etcetera.
Let me satisfy your curiosity regarding the news items you referred to in your note, Darcy immediately refused to run for parliament, being too sensible for such tomfoolery, while Bingley, not wishing to disappoint anyone, toyed with the idea, but when, following an interview with the man, the powers-that-be found him too liberal and indecisive, they retreated with speed and denied any knowledge of having ever asked him to step forward (much to his relief).
Mr Gardi
ner, it is true, has tripled his purse and deserves every bit of good fortune that comes his way and young George is indeed due to join us while his mother pretends to wait anxiously in town for news from her negligent, seafaring husband.
By the by, the hapless Mr Luther, our local man of science, whom I mentioned to you before, was pulled out of the river last night by poachers. It would appear that he was trying to gather frogs for experimentation but lost his footing. Fortunately for him, he lives, but, unfortunately, he told the poachers the nature of his experiment (namely creating a poison which kills insects and small rodents) which only increases fear and paranoia in the surrounding community. I daresay they wished they had left him where he was and were tempted to have him lose his footing once more.
Finally, I am happy to discuss the imminent arrival of Lady Catherine but I must warn you that, as she is not my patroness, I am under no obligation to make a spectacle of myself on her behalf, but she is welcome to join me in my library any evening, given due notice, and I may even open a good bottle of port in her honour.
Until this evening,
Henry Bennet
Postscript – There was something in today’s Gazette regarding your old friend, the Reverend Smellie. Apparently, he was caught in the possession of a number of artefacts of considerable value which were stolen from a great house in Cheshire last year. I shall bring the Gazette, that we may discuss the latest intrigues of Smellie.
Longbourn.
15th August, 1796
Dear Sir,
I send you this brief note as I tried to gain admittance to Lucas Lodge earlier to see how you fare but I was informed that you are still indisposed. I believe Charlotte thinks it my fault.
But was it not a marvellous trick?
And I have no doubt that had you not the larger share of a bottle of cognac in you at the time, you would not have seen it through! I admire you, sir, for taking a dare which risked the displeasure of your noble patroness but you did it, cousin, you pulled it off. Imagine the look on her face when she finds her horses hitched toward her carriage instead of facing away … and if you were not in fits of laughter before the fall, perhaps we might have had the pleasure of witnessing her reaction from a safe hiding-place but, alas, it was not to be.
In all solemnity, we were not to know that there was an eight-foot drop on the other side of that hedge, but your head, it will heal, as they are making such a fuss of you at Lucas Lodge. And were we not extremely fortunate that Baroness Herbert was charging past at just the right time to offer us a lift home?
Until you come to visit, when you are recovered, your secret is safe with me.
Henry Bennet
Hunsford,
near Westerham,
Kent.
25th August, 1796
Dear Sir,
I hope this letter finds all at Longbourn well this fine Autumnal day as I include the fondest wishes of my dear Charlotte who, having secured me back to Hunsford, has now softened in her approach to my relatives at Longbourn. You must allow, sir, that she was merely alarmed by my condition and worried for our future at Hunsford in the event of her ladyship ever discovering who was behind the practical joke. Mrs Collins’ outright ban on any interaction between you and me for the reminder of our stay in Hertfordshire was precautionary only (for I did promise her that I would never consume liquor so early in the morning again).
And so, cousin, let us never make reference to the incident again for I am greatly ashamed of my conduct and must console myself that had I not been tempted, like the snake tempted Eve, I should never have sinned against Lady Catherine, whom I look up to with such reverence and to whom I owe so much.
I acted in a moment of deep and bitter disappointment on learning that she was purchasing Netherfield Hall, not for herself but for her daughter and son-in-law, for I was fully convinced that she would be loath to part from me someday. On mature reflection, however, she was acting, as usual, with the most selfless and noble of intentions, putting the health and happiness of her family first, for she has now halved the distance that they will have to travel to visit his family in Warwickshire and yet are a similar distance to Rosings. Meanwhile they will benefit from having connections in the locality through the Lucases and Bennets, to help them establish themselves (though it be inferior society but will suffice until introductions to the greater houses are made). And will not I, myself, one day be in a position to keep a watchful eye on them, on behalf of my patroness, when we move to Hertfordshire permanently?
You may have heard that Smellie (for I shall no longer call him reverend) has escaped custody and is believed to have returned to Scotland where his friends offer him refuge. I pray that he will be caught or escape abroad for he sends a shiver up and down my back when I think of him.
Thomas asks me to inform you that it was he who hid Mrs Hill’s good apron and you will find it in the loft in the shed where you keep the pigs. I have reprimanded him for such conduct and would be grateful if you would inform Mrs Hill at your earliest convenience.
Your affectionate cousin,
William Collins
Longbourn,
near Meryton,
Hertfordshire.
20th September, 1796
Dear Sir,
May I wish you, and all at Hunsford, well as another busy harvest draws to a close for us here at Longbourn which, yet again, saw Sir William and myself demonstrate our unique dance arrangements in front of a large, amused and appreciative crowd of farm workers.
I am most pleased that Charlotte has bestowed her permission for us to communicate again and I acknowledge that what appears to be harmless frivolity in the eyes of one, is a grave impropriety in the eyes of another where reputations and patronage are concerned. Let her rest assured that her lamb shall not be led astray again, but I cannot guarantee that her son, Thomas, and I shall not rob a few plums from the trees at Lucas Lodge on his next sojourn.
I look forward with great enthusiasm to the arrival of the Smock family into Hertfordshire and Netherfield and hope to be one of the first gentlemen to call next Thursday fortnight when they arrive. And though our society might be ‘inferior’ for a time, I would be happy to introduce them to their grander neighbours, such as the carriage-driving Baroness Herbert.
And as eager as I am to make the acquaintance of Harold Smock and his butterflies, which I assume will be escorting him to Netherfield, I am even more thrilled to be reunited with young Georgie Wickham as he arrives to us around about the same time. His mother leaves him here until Christmas when she takes him back to London as she expects Lord Nelson and the French will call a truce to facilitate her husband getting home for a week or two.
I fear you may never meet with the great scientific mind that is Mr Luther if he continues as he does. Last week he succumbed to toxic fumes and collapsed at his home, only to be discovered by a passing farmer who, on hearing an explosion, ran into the house and dragged the unfortunate man out into the fresh air. The physician said he was lucky to be alive and may have caused immeasurable damage to his lungs.
I believe I heard that you are expected at Lucas Lodge for Christmas, staying until early January (when Maria Lucas is to wed), and the same informant has let slip that her ladyship comes to Netherfield at the same time to visit the Smocks. We shall have a jolly old time of it (minus the consumption of alcohol in the morning!).
Your sincere cousin,
Henry Bennet
Longbourn,
near Meryton,
Hertfordshire.
27th November, 1796
My Dear Sir,
On behalf of all the Bennet family, may I offer our deepest condolences to Charlotte, you and the children on the sudden but peaceful passing of our dear friend, Sir William.
His continuous good humour and kindness will be very greatly missed by us all here at Longbourn and in Meryton, where he maintained all his former friendships with a good-will and virtue that is rarely witnessed in this age:
; “How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” Psalm 32:2
We understand that you cannot be here for the funeral ceremony but will arrive earlier at Christmas than you had originally planned. Let us know once you arrive that we may condole with you all in person. We will be sure to keep Lady Lucas company in her hour of sadness and increase our presence at Lucas Lodge in the coming months, and particularly once your family has returned to Kent, to ensure that she seldom finds herself lonesome (for she and Sir William were, as you know, extremely attached).
Your affectionate cousin,
Henry Bennet
Lucas Lodge.
19th December, 1796
Dear Sir,
We arrived at Lucas Lodge earlier this evening and, having spent many solemn hours comforting Lady Lucas in this time of great sorrow for all, we are now announcing our arrival and our hope that we may meet on the morrow. I have spent these last number of weeks, with great patience and humility, bringing together such passages from the Good Book as may be read to my mother-in-law each evening which will console and uplift her spirits.
The Longbourn Letters Page 9
