Six north country diaries - The MAN & Other Families

-'
267
1785. Nov. 20. Died at Norton, Westinorlaiid, Rev. Mr. Richard
Burn, vicar there, author of the Jiixfire of tlic Vciice ; aged 85.-
^^lleel of agony, I sometimes suffer mj'sclf fondly to hope that I shall yet
he atlluent, and happy ! I shall be very ingenuous in laying my situation
faithfully before those to Avhom I owe great obligations. To enjoy a little
of your society, and to see and converse with my dear friends in Gower
Street will afford me very sensible consolation. My most respectful compliments
to them. I am infinitely obliged to Mr. and Mrs. Kettle for their
friendly sympathy. My wife knew nothing of the letter that was written
concerning her death ; she was not privy to the writing of it. Were my
genius in pi'oportion to the number of my enemies I should infallibly be the
tirst poet in the world. I am sorry for the bad paper and print of my sermon !
Alnwick could not afford better and I have long resolved that whenever any
of my productions are printed the press and I shall be in the same town.
\ on need not write to me again to this county. I ever am, with much gratitude,
and esteem, dear sir, your afl'ectionate friend.
Percival Stockdale.
I have something to publish, which I hope to have time to throw off in
London. I long to be out of miserj' and to embrace my London friends ! I
leave my wife with my vicarage house to live in, with its furniture and £10 a
year of addition to her income !
Lesbury, November 9, 1785.
To the same.
Dear Sir. My mind has been often on the wing to j'ou ;
but my body has
not been able to keep i)ace with it ; in shurt I write to you as soon as I am able.
I have been very near the Gates of Pluto's dreary Realm ; and am but j'et
slowly returning from those gloomj' precincts. To speak in prose : the powers
of my stomach have been almost destroj'ed ; I have been long afHicted with indigestion
and dreadful pains, in that region. This malady was occasioned by
my wife's infamous invasion of me ; by my foolishly suflering her to continue ten
weeks in this house, and by the want of sleep, loss of appetite, and agony of
mind which during that time, 1 suffered. Her coming hither was unwarrantable ;
was worse than highAvay robbery ; for she came not from indigence ; when I
had no income from my profession, I vested in trust, for her use, all I had, to
secure her from want. Long before she came, she proposed coniing ; 1 insisted
that she should not come ; I told her that I would rather sacrifice ten
thousand existencies than have her here ;
yet the devjl came ; and I now
find that she herself was the contriver of the letter concerning her death, to
throw me off my guard and to agitate and melt a too sensible and generous
heart, on her arrival. She came to distress my person and mj' finances, just
when I was terribly drained with many necessarj- expenses here ;
and when I was
meditating the exertion of my mind to ])rove my pecuniary, and to augment my
literary honour. I thank (iod, however, that I am now rid of her; though tlie
obstinate devil will live nowhere but at Alnwick, under my nose, though Berwick
is evidently the place for her abode ; there she has her property and many old
friends.
« « « »
Lesbury near Alnwick, Northumberland, February 22, 1786.
Cf. Memoir8 of the Life and Writing's of Percival Stockdale . . . icritlen l>y
himself. 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1809.
Mr. Burn was son of Richard l?urn of Kirkby Stephen, and was educated at
Queen's College, Oxford, where he matriculated "28 ^larch, 1729, aged 19. He
became vicar of Orton in Westmorland in 17."i6, and chancellor of Carlisle in
1765. Besides the work mentioned in the text he published a work on Ecclesiastical
Law, and together with Joseph Nicholson, the IliMory of Westmorland and
Cumberland.