Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Wife of Henry Ware, Jr.Hall, Edward B. (Edward Brooks)
Religion
Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Wife of Henry Ware, Jr.
Hall, Edward B. (Edward Brooks)
Unitarians -- United States -- Biography; Ware, Mary L. (Mary Lovell), 1798-1849
"This village is the most primitive place I ever was in, and a
very obscure, out-of-the way place; the inhabitants almost
entirely of one class, and that of the poorer kind of laboring
people, ignorant as possible, but simple and social. You may
conceive of their simple manners, when I tell you they 'never
saw such a lady as Miss Pickard' among them before; and of
course Miss Pickard is an object of as much curiosity and
speculation as if she were Empress of all the Russias; but they
are kind-hearted and civil. The peculiar situation of things
has taken me more among them than I should have been in twice
the time, under common circumstances, and it has been a good
exercise for my faculty of adaptation. I have succeeded, I
believe, in pleasing them, for it seems as if they only vied
with each other in trying to do the most for me, and I really
think, if they had a parson to write the 'Annals of their
Parish,' the arrival of the 'American lady' would stand as the
most remarkable event in the year 1825. This amuses me, and
gives me an opportunity of doing much good with little
trouble, for it gives me influence; and, moreover, it shows me
human nature under a new form. But I am entirely destitute of
every thing like companionship, and having had so much in this
way lately with you, of the most satisfactory and delightful
kind, you will readily believe that I must feel a great
deficiency. There is not even a clergyman's family for me to
associate with, for the curate of the place is of the very
worst class of that set whose existence is a standing disgrace
to the Church; an ignorant, drinking man, as careless and
negligent of the duties of his station as if he considered it
of no consequence whatever. I hope to have a little leisure
soon, and then reading and writing will make up to me in some
measure for the loss of society; but as yet I have literally
had to work hard, and have not found time even to look at 'the
journal.' I have a nice, little, quiet room, however, and feel
quite at home in it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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