William Hone to Dr. Charles West, 24 August, 1840 An Electronic Edition William Hone Kyle Grimes

For publication in the Hone Correspondence section of the William Hone BioText, http://honearchive.org. The letter is published under a Creative Commons license, details of which are accessible from the BioText homepage.

Transcribed from the original in Wellesley College Library, Special Collections, Last Days of William Hone, f. 8.

 Transcribed from image of Wellesley MS.
William Hone to Dr. Charles West, 24 August, 1840.Transcribed from the original in Wellesley College Library, Special Collections, Last Days of William Hone, f. 8. Hone's father, also William Hone, had grown up on a farm near Ripley. He later became a legal copyist in Bath and then London. A deeply religious follower of the charismatic preacher William Huntington S. S. (the "S. S." being Huntington's self-styled credentials standing for "Sinner Saved"), the elder Hone was very much respected by his son, even during the younger Hone's radical, free-thinking middle years. At this point, the post-conversion son is making something of a pilgrimmage to his father's birthplace. [return] — -TEI-
Richmond
24 August 1840 My dear Sir

We returned from Ripley to Richmond on Saturday afternoon having discovered there no gold mine, but were kindly entertained by Mr Thomas a good natured kinsman in lodgings there. We were at no expense for eating at the inn, save our breakfasts. Those and our Coach hire, there & back, cost us exactly Two pounds. I saw people who remembered the Hone family at Holmwood farm & told us much about them. A cottager eighty eight years old drove my grandfathers second team, till he came to be head man & drove the first team till my grandfathers ruin & the dispersion of the family. I saw the Rev. Mr. [Onslow?] who holds the living, & will recollect them all. I could learn nothing of the [Lansdown?] Hill estate at Bisley, nor of the Hone owner, but heard, a few minutes before I left, of an old handsome tomb to the memory of a Hone in a churchyard a few miles from Ripley. I had no time nor money for further inquiries. More when we return on Wednesday evening. On Thursday we hope to see you at Bolt Court

My dear friend W Hone

[Addressed:} Charles West Esq. M. D. 40 Craven Street Strand