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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 477.: maria edgeworth to ricardo1 - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 9 Letters 1821-1823

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477.: maria edgeworth to ricardo1 - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 9 Letters 1821-1823 [1821]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 9 Letters 1821-1823.

Part of: The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, 11 vols (Sraffa ed.)

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


477.

maria edgeworth to ricardo1

My dear Sir

I will not keep you in any suspense on a subject so little worth your curiosity as what merely concerns my own convenience.—I asked when you were likely to come to Town because if you had decided to come any time between Monday the 14th. and the beginning of Feby. I should then have written to Mrs. Ricardo to have told her that during that time I am disengaged and to ask her whether it could be convenient and agreeable to her to receive my sisters and myself for a few days.

I know that this is a strange proposal to make as few people have either the wish or the power to lodge any but their own family in a London house—But I cannot come to settle for any time in Town or to take apartments for ourselves till towards the end of February—I am engaged to spend the beginning of that month and a full fortnight or three weeks with Lady E Whitbread at Kensington Gore.

Now this brings my time of being in Town to the busy season and after the meeting of parliament when I know that we could not have any chance of enjoying your society and that of your family as quietly and fully and with as selfish a monopoly as I wish—I had therefore built this castle in the air as I fear it will turn out—The foundation being wanting—viz your being in Town and your being able to receive us—

So leaving this among the vast heap of overturned Chateaux en Espagne I will go on to what I trust will not be of that number.

Mrs. Edgeworth has just bought into the French funds—and has received the inclosed letter from her Paris banker M. Delessert.1 —Will you do me the favor to read it and will you write a few lines to me to direct how she must proceed about the procuration—She wants to know whether this power of Attorney must be drawn out in London or Dublin and what attesting names must be put to it—

Forgive me for the trouble I give you my dear Sir—Remember us in the kindest manner to Mrs. Ricardo and all your happy family and believe me

very sincerely yourswith much esteem and regard

Maria Edgeworth

I have never seen you since we spent some pleasant days with your amiable daughter Mrs. Clutterbuck and her charming well-educated children—

[1 ]MS in R.P.

[2 ]In MS ‘1821’; but cp. letter 475 and Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, ed. by A. J. C. Hare, vol. ii, p. 51. She was staying with Joanna Baillie.

[1 ]The enclosure is wanting.