31st July 1825

Recievd a letter from Mrs Emmerson in which she has discovered me to be the Author of the Verses on Death in the Every Day book signed Marvel. She has oftener been wrong in her guesses & I think if I had not given her some hints of it before I sent it she woud not have found it out now.

30th July 1825

Sharp came to bid me goodbye before he started to London. A young Lady was with him of very amiable & pleasing manners who was very fond of poetry & flowers.

29th July 1825

Received a proof from Taylor the plan is again altered* & he now intends to print the Months only & leave out the Tales this plan is one that puts the worst first & leaves the best for a future opportunity — this proof contains 'February' & 'April' the last is good for nothing & is not worth troubling the printers with. The poem on Spring is the best in the bundle & would supply its place well.

* Taylor was now demanding, as Mr, Blunden says, 'a mechanical set of compositions' , which Clare found difficulty in supplying. Nor did Clare and Taylor see eye to eye about what was good and what was poor in Clare's poetry. Taylor, however, was on the verge of going down with brain-fever. When recovered, he defended himself against Clare's accusations by saying 'The Poems are not only slovenly written, but as slovenly composed'. Clare had to set about rewriting for The Shepherd's Calendar, which eventually came out in 1827.

27th July 1825

Recievd the 28 No. of the Every Day book in which is inserted a poem of mine which I sent under the assumed name of James 'Gilderoy' from Surfleet as being the production of Andrew Marvel & printed in the Miscellany of the Spalding Antiquarys — I shall venture again under another name—Viz. ' Poem on Death'

(See post below for 23rd June 1825)

25th July 1825

‘A hive of Bees natives of New South Wales has been recently brought to this country—The Bees are very small & have no Sting but their honey is peculiarly firm'— Stamford Mercury

24th July 1825

Found a species of Broom in Bushey Close of a dwarf kind the like sort grows in great quantitys on Casterton Cowpasture — the weather changed very cold but still dry

21st July 1825

Paid Stevenson for the Stamford Mercury & gave it up as too expensive

16th July 1825

Still uncommonly hot.

15th July 1825

[The Golden Drop - Helpston, July 2009]

Recievd a letter from Mrs Emmerson in which she tells me that Rippingille is come up & she wants me to start to-morrow—this is one of the hottest days I have known & all my ferns is nearly scorchd up—Began to teach Eliza Holmes the common rules of Arithmetic at the restless request of her parents who are anxious for me to learn her

14th July 1825

Recievd a letter from Lord Radstock in which his Lordship has made another troublesome request for his letters which he has written to me I cannot hunt them up at present.

13th July 1825

This day I am 30 (or 33 I am not certain which)* & my health was drunk at Milton by 2 very pretty girls Mrs P;—r & Mrs B—n who wishd I might treble the number but I did not drink it in return. Henderson has promised me a curious 'Everlasting Pea' a climbing Rose the Monkey Flower Feather Hyacinth & some chrysanthemums.

* Wrong both times. He was thirty-two.

12th July 1825

Went today to see Artis found him busy over his antiquitys & fossils he told me a curious thing about the manner in which the Golden-crested wren builds her nest he says it is the only English bird that suspends its nest which it hangs on 3 twigs of the fir branch & it glues the eggs at the bottom of the nest with the gum out of the tree to keep them from being blown out by the wind which often turns them upside-down without injury

11 July 1825

Started to Milton—a yery pleasant morning saw a bird that was an entire stranger to me about the size & shape of a green linnet with wings of a brown grey color & the crown of the head a deep black that extended downward no further than the eyes it had an old appearance & tho Artis looked thro Pennant he coud not find anything resembling it & believes it to be an unnoticed species of the linnet tribe.

10th July 1825

Recievd a letter from Hessey with the £10 which I wanted more then my Sallary came to—& with the News also that they have sold the London Mag.

9th July 1825

[A Helpston 'street' view 2008]

Mr Sharp* from London called on me.

* The ' Gentleman of the General Post Office', referred to in a letter of Clare's to John Taylor (17 Feb. 1821), Sharp helped Clare a great deal, later, in Clare's dealings with editors of Annuals.

7th July 1825

Wrote an answer to Hesseys letter of the 30th of June which contained a draft for my dividend & salary & enquired after the stoppage of the new poems also was forced to solicit them anew to send me £10 which I want to pay off my half-yearly accounts.

.

(An excerpt from Clare's letter)

To Hessey
Addressed: Messrs. Taylor and Hessey, 93 Fleet Stt London.
July. 7. 1825

my dear hessey

I recieved your letter of the 30 of June enclosing my sallary of £15 safe but in, my, letter to Taylor I told him that I shoud want £10 more then my half yearly dividend & therefore I was dissapointed in paying off my accounts as they exceed the present means... the 'proofs' have, grown into a standstill again I doubt, I keep expecting them every day lately & am expecting on I feel very 'anxious to see the end of it & have strong hopes that I shall get paid for the dedication or I shall be curst mad if I am dissapomted. I shall always be glad to correspond with you & if the alteration between you & Taylor* had made any difference in that much-less broken it up altogether I shoud have felt a great dissapointment but when business is out of the question you must not plead so often busy to get off with short letters for I like plenty of news & a sheetfull tho I am not in the situation to demand it for tho I am not busy I am not able to get on with a long letter for I am very dull headed & very ill not far short of being as bad as I was this time last year with you & I am so far from my old assistance that I feel in a delicate situation of telling my complaints on paper too often tho Dr D always kindly bids me write Kim how I am when ever I feel worse which I have done several times since I wrote him last but I wait & wait to see if I get better & somtimes feeling or fancying I am so I delay it a little further my family are all pretty well just now here comes the blank in my head & I /sit gaping to see what I can say further—I can find little or nothing so I must give my remembrances to Mrs Hessey & remain your debtor for a better letter next time

yours sincerely

JOHN CLARE

*The firm of Taylor and Hessgy was dissolved at midsummer 1825, Hessey retaining the retailing and Taylor the publishing. Taylor also sold the London Magazine to Henry Southern. '

3rd July 1825

[The Blue Bell Inn, Helpston]

Today is Helpstone Feast Wrestling & fighting the ploughmans fame is still kept up with the usual deter-mind spirit.

2nd July 1825

[Clare's Garden on Tuesday, 25th June 2013]

Recievd a letter from Hessey with the Dividend or half yearly payments of the money in the funds & Lord Spencers Annuity—they always send it in written drafts to be drawn on their bankers for what reason I cannot tell unless it is to make a safe carrying I wanted £10 more than my sallarys but they have not sent it this time & have only sent me the £15 which belongs me—Wrote to Mrs Emmerson & sent some verses in imitation of the old Poets to Hone's Everyday Book 'On Death '—The Baloon with Mr Green Miss

Stocks passed over our garden opposite the walnutt tree.