continues in me, if Providence see it fit. But I may not be so much wanting to myself nor family as not to have some equality of consideration towards it.[1]
I have two young Daughters to bestow, if God give them life and opportunity. According to your Offer, I have nothing for them; nothing at all in hand. If my Son die, what consideration is there to me? And yet a jointure parted with “on my side.” If she die, there is “on your side” little “money parted with”; “even” if you have an heir male, “there is” but 3,000l., “and” without time ascertained.[2]
As for these things “indeed,” I doubt not but, by one interview between you and myself, they might be accommodated to mutual satisfaction; and in relation to these, I think we should hardly part, or have many words, so much do I desire a closure with you. But to deal freely with you: the settling of the Manor of Hursley, as you propose it, sticks so much with me, that either I understand you not, or else it much fails my expectation. As you offer it, there is 400l. per annum charged upon it. For the 150l. to your Lady, for her life, as a jointure, I stick not at that: but the 250l. per annum until Mr. Ludlow’s Lease expires, the tenor whereof I know not, and so much of the 250l. per annum as exceeds that Lease in annual value for some time also after the expiration of the said Lease,[3]—give such a maim to the Manor of Hursley as indeed renders the rest of the Manor very inconsiderable.
Sir, if I concur to deny myself in point of present moneys, as also in the other things mentioned, as aforesaid, I may and do expect the Manor of Hursley to be settled without any charge upon it, after your decease, saving your Lady’s jointure of
- ↑ ‘it’ is not the family, but the match.
- ↑ See Letter lvi. vol. i. p. 306.
- ↑ ‘Ludlow’s Lease,’ etc. is not very plain. The ‘tenor of Ludlow’s Lease’ is still less known to us than it was to the Lieutenant-General! Thus much is clear: 250 + 150 = 400 pounds are to be paid off Hursley Manor by Richard and his Wife, which gives a sad ‘maim’ to it. When Ludlow’s Lease falls in, there will be some increment of benefit to the Manor; but we are to derive no advantage from that, we are still to pay the surplus ‘for some time after.’
