The Mary Hamilton Papers : Letter from Elizabeth Iremonger to Mary Hamilton

Iremonger, Elizabeth

The Mary Hamilton Papers

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Letter from Elizabeth Iremonger to Mary Hamilton, relating to her father’s fall and his continuing poor health. Iremonger reports that her father has not improved since the accident (see HAM/1/8/1/4). Although he is not as much in pain he has still not regained the use of his leg. He is in poor spirits and the family have brought in another surgeon who is from London to see him and he assures them that if Mr Iremonger was to be moved, then nothing further can be done for him. Time was the thing to depend upon. No bone has been broken but all the muscles and ligaments in the thigh need to be strengthened. He is now advised to take total rest up stairs and she is worried for the effect that this will have on his spirits. Mrs Iremonger is well herself but is anxious for Mr Iremonger.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The letter continues on John Dickenson. Iremonger writes on his health and on his taking ‘soap pills’. She writes on literature and thanks Hamilton for sending her a work and asks how it is possible that Dr Darwin is an ‘Infidel in Religion’ as Hamilton suggests yet he ‘should be an artist’. That one would ‘naturally conclude that the knowledge of the anatomy of the human frame, & of the anatomy of plant would both contribute to raise the mind to a creator [...] & yet Physicians to a Proverb are generally reckoned free-thinkers’.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The letter continues with news of friends and acquaintances including Lord Salisbury having to raise a fortune of £200,000 in order ‘to pursue his Estates in his family’.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dated at Whirwell [Andover].</p>