To CHARLES CLARE
Northampton Asylum June 15 1847
My dear Boy
I am very happy to have a letter from you in your own hand writing and to see you write so well I am also glad that your Brothers and Sisters are all in good health and your Mother also besure to give my love to her but I am very sorry to hear the News about your Grandfather but we must all die — and I must [say] that Frederic and John had better not come unless they wish to do so for its a bad Place and I have fears that they may get trapped as prisoners as I hear some have been and I may not see them nor even hear they have been here I only tell them and leave them to do as they like best — its called the Bastile by some and not with [out] reasons — how does the Flowers get on I often wish to see them — and are the young Childern at home I understand there are some I have not yet seen kiss them and give my love to them and to your Mother and Brothers and Sisters and my respects To John Bellars and to your Neighbours on each side of you Mr and Mrs Sefton1 and Mr and Mrs Bellars and others who enquire after me I have never been ill since I have been here save a cold now and then of which I take no notice
Believe me my dear Boy
that I remain your Affectionate Father John Clare2
[N30, 14]
Northampton Asylum Feby 1848
My dear Son
I was very happy to recieve your Letter to hear you was all in good health — your Mother and Brothers and Sisters and as satisfactory tell you I am as well myself thank God for it
When I first came here I saw some of your little Brothers and Sisters little Boys and Girls with Red heads and others also — dirty and healthy which satisfied me very well some of them were with your own Sisters which left home before you was born — my dear Boy it does not signifye to a good boy or Girl how they are drest or of what colour the hair is when you are men you will know so — the warmth of our cloathing and not the show is all thats required — Pride is an unnessesary evil — I readily excuse your Brothers John and William for not coming here and in fact beg them not to trouble them selves at all about it unless it would give them pleasure to do so — I tell you all Brothers and Sisters to Love truth be Honest and fear Nobody — Amuse yourselves in reading and writeing — you all have the Bible and other suitable books — I would advise you to study Mathematics Astronomy Languages and Botany as the best amusements for instruction — Angling is a Recreation I was fond of myself and there is no harm in it if your taste is the same — for in those things I have often broke the Sabbath when a boy and perhaps it was better then keeping it in the Village hearing Scandal and learning tipplers frothy conversation — ‘The fields his study nature was his book’3 I seldom succeeded in Angling but I wrote or rather thought Poems made botanical arangements when a little Boy which men read and admired I loved nature and painted her both in words and colours better then many Poets and Painters and by Preseverance and attention you may all do the same — in my boyhood Solitude was the most talkative vision I met with Birds bees trees flowers all talked to me incessantly louder then the busy hum of men and who so wise as nature out of doors on the green grass by woods and streams under the beautifull sunny sky — daily communings with God and not a word spoken — the best books on Angling4 are by Piscator and Henry Phillips and Sir Humphry Davies though we must not over look the Father of Anglers Isaac Waltons ‘Art of Angling or the Contemplative Mans Recreation’ a choice book with all Fishermen and there is many others every way as good — I had hopes I should have seen the Garden and Flowers [before] now — but we cannot reckon on any thing before hand — the future is with providence and unknown till it comes to pass — Like old Muck Rake in the Pilgrims Progress I know nothing in other peoples business and less in whats to come or happen — ‘There is nothing like home’ give my love to Mr and Mrs Bellars and Mrs Sefton and remember me to all your neighbours who enquire after me particularly old John Green whose words came true and who was the only Person who persuaded me not to come here — you never mentioned your Grandfather give my love to him and believe my love to you all while I remain my dear Childern
your affectionate Father John Clare
[N30, 16]
To MARTHA CLARE (W.F. Knight’s hand)
Northampton Asylum July 19th 1848
My dear wife,
I have not written to you a long while but here I am in the Land of sodom where all the peoples brains are turned the wrong way I was glad to see John yesterday and should like to have gone back with him for I am very weary of being here — You might come and fetch me away for I think I have been here long enough I write this in a green meadow by the side of the river agen Stokes Mill [i.e. Spokes Mill] and I see three of your daughters and a Son now and then the confusion and roar of Mill dams and locks is sounding very pleasant while I write it and its a very beautiful Evening the meadows are greener than usual after the shower and the Rivers are brimful I think it is about two years since I was first sent up in this hell and not allowed to go out of the gates there never was a more disgraceful deception than this place It is the purgatoriall hell and French Bastile of English liberty Keep yourselves happy and comfortable and love one another by and bye I shall be with you perhaps before you expect me There has been a great storm here with Thunder and hail that did much damage to the glass in the Neighbourhood hailstones the size of Hens Eggs fell in some places Did your brother John come to Northborough or go to Barnoak his Uncle John Riddle came the next morning but did not stay. I thought I was coming home but I got cheated I see many of your little Brothers and Sisters at Northampton weary and dirty with hard work some of them with red hands but all in ruddy good health some of them are along with your Sister — Ruth Dakker who went from Helpstone a little girl Give my love to your Mother Grandfather Brothers and Sisters and believe me my dear Children
hers and yours very affectionately John Clare
[N20, ii, 103-4]
To CHARLES CLARE
Asylum near Northampton June 1st 1849
My dear Boy
I was very happy to have so long a Letter from you and to hear that you was all well and to hear that the Garden is prosperous and that You and Your Neighbours are all well and happy — Spring and Summer came in beautifull and the crops of Grass and corn are plentifull and give promise of Haytime and Harvest and Plenty
You told me to enquire of you about my old Neighbours and Labouring Companions of my single Days — There is William and John Close do they live at Helpstone yet and how are they — how is John Cobbler of Helpstone I worked with him when a single Man and Tom Clare we used to sit in the Fields over a Bottle of Beer and they used to Sing capital Songs and we were all merry together how is John and Mary Brown and their Daughter Lucy and John Woodward and his Wife and Daughter William Bradford and his Wife and A. and E. Nottingham and old John Nottingham and his Wife Sally Frisby5 and James Bain and old Otter the Fiddler and Charles Otter and John and Jim Crowson — most of us Boys and Girls together — there is also John and James Billings and Will Bloodworth and Tom and Sam Ward and John Fell and his Wife and John King and Mr and Miss Large and Mr and Miss Bellars on the Hill and Mr Bull and all enquiring Friends and Mrs Crowson many are dead and some forgotten and John and Mrs Bullimore6 the Village Schoolmistress and Robin Oliver and his wife and Will Dolby and his Wife and Henry Snow and his Wife and Frank Jackson and his Wife Richard Royce and his Wife and Daughter and Jonothan Burbidge and his Wife and Daughter and all I have forgotten remember me kindly to — for I have been along while in Hell — how is Ben Price and Will Dolby for I liked Helpstone well — and all that lived in it and about it for it was my Native Place — how is Thomas Porter of Ashton he used to be my Companion in my single Days when we loved Books and Flowers together and how is Charles Welsh of Bainton — my fondness for Flowers made me acquainted with him which has wore many Years and his Wife too and Daughters for they are all old Friends — Give my Love to your Brothers and Sis[ters] and Grand Father and Neighbours and ever [believe] me
your Affectionate Father John Clare
[N30, 22]
[1849-50]
My dear Wife
I have wrote some few times to enquire about yourself and the Family and thought about yourself and them a thousand othe[r] things that I use to think of the childern — Freddy when I led him by the hand in his childhood — I see him now in his little pink frock — sealskin cap — and gold band — with his little face as round as a apple and as red as a rose — and now a stout Man both strangers to each other the father a prisoner under a bad government so bad in fact that its no government at all but prison disapline where every body is forced to act contrary to their own wishes ‘the mother against the daughter in law and the daughter against the mother in law’7 ‘the father against the son and the son against the Father’ — in fact I am in Prison because I wont leave my family and tell a falshood — this is the English Bastile a government Prison where harmless people are trapped and tortured till they die — English priestcraft and english bondage more severe then the slavery of Egypt and Affrica while the son is tyed up in his manhood from all the best thoughts of his childhood bye lying and falshood — not dareing to show love or remembrance for Home or home affections living in the world as a prison estranged from all his friends still Truth is the best companion for it levels all distinctions in pretentions Truth wether it enters the Ring or the Hall of Justice shows a plain Man that is not to be scared at shadows or big words full of fury and meaning nothing when done and said with them truth is truth and no further and the rights of man — age of reason and common sense are sentences full of meaning and the best comment of its truth is themselves — an honest man makes priestcraft an odious lyar and coward and a filthy disgrace to Christianity — that coward I hate and detest — the Revelations has a placard in capitals about ‘The Whore of Babylon and the mother of Harlots’8 does it mean Priestcraft I think it must — this rubbish of cant must soon die — like all others — I began a letter and ended a Sermon — and the paper too
I am dear Wife yours ever John Clare
[N19, R129-R127]
The Humbug called the ‘Ring or the ‘Fancy9 owes Me as Forfiets £1800 and I have been 9 Years without a Shilling and in this Prison still
Ben Caunt10
[N10, 90]
Jany 23rd 1850 Saw my Wife Patty in a Dream she looked well — with little Billy and an Infant carried by someone else all looked healthy and happy — John Clare
[N10, inside back cover]
To SOPHIA CLARE (copy)
Northampton 8th Octr 1852
My dear daughter Sophy,
I am very glad to hear from you, and that the family are in good health — I hope that Charles11 will be soon better, and that he will be very soon able to write me a letter, and give me the same good news of my family which will be always dear to me I am happy at all times to hear of their welfare
I am very happy to inform, that I also am in very good health, and I think that I never have felt myself in better
You must not suppose me to be all ailing, because this is not in my own writing but a Gentleman who is here is very fond of writing, and therefore I have given him a copy and thank him for writing for me — You will understand it is only, that I do not write so fluent and quick as he does that I have asked him to write for me
Give my love to your Grandfather your Mother and brothers and sisters and believe me My dear Sophy
Your affectionate Father John Clare
(Clare’s signature)
[N30, 36]
To JAMES HIPKINS12
March 8th 1860
Dear Sir
I am in a Mad house and quite forget your Name or who you are you must excuse me for I have nothing to commu[n]icate or tell of and why I am shut up I dont know I have nothing to say so I conclude13
yours respectfully John Clare
[N40]14
To his WIFE and CHILDREN
March 9th 1860
My dear Wife and Childern
I answer my dear Daughters Sophias Letter as soon as I can I am not quite so well to write as I have been so I delayed it a few days In hopes that I might be more able to answer your enquiries how is your Mother Grandfather and Grandmother and Aunt Sophy and Mary — I want nothing from Home to come here — I shall be glad to see You when you come — God bless you all Northboro is a quiet place — give my Love to my neighbours and Friends and to your Grandfather and grandmother and to all enquiring Friends, and believe me ever your affectionate
Father John Clare
[N422]
1 Mr and Mrs Sefton: Samuel Sefton married Clare’s first daughter Anna Maria, in 1841, and after her death his second daughter, Eliza Louisa, in 1845.
2 William F. Knight, Steward at the Asylum 1845–50, wrote on the back of this letter: ‘Your Father in this letter tells you that you may not see him if you come — I know not why he should say this, for he is allowed to see any one he wishes — and he is at liberty to walk out for his pleasure — when he thinks proper — he has just left my room to walk in the garden — and if any of you think well to come and see him, I am sure he will be pleased to see you — I expect a friend of his from Shefford [Thomas Inskip] to come and see him in a day or two — he is quite well’.
3 Quotation from Bloomfield’s The Farmer’s Boy, ‘Spring’, 1.32.
4 books on angling: Piscator, The Practical Angler (1842); Henry Phillips, The True Enjoyment of Angling (1843); Sir Humphrey Davy, Salmonia, or Days of Fly Fishing (1827).
5 Sally Frisby: This name occurs in N19, 46.
6 Mrs Bullimore: At the age of five Clare attended a local dame-school run by Mrs Bullimore.
7 Cf. Matthew 10:35, Luke 12:53.
8 Revelations 17:5.
9 the ‘Fancy: The spectators at the Fives Court, the subject of J.H. Reynolds The Fancy (1820); Powell, item 342.
10 Ben Caunt: A famous prize-fighter who later kept a London public house.
11 Charles: Charles Clare, Clare’s youngest son and most regular correspondent during these years, died later in 1852, aged nineteen.
12 James Hipkins: Hipkins, of 2 Smith Square, Westminster, wrote to Dr Edwin Wing enquiring about Clare. Wing replied: ‘I reply to yours of the 6th inst respecting John Clare I beg to inform you he is still living and in good bodily health though very feeble in mind and still the subject of many mental delusions. I endeavoured to induce him to write a few lines to you and to make an effort at poetic composition but I could get nothing from him but the few words I enclose.’
13 conclude: Clare has amended ‘remain’ to ‘conclude’.
14 Also included is a slip containing some 1826 ‘Memorandums’ by Clare. One reads: ‘I intend to send Montgomery a set of my Poems when the Calender is out in acknowlegement of his kindness — A Set also to B. of Peterbro — and Rip: and Cowen’. William Cowen (1797–1861), painter of Irish landscape, made a drawing of Clare’s cottage which was engraved in the 1823 reprint of The Village Minstrel.
15 This has only recently come to light as Clare’s last letter. It is not published in Letters, though Storey concludes with a letter from Sophia Clare to her father dated March 15th. After a gap of more than eleven years Clare manages to write three brief letters on successive days (see Letters, pp.682-3 for the letter dated March 7th).