18May1864, His Funny Inability

HAGLEY, Wednesday, May 18th, 1864.
—Very sultry : no view. After church I went (upon Charger) with F. to see old Mrs. Billingham ; thence thro' Wychbury wood, all blue with hyacinths, down into the Stourbridge road by Sparry's hill. I went to see poor, poor Sophy Price, and was shockd and upset at the change in her, and her terrible sufferings. Repeated to her the words, "Come unto Me," etc., and cheered her a little ; but felt deeply how little able I shd be to bear such a cross, and how I am walking in sunshine amid so much sorrow and darkness. We sat on the lawn afterwards, and in the afternoon on the grass in Whistlewail ; and "sweet converse" lightened my heart again : but it is right it shd now and then be overshadowed. Fred read aloud to me, with fervour and feeling enough to counteract the slight disadvantage of his funny inability to pronounce either "r" or "th," Uncle Wm.'s startling speech in favour of extended suffrage ; also his (F.'s) own speech at Leeds last year, which delighted me more by its cleverness and eloquence than it scandalized me by its radicalism ! Some time after dinner with our heads out of window ; then whist. At. C. came. At an American anti-slavery bit in his speech, he trembled with excitement.