Letter from Arthur Hallam, Somersby , to William Henry Brookfield, 1831 March 4 : autograph manuscript signed with initials.

Discussing his love for Emily Tennyson; saying "Dear Brooks, you encouraged me to write personal twaddle, & I have need of telling you how happy I have been, am & seem likely to be. I would you were happy too - for however I trust your friendship, & know besides that the mind takes a strange delight sometimes in the contemplation of moods more joyous than it's own, I cannot but feel that there must mingle some pain with your knowledge of my joy. All things hitherto I have found as well, better rather than I could have expected. Emily is not apparently in a state of health that need much disquiet me, and her spirits are, as I hoped, more animated by confidence and hope. Every shadow of - not doubt, but uneasiness, or what else may be a truer name for the feeling - that Alfred's language sometimes cast over my hopes, is destroyed in the full blaze of conscious delight with which I perceive that she loves me. And I - I love her madly : I feel as though I had never known love till now. The love of absence I had known, & searched its depths with patient care, but the love of presence methinks I knew not, for heretofore I was always timid & oppressed by the uncertain vision of futurity, and the warning narrowing form of the present. (I am writing arrant nonsense - never mind.) Now I feel above consequence, freed from destiny, at home with happiness. Never before have I known at one moment the luxury of actual delight, the reasonable assurance of it's prolongation through a happy life, & the peace, which arises out of a tranquil conscience to sanctify & establish all the rest. Not without the blessing of God has this matter been brought thus far : I humbly hope this is a sign of it's continuance : but I believe I speak my heart, when I say that eagerly as I love her, I truly desire to submit all my hopes & desires to the love of God - and that it would cost me little to lose the highest blessings of this life, would God but grant me 'soul to soul to grow deathless hers';" relating details of what he is doing and of the Tennyson family members; saying "Alfred is, as I expected, not apparently ill, nor can I persuade myself anything real is the matter. His spirits are better; his habits more regular; his condition altogether healthier. He is fully wound up to publication & having got 100£ from Mrs. Russell talks of going abroad;" relating news of Tennyson's brothers, Charles and Frederick and of Emily and Mary and their lessons; adding "Don't shew this letter to a soul, unless it be Tennant;" asking him to send news of himself and sending his love "...to Trench, and the few."