Susanna Wesley's Epworth Memoirs - Part 2 : I Hoped For Better Things
OUR new residence was a far grander place than our mean quarters at South Ormsby.
We were welcomed at the front door by a fresh complexioned young woman and a sturdy fellow, these two being the servants and they had made ready for our arrival.
We found cheerful fires in the kitchen and parlour and a meal was ready in the dining room.
Under its thatched roof our new home comprised five bays, all built of timber and plaster.
There were five gables and in our three storey house were seven good sized rooms, kitchen, parlour, dining room, buttery and three large bed chambers.
There was a pleasant walled garden on the village side and we had three acres of glebe.
Here my man was to be paid the handsome stipend of two hundred pounds per annum - nearly seven times more than his income at South Ormsby.
But I knew that these funds would be sorely needed for debt had always hung round our necks like a millstone, but I hoped for better things.
A fortnight later I very much had the feeling that my eighth child would soon make its way into this world.
I sent Betty off to fetch the midwife withour delay, this being my first confinement at Epworth.
I was not acquainted with the midwife and awaited her attentions with not a little apprehension.
I dearly hoped that the birth would not be too trying and testing and certainly not anything like the hard time I had had with Sammy at Holborm, an experience that still haunted me though now seven years past.
I did not want an ordeal like that again.
Then there had been much concern over Emmy's birth too when it seemed as if she had no desire to take on her mortality at the usual passage of time but kept me waiting and waiting.
I need not have concerned myself at all on this occasion. Betty was back with the midwide within an hour.
She was a large, beefy, yet nimble woman, with a very efficient, businesslike approach.
I was extremely grateful for her services and had nothing to complain about other than perhaps the coldness of her hands.
The shrill cry of the new arrival was recompense enough for what small discomfort I underwent and my caring and considerate nurse held the mewcomer aloft and enthusiastically exclaimed, 'Mrs. Wesley. You're the mother of another girl!'
Samuel came into the bedchamber to share in my happiness.
He seemed pleased enough, but he could not disguise the fact that he would rather have seen another lad in the family.
I smiled at him and assured him that God would bless us with another son in His own good time.
Five months later, Mehetabel (We always called her Hetty in the family) was a sweet, good natured little girl and Emmy was like a little mother to her.
She loved to rock Hetty's cradle of an evening and used to fuss and drool over her like a wet nurse.
At first, Sammy and Sukey regarded Hetty as something of an intrusion; someone who was stealing much of the attention they had formerly enjoyed.
However, this early rebellion was quite short-lived and they soon took to Hetty like the rest of us.
Next week in Part 3 - Difficult Times.
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Weather for Epworth
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
