George Richmond. Elizabeth Gaskell. chalk, 1851 (detail)
December 14, 1860
To: Edward E. Hale, a prominent Boston Unitarian minister and friends with the Gaskell family
My dear Mr. Hale,
…You left us… [with] Mr. Gaskell just going to have a new colleague, a Mr. Drummond, aged 25, at whose ordination you were to have assisted, only you didn’t.
Well! Mr. Drummond came; a small slight young man, with a lovely complexions, beautiful, steady-looking eyes, and an expression of goodness such as I have seldom seen equaled. He stayed with us till he could meet with lodgings; he was shy & reserved in society, but when he got into the pulpit he became bold and outspoken from the very fervor of his convictions; and yet he is so tender as well s so earnest in his religious feelings.
I think him very sweet and good in private life, but rather feel as if I were his mother, & might advise and order him about; but in the pulpit I feel like a child learning from a disciple.
