We took leave of our kind host and his family, gratefully impressed
with the simplicity and sincere cordiality of our reception. There are
many different names for goodness in this world; but, after all, true
brotherly kindness and charity is much the same thing, whether it show
itself by a Quaker's fireside or in an archbishop's palace.
Leaving the archbishop's I went to Richmond's again, where I was most
agreeably entertained for an hour or two. We have an engagement for
Playford Hall to-morrow, and we breakfast with Joseph Sturge: it being
now the time of the yearly meeting of the Friends, he and his family
are in town.
LETTER XXIV.
MY DEAR S.: -
The next morning C. and I took the cars to go into the country, to
Playford Hall. "And what's Playford Hall?" you say. "And why did you
go to see it?" As to what it is, here is a reasonably good picture
before you. As to why, it was for many years the residence of Thomas
Clarkson, and is now the residence of his venerable widow and her
family.
Playford Hall is considered, I think, the oldest of the fortified
houses in England, and is, I am told, the only one that has water in
the moat. The water which is seen girdling the wall, in the picture,
is the moat:
