{"admin":{"added":1592997946000,"created":1558455967000,"flag":"Standard Record","id":"object-110005528","indexed":1747159852012,"modified":1681744229000,"processed":1747159409017,"source":"adlib","stream":"fitz-online","uid":"adlib-object-110005528","uri":"https:\/\/data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk\/id\/object\/110005528","uuid":"25239701-4fcd-38ed-a004-5f4ab8880284","version":5},"agents":[{"@link":{"relation":"person","type":"reference"},"admin":{"id":"agent-192551","uid":"adlib-agent-192551","uuid":"b494e74a-20ec-3ce9-be5f-3267eaba4253"},"summary_title":"Seward, Anna"},{"@link":{"relation":"person","type":"reference"},"admin":{"id":"agent-199382","uid":"adlib-agent-199382","uuid":"25e26187-0b53-32b9-a747-81c8dd6129f9"},"summary_title":"Elliot, Mr"},{"@link":{"relation":"person","type":"reference"},"admin":{"id":"agent-116992","uid":"adlib-agent-116992","uuid":"ef3205d8-6794-3a6e-aae6-922ee555a7fb"},"summary_title":"Romney, George"},{"@link":{"relation":"person","type":"reference"},"admin":{"id":"agent-198502","uid":"adlib-agent-198502","uuid":"b67bd5fa-4f2a-302b-afaa-81f4c4f45ec8"},"summary_title":"Hayley, Eliza"},{"@link":{"relation":"person","type":"reference"},"admin":{"id":"agent-198972","uid":"adlib-agent-198972","uuid":"920da6ce-e8e0-3b0e-94df-aef3bd9411e9"},"summary_title":"Seward, Thomas"},{"@link":{"relation":"person","type":"reference"},"admin":{"id":"agent-198991","uid":"adlib-agent-198991","uuid":"6704da4c-9ab6-3716-8ebd-8a5d62c1c5ab"},"summary_title":"Saville, John"},{"@link":{"relation":"person","type":"reference"},"admin":{"id":"agent-60281","uid":"adlib-agent-60281","uuid":"eb950ea2-c7cf-31ca-86c5-6e18f0e39f92"},"summary_title":"Hayley, Thomas Alphonso"}],"content":{"description":[{"type":"content description","value":"Hayley writes responding to a \"kind accusation\" in Seward's previous letter \"I ought indeed to have requested you long ago to present my best acknowledgements to yr ingenious Friend Mr Elliot, for his elegant & flattering Compliment ... but if I attempt to enumerate all my Sins of Omission, I shall fill my paper with a bare Catalogue of my Offences, let me therefore intreat you to give mefull absolution for all my manifold Failings...\"\n\nHayley then writes how 5 carpenters have been working from \"5 in the morning till 8 at night\" for a month to construct his library. They have now finished, and he is expecting Seward's portrait to arrive from Romney imminently. He has ordered two busts: one of Pope and one of Prior to sit either side of the portrait, but has been sent a bust of Isaac Newton in error. He relates this to Seward in 8 stanzas of verse, in the course of which Newton claims that this is not a mistake, but down to \"the Laws of Attraction\":\n\n\"E'en on Canvass fair Seward has Virtue to draw\n  a Philosopher's Sould from the regions of Bliss:\nTo contemplate her Genius may charm Him, who saw\n  all the secret Sublime of the starry Abyss\n\nThen on me I beseech you this charge to confer!\n  of Seward's attendants I justly am one:\nThe fond Student of Light, may well wait upon Her,\n  Whose Fancy has all the rich Hues of the Sun -\n\nWhat say you? - does the Philosopher deserve the Honor of attending you or not by the gallantry of his Petition?\"\n\nHayley is concerned by Seward's reports of her \"Lameness - I am willing however to hope , that Time will assist you, where Medecine fails - perhaps you ought to have some Infirmity of this kind to being you nearer to a Level with the rest of the World...\""}]},"identifier":[{"accession_number":"Hayley\/XII\/42","primary":true,"type":"accession number","value":"Hayley\/XII\/42"},{"priref":"110005528","type":"priref","value":"110005528"},{"type":"uri","uri":"https:\/\/data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk\/id\/object\/110005528","value":"https:\/\/data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk\/id\/object\/110005528"}],"institutions":[{"@link":{"type":"reference"},"admin":{"id":"agent-149638","uid":"adlib-agent-149638","uuid":"7376d833-d0a7-3be0-916e-9c892b7a24d8"},"summary_title":"The Fitzwilliam Museum"}],"lifecycle":{"creation":[{"date":[{"earliest":1784,"latest":1784,"value":"1784-08-29"}],"maker":[{"@link":{"type":"reference"},"admin":{"id":"agent-198487","uid":"adlib-agent-198487","uuid":"4dbae6db-a725-3bfd-b34e-5d215b1a85e6"},"summary_title":"Hayley, William"}]}]},"measurements":{"dimensions":[{"value":"1 sheet, folded."}]},"summary_title":"William Hayley to Anna Seward: letter","title":[{"value":"William Hayley to Anna Seward: letter"}],"type":{"base":"object","type":"OBJECT"}}