The Cotman Collection | 101

The Cotman Letters 1835-1837

Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Reference Number: SDK/1/3/1/4
Page: p 189 recto


  • Description

    Letter from J.S. Cotman to Walter, praising him for his conduct and giving advice and encouragement.

    Handwritten transcript

    Date: 21 Dec 1836

  • Transcription

    {handwritten transcript}
    To [[W.H.]] F.W.Cotman

    Dec. 21 1836

    42 Hunter St.
    Brunswick Square

    My dearest Walter,

    The pleasure your letter of the 16th inst. would give me you must have anticipated. I am certain of it, [even?] from the length & good matter it contained. Indeed, my dear Son, it is the happiest letter I have ever received from you. I mean it is a letter that has given me the greatest pleasure I ever received from you in my life, as it fully established you in the good opinion I ever hoped to have of you. Your conduct has been exemplary ever since you left home & your diprivations & anxieties are now fast drawing to a close by that steady & unerring rectitude of you conduct. That is the only road to it. Through good or ill-fortune the voice of a good conscience speaking loudly within, saying ‘I have acted uprightly, come what may, and no disgrace can fall upon me or my anxious parents, come what may’.
    You have left the home, to seek your fortune, of your father who has carried on the integrity of his house from his father & grandfather, for the last hundred years. No small boast. It is your duty not to blemish it and must be your pride to keep it up – and that of your interest, too. A good name sticks by you quite as much as an evil one, for there are men who will enquire & require it. You have most fortunately found such a man in your Master. It is idle in me to say ‘Appreciate him and his’. I know you do – and then both him, his & I am quite satisfied. This will warm you much more than a flannel waistcoat in every season you will have to encounter. It is the very soul of a merchant. Look but to the tale in the pictures of Hogarth – The Idle & Industrious Apprentice. It can hardly be said to be exagerated. For in no branch of life is integrity of conduct looked for more than in the character of a British Merchant. It is his sine qua non, his everything. Open & candid must be your every action & you must act as if you were made of glass that your master may – should he but look at you or into your actions – see easilly your every movement. It will, it shall it ever [[will be]] was & ever shall be the only way to win the proper opinion of the judicious & noble master. Do you never fear the result. Try to do everything

Letter from J.S. Cotman to Walter, praising him for his conduct and giving advice and encouragement.