Assorted George Letters

Writer: Lord Palmerston

Date: 1st October 1838

Recipient: Josiah George

                      Windsor 1 Oct 1838

Dear Sir,
          I have to acknowledge
the Receipt of your letter of the
22d suggesting that some Place
of amusement should be procured
& appropriated for the use of the
lads & boys of the Town of Romsey,
to be placed under proper Regulation.
I am very friendly to the notion
of having close to every Town
some open space for the Recreation
of its Inhabitants, and I should
be glad to have a further development
of your ideas with respect to the
proposed playing ground: at
the same time one cannot but
foresee that there might be
many objections & difficulties of
detail which might interfere
with such an arrangement
considering that most children
old enough to go to such a spot
of Ground, are probably Employed
by their Parents in some useful
occupation, or in receiving instruction,
and that it would not be easy
to subject the children of a
Town to the same kind of
Regulations which are applied
to the Boys of a school - I do
not immediately recollect any
piece of ground belonging to me
that would from its local situation
be well adapted to the
Purpose.
                 Dear Sir,
                  yrs faithfully,
                   Palmerston
Mr. J. George
I should fear that the Tenant
of adjoining lands would find
some difficulty in confining the
sports to the allotted space.

Notes:

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC (1784–1865) served as Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and twice as Prime Minister. He was in government office almost continuously from 1807 until his death in 1865, beginning his parliamentary career as a Tory, switching to the Whigs in 1830, and concluding it as the first Prime Minister of the newly-formed Liberal Party from 1859. He was Foreign Secretary when he wrote the letter above.

Palmerston's country estate was Broadlands, on the edge of Romsey, and he was probably acquainted with Josiah George.

Further reading:
Wikipedia article on Palmerston

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