Sloperton,<1>
August
8h 1844
"Fig and his wife
are ever at strife."<2>
Though this is not the case in general between my Mrs Fig and me, it happens to be so just now, and you are the innocent cause – She insists that I have not answered acknowledged the receipt of your Solar Volume,<3> and my own impression is that I did,<4> and that, by the same token, I said something about Sol (as in duty bound) in that very note. Pray, settle this controversy for us without delay
yrs ever
T. Moore
As I have given you a taste of the Fig Controversy and you may not perhaps know the rest, I may add the concluding lines
These quarrels sure are out of season,
For what’s a jar without a raisin<5>
Notes:
1. Sloperton Cottage, Wiltshire, 1 mi E of Lacock: home of Thomas Moore, the Irish poet.
2. Figaro and his wife, from Thomas Holcroft's The Follies of a Day: a Comedy in Three Acts.
3. The Pencil of Nature - see Doc. No: 05028. He called it a 'solar volume' because its light was used to produce the photographic illustrations.
4. He was correct in his memory - see Doc. No: 05028.
5. This appears to be an intentionally ponderous description for a trivial domestic incident; the odd pairing of the two lines emphasises the improbability of the quarrel. We may be intended to hear “without a reason” beneath “without a raisin”.