A WARM COURTSHIP.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 589, 9 May 1876, Page 3

A WARM COURTSHIP.

(Otago Daily Times.)

It rarely happens in New Zealand that the public is entertained with an account of the love passages accompanying a courtship. One recent case certainly did create a good deal of attention, but the prosaic character of the whole affair must have proved a great disappointment to those who revel in the gushing phrases of ardent lovers. A breach of promise case tried in Edinburgh the other day, has, however, shown that whatever changes may have taken place of late years in the habits, manners, and customs of our Scottish friends, their wooings are still carried on with as much passion and warmth of expression as were ever manifested in the days when Burns tried to prove by his ballads that Scotland was not behind other nations in the art of love making. A young man, 36 years of age, Mr John Henry Cooper, a brewer, residing at Mayfield House, Newington, Edinburgh, became acquainted about two years ago, with a Miss Finlay, who was also about 36 years of age, daughter of a farmer at The Boss, Kirkcudbright, and not very long after the introduction they began to correspond in the most loving and endearing terms. In September, 1875, the defender visited Miss Finlay at her mother’s house in Kirkcudbrightshire, and then made her an offer of marriage, which was accepted. The engagement was approved by Miss Finlay’s relatives, and Mr Cooper’s mother, who invited the young lady to visit her at her home in Mayfield, Edinburgh. Eventually the pursuer went to London to purchase the wedding trousseau, and while there the marriage was fixed for 29th December. On 6th November, while Miss Cooper was still in London, she received a letter from the defender, intimating that he could not bring himself to marry her, and breaking off the engagement. Miss Finlay then decided upon laying her case before a jury, from whom she claimed a verdict of £2500. In stating the case for the pursuer, her counsel, Mr Macdonald, entered at length into correspondence which had passed. We can only find room, however, for a few extracts, but these, we think, will he quite sufficient to prove the ardent nature of the courtship. Writing to the defender, the pursuer addresses him :—My own dear Harry, I feel proud and happy in having your love. The highest honor a woman can have in this life is the love of an honest heart like yours, my darling. lam afraid you will accuse me of being foolishly fond. Remember my love has been bottled up all these long years, without a legitimate outlet.—(Laughter). The letter concludes, “My own darling, your own loving Sue.” On the 9th September the defender wrote, “ I was delighted to have your letter this morning, a letter breathing warm, honest love, I have read it over several times to-day, and each time it seems more loving. I will try to make yon a glad wife in a happy home, now that you have given yourself to me so hopefully and trustfully In my eyes

your love will never be a foolish foulness. , . . . They will miss you at The Koss, but their loss is my gain, and as the ministers say, * duty calls you to a wider sphere.’ ” —(Laughter.) Speaking of the time when they will be married she says, ‘ * When you come home tired I will fly to meet you at the door, and give yon a long loving kiss and embrace, which will relieve you. And then, when you come into the room and lay your head in my lap on the sofa, I will look down in your eyes and smooth your temples with my hand. ... I like to look into those eyes ; they are honest eyes, and never make me blush.” Then comes a letter from the defender, on the 12th—“My own darling Lily,” he calls her, “how do you like the new pet name I cannot but love you more and more in reading such warm, loving words, my bonny queen. . . Do you know I quite wonder at your love — as young and fresh as a girl’s, only so much stronger. ... lam so glad that your heart has so much vitality. I love you with all my heart. . • . Love begets love, and trust begets trusts ; both grow by what they feed on. ... I will tell you all my affairs, and never keep back anything from you. I never had, and never will have, any secrets from my wife.” On 14th he writes—“My dearest Lily, I feel your letters are very nice; they are full of honest and warm love. What more can man want ?

. . . If you praise me in your letters too much I think you will spoil me by loving me too much. ... I give you all my

self, and in return take you all in all. . . Neither of us could be satisfied with only a share.” She writes on the same day—“ My

darling Harry, if you go on writing letters like this I will not be answerable for the consequences. As it is, I think Igo off my head and become like Niobe, dissolved in tears. . . Lily is the dearest, sweetest name that ever woman had, because given to me by ycu. I shall always be your own Lily. . . Do not laugh at me when I say I am afraid that we are loving each other too much. I think it is too much happiness to enjoy here. ... I feel the force of the words that love is heaven.” In the next letter (evidently written on a Sunday) he says : —“ I am so glad you are so warm blooded and passionate ; only all the warmth and passion must be kept for our two selves. . . . . You nrnst not build too high castles as to your future husband being an embodiment of all the virtues under the sun. You must know all mankind are very human, and there is a strong family likeness running through them. . , . You must not make your ideal too perfect, or you will be considerably disappointed. Ido not want to tone down your frankness or fresh ness, but I want to put your hopes on a sure foundation. . . lam very proud of having won your heart and your head also, but your heart must not altogether put your head out of Court—(Laughter.) Your head is full of hard, good sense, which is more than can be said for the majority of women (Great laughter.) In answer to that on the 20th Decembee she calls defender “ the desire of my eyes,” and long to “ fling my arms round your neck, look into your eyes, and see there the wonderful love you have for me ; to press you to my lips and to give you a warm, loving kiss. . . . My

heart’s dearest love, yon cannot long for my home-coming more than I do, . . . You

have a paternal way with you—(Laughter.) There is a strong mixture of the boy and of the elderly gentleman—(Laughter.) I mean as a schoolboy when you are happy, and when serious the soft manner of the elderly man.— (Laughter.) I would not have you, if I could, one bit different than what you are. ” In another letter she says that perfect love casteth out fear, and that though naturally wild, constant companionship with defender would tend to tame her down. On the 22nd, she writes : —“ Our courtship has been far too short, but we must make up for it when we get married I thought my faith stronger than it is, I Said I would not be disappointed if I did not hear from you for a week, but I find I cannot exist quite so long without a letter. If you were only to send a post card with the word s turned wrong side, to say I was your own darling Lily, that would be enough (Laughter.) I never could go in for ‘love me little love me long ’ kind of thing. The saddest of all failures in a matrimonial bankruptcy. (Laughter.) lam afraid there are too many of them in the world. ” After a good many letters had passed between them Miss Finlay visited Edinburgh, and upon her return home she wrote to her lover to say that “ her visit to Edinburgh had taken the tinsel off their love. He responded by telling her that “the best thing would be to rub off all the love tinsel.” In reply she confesses she should have called it bloom, not tinsel. He agrees with her that tinsel was an infelicitous expression. “ The bloom,” he adds, “does not stand a touch, but the loss of it does not impair the flavour in the least.” Soon after, the prisoner received a letter from Mr Cooper, suggesting a postponement of the marriage for reasons he felt himself at the time unable to assign. She complained then of the coldness of his communications ; but still, unwilling to give him up, she addressed him as “ her heart’s dearest earthly treasure,” and told him that the suspense was killing her. The correspondence on the part of the defendant closed by his sending Miss Finlay a letter of a very business-like kind, in which he admitted that at the outset the strength of her passion had fairly carried him off the balance of his judgment. He intimated that he would never cease to regard her with feelings of respect and esteem, but that as love did not exist, it would be necessary that the engagement should be broken off. He finished up by offering to free her of every expense that had been incurred by her in the prospect of their marriage. Before the case went to trial, the defender made a judicial tender of £SOO, and as this was the amount which the jury awarded Miss Finlay as a slave for her wounded feelings, it is to be presumed that she would have to pay her own costs at least. Mr Cooper, we believe, was at one time in Otago, but whether he learned to write love letters here or not we cannot say.