Transcription
CATALOG NUMBER HF 3043 G
OBJECT NAME Letter
DATE July 26, 1836
AUTHOR Eliza Storrs (Oyster Ponds)
RECIPIENT Emma Nicholas
MEDIUM Paper, ink
PEOPLE Mary, family of Judge Smith (of New Haven who died in
Washington last year), Mr. Onderdonk the Bishop’s Uncle, Mr Sharpe, Alderman Furman (Yeat’s grandfather), also his brother about the same age, Mr Charles Clinton, his wife, their daughter, Corinna, Henry Randolph Storrs, Latham
PLACES East Hampton, the Latham’s, Belvidere, Oyster Ponds, Schooley’s
Mountain, post office, steam boat
EVENTS return to Oyster Pond after two years, found her poetry on the
wall, good description, Emma will move to Belvidere soon,
47th
Addressed to Miss Emma Nicholas
Care of Judge Hoffman
New York
Handwritten in pencil: passage due $6.96
Oyster Ponds July 26th, 1836
I have not forgotten my promise / my dear Emma to write to you as soon as this delightful / place was reached and my ladyship sufficiently at home in / my resting place to compose my mind after another day / in steam boats. As we expected when I saw you last, we / left New York on Saturday morning in the New Haven boat / and there we found a boat coming directly to this point, / we arrived about six finding every thing as it was two / years ago, with the exception of a large addition to the / house which proves an addition to the comfort of it also. / I have the same room I occupied before, and found the / poetry still on the wall which was written then. But / Mary is not here and I miss her very much. Oh that you / were here, I have wished for you a thousand times. You / would be so happy here . Every thing about the house is / beautiful. It is very retired but not lonely. The company / at present consists of the family of Judge Smith of New / Haven who died in Washington last winter, a family from / Sag Harbor and one or two others. There is nothing in the /
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shape of young gentlemen here but one about 16 which is rather / too young. There are four very old gentlemen here Mr / Onderdonk the Bishop’s Uncle, Mr Sharpe and Alderman / Furman Yeat’s grandfather, also his brother about the same / age. They form quite a venerable assemblage. As you / know my penchant for married gentlemen you will not / be astonished when I tell you that I have found another / who is in some respects my beau ideal. It is Mr Charles / Clinton of New York. He has gone with his family to / East Hampton. I watched him all the time on the boat / He is very find looking, looks like a man, rather / large, not one of the Lilliputian kind and very agreable [sic]. / His wife is a lovely woman. I was delighted with them & / they have one of the sweetest little girls I ever saw.
The amusements here are of the / most quiet kind imaginable. It is not stupid, nor our / manner of living as tame as that Corinna gives of her paternal / home. The walk and talk and sew and read, and play the / graces, and bathe which is delightful here, the water is / as clear as crystal, there are stones and crabs which / sometimes cause us to feel, or rather our feet to feel, but / that is nothing shoes are a protection. The house is / surrounded with birds (which are now singing sweetly) / cows, sheep, houses, in short it is a complete country place / exactly what I like and I think you would be pleased too. / To day [sic] it rains and we shall probably neither walk nor ride / There is a waggon [sic] here that can accommodate twelve. / We shall probably remain here two weeks perhaps, and then go /
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To East Hampton for a short time and other places and / probably return again to this place. Papa is delighted with / the fishing and shooting; he looks much better now than / when we left home, and that consideration alone is / enough to make any place pleasant to me. When you / write, do write a long letter and direct it to Oyster Ponds / Post Office, Suffolk County, Long Island, you can also put / at Latham’s on it and there can be no mistake, and do / write as soon as you receive this, that I may hear from / you soon. I shall send this be a private opportunity for / I think you will receive it sooner than through the Post / Office. Tell me what you are doing and every thing. A / letter will be so delightful, it will be like sunshine. You / don’t know how pleased I shall be. You will know the / feeling though when you are in Belvidere. This place / seems as far from the world as that, there is so little / communication with any place, and no houses within / three miles of any consequence. The Steam Boat is / coming this afternoon and perhaps we shall have some / one added to our little circle. It would be too pleasant / if you were here and sometimes I think it is as well / that you are not, it would be only the more painful / when you go to the west, and I should miss you so / much then. However I would not give up the pleasure / of having you now if it was a possible thing for / the sake of being spared a future pain. It is no use to / think about it any more and I will bid all these /
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Thoughts depart. I hope the pleasant hours we are to / spend together are not [^all] past. The future seems smiling / and the prospect bright notwithstanding the clouds / so we will hope, hope, and let Fear and all her /
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Disagreeable train fly away. Hope is indeed the rainbow / of life. I shall write soon to Mary and I hope to hear / from her occasionally. Tell me if you have seen her / since I left home. I don’t think they will find / Schooley’s Mountain more delightful than Oyster Ponds. / Again I will ask not to delay writing one day if you / can possibly write for I am anxious to hear from you / and shall wait with much impatience for a letter.
Yours truly
Eliza StorrsTranscriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
