Name/Title
Letter from Alexander Hamilton III to Mary Morris HamiltonEntry/Object ID
HHV 005.39Tags
Accessioned objectDescription
Letter from Alexander Hamilton III to Mary Morris HamiltonSubject
Garden, farm, grapery, trees, Iron Gate, Ledyard’s pocket compass, fruit trees, peach orchard, Irving still ill, Mail Packets, “Joses’s arrangements”, Albuquerque’s brother’s arrival, many English visitors to Spain wanting tours, attentiveness of Spanish servants, memory of WI visiting Nevis and Grandmama’s jokesSubject Person/Organization
Alexander Hamilton III, Mary Morris Hamilton, James Alexander Hamilton, Washington Irving, Carrol LivingstonSubject Place
* Untyped Subject Place
Madrid, Spain, Nevis, Pyrenees, Barcelona, Spain, Valencia, SpainCollection
Hamilton CollectionCataloged By
Tara R. IacobellisCategory
Documentary Artifact
Communication Artifacts
Acquisition
Source (if not Accessioned)
J.C. HamiltonNotes
J.C. Hamilton : Donor
Credit Line: Source: J. C. HamiltonLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Secondary Object Term
LetterNomenclature Primary Object Term
CorrespondenceNomenclature Sub-Class
Other DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsTranscription
Transcription
Saturday April 29th 1843
My dear Mama
The last package of letters was unusually wel: - / come when I found that it contained a second letter from / you. Its contents were of a rather sombre character; but as /
It was some satisfaction even to have the most unfavourable view / of the late events : I am resolved to expect favourable things form / the future, and not allow myself to be troubled by what is / past. _ As the trees come into leaf and the flowers begin to / appeared here, I am reminded of our beautiful Spring and / (making the necessary allowance for the difference of climate) / I follow your through all the stages; from the first appearance of the green grass to the full foliage of the woods : - Ask / the girls to tell me the particulars of all the growing things / connected with the farm; how the grapery promises? What / the condition of the young plantation at the Iron Gate; and / those trees which were planted behind the house under / my short reign? I feel a particular interest in the one maple at the angle of the path leading to the Garden: / he had a fine stock of roots + rootless, and I [a–ured?] / well from his general appearance.
It is now certain as far as one anticipate /
[END OF PAGE 1]
The events of a few months that I shall not see Nevis until / after an interval of two seasons growth; and altho’ I try / to moderate my expectations of the great improvement in the forests / near the house, I find myself involuntarily thinking of Ledyard’s / pocket compass and fancying the tall columns of Tintop Hall, “bosomed high in the tufted trees” [Milton quotation] _ Papa in his letter speaks of the fruit trees being trimmed and looking well - Does he mean the / peach orchard near the Garden? I supposed as usual they made / a great promise last spring which ended in nothing.
I have written to Grandpapa by this Courier thanking / him for his letter, which contained all the details about your / movements which it is so agreable to have. Mr. Irving often / alludes to his visits to Nevis while they were there last year; / and especially to Grandmama’s humorous disposition and love of a / joke : Uncle Geoffrey’s disorder, after a few days intermission / breaks out in a new quarter _ last week he was going on very / well, when suddenly the inflammation appears in his hands and / causes him great pain. = I am conspiring with Mrs. Storrow to / send him off to the Pyrennees, as soon as the season arrives and / he is in a condition to travel _ he has hitherto opposed the plan / but I hope will be prevailed upon : he talks of resuming his work / this summer; which considering the [^ direction] length and violence of this / attack, and that he is now past 60, would be very injudicious : /
[END OF PAGE 2]
Mad’e Albuquerque is our great friend and ally and naturally / takes very good interest in Mr. Irving who in turn is well pleases, when: / -ever he is able to drive out along the river with Mama, and her two / sweet little girls in his company _ As her friends write by the / Packets and “Jose’s” arrangements in regard to his letters are not of the / most expeditious nature, she looks to me for the latest news of / her family and yesterday told me that the first notice of her / brother’s arrival here was received through my letters :
We have been during this last month overrun by English : / never in the recollection of the oldest inhabitant since the was of / Independence has there been such an invitations _ Many introductions / have arrived for Mr. I, but as he was not in condition to honor them / [^ (they are handed)] over to me, and this with the business of the Legation has kept / me busy : All wish to see every thing; from the palace to / the prisons, and as there seems to be a great want of “Laquais de / place” [def. “Local servant”] the “are so happy if you can accompany them to some of / the most interesting objects” _ En revanche, I have pressing invi - / tations to visit this and that beautiful county; and before long / I shall [^ have] provided a warm reception in every part of England.
Should it be impossible to persuade Mr. Irving to / leave Madrid, I have almost decided to make a little tour / myself visiting the Baths of the Pyrennee and [^ then] crossing to / the Mediterranean return by Barcelona and Valencia : as / an additional inducement, Carroll Livingston has written to me /
[END OF PAGE 3]
That he spends the summer at Cauterets in the heart of the / Mountains and urges me to pass that way _ the idea of three / month of suffocation in this dry and dusty city is rather terrible / and as in the paint of expenditure it comes to the same thing / the temptation to run away for a little while is very strong.
In a few days the good Society of Madrid is off for / Aranjuez where it remains until the middle of June, at which / times the place becomes heal unhealthy from the exhalations of a / ruch and damp soil _ It is at this season a delightful spot, and / worthy of the preference which its royal Masters have always / shown for it over their other residences _
Saturday Ev’g 8 o’clock _ I must sign and seal for the Courier / goes shortly _ Mr. Irving is taking his nap _ The [Young Torogan?] and / I have separated after out tete a tete dinner (Mr. Irving dining in his / room). _ Jon would be amused at the ceremony of a meal for two / quiet young gentlemen _ to say [^ nothing] of an artist of great skill and his / aid de camp to prepare our dinner, we have two men and a boy / to look at us while we eat it : If I were more thoroughly my mother’s / son this would be very unpleasant but I am now accustomed to these / Spanish servants who won’t let you open a door or help yourself / in any possible way : the way they fly about whenever you approach / them is laughable : at the same time they are much attached and / show a degree of interest which ours never dream of _ I speak of our particular domestics in whom Mr. Irving has been very fortunate / I do not ask you to write - but you know how acceptable it /
[END OF PAGE 4]
Is to me to received _ at all events jog the girls particularly about Nevis and / the things [‘oment’?] it _ tho’ at the same time I must do them the justice to / acknowledge the delightful regularity of their / letters :
Good night my dearest Mama I / kiss you most affectionately
Your son
Alex. H.
Mrs. HamiltonTranscriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
EnglishOther Names and Numbers
Other Numbers
Number Type
Former NumberOther Number
H 873General Notes
Note Type
DepartmentNote
LibraryNote Type
Curatorial RemarksNote
Condition: GoodCreated By
CHannanCreate Date
March 4, 2024Updated By
cmonaco@hudsonvalley.orgUpdate Date
October 8, 2025
