Transcription
Saturday morning May 6th 1843
My dearest M:
I cannot let the Courier set off this Evening / without a few words for you to thank you for the nice letters / I have had, and some of which I have not yet acknowledged, / and for those which are to come : you must give me chinese / pictures of every growing and creeping thing about Nevis, and / especially the flowers and fruit trees, whether near the house in / the grapery or the Garden.
I have been during a part of the morning, office / hunting! And for whom do you suppose? _ not myself certainly : / for the husband of the “plump little Dolores”, Maud Molina, / Tia Antonia’s nephew _ hearing that his old friend of the / Alhambra was in a high place at Madrid, he wrote some time since / to say that he was afraid of losing his post, as Doctor to a military / station; which produced him 25 cents (5 reals) a day! _ Mr. Irving / being unwell, I made the application to the high authority and was / assured that no change should be made _ afterward however an / inferior authority diminished the pay 5 cents per diem, and / this induced [^ Molina] to make the journey to see his friend, and recover the / former pay [Z–?] _ I believe I have succeeded in placing him on a / better situation then before, so that he may return to his wife with /
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A happy heart _ Think of the magnificent salary of 80 dollars a year! / and yet upon this with something more from his profession he has maintained / a family : The “weekly bills” must be small affairs in such a menage :
We have within two day chilly, overcast weather, not very / favourable to Uncle Geoffrey’s advancement, but making the Country around / us unusually green and bright : in general they have no spring : at / one jump the Winter passes into summer, and the leaves are hardly out, / before they are scorched and seared by a burning sun : _ the roses and all / flowers are exquisite; and I was called a few moments ago to see a bouquet / from Made Scott to Mr. I. which would have done honor to “Locust Grove”. / Already departures are making and in about a month we shall lose / the cream of the good society ) Mad’e Albuqueque will probably be off to / the Sun Coast at Saint Sebastian _ The Scotts go to Paris in two or three / weeks _ Mr. Astor shortly after to Andalusia; and then they say to England / to be replaced by Lord Mahon; Mrs. O’Shea our Banker’s wife, a very / pleasant sory of woman who entertains as good deal, and so on to the / and of the Chapter _ With respect to “notre autōōr” I have made / up my mind that he must depart at least for a time to a more / bracing, invigorating air and shall not leave him at test until he screws / up his courage to this resolution _
Young Master Brevoort has written to me from marseilles / just before leaving in a steamer for Naples : delighted of course by con : - / trast with every thing in France, which after one is accustomed to Spanish / Inns and discomforts, appears an Earthly paradise : He has met the famous / traveller Sir Joseph Laffan, and they went along very lovingly together if you /
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See any of his family tell them that on the 3d May he was to leave Naples / in a steamer on an excursion round Sicily to return on the 24th _
Our “crisis” still continues and we begin [^ to be] very tired of the same, / in the opinion of the learned, unless something is done before long there / will be all sorts of trouble for which the materials are scattered every where / in great abundance _ in the interval the papares are scandalized at the / constant recurrence recurrence of robberies and assassinations which now / that I’m used to them, do not attract my attention they is somethi are / unusually daring _ last week for instance the Estafette of the French / Embassy with all our precious letters, red’d notice at the Post about 8 miles / from Madrid that he would be attacked and accordingly reinforced his Escort. / Sure enough 16 mean well armed gave him battle, and after a sharp / skirmish were beaten off _ he was not so fortunate on about 100 miles [page cut] on when ]^ the guard] he was overpowered, the Courier rifled of every thing and the co-[page cut] / pondence only escaped from the appearance of a Diligence coming toward the / scene of action = A Spanish paper having mentioned that a party of / 8 men armed with blunderbusses (trabucos) had stopped at 7 or 8 in the / Ev’g a lady + gentleman in the Plaza or la Constitucion (as much a / thoroughfare as Broadway before the Astor House) Galignani published the / account and improved it by saying that the Guns were the real culprits or as / he had it, “a party of armed trabucos” _
Saturday evening: The weather is dreadful, showers, wind and wild clouds / one of those days which at Nevis would have tempted me out in stout / boots and great coats to ramble about : _ Here we stay in the house and / read until we yawn a little and [^ pause and] then read again _ Mr. Irving goes / to bed as soon as he returns from his ride; and I think I shall follow / his example to morrow, and play the malade imaginaire for a day or -
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Two_
Two days [^ ago] I visited (first time) a magnificent collection of coins / and medals _ probably the first in the world _ there are 150.000; and one / collection, perfect of the Roman Emperors comprising between one + two thous - / and Gold coins : the only complete one in the world : _ It was interesting to see the / coins of Alex: + his father Philip who made such good or bad use of them : / the oldest are some coins of the Celtic Cerians, who occupied this country long before / the roman invasion _ the legends are not yet decyphered, and have puzzled anti - /
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-quarians _ I was very much surprised to learn from the Director, that roman / copper coins to the value of a million Dollars were yet in circulation in Spain, / they are commonly called “ochavos” worth about a farthing and so numerous / that you may acquire them at any time by changing a quarter of a Dollar _ / I enriched this otherwise perfect collection with some Yankee silver coins / Dimes quarters +c, which were put in my hands on board the good St / Nicholas on our way down the Bay and in so doing did violence to my / feelings “dans l‘interet des arts” _
Goodbye _ I have written a letter dull as the day and /
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My present mood: I shall brighten with the sun tomorrow, and if not, with / your letter the next day _ I send a kiss to Mama + Angel: _ your [Ala–es?] will be out / when you read this + ours a month fa-[??rd?] : how much better [??] you are
Your affec.
H.Transcriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
