Transcription
Madrid Tuesday Ev’g June 6th 1843
You and indeed, my dearest M, a jewel of a correspondent / I have this morning your long letter fo May 14th one from E, and / a short and hurried letter from Papa, as he was setting out for Hart - / ford. _ I admire especially your large sheets; stick to that paper, / of if you change, let it be for larger _ I cannot have too much if / “Bristow’s anti-angular” = In order to keep the ball rolling, I shall / send this off tomorrow for the G. Western on the 17th _ These new steamers / with their short passages (the Hibernia came out in little over 9 days) / are taking away many of the weary miles which separate us.
Some of my letters are not acknowledged, which I / cannot always expect, but I wish you would from time to time / mention the receipt of them _ Among other excellent reasons there are well / founded suspicions of occasional liberties with the correspondence / known to be coming form foreign legations in a neighbouring kingdom, / and as I write freely about political matters, I am interested to know / generally that my yepistles reach those from whom they are intended.
I begin to move about and make visits, like other people. / yesterday I had a long talk with my fair friend Mrs. Scott, who is off / in three or four days : like all spoiled and capricious personages, she / now regrets that she is going away and tells me she is miserable at / the idea of leaving Madrid : I laughed at all this most heartily; but / she perished in declaring how unhappy she is [^ was] at the departure = she / will be a great loss for wether in spite of her little affectations, / she has a good heart at bottom, sings so admirably, and is herself / so pretty + graceful that she would be an acquisition any where :
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We are very good friends : I give the best advice (occasionally) which / she listens to, but does not follow; and laugh at the little airs in which / she now + then indulges : her portrait has been painted by a Young artist who /. Is considered by good judges one of the most promising in Europe : It is exceedingly / admired as a painting; + very like, and also very handsome :
For the frist time for more than a month, I assisted at the opera / last night : Belisario was given and Salvatori acted + sang it to admiration : the / second act where he appears blind, with his devoted daughter was so affectively / + naturally given that it made me very sympathetic, and brought back the / first feeling with which I stared at the print with the “date obolum Belisario” [“give a penny to Belisarius”] _ / The Theater was illuminated + adorned in honor of Her August Majesty + her serene / sister who were conspicuously displayed in the royal box in two lofty arm chairs / which the younger especially seem to climb into with some difficulty : _ They had their / bouquets + their librettos; the Queen a little diamond [cirilet?]; the Infantee a wreath of / roses and at intervals they graciously turned their little heads, and discoursed the / grave + stiff chamberlains, who in all the glory of ribbons + lace stood erect / behind them : there was great interest + enthusiasm shown by the audience which / crammed the house in every nook + corner : When the Queen entered the shouts of / “Viva la Reyna! Rose on all sides : it happened that the Duchess de la Victoria was / in the Box next her Majesty + I believe entered the same moment; whereupon some / bitter party men cried out, “Viva to reyna sola, no la Duquesa” : - you can judge / from this to what vile extremes the rancour of party extends when it can stoop / to insult in this way, a woman whose only fault is being the wife of the Regent : / This little scena happened occurred before my arrival and I heard of it in the / course of the Ev’g at the Box of the English Embassy, who as the friends of Espartero, / were naturally very indignant at such an outrage :
We are in the midst of revolts and it may be at this moment / a Civil War : Every mail brings news of some fresh insurrection : at present it extends / through a great part of Andalusia : Malaga the principal port is sending out troops / in bodies of 4 or 500 men to [forward] the movement in other parts of the Country : on ./ the other side : 3 or 4000 [^ men] are said to have been collected in the neighbourhood of the / Sierra Morena, to put down the rebellion _ In Aragon + Catalonia, a Col’o Prim, late / Secretary of the Chamber of Deputies has raised the flag of revolt against Espartero’s /
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Gov’t, declared for the immediate termination of the Queen’s Minority, and is said again / to be supported by 2500 converts to these opinions _ the course of the Mayor + the / Corporation of Barcelona was the most impudent : they quietly told the citizens that / Barcelona with the marks of the late bombardment and her present position (meaning / the fort of Monjuich with 100 cannon bearing on the City) could not declare herself; / but they went on to hint that the Citizens could leave to support their principles / elsewhere + one account stated that they were doing so in numbers : Is there just / such another Country in the world? _ Here in Madrid we go on as coolly as if / nothing had happened; the Bullfights, the OPera + the other amusements exhibit no / unusual excitement, and so accustomed are they to these occurrences that I believe / it would be the same thing if the revolters were within 10 miles of the City + a / pitched battle might be expected under the walls :
Her young Trojan is flying about to visit the royal Establish - / ments in the neighbourhood : He is now at the Escurial; and starts on Saturday for. / Trana by way of Barcelona unless the country should all be in arms in that direction. / I shall give him a note to G.L.S. with a roll of music for you; some little Spanish / Airs, and a few songs and curiosities : some are in the patois + bad spanish of Anda : / :lusia; but when sung with spirit in the Spanish style, as I heard Mrs. Scott lately / they are very pretty + effective.
“Cara Angelica dove ora sei?” it seems at Staatsburg; and this / remembers me of my short visit during our never to be forgotten expedition in / the Dream : I sallied forth from Wilkes’ on Horseback, on a Sunday afternoon, + probably / disturbed the family in their siesta; however she appeared, in a few moments she / had on an irresistible bergère bonnet [^ hat], and we were marching off towards the beauti - / ful wood to the South of the House; we had gone but a little way, when we put / up papa mat : from behind a thicket; (I suppose he’d been lying in wait there) / and by some unaccountable manouvre which I can’t explain to this day, we were / all soon [^ again] at the house, + with the assembled family : this was intolerable : I mounted / my steps + was off at full speed and narrowly escaped riding over the old General; / at the Gate - half an hour after I was half drowned (a proper finale for such / an adventure) in crossing the river with G.B. in a cockle shell during a thunder / storm and squall; night was coming on; the boat was filling with water, and we / were satisfied to get ashore on a wild Island in the middle of the river _ During / that visit I persuaded honest Mr. Wilkes that I was éperdument amoureaux tout /
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De bon” which I’ve no doubt with some wiser folks, she believes yet _ There’s / a long story + digression about nothing : but as I must leave a line or two for / tomorrow I’ll bid you Good night _
Wednesday June 7th _ Our summer advances, but not ver rapidly; for / which I am thankful : we have bright suns; but fresh breezes, and temperate weather : / There is no probability that Mrs. Storrow will be able to visit her brother this summers : / Uncle Geoffrey had declined advising in reference to it, because as he says there are / so many domestic reasons which must be judged of by the parties interested : He / will probably join his niece, either in the neighbourhood of Paris or at Havre, and / will set [^ out] about 10h July, unless the condition of affairs here should become very / uncertain : Legare’s being In the Dept of State makes him feel easy as to / his absenting himself from his post : I observe that the notices in our papers / of his illness, speak of his being at work on the Expulsion of the Moors : I / wish the first had as little foundation as the last = We go along together ad: / :mirably _ He comes into the office while I’m writing to gossip, which he delights / in : We ride out in the Ev’g for an hour or two on the Prado following the / long line of coaches up + down as they pass in review the promenaders in / the grand alley or saloon as it is called : I begin to take more interest in it / than formerly; its a gay scene, crowded as it is with well dressed people, and / a great many pretty women, gracefully dressed : the women kind certainly / make up well, and have a lively coquettish air, which they term “sal / espanala” differing entirely from the rest of the world. __
Mrs. Albuquerque was delighted to hear from me that the / magnificent Don had arrived _ José tho’ he has been here four years, has not yet / contrived to have her letters promptly forwarded, and she always applies to me / for news –
As there has been a postal arrangement between England + France / whereby the postage is reduced one half; ask GLS to send me now + then two or / three newspapers in a bundle, which contain anything of interest _ they can go / to Miller by the Western, or to Beasely by the packets _ I mention George / altho’ he is so busy, because he has offered several times to forward them.
I am going to enjoy Marius Faliero tonight and / tomorrow we have a family dinner at the Embassy as a farewell to the / Scotts : __
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Don’t be uneasy that I receive twice told news : it very seldom happens, and when it does / it is pleasant to have the same adventure from different pens : so write, write, write.
I am continuously writing stiff formal things / full of the Undersigned; so that it is a relief / to me to scribble any thing which comes into / my head _
I want to hear from you that / the air + exercise of the Country have / completely restored your health and that / you and Angel are enjoying the summer / as usual.
Uncle Tomo dock boxes /
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Were too much for Mr. Irving’s philosophy / who was sorry enough that he could not/ exchange his exile here for the same delight / ful occupation.
Tell E. I have written at full / length to Regina to whom I always wish to be / kindly remembered, as we have always been / very good friends
How come in Mama’s turkeys? / I had hoped to eat me one of them next / Christmas; but I’m afraid that is not a / pleasure in store for me.
Make all sorts of [???] speeches to / our neighbours, Constants, Howlands, Sheldons, / +c. – love to all at Nevis
Adios tu aficionado / A. H.Transcriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
