Transcription
Madrid Tuesday Eve. Jan.y 31’ 1843
[STAMP OF SHR, black ink, illuminated candle graphic]
My dear Papa,
This day and the three or four last have been / more like the end of June than if this wintry month _ We walk / our without Coat or Cloak and find everybody crowding to the / shady side: The air is so sofy and dry and the sky so clear, / that it recalls our beautiful days at Rome _ The Spaniards / seem to me a very ungrateful race to speak so harshly of / their climate of Madrid: This year we have had few disagreeable / days, and many delightful ones.
I heard of you all and your Merry Christmas / party and the doleful finale of the Wedding day from Eliza + / George, who wrote me long agreable letters on the best day of / the year: _ I do not expect to hear from you again for two or three / weeks but I fill up the interval very agreably by allowing my / imagination + memory full scope, when I picture to myself / a happy family in a quiet comfortable home. How does our / Barouche Sleigh answer? I see in the Papers that you have / an abundance of snow, and I cannot doubt that you have given / it a fair trial.
I am writing for the Great Western, and can’t help envy:
[END OF PAGE 1]
:ing this sheet its visit to Madeira and pleasant Southern passage / and more than all its *whereabouts* on the 4h March, which is / the day I fix for its arrival.
As it appears from Eliza’s letter that the Girls / will make their visit to the City a little earlier in the Winter / than was at first proposed, I have not waited, as I last wrote / you I should, for the Packet of March, but send this Evening / with their letter to honest Miller, a check for £ 50, which I / have told him to forward to you in the form he thinks best. It / may enable you to afford these dear Girls some of the pleasures they / deserve, and thus gratify us all a thousand times more than in / any way _ /
We are all in good health save Mr. Irving who / has a slight cold within a day or two which we attribute to this / mild weather, and his having become overheard in walking: his / general health is better than that of any, and could not be improved.
We have had some Masqued + Private Balls, tho the / Carneval has not yet begun in good earnest: at its height they indulge / in all sorts of fooleries, and go about the streets by day + night in / the most fantastic disguises: The Masquerade Balls begin between / 12 + one, and are kept up some hours after daylight. My ears are / still ringing with the Babel of female voices at their shrillest point,
[END OF PAGE 2]
Which almost deafened me two nights ago: The men generally / go without disguise; the women all in mask mask, and they use or abuse this advantage without mercy . _
11 P.M. After writing thus far, I went to see the first representation / of “Marino Faliero” a beautiful Opera, miserably given: The only good / voice, the Tenor, is unfortunately killed in the second act, and the interest / of the piece died with him.
I wrote you fully about my views in regard to a / connection with Mr. Griffin in business, in my last letter, and will / only add [^ repeat] that I should be delighted with such an arrangement: / I am improving my opportunities here by going through the Laws of the / United States carefully and my old friends Blackstone + De Lolme [page torn]
Should be very glad to return this summer, or next autumn, or [page torn]
If you make some such arrangement for me _ I have been separa - / ted from you quite long enough during the last 16 months, to make / me very impatient under a much longer absence _ As soon as you / think there is an opening, let me know it:
During the Girls visit to the City, I suppose / they will hardly have time to wrote to me, and I hope you / will employ some of your leisure moments at Nevis in telling / about Mama and yourself: _ The new dynasty at the farm / House begins in a month: I want to hear more particularly / about them:
II Tell Grandmama [inserted later, pencil: Mrs. Alexander Hamilton _] how delighted I was to meet with /
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A paragraph in the N. York Spectator which spoke of her so / active and in such good health at a meeting of the Directresses / of the Orphan Asylum _ I’m afraid she is so much engrossed / with hew new daughter that an absent Grandson will be / entirely forgotten.
I send a great many kisses to my dearest Mama / and to the Girls if they are at home, which I doubt _ I / must bid you good night and seal and despatch quickly, for the / Mail is off at Midnight:
Your affectionate son
Alex፣ Hamilton
J. A. Hamilton Esq.
[ADDRESS]
James A. Hamilton Esq.
[STAMP OF SHR, black ink, illuminated candle graphic]
Dobbs Ferry
Westchester County
New York
U.S.
[RED WAX SEAL]
[REVERSE OF ADDRESS]
1843
Jany 31Transcriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
