Transcription
Sunnyside, Irvington, Westchester County NY.
Wednesday April 22 . 1857
My dear Kate
Your letter of 23d March last, like the / one that preceded it, has like that been [^ waiting] an ack= / nowledgement and I make it now under the influence / of the old adage “better late than never”. I had said that / letters aside with the intention of soon replying; I did / not forget it, but time slipped away almost uncon= / sciously: besides, for a part of the time I have not been / well as you seem to have found _ I took a severe cold / which completely prostrated me, and I lost all my strength, / but by the kind care and attention of your Aunts, I / gradually recovered and am again as well as before the / attack though I have not yet regained the same degree / of strength, but I shall grow stronger when the weather becomes / settled and pleasant. You say that you and / your mother had both written to me, but had received no / answer, your letter is probably the one I have just mentioned / but that from your mothers has not come to hand: I / believe it is nearly, if not quite, six months [^ at latest it seems as long], since I received / her last, and in all that time I have heard noting of / her affairs. I have just received a letter from / your Uncle Pierre in which he mentions that they are all
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Well at New Brighton; that his daughter, your cousin / Anna Routh, had returned to housekeeping _ she was / very snugly settled there shortly after her marriage, but / the illness of one of the partners in her husband’s firm who / [had] charge of the concerns if the house in London, made / it necessary for him to take his place, at least for a / while, they therefore rented their house with the furniture _ / and now since their return to this side of the Atlantic, / they have managed to repossess themselves of their esta= / =blishment and send me a kind invitation to make them / a visit. I have not heard very recently from / your Uncle Theodore. Your Aunts Catharine and Sarah went / down to “Bay Ridge” some two or three weeks since to see / him and his family before they removed to Richmond _ / they found them making preparation for the removal, which / was to take place the following week, while there, they called / upon Miss Kitchings, the lady your Uncle Theo. is to be / married to sometime in June : the visit to “Bay Ridge” was / a hasty one for they returned to Sunny Side before evening.
I presume that Your Uncle and his family are by / this time settled in Richmond, he had mad he had made out to procure / a house just out of the village, about a mile and a half from /
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his parish church, to which, as I have said they were to remove / the week before last. I shall probably try to get down to see / them there though it is a little doubtful whether I shall be able / to effect it, for I have not been to “ Bay Ridge” which can be / reached more readily than Richmond _ the rail road [^ runs?] from Brooklyn / [pass?] immediately by the Rectory at “Bay Ridge” every little while. / to get to Richmond one has to take the steam boat to Vanderbilt’s landing/ and that's a stage, or carriage, six miles, to Richmond. I shall / probably make an attempt to see him and his family should / an escort offer, for it is hardly prudent for a deaf old man, / his powers are failing to venture without.
the whole family have been surprised and delighted / by letters from your uncle Washington E. Irving, your late father's Brother from whom we have not heard for / more than seven years and concluded long since that / he was no longer living. He left New York seven years / ago last december _ I had letters from him written at / Rio Janeiro, where the vessel stopped on the voyage, and / again on his reaching Panama, but none from San Francis= / =co, where the voyage ended. just after he landed at the la latter / place, tempting offers were made to him to take charge / of a small craft loaded with provisions +c for the miners / in the "gold mines or diggings” which he accepted.
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thus introduced to the gold region, he concluded / to try his fortune there and became engaged in / several adventures, some of which paid handsomely, while / other others swept away all his gains; he finally settled / down at Jamestown, Tuolumne county, and set to / work to reestablish himself he says that had he had done / so at first, and been careful of what he made, / he would be now independent, but he says "it is now too late to / begin, that he was again upon his feet and was going / a head with good prospects". his letters were to your uncle / edgar. he was as ignorant of the affairs of the family as they / were of his: he had determined not to write unless fortune / should smile upon him. Edgar has received two letters / from him, the last one very recently, both the letters are / exceedingly well written and have delighted all of us, you / may well imagine what a load they have lifted from / my heart. my love to your mother and best / wishes to little Frank thine my dear Kate affectionately
Eben’r Irving
Miss Katrina Irving
care of Mrs. Wm. Irving
28 4 ½ Street
Washington,
DC
This letter will answer for your motherTranscriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
