Transcription
Mission rooms 2 Park Place N York Saturday
Nov 1[4?]. 1850
My dear Sarah
I am here on my promised visit to / Edgar and Amanda and find myself pleasantly located / with them; I shall probably lengthen my stay all of next / week, unless driven home by very cold weather, or / some other cause. I can hardly express how / much my anxiety has been relieved by the information from / Pierre that you with the little ones had safely reached / your good mother’s home with a cordial welcome; would / to [reason?] that I too had one to offer, but it has pleased / Providence to circumscribe me to mere wishes, still, / I would not [?epi-?]e] but strive to acquiesce in its / dispensations, conscious that I am surrounded with / many mercies, of the least of which, I may say with the / old Patriarch, I am unworthy.
Though you have turned your back upon N York / a little gossip touching the movements of relatives in / this quarter may not be unwelcome. Sarah had / intended a visit to New Brighton this week but hearing / that two of the grand daughters of Aunt Abbey I purpo= / sed a jaunt to the cottage, she had to [defer?] it until / next week, and whether it will take place then / is uncertain as something or other is continually / occurring to interfere with her plans, as well as the / plans of others; this is the case with the visit from Sarah / Clark and the [??] [Irving?] just alluded to, which has been / under contemplation all the summer and fall _ when / it takes place it may prove a great affair as it has / been long ripening, and may extend to all of [two] / days!
Julia came to the City last / Monday on an errand intending to return to the cottage / in the afternoon, but Julia Grinnell kept her until Wednesday
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Giving her an opportunity of going to the Opera on / Monday evening, and the Broadway Theater on Tuesday / evening. Mr M. H. Grinnell came up on Monday / about his new house, and took his dinner with us, / and then told your sisters that they must hold themselves / in readiness to go to the City at a short notice, it being / his intention to [??] sears for one of Jenny Lind’s / concerts _ Your Uncle Wash’n meanwhile had gone / to the City and arranged with Julia that he would / be down on Wednesday and go with her to Jenny’s / morning concert of that day _ they both returned / on Wednesday evening, but as I am usually almost / entirely deaf in the evening , I refrained from asking / any questions; the nest morning, thursday, however, as I was / about to start for the cars, I said something about a / hope that Jenny had gratified her, and learnt / that both she and her Uncle had come home “with / a flea in their ear”, to use a [cantphrase?]; they / were too late to get seats. I since learn that / Mr. Grinnell engaged seats for last evening, and / that all hands except the servants, cleared out / from the cottage yesterday morning, to avail them - / =selves of his attention _ I believe they all quartered / at his house, except perhaps, your Uncle Washington.
I learnt something of their plans from Sanders’ / Julia on whom I called on thursday, but her account / differed from your Sister Sarah’s; she had told me / the morning I left home that Sarah Clark and / Henrietta were to come up that day, and being /
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young and timid and not yet broken in as travellers, / they were to be escorted by Mrs Oscar I who would / return to the City the next (friday} moring, leaving the / girls at Sunnyside who would probably stay until / tuesday next, which she understood to be the day / they were to attend upon Jenny Lind; but, as I said / before, Sarah was out in her calculations.
Sanders’ Julia it seems had taken an opportunity / to hear the “Nightingale” and was in raptures not only / with her singing, but her entire deportment and / was for pressing me to go to one of the concerts, / not that she thought that I would enjoy the singing / or the music, but would be delighted with her manners / and appearance, but I told her she little thought that / it would [^ have] a quite contrary effect, for though pleased / with all that I might be able to enjoy, I should that / more deeply feel the sad privation of hearing.
Catharine has not yet returned from ‘Ingleside’, / nor does the last letter from Charlotte written last / sunday evening say any thing respecting her leaving; / as she depended upon Col. Morgan as her escort who / expected to leave soon after the election, I presume / we may look for her daily. The Col. was the / whig candidate for Congress for that district though / an unwilling one, and it seems he is defeated / to the joy of his family and intimates, who were / unwilling to lose his society for the time of his / attendance at Washington City _ Charlies says that / she really believes the Col. is as glad at the / defeat, as is Mrs Morgan herself, and that the idea of
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being defeated is all that will trouble him
I once Expressed to you a wish to pay a visit once / more to Boston; I need hardly say that I am now / more desirous of doing so that ever; and were not / the season so far advanced, the days so short , / and the risk of storms and freezing weather so / much greater, I should be tempted to take the / hazard especially while Willie is at leisure, but / it would not now be a prudent step _ I must / defer it until Spring when, if spared, with fine / weather and continued good health I may make / the attempt. I shall not calculate on Willie’s co-[mpany?]] / then in my ramble about the “Literary Emporium”, as I trust that something will offer to employ his time / more profitably. Meanwhile say to Willie that he / may take note of respectable and comfortable quarters / where a few days may be passed at rather less Expense / that at the “Fremont”, the “Revere” or other extravagant / hotels. With my best regards to your good / mother, my love to Willie and the little ones.
I am my dear Sarah truly and affectionately
thine Eben’r Irving
Mrs William Irving
At Mrs Mann’s
19 McLean Street
BostonTranscriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
