Transcription
Madrid Sept 20th 1842
My dear Charlotte, /
Your letter of July 28th reached me three or four / days since and brought me a world of intelligence. / First of all your past appearance at the Tarrytown and / Dobbs Ferry soirees, held that evening at Mrs. Sheldons (sic) / at which, I trust you produced a proper sensation / when the invasion of Sunnyside by sea by a roving / piragua, fitted out at the port of Yonkers and manned / by Edgar and a desperate crew of ladies and gentlemen. / Then the invasion , by land by Mrs. Minturn and Mrs./ Minturns mother, and Mrs. Minturns sister and Mr. Minturns / mother – no, Mr. Minturns aunt, and a Miss Post who was / staying with Mrs. Minturn and then the influx of all / the Treadwells and of all the Dr. Laws. And then a second / invasion by sea of all the Hamiltons in the Dream, and the / carrying off of half the families of Sunnyside to Rockland / Lake and the mountains; and then the great party at Mrs. / Jones’s given to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Jones, to which Mrs. / Minturn did not think herself invited, but to which she / afterward found she was invited, and which turned out a / most delightful party. Guide us and keep us! What an eventful / period of history or we live in ! – Why my dear Charlie if matters / go at this rate I shall find Sleepy Hollow wide awake awake / by the time I come back. And now my exceedingly good, and very dear
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And now my exceeding good, and very dear little woman I / must try to give you in return for your very agreeable letter, / some little inkling of my Spanish house and its affairs. I have / just changed my residence and have taken the principal / apartment in a great Spanish house, belonging to a Bachelor / nobleman, named the Marques de Mos, who has a bachlors (sic) / nest in one wing of it. I have such a range of salons that it / gives me quite an appetite to walk from my study to the / dining room. There the windows* of the salons all face the south and look into / a small delapedated (sic) garden, in the centre of which is an old half / ruined marble fountain, with goldfish swimming about in it, and / and a superannuated triton in the middle blowing a conch / shell, out of which , in his younger days, there no doubt rose a / jet of water. My own private apartment*consisting of a bed room and study is in one end of the building / my bed room formerly served as an oratory or chapel to the mansion. / It is a small octagon room, rising to a little cupola or dome, with / little windows in the top; about fifteen feet from the floor; by which / the chamber is lighted. These windows catch the first rays of the / rising sun, and as the oratory is prettily painted, of a delicate pink, / yellow and pale green; and as the centre of the dome is gilded, / you have no idea what a the whole becomes beautifully lighted up / you have no idea what a splendid waking up I have sometimes / in the morning. I don’t think “Glorious Apollo” with his bed chamber / of sun gilt clouds has much the advantage of me. Now am I awake / very early and generally watch for the first break of day, it is a vast / comfort to have a bedroom that lights up with the first ray like a / lanthern. From without IW little oratory has something of the / look of a small tower. My study is immediately adjacent to the oratory / one window overlooks the garden of an old convent, (illegible word) with
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(illegible word) or the regents / and has a fair view of the Regents (sic) palace, and the distant / groves of the Retiro. My study opens into a long glazed verandah; some- / thing like a conservatory; into which likewise when the windows / (like folding doors) / *of the last saloon. Through this verandah I pass into the main / range of the body of the apartment. Now my dear Charlie, if you / could only have been here with me these two or three last evenings, which / (the first which I have passed in this new habitation) and seen this / range of apartments lighted up by brilliant Spanish moon light, / shining through the long casements which descend to the floor; / (illegible word ) walked with me (blotted out) and , listened to the delightful night / night breeze, rustling among the trees, and seen the sparkle of / the moon beams in the fountain; or walked with me in the / verandah all in a bright moon light; or looked out of my study / window, over the mingled scene of convent, and garden, and / palace and distant groves all tricked out in the cheating / witchery of moon shine; you would have thought that here, at / last, I had found a residence in which I might cease to feel so (illegible word) / my absence from the tranquil delight of dear little Sunnyside. / In fact I have felt experienced a kind of home feeling of enjoyment / since I have got into this house, that I have not felt before since / my arrival in Madrid. My other residence was exceptionally noisy / and abounded with inconveniences so that I could never feel at home / in it; indeed the very idea that I should always remove as soon as I / could find a house more to my mind, kept me unsettled and / comfortless. Now I trust I am fixed for the whole of my sojurn in / Madrid, and I consider myself singularly fortunate in finding / in this uncomfortable metropolis, so pleasant an abode. The / house has been newly plastered, and painted indoor and out, so that / it is as perfectly sweet and clean as if just built (illegible word) it has /
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a most inspiring appearance; and the arms of the United States / are placed over the grand portal, as is the case always in diplo- / matic residences, and I think the American eagle looks down with / a prouder eye than usual from his new perch. /
All these picturesque and vain glorious details my dear Charlie / are meant for (illegible word blotted out) (illegible word blotted out) yourself; but as I know your aunt / with her worldly prudence, will think I am ruining myself in / palaces and gardens, I will give you a hint of the cost, that / you may put her mind at ease. For my apartments in the / hotel of the Duke of Sandercuzo which were considered furnished / but which had to be filled up by the furniture of Mr. Vail / I paid nearly nine hundred dollars a year. For my present / apartments, which are ampler and more commodious I pay for / but unfurnished, I pay six hundred dollars. The furniture which / I bought of Mr. Vail is sufficient for the main rooms; and an / additional purchase of (illegible word crossed out) expenditure of about three hundred / dollars make my establishment complete. The difference in the / first years rent therefore, nearly pays for the additional furniture / which will be that next years which will next year be a clear gain / but had I paid double the rent it would have been made up in / my superior comfort – and the comfort of a man in his home / is the foundation of his daily enjoyment and has an influence / (illegible word) upon this (illegible word crossed out) his intellectual exertions. /
That you may not be bewildered, my very dear little woman / by the higgledy piggledy description I have given you of my apart- / ment, I accompany it, on the next page, by a diagram, made by / Carson Brevoort, engineer & typographical surveyor to the legation, / which comes tolerably near to the truth. You will recollect that my / apartments are on , what we should call in the United States, the / second story, that being the most dignified part of the house / in this country. Consequently I am at a considerable elevation / above the streets and the garden. A great portal with many folding / doors studded with iron opens into the lower hall; from whence a noble / stone staircase leads up to the second story branching off to the two wings
[Page recto has a plan of the lodgings, in ink.] Rooms and features mentioned:
“Calle de Libertad
Calle de las Infantas or Street of the Princesses
Wing inhabited by / the Marques de Mos
Grand / portal
House / keepers /room
Office
Servants / Hall
Steam can
Waiting /room
Ante / chamber
Yellow / Salon / 31 feet long
Green Room / 42 feet long
Dining / Room
Garden
Fountain
High Garden Wall
Bedrooms
Calle de los Torres / Street of the Torres
Habitation of the /Marchioness of Villa Real
Pink Salon / 25 feet
Oratory
Vernadah
Study
I think, my dear Charlie, with the assistance of the above maps / you will now be able perfectly to understand the geography of my / dwelling and to follow me in all of my perambulations about it. / Having various other persons to write to by the cousin that departs this / evening I must conclude this letter, taking the liberty to make / a few memorandums on the last page for your worthy father / and so, with much love to all the household I remain / your affectionate uncle {PAGE CUT AWAY AT SIGNATURE}
P.S. I recd (sic) lately your (illegible word) letter No 10 / one from Sarah Irving July 31 & one from your br {PAGE CUT AWAY} / due time {PAGE CUT AWAY}
VERSO
Washtn. Irving to Charlotte Irving / Madrid Sept 16 1842
