.MzEx.NDI4

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11 Welfield Place – 18 Febry ‘62 Dear Ann Tuesday night

I have not written to you for a week; & am thus in your debt for at least two, if not three, of your letters since my last to you.

The latest letter from you is that of 3rd. inst via Euorpa, which I recd. just before I left the office this afternoon; & I did not read it until after dinner. – I afterwards read it aloud to Eliza= =beth & Mary (Laura having gone to spend the day with her niece Mrs. Foster) – and at 7 p. m. I walked off to the Dingle, where I read it to Mrs. Cropper – thinking it would interest her: - & I came back here to T by 8 o’clock.

Miss Maggie & some juvenile lady, & Mr. J.W.[‘W’ underlined] Cropper were there, but not their father.

Elizabeth Bold went to the Dingle yesterday, chiefly to enquire whether they had any later news of Mary Wakefield, who has continued to suffer much from “tic” latterly: & tho’ Eliza= =beth learnt nothing fresh on this point, she told me that Mrs. Cropper expressed great anx- =iety about American affairs, & wished to know what you report of them. Elizabeth was unable to give her any satisfaction: – & thence my visit this eving. – Mrss. Cropper herself is very well. She told me they had no report from Sedg =wick today. – Yesterday I was talking with Mr. J. W. [‘W’ underlined] Cropper about his Aunt Mary. – He said that they had no report of her yesterday, & that when last heard of, she was suffering much. He had heard of a new remedy for tic –

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super-phosphate of Quinine - & had sent her some, but he had not heard whether it had had any effect. –

The letter from you this afternoon came via Europa, & is dated 3rd inst., & is chiefly filled

                very 

with the items of ^ interesting intelligence you had just obtained from William, & from Mrs. Cuthbert. – Matthew also, in his letter of the 4th.,

                             that 

via Europa gives further items ^ he had obtained, from Wms – relation to Louisa & her cow, Rutson’s wife being in pawn for board at Bladen’s Springs; the name of the party for whom James is buying Cotton on plantation in Missi., and Capt M. F’s message to himself as to the unchanged tone of feeling at the South.

I am very glad indeed to learn the improve= =ment in James’ pecuniary condition. And I am glad too that you have William with you, after so long an absence; & I hope his is enjoying himself.

Mrs. [Grune?] is heartily welcome to my share of the Port-wine, whether I am present or absent, & I hope it will do her good. –

Walker in his letter to me of 31 January said he thought it likely that “Maury Bros. Jr.” would be let out in the course of a fortnight; but he did not give me any reasons [underlined] for this opinion.

He says he has thought more in the last 3 mos than ever he did before. I am glad to hear this.

I hope the “long eyed needles” enclosed in my last letter to you (via Etna on her second[underlined] start) may arrive safe & be serviceable to you & Sarah

Mrs. Hamilton laid out 9/– with Godfrey & Cooke

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for a bottle of smelling Salts for you. I fancy this is a larger supply than you wanted; but I dare say you will find plenty of customers besides Mrs. Mc Lane. – She commissioned Mr. H__ to buy these Salts; but after going to the shop & being told there that a bottle containing 20/– worth was suitable to send send[crossed out] to America, he had his doubts, & refrained: so his wife went herself, & made the selection, & had the bottle filled in her presence. – How I am to send it to you, when I get it, I cannot guess at present. –

Yesterday I called at Holden’s (formerly [Grapils?]) in Church St. to make two enquiries – 1st. whether Tregelles’ Greek Testament is published yet, & 2nd. the price of Paxton & Lindley’s Botany, which is now

                                             or Nos 

complete. – They told me that only 1 or 2 Parts of the Testd. are yet out, & that many mos. perhaps a year or more, may elapse before it is complete. The other work consists of 16 volumes, the publication price was at first £20; but is can now be had for £16.16/–, which accords with what I learnt from Mr. Torr, when I was at his house last week. I leave it to you to inform Mr. Gardner. –

I must give you some account of my visit to “Carlett,” the name of Mr. Torr’s new house at East= =ham. By appointment I met him, Tom Bold & Harold Littledale on board the Rock Ferry boat at 4 p.m. on the 12th - & we rode from the Ferry, 4 miles, on the old turn-pike road towards Chester. I was seated in Torr’s dray behind him & Harold; & Tome Bold rode with a friend in another vehicle. The quantities of new houses at & around Rock Ferry, with their handsome gardens & grounds, surprised me. As I remarked to Harold, I had never been in those parts since he & I used to row in the “Rover” [‘the “Rover”’ underlined]

He was pleased with that reference to old times,

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when we were both of us young; & I reminded him that it was all his fault & Dick [Dennistown’s?] – for want of attention to training – that the Rover was beaten in that memorable race. – Before we went to the house, we visited the farm-yard at Bankfield an adjoining property were Mr. Torr had resided for years before his new house was completed 12 mos. ago.

– & at this yard we saw fine bulls, cows, fatted 

oxen, calves & pigs. – the house is very large & com =modious, & the land belonging to it consists of 300 acres, mostly laid out in grass & in park style. The house has 2 approaches to it, with neat lodges. It is elegantly furnished. My bed-room there rar= =ther reminded me of the splendour of those at John Myers’ at Crosby House. – It was entirely a gentleman’s party: - no lady was present. The company consisted of 10, of whom I have already named 4. The others were Messrs Rankin, Bushell, J. Aspinall Tobin, Henry Ashton (who married Miss Fletcher in our youthful days) old W. Fielding (the Rector of Bibbington) a son of the late John [Dean?] Case & a son of the late W. Chas Turner who lived in St Ann St. & walked on his toes. – The table was

   & arranged in Russian or Paris style, with the fruits beforehand for the desert after dinner.

round ^ The viands were mostly handed round there =fore.

We began with a large bowl of Turtle Soup, with plenty of the luscious [green fat?]. Most persons took a second plate of it, but I was contented with one. Punch was served after it. (Your Milk punch could hardly surpass it) A splendid piece of salmon (scalding hot) was placed before Mr. Torr accompanied with fenel sauce & lobster sauce.

Then Champagne (such as would have satisfied even Mr. Gardner), was served round, & repeated at various times. Then 4 epicurean dishes of

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5 cutremets (which I did not touch) were handed round, & seemed to afford great satisfaction.

A dish of Roast Lamb was then placed before Mr. Torr, & before Harold (who confronted him,) were placed 4 boiled chickens in a dish prettily adorned with pink-colured & white rice: - & these were followed by wild-ducks & snipe. (I ate some lamb, & half a snipe.) – Sweets were then handed round, such as Charlotte de Russe, [Jillus?] etc. Altogether it was a most sumptuous repast: – & fortunately I was none the worse for it, tho’ I ate & drank more than was good for me. – but others, for the most part, ate & drank just twice as much [‘twice as much’ underlined] or more than satisfied me! – I sat between

                              each of   

Tom Bold & Mr. J. A. Tobin, with ^ whom I had some talk; but I did not gather a word of the general conversation, which was animated & apparently amusing or interesting. – I went to bed about 12, reading the Times in my bed= =room (with a fire in it) between 11 & 12, and I rose at 5 1/2 a.m., & after dressing (by candle light) I read until about 7, or later, & then went down stairs to take fresh air; when I was joined by Mr. Torr, & we sauntered about together.

We 4 gents were alone at the breakfast table & began that meal about 8 1/2 a.m. – We left for town by Railway at 10 & I reached the Ex =change at 11. – I had a good long sleep the following night, & thus felt right well on the Friday, which was more than I could say for myself on the Thursday – the day after this feast.

[Marginalia] but none the worse for it on Monday.? Yours affectionately R Maury

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19 Febry – (Office) 2 1/2 p.m.

I sat up into the “small[underlined] hours” last night, in the drawing room after all had gone to bed, to write the foregoing 5 pages: but I was up, washed (in the tin “saucer”) shaved, dressed, & down stairs this morning be= =fore Elizabeth or Laura had appeared. –

If not prevented by the rain, Mrs. Tom Islam is to spend the day today in Welfield Place.

On coming to the office I found Mr. Keightley here (John Wakefield’s on in law.) His last news from Sedgwick was of the day before yesterday, when Mary Wakefield was a little[underlined] better. –

I have just parted with David Spence. To save time, & he feeling all the time so much interested as to all of us on your side the water, I gave him your letter to read as he sat in my little room. He is very glad to learn such encouraging news of James; & he desires his kind regards to all of you.

On Sunday last Mrs. Hodgson resumed her seat in the pew, after 2 Sundays absence.

She came to church in a carriage; & I met her as she alighted from it, & enquired after her health. She was much better after her cold, tho’ not quite well yet. She insisted on my taking my seat as usual with them. It was a cold, windy day – fine for exercise, & pleasant under foot; so directly after dinner, I started for a walk. – I first steered for Greenbank, where I sat some 15 or 20 minutes with old Mr. Rath= =bone. – His eldest son, whose first wife was a sister of Mr. H.W. Gair, was lately married a second time to a lady at Comber, a place

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more Londonderry & he is now making a bridal tour on the [Contt.?] – Some of his very pretty children were at Greenbank when I called. – The daughter of the late Mr. Richd Rathbone, who enquired of you about the gentleman in N. York, to whom she was engaged, was married to him here whilst I was staying at Buxton. He is a son of Mr. W. Rathbone Greg, Commissioner of H. M. Customs, who wrote the Economists edi=

torials, & to whom I got the letter of intro

=dution for Mr. Davis. – Before I bid Mr. Rathbone good day, we had much talk about American & Americans; & he was deploring the degeneracy of their public men of the pres= =ent day, compared with those of the 2 previous generations. – I told him that I thought we had now just as good, fine, & wise men in America as at any time, but they were unfortunately no longer at the head of public or political affairs, that we had been spoiled by 50 years of unbroken prosperity; but I considered we should gain from the “uses” of the present “adversity.” – He joined heartily in this hope, but seemed to have little faith in such issue.

Men like him, of the liberal class of politicians are all deeply mortified at the present deplo= =rable condition of America. – I left soon after Mr. Gair & one of his married brothers had called; & then I took the lane that leads direct from Greenbank to the head of Smith down Lane, & thus crossed the new rail =way now in course of construction. Just at

[Marginalia] I sent you 3 Times by this steamer. –

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that point I met a gentleman, whom I thought I knew. After he had passed I recollected it was Mr. S.R. Graves, the gentleman who so much distinguished himself during the recent Mayoralty here; so I went back, & renewed my acquaintance. – When he lived in British No. America he was a great friend of [Bache?] McEavers. – We had quite a long talk as to the survivours of that family, & about matters in America. – I then continued my walk & passed over ground I had not set eyes upon for upwards of 30 years! From the head of Smith down Lane I took the direct road for Allerton, passing the spot where old Mrs. Dexter lodged, Mr. Cleg’s, Mr. Shot-Walker’s (“Calderstone”) the old “Oak [  ? ] [  ? ] [Feletecher’s?]. Aunt Rutson’s lodge whom Tokely[underlined] loved, the gates to Allerton Hall, the rear of Aunt Rutson’s farm yard, the little cottage where uncle Rutson lived in the summer whilst Allerton Lodge was being built! – Memory was very busy;[‘Memory...busy’ underlined] & among the rest I had vivid recollections of my exquisite delight [‘exquisite delight’ underlined] in that road be= =tween Woolton & Allerton, when walking beside my first love, Miss Chadwick of Tipperary! I passed thro’ Woolton, & Wavertree, passing near Wavertree church, the old mansion where Mr. [Strathaur’s?] maiden aunts lived. Fletcher Haye’s public-house, Mr. Lance’s house, Mrs Herman’s etc.; and so on to Miss Mason’s church, round the poor house down Mt. Pleasant, along Rodney St., & so to Wd. Place.

[Marginalia – Left Side] I was 5 hours employed in this long walk which must have been 12 miles

[Marginalia – Right Side] in extent; I was rather tired.