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Hattie Powell Blenheim Albemarle County Virginia to Mother Selina Powell Richmond Virginia 10 November 1864

Blenheim November 10th

Thursday Evening

Darling Mother,

I suppose you are by this time in Rich-

mond and very anxious I do feel to hear how you are

& how you like your new house & new occupation. I

so hope Mrs. Poleski is as sweet and pleasant a person

as I have heard she is & that you will be more comfor-

table than you have been & will be able to see a great

deal of Nina, which I know will be a very great comfort

to you both. I hope you will be able to help Nina too with her

scholar, she seems to be exactly like Maria who you are very

much mistake in supposing was uniformly polite to me out

of school, and I would not have Nina to go through what I did

for anything in the world, however B seems to be doing better

now & I hope will continue to improve. And now dearest Mother

I have such a quantity to tell you that I hardly know where to begin.

You remember what a dreadful day the day of Minna's wedding

was nevertheless I went, got there about 2 oclock adn worked

all the evening making wreaths & pyramids for the cakes & tables.

I found Ellie and Fannie there & we had a pleasant time; I wore the

low necked dress & all but the diamonds which Mrs. L did not

send & I was very glad she did not, but I did not take a bit

of cold. I reckon one day people told me I was the handsomest dressed

person in the room, but my handsome dress prevented me from en-

joying myself so much as I should have done for it was so long I could

not dance with any comfort so did not dance much. It was

such a dreadful night that no one could go home, & the house

was so small there was no place to sleep, so we had to keep it up

until day-light & then all went home to rest. The bride looked as

sweet & pretty as possible, but considering the number there I think

there was very little [?]. We had two elegant suppers & rather

too free a folow of brandy, wine, & champaigne. The two decidedly most

agreeable gentlemen there were the Mr. Bollings of Fauquier.

[Page 2]

I quite lost my ehart with them both, but especially with

Mr. John, he is so handsome, so agreeable & made a perfect

gentleman. Well as soon as I got back from the wedding &

got a little sleep, I set to work to make my new dress so that

I might have it to wear to the dinner at Mr. W Hobsons

& here, I actually finished it in time to put it on Tuesday

when I went over to Vernon, besides helping Ms. Hobson

to prepare for the dinner here. Saturday evening Mr. John came

over to see me & I had a delightful chat with him of about

two hours. While he was here Mr. Clay a friend of Mrs. H's from Bed-

ford came & I had to entertain him all the evening. Sunday

morning he went down with us to church & there left us. I made

my dress body with a pointed yoke with a quilling of blk braid

all around it, and [?] sleeves with the quilling down

the [?] & I like it very much & everone tells me it is a

breautiful dress. It is a much better color than the other & tho' this

is all wool it cost 165 & I sold the other for 170 so I think altogether

I decidedly made by the exchange. I will send you a sample

in this letter. Tuesday was the dinner at Uncle Willis's & I did enjoy

it exceedingly. The fact is dearest Mother they but flatter & spoiled

me so much there that I am very much afraid I shall be spoil-

ed entirely. I went over in the buggy with Dr. H attended by Dr. Ware-

ing & Mr. Vinning & found Mr. John just getting into the buggy to

come over for me. Fannie came over after I did, & then the bridal

party & various gentlemen from the neighborhood & until din-

ner I talked to Maj. Leigh, the two Billings & Mr. Goodman. Mr. John

took me in to dinner & there we had another nice long talk,

I like him so much, he is so agreeable. It was dark when we came

out from diner, so we took up the carpet & danced & talked &

[?] until eleven o clock, when Fannie, Ellie, Marietta Brudin,

& myself, Mr. Brudin, Nelson Harris, Dr. Wareing, & Mr. Venning

came over here & went quietly to bed. The enxt day the whole party

dined here & a handsome dinner we had, & a pleasant time of it

except that the bollings were obliged to leave that morning.

This morning they all went down to Mr. Harris's & from there Ellie will

return to Lynchburg. So now dearest Mother you have a history of my frol-

icking & now I reckon we will have a very quiet time for the rest of

the winter. I am over tomorrow night to stay all night at Mr.

Hurts with Sue Hooper. I forgot to tell you that Capt Morgan came

on Tuesday & will be here for some time I expect as he is still on

[?]. And now dearest Mother I believe I have told you all

I have to tell so I will close. Pelase write soon I am so anxious to

know how you like your new home & how you are. Give much love

to darling Nina & tell her I will write to her in a few days.

[sideways on page 1]

Tell her too that

Fannie goes to

Richmond on

Saturday & will

stay for two or three

weeks with Mari-

etta Brudin on the

corner of 5th &

Grace streets & if

she can possibly

get into the city

she must go in

to see her, I told

Fannie she would

come & she is very

anxious to see her.

your loving daughter

Hattie.