| Title: | Mary Cumming, Petersburg to Rev Andrew Craig, Lisburn. |
|---|---|
| ID | 786 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Cumming, Mary/29 |
| Year | 1813 |
| Sender | Cumming (n. Craig), Mary |
| Sender Gender | female |
| Sender Occupation | middle class housewife |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Petersburg, Virginia, USA |
| Destination | Lisburn, Co. Antrim, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Rev. Andrew Craig |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | daughter-father |
| Source | T 1475/2 pp99-101: Copied by Permission of Miss A. McKisack, 9 Mount Pleasant, Belfast. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9403062 |
| Date | 20/12/1813 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 09:03:1994. |
| Word Count | 976 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Blandford, December 20th 1813 My dear Father, I embrace with pleasure another opportunity of writing to you, although the long letter which I wrote to Margaret last month has not left this country yet. I am sure my dear friends have been anxious about me for some time past, as I did not write for some months, owing to my bad health, but I have now the happiness of telling my dear Father I have got the better of all my complaints except a little fever now and then, which does not signify. Last week I was able to walk into Petersburg. We had a dinner-party yesterday and one the week before, the last one I tell you went about as usual, William never enjoyed better health than he has done for the last twelve months, he is now very busily engaged buying tobacco to have ready to ship off when peace comes. When that much-wished-for event will take place it would be difficult to say. William thinks the war cannot continue much longer, we have all been anxiously expecting news from Washington for the last few days about the embarge, which Jimmy Madison wishes to lay on, but I trust most sincerely he and his party will be disappointed in this as well as in many other of his schemes. (I am not afraid of this letter being opened. so that I make a little free with the old gentlemen's name). The embargo has passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday last and the Senate have been debating on it ever since with closed doors. I hope to-morrow's mail will bring us the joyful news of their having rejected it. Any event that in the smallest degree would hasten our return to my native country I wish for. Men, women, and children are all politicians in this country, politics is the general tonic of conversation among the gentlemen and even of the ladies of this place. Some of the females of my acquaintance are most violent democrats. I say nothing, but I assure you I do not feel pleasant when I hear old England spoken of disrespectfully. I have been very anxious for some time past for a letter from home. The last I had was from Rachel dated June. I am sure you have written to me often since that time, and I hope very soon to receive a large packet from home. I wrote to James Craig and to Mary Cumming last month. I had a long letter from James at the time I received Rachel's. I wish I could think of some news that would entertain my dear Father, but I have been so little abroad lately that I fear I have not got any worth mentioning, but to me the most trivial circumstance that occurs at Strawberry Hill is interesting, [--?] that as I have got nothing better I shall tell you anything that comes into my head, and think I am talking to you. How much I wish that I really was, and that happy time I hope is not very far distant. I know William will make our stay here as short as he possibly can, and if peace will be brought about soon I think we would take our departure from this country shortly after. I dread the summers we have. However we will leave this place early next Fall, and stay away during the sickly season. I hope we will travel northwards. I would like to spend some time in Baltimore and Philadelpia. If we do not go this route we intend going to some of the Springs which are very much frequented in the Fall. It is difficult to say what may take place before next summer. I have met with so many disappointments of late that I do not plan schemes of future happiness with the same hopes of success that I once did. However I try to hope for the best, but like Burns, some of my best laid schemes have gone "aft agley", and left me nought but "grief and pain for promised joy", but I still enjoy so many blessings that I must be resigned and hope for better days. I experience so much kindness from my dear William that I get over other disappointments far better than I would otherwise do. There are a few lines in Cowper's "Timepiece" which I admire very much, they are these:- "Happy the man who sees a God employed In all the good and ill that checquer life". William has begun to read Wilson's "Egypt" to me. I think it entertaining, but I always liked poetry better than prose, indeed I hope to acquire a better taste for history than I have at present. William is very fond of it, and remembers all he reads. I suppose you amuse yourselves in the winter nights at home in the same manner we used to do. How I wish we could join the happy party once more. William has got his early crop of potatoes put in a month ago. He will have peas sown the first week in January. Our garden produces very fine vegetables, and we have hired a gardener for the ensuing year, who will find constant employment, so that we will have everything in the nicest order, and I hope to make a great deal of money by the produce of our garden, for we cannot use one quarter of the vegetables and fruit which we raise, so that we send a quantity to market every morning. I generally receive from three shillings to four-and-six a day, which is my money. When Mrs Bell lived here she once told me she made forty dollars by her asparagus alone. Almost everyone who has a garden raises vegetables for market and some make very large sums of money. |
