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Title: Stewart, Frances to Edgeworth, Honora, 1827
ID4737
CollectionRevisiting Our Forest Home, The immigrant letters of Frances Stewart [J. L. Aoki]
Filestewart/19
Year1827
SenderStewart, Frances
Sender Genderfemale
Sender Occupationhousewife
Sender Religionunknown
OriginDouro Township, Newcsatle District, Upper Canada
DestinationIreland
RecipientEdgeworth, Honora
Recipient Genderfemale
Relationshipfriends
Source
Archive
Doc. No.
Date
Partial Date
Doc. Type
Logunknown
Word Count1150
Genrenews, family life
Note
Transcript1827: August 19
To Honora [Edgeworth], Ireland

Douro 19th August, 1827

My dear Honora

As I learned by Harriets last letter that you were to leave home soon for
France, I dare say it may be many months before you receive this. But I
was so completely conscience stricken by your letter that I can no longer
delay making my confession and acknowledging that I am the negligent
and ungrateful person, not so in reality, however, merely in appearance.
I did my dear friend receive your long & kind letter last year & I also
received that of Feb'y 14th 1827. My not telling you sooner of their arrival & thanking you for them was caused by my feeling that our life so very monotonous could not afford matter to make a long letter interesting & I did not like to return a short one for your charming folios. Now, however, events on your side of the world have caused some change in my plans about long & short letters & you see I am writing a short letter because its contents may be very old & you may have heard a great deal about us from some of your other correspondents before you can read this. I hope you may enjoy your trip to Paris more than you expected. Your reason for fearing to go amused me a little for I can scarcely conceive that you who have always lived so much in literary society & along with people to whom French is as familiar as their native tongue should so much fear visiting a country where everyone goes & which appears now so much in everyones power to visit. But be this as it may I am glad you have gone for I am quite sure you must have found it delightful. I am very sorry that poor Mrs. E. has suffered so very much from illness & hope that Harrowgate may have been of use to her. Pray give my kindest remembrance to her & my affectionate love to my dear Sneyd. Tell him I have read the Life of Monpensier with extreme interest. How very kind of Sneyd to think of his poor old playfellow & how gratifying it is to me to receive so many & such constant proofs of attachment from my dear friends.
I dare say as you passed thro' England you visited Aunt Mary & how
much the pleasure of your visit to her must have been encreased by her solitude during the absence of Mr. Mrs. & Miss Sneyd. My dear ever
kind & considerate Aunt Mary who has been so to me ever since I was
little Fanny Browne, pray give my tender love to her & thank her again
& again for her handsome & useful presents. What an admirable bread
knife & what a nice butter knife! They are both quite ornamental as well
as very useful at our breakfast & tea table. Our home made loaves are a
different shape from what you have I dare say seen at home, for we bake
in what is here called a Bake kettle or Dutch oven & our loaves are like
great huge cakes, more than loaves, so that a strong broad knife for cutting them adds considerably to the ease & expedition with which I may
perform that operation, so necessary every morn & evening for a panel
of impatient little animals called children.
You my dearest Cricrac Crow friend have also been kindly considerate
for our comforts. What a nice large thick hearth-rug! Our sparkling
wooden fires made me afraid of its beauty being too soon spoiled as we
have not yet had a fender so that I have but seldom used it. However,
by Aunt Bess's good nature & generosity we shall enjoy its comfort this
winter for I hear she is actually sending out a Fender. The Alphabet
is a never ending source of amusement to little Bessy & William, the
former particularly, 31/2 years old, who knows most of the letters. The
Battledores & shuttlecocks were a new & delightful recreation for your
young friends Anna & Ellen as well as many older people last winter.
Our rooms are much too small & low for playing it within doors but
on some of our calm clear days when the snow was so firmly encrusted
with ice as to allow people to walk on it without sinking they used to
play outside, & as such never had been seen in this part of the world
before, many young English children who had left home infants or little
children were quite surprised at this new amusement. I cannot tell you
with what encreased interest I have lately re-read a great part of Capt'n
Halls Journal which you sent me the year before last, for we have really
seen & conversed with him & had the pleasure of & honour of having
him & Mrs. Hall in this house.
I have so many resources & pleasures now that I am never at a loss
for employment & amusement, indeed, that I never was in my life yet
& it is a feeling I only can conceive from description. My greatest want here is time to indulge myself in any of my favourite pursuits & a lively
agreeable ladylike companion to converse with sometimes. These I
hope I shall have in time. The first I hope is not far distant for when
my nursling little Francis is able to take care of himself & require less
watching I shall be able to do much more than I have since his birth,
for having no Nursery or Nurse I am I may say at all hours of the day
& night engaged a good deal with him. He is, however, one of the
most easily managed dear little fat infants I ever saw. He is so good
humoured & stout. He has pretty dark eyes & dark hair & when his
cap is off is excessively like a person who perhaps you may have seen
sometime or other, Mr. Smythe of Benison Lodge. This same man was
cousin [ ] to my father & I am in hopes my little Franky may be like
his Grandpapa. Here he comes as hungry as can be so I must stop &
satisfy his apetite. And now I must end my long Epistle by assuring
you my dear Honora that you possess the sincere affection of your old
friend & companion,
Fanny Stewart