| Title: | Mary Cumming, Petersburg, [Va?] to Margaret Craig, Lisburn. |
|---|---|
| ID | 771 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Cumming, Mary/4 |
| Year | 1811 |
| 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 | Craig, Margaret |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | sisters |
| Source | T 1475/2 p.34: Copied by Permission of Miss A. McKisack, 9, Mount Pleasant, Belfast. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9006085 |
| Date | 25/11/1811 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by JM 01:09:1993. |
| Word Count | 2649 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Petersburg November 25th. 1811. My dearest Margaret, After encountering the troubles and dangers of a sea and land voyage, here I am at last comfortably fixed in a very pleasant house which I may call my own. When I look back on the last two months of my life it appears like a dream. I am now quite tired of travelling for some time, I think I shall be a very close housekeeper this winter. Oh, my darling friends, how I wish you saw how happily I am settled in this nice little place, there is every thing in it I could possibly wish for. The house is extremely neat and convenient, but I will try and give you some description of it. The first floor is entirely taken up with the office and store and room for the young men to sleep in. Above stairs there is a very neat parlour about the size of the sitting one of my own sweet Strawberry Hill, a very handsome drawing-room in front with three windows, it is very neatly furnished indeed. You go out of the parlour into a little passage which leads to my sleeping room, which is a very pleasant apartment. On the same floor there is a very nice little dressing-room which I intend making a china closet of. Next to that there is a back stairs which leads you through a little shrubbery to the kitchen, which is at a little distance from the house. There is another little room with shelves all round it where the cold meat and bread are kept. In the third story there are three excellent sleeping- rooms all as neat as I could wish for. there are fireplaces in all the chambers except one. From this imperfect description you will have some idea of the house where I am to remain for a few years. Mr. Cummings has got plate, china, and glass, etc. in great plenty, indeed it does not look much like a bachelor's establishment. Our family consists of Mr. Cumming and your humble servent - "the best first" you know. Mr. Gibbib and Mr. Orgin, who seem to be genteel, modest young men. They are constantly in the office, except at mealtimes. and now to give a description of a large family in the kitchen. First there is old Nancy the cook, who is an excellent good one, Jennie the housemaid, who seems to be a very decent woman. She has four fine children, the eldest a little girl about twelve years old, who is to be my little attendant, her name is Mary. Then there is Betty, Cora,and Joseph. They can all do something. Mary is a pretty good worker at her needle, she is now sitting beside me making a slip for herself. I think I shall make her very useful to me in some time. The man's name who attends at table is Palermo. This is an account of our family. the servants appear to be all regular and well behaved. They were delighted to see us when we arrived. I shall #PAGE 2 not have much housekeeping to do here if Nancy remains with us, she is so good a cook that I have only to tell her in the morning what I wish for dinner. Palermo gets breakfast and tea. Nancy bakes our bread. The American flour is extremely fine, I like the cornmeal bread very well, it is much better than we had in Ireland at one time. If I was writing to any but my darling sister I should be afraid of tiring them all with these trifling matters, but I judge of you as I feel myself, everything is interesting to me coming from you. We have got a few peach trees in the shrubbery and in the yard, I wish I was near my dear Rachel, I could supply her with jessamine, we have got plenty of it here. I intend getting a few flowers planted before the parlour windows in Spring. We arrived here on the twenty-first of the month, last Thursday. The first wish we felt was that our friends in Ireland knew that we had arrived at our place of residence. When, my beloved Margaret, shall I have the happiness of hearing from you? I cannot tell you how very anxious I feel. If you love me write very often, since I shall not see you all for some time hearing from you will be the greatest comfort that I can have. How often I think of you all, and how often wish I could transport this house and its inmates to my dear Ireland. But I feel very happy here, my dear Mr. Cumming does everything he can to make me so, and a few years will fly swiftly away, and then I shall leave you and dear Ireland no more. I believe if I was there I should think my happiness too great to last. But I must give you some account of our journey from New York to Petersburg. In my last elegant scrawl, which I suppose you found some difficulty in reading, I told you how much I admire Mrs. Dickey. The longer I was with her I liked her better, she is as charming a woman as I ever met with, She and Mrs. Brown were as attentive as possible to me when I was with them. Our time was too short to allow us to see all the beauties of New York. We went out one morning in Mrs. Dickey's coach, but that is not a good way to see much of a town, however we took a walk after dinner and saw as much of the city as we could, I was very much pleased with New York, indeed, all the American towns are very much handsomer than I expected. Owing to the inhabitants burning wood instead of coal, the houses and public buildings look quite new and clean. From New York we took the steamboat to New Brunswick, a small neat town on the Ravitor river, state of New Jersey. We then took the stage and travelled to Burdenton on the Delaware, sixteen miles. There we again embarked in a second boat driven by steam, and sailed down the #PAGE 3 noble river Delaware to the city of Philadelphia. We arrived about two o'clock, and after dinner we took a little walk. This town is more regularly built than any town in America, and is thought to be the handsomest. For my part I think as much of New York, however our time was too limited to permit me to form a correct opinion. Philadelphia is certainly a very elegant town, the view of the long line of fine ships as you approach the city is very grand indeed. Cook, the celebrated actor, was to perform the night we were there, so we all went to the theatre, and in my life I never was so delighted as I was with Cook's acting. He performed the character of Sir Pertinax MacSyphocant in "The Man of the World", and he supports the character most admirably. He appears to me to be the most natural actor I ever saw on the stage. The next morning we left Philadelphia in a sail-boat, and came farther down the Delaware to Newcastle. There we again took the stage and crossed over to the French town which stands at the head of Cesapeake [Chesapeake?] Bay, where we embarked in a sail-boat that brought us to the city of Baltimore, so I think we had a good deal of variety in our mode of travelling. The steam-boat is a delightful way of sailing, there is not the least motion in the boat, and you glide along almost imperceptibly. The day we sailed down the Delaware was very fine. and the view of the Pennsylvanian shore on one side and Jersey on the other was beautiful beyond description. I cannot well account for it, but I felt on my arrival in Baltimore, as if I was going to a place that I knew before, and I think Baltimore will be like a second home to me during my stay in America. We went directly to Mr. Brown's father to the gentleman that came from England with us, and they were delighted indeed to receive their son and daughter. William Brown had left America on account of his health three years ago, and you may imagine the joy his poor mother felt at seeing him strong and well and his wife and child. She had not any daughter of her own, and little Ann will be a great pet of her grandmother. Mr. Brown has four sons, one of them sailed for England a short time before we arrived. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are both first cousins of Mr. Cumming's. Mr. Brown has made a large fortune since he came to Baltimore. they live in a fine house and seem to enjoy it. I am very fond of all the family, they seem to live so happily that I soon found myself as if at home. Doctor Brown and his charming family dined with us the first day, I never saw a family I admired so much as I do his. Mrs. Dicky is his eldest daughter. Jane, the second, is equally pleasing as her sister, she is an elegant, accomplished girl as #PAGE 4 ever I met with, she was as kind and attentive to me as if she had known me for a length of time. She appeared to take the greatest pleasure in showing me all that was worth seeing in Baltimore, I went out with her in the carriage one day and had a delightful drive, She has two sisters younger than herself, Grace and Mary, they are very handsome. There are three sons, I did not see any but the youngest. The eldest is married not long since to a young lady with a fortune, he is gone to New York to accompany his mother home. Almost all the ladies I have met with are extremely pleasing and accomplished. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver and their brother came to see us the first evening, John the same good-natured pleasing man that I remember him in Ireland, but a great deal older looking than when he was there, he was extremely attentive to me indeed. Mrs. Oliver appears to be a very pleasing woman, her eldest daughter was married about three weeks ago. We all dined with them the day before we left Baltimore. I cannot well describe the magnificence of their house and furniture, I think it is the finest looking house in Baltimore. You go up a flight of beautiful white marble steps to the door, the rooms are very splendid indeed. The drawing-room window curtains, sofa cover, and chairs are of blue figured satin, the mirrors and lamps are equally elegant, as for the dinner I can give you no description of it, but that the china, plate and glass on the table was the finest I ever saw. It would be a difficult matter to give you a description of the manner they entertain company in this country, such a profusion of dishes is put down, one half of which I never saw before. I always feel glad when dinner is over, Mr. Robert Oliver is very pleasing in his manners and is liked by all who know him. Mr. John Oliver has some thoughts of going to Ireland next Spring, what would you think of setting your cap at him? The society of Baltimore is extremely agreeable. I saw Mr. Sinclair, he is the same lively laughing man he was when he was in Ireland, and he could hardly believe that I was the daughter of Mr. Craig, I was quite an infant when he went away. He breakfasted at Mr Brown's the morning we left them, and in the midst of our hurry bidding them farewell, he asked me if I remembered when he married my father and mother!! He has a very good situation in the College of Baltimore, he is beginning to look old. We left Baltimore on the seventeenth of this month, we took the mail and got to Georgetown that night which is 45 miles from Baltimore and two from Washington, the Capital of the United States. The next day we went to see the Congress Hall, which is as fine a building as ever I saw, and the President's house is a magnificent edifice. Washington is the most curious city I ever saw. the plan is laid down on a very extensive #PAGE 5 scale but I think it will require a great length of time to fill up the ground with houses, at present it looks like a great number of small villages, the house are all so distant from one another. It is seated on the beautiful river Potomac. We left Washington in the evening, crossed the celebrated bridge over the Potomac, which is built of wood and a mile in length. We went through Alexandria and travelled in the stage all night, I was very much fatigued when we got to Richmond the next evening, the American coaches are not so pleasant as they are in Ireland. The roads went through woods all the way from Baltimore to Petersburg. I like travelling through the American woods very much, it often apperars as if you were riding in a fine domain through rows of cedars, which grow in great perfection here and look beautiful at this season, but there is no tree that I admire so much since I came to America as the weeping willow. It is very common and grows to a great size. They are the most graceful elegant trees I ever saw. There have been several ladies called to see me, they appear to be pleasing people, but I will tell you more of them in my next, by that time I shall have seen more of them. We were at church last Sunday, they have not a very good preacher here. I do not like the Church Service, but there is no other place I can go to. I am sorry my paper is so near done, for I feel quite happy when I am writing to you. Oh, how I long for a letter from you, my dearest Margaret! Tell me everything, no matter how trifling. I hope my father is quite well this Winter, what is my sweet little Rachel doing and my dear James? Tell Rachel to put a postscript to your letter. I hope my Father will sometimes write to me. How is my dear Miss McNally and my dear little friend Margaret? How often I think of you all, my dear dear friends. Remember me in the kindest manner to my friends in Armagh when you write. The weather here at present is very fine, last Sunday was as warm as the month of May with you, the dust was thick on the roads, to-day is not so warm, there was frost last night. My health, my dearest Margaret, since I left England has been far from being good, but do not be alarmed, it is not the climate that has any effect on me, there are other reasons which you can guess. I would have let you know sooner but I did not wish to make you uneasy, for I know how anxious you would feel for me. This part of my letter is only intended for your eyes. I hope I shall soon feel better, but I have suffered a good deal of late. God bless you, my dear, dear Sister, and all my friends. May you all enjoy health and happiness is the sincerest prayer of Your ever affectionate Mary Cumming. |
