Friday, October 4, 1833

1833

October

Friday 4

7 1/2

11 40/..

Very fine morning. F 62° at 7 1/2 a.m. – at German – Breakfast at 10 –

Note from Lady Harriet asking for my letters; Mr. Browne still in town – Sat down immediately at 10 20/.., and in 3/4 hour added a line or 2 to what I wrote to Vere last night (chit chat – affectionate enough) to ask her to get me any information about Norway  -- what best worth seeing – what carriage to take – and wrote 1 page and end dated this morning of envelope to Lady Stuart – what I wrote on Monday.

Good account of the de Hagemanns – the large handsome house – their very great kindness to me – the children much improved – both draw well etc. etc. and mention of my good passage from Lubeck and having gone round by Bremen, of being 5 days (from rain and my bad cold) at Göttingen, how this prevented from going to the Hartz Mountains –

Like Copenhagen – shall have plenty of society – Learning German; mean to stay the winter –

Should be delighted to see Lord Stuart here – Shall envy him the sight of Hekla –

Mention of Mrs. Stuart Courtenay – sleeps with her maid for economy and does not pay her debts –

Mention Lord Kerry (Marquess of Lansdowne’s son) and Mr. Colville, having arrived from Stockholm yesterday at noon, and embarked in the evening for Lubeck – Mr. Peter Brown’s difficulty about having them to dinner, asked the Spanish to let them dine in his room, and to let his cook cook for them – No! but would receive them as his friends if presented – That would not do – Would he then order them dinner at a restaurateur’s – Declined – So our poor Chargé d’Affaires obliged to contrive as he could –

Said I should write as often as Lady Harriet did – And as often as I could get my letters sent.

At 11, sent off this with my Letter to ‘the honorable Lady Stuart’ enclosing my letter to ‘the Lady Vere Cameron’ under cover to Lady Harriet de H- Hagemann with my thanks and adding if she was not here at 2 1/2 I should go to her –

Finished dressing – read the Hamburg Reporter of the 1st instante mense –

An American Troy-built coach runs from Mexico to Vera Cruz, in 5 days – 70 dollars each person – thus one can go across the passes of the Andes as across the Green Mountains –

The American fur company’s steamers have done 2,100 miles from the mouth of the Missouri, and in high water, steamers of light draught can ascend 2600 miles.  The Mississippi is navigable between 600 and 700 miles above St. Louis --

M. Christiani from 12 25/.. to 2 5/.. Lesson 9 – then writing out my bit of translation from English into German and then what I had read of Kotzebue into English till 3 20/.. –

Out at 3 40/.. – to Lady Harriet – Had been gone about 10 minutes  Left little note to beg me to go this evening or write what I had to say about the carriage – did the latter saying  I must write letters this evening – Said my German took up my time terribly – Said I had promised to dine with Countess Blucher at 3 tomorrow and spend the evening with them, but as Lady Harriet was a later person would call and ask if she was at home at 9 – Asked for the carriage at 3 50/.. p.m. tomorrow –

Walked round the Citadel – beautiful sea view – and the fortifications and fossés all round very  pretty – the grass so green, the water so clean, everything so neat, the town looking so well only half hidden, and the country in sight so well wooded, the woods still green all along Great King’s Street etc. etc.

Home at 5 1/2 – Dinner at 6 in 50 minutes then wrote the last 24 lines till 7 1/4

My cousin came gently just after breakfast absent since twenty one August and for some time before came every three weeks

From 7 1/4 to 10 1/2 writing out some literal French translation (Voltaire’s Letters) and from 8 1/2 to 10 1/2 at German – Lady H. de H- had called just after I went out –

Very fine day. F 62° now at 10 35/.. p.m. --

 

WYAS Finding Numbers SH:7/ML/E/16/0118 and SH:7/ML/E/16/0119