Written immediately on my return home from the South West Mountains, and addressed to Miss R……h The Mountain tops no more appear All glitt’ring to mine eyes; For me no more they mark the year, Rich in Autumnal dyes. Mountains and Vales that charm’d my view, These I have left behind; But more...
The sight of a letter from my Dearest Sister & brother to day made me feel happier than I thought any thing could have done just now, & the pleasure was partly unexpected as we did not know of the delay which prevented you from reaching Fredericksburg the Steam boat friday evening,...
Virginia & myself have had a contest, my Dear sister, about who should write by this post but I could not yeild my birthright so easily in this case, willing as I am to give up the melancholy privilege in general; I am not very fit company however for you or any one else this evening for I am...
I wrote to Mrs Coolidge by the last mail, but really in a state of mind so unfit that if there had been any probability of it’s being more composed before the crisis of the 8th ...
I wrote to Mrs Coolidge by the last mail, but really in a state of mind so unfit that if there had been any probability of it’s being more composed before the crisis of the 8th was passed I would certainly not have sent the letter. but it had been already too long though unavoidably delayed, and...
I am mounted upon a high chest in the cellar, my dear sister, in the midst of sweapers and scourers, for my time is so completely occupied by serving & entertaining company that I have not a quiet unemployed half hour even to devote to you, but write to you I will even in this sort of...
I have seated myself in the drawing room to write to you my dearest sister, in the hope that a rainy day will prevent my being driven hence before I have half finished my letter, though in good truth there is so little rain falling that I should not be very much surprised if the Marquis himself ...
I recieved your letter dear sister while setting at Maria Carrs sick bed, for her illness continuing & increasing the girls at Tufton became quite exhausted and ...
I must write to you My dear Ellen, when I can, and not wait for time to do it quietly and rationally. I have literally not one quiet hour from 5 in the morning my usual hour of rising, till 10 at night, when we generally retire. the odd half hours and quarters that I can command I will most...
I have atlength given up the keys & have time to write to you My Dearest Sister, to think of you I always find time even when most pressed by the labours of housekeeping & distracted by the crowds of company which we have had a constant succession of this summer. I believe I have entirely...
as you have yourself had the misfortune to be housekeeper for our large family My dearest sister, you can perhaps imagine what it is to have five persons in addition to our usual number, but I think even with your experience of Monticello in the summer, you could scarce form an idea of the run of...
I wrote a hurried scrawl to Mr Coolidge by the last mail which would have been burnt if I had had time to collect my thoughts to do better, but although I went in to Nicholas’s pavillion and it rained furiously while I was there, I was so often interrupted, and even forced to leave My letter to...
I have been sitting all the morning with Mrs Madison my dear sister, and must now take advantage of her having retired to her own room to begin a letter to you, which I fear I shall scarce have time to finish before the ...
Your last letter My dear Ellen, is a fresh proof of the infalibility of my judgement. the old dutchess de la Ferté could not have predicted with more confidence than I did, that it was only necessary for you to become acquainted with Boston for you to be pleased with it. and it appears...
Cornelia being now on a visit to Carys-brook, my Dearest Sister, the cares of house-keeping have devolved upon me, with the heavy addition of my being obliged to finish Sidneys trimming in the course of a week, and both together give me scarcely time to sleep & take my meals, but this is...
Cornelia returned home yesterday my dear sister, after an absence of three weeks, accompanied by Jane and Mary Cary who are come up to attend the preaching which the presbyterian clergy mean to pour forth upon us at the meeting of their synod on the 27th. Aunt Cary, Mrs Cocke and Louisiana will...
We have at last got established in winter quarters dearest sister, but I do not feel at home without you & long for your company even more now than during the summer, then I was in such a constant turmoil that I scarce knew whether I was on my head or my heels, & scarce had a leisure...
Virginia was too unwell to write to you in her turn last sunday my dear sister and though she wished still to have written by some of the mails this week she continues so much indisposed and is so constantly suffering from nausea and disordered stomach that she finds it impossible. she desires me...
I have only time to write you a few lines My dearest Ellen, to prevent a longer silence than usual and which might alarm you. I recieved Your letter last monday was a week, and would have answered it with in the same week, but the next mail mail brought one from Col. Peyton informing us of the...
I have my hands so full at present, dear sister, that I can scarcely spare a half hour to write even to you, the duties of a housekeeper, of a milliner & mantua maker and the necessity of paying some neighbourhood visits before we are shut in for the winter, have made me a perfect drudge for...
We have just despatched a box containing such a ridiculous heterogeneous collection, that even you will smile when you unpack it. to begin with the principal article of the catalogue, and which in fact obtained transportation for the rest, is the writing desk for Joseph which I mentioned in a...
Yesterday evening Mr. & Mrs. Key came here after paying a visit at Tufton, and as they spent the day with us I have been obliged to defer writing to my Dear Sister until candle light, and the evenings being the time of my greatest indisposition I should scarcely...
It is long since I have written to you my dear sister, partly because I have not had time, & partly because I had nothing to write about but unhappiness & misfortunes; fortune has persecuted us so unrelentingly that even though at last she seems to give us one smile to excite hope, not...
I think, dear sister, that I shall certainly go to Boston now; brother Jeff. proposes to set out next wednesday (this is friday) but as he is now in Bedford from whence he cannot return before sunday, and has so much business always that he can never say certainly what time he will do any...
Your most affectionate and welcome letters, My ever dear Ellen, have been almost the only pleasures of this most afflicting winter. your separation from us has been a comfort even, as it has spared me the anguish of witnessing your sorrow and when I have been most oppressed I have looked to your...