Letter from Emma Evans to her cousin Arthur Phelps.
Transcribed from a scan of the original in January 2013 by Penelope
Forrest, born Phelps, great granddaughter of Arthur.
Dear Pumps
I was so exceedingly delighted to
receive this morning a letter from Madlle with a
great Amorbach post mark on it. She does not mention her direction there though
& of course you are too great a noodle to remember the Port town. I think it was
Middleburg or some such name.
Papa is rather better today but he
varies very little from day to day & is very weak & languid.
Still Dr Noble, who saw him
yesterday, says he hopes he will be better in a few days. He gets up a little in
the evening & lies on the sofa in the drawing room. He has not been downstairs
for more than a week. Clara is coming here soon I
am happy to say.
I had such a nice letter yesterday
from Lizzy James from .
She is in great trouble about her brother who has returned from India in far
worse health than they had expected. She herself is I am sure very ill. I do
like her very much & sincerely, though her last letter was 18 pages long; can
friendship go further? I am half inclined to send you Mlle's
to me but I doubt your returning it so I shall not send it except with the
strongest assurances from you of your sending it back by return of post. I don't
believe anyone has such a set of friends as I have.
I was so grieved to hear of poor
little Janey's back the other day. What does she say to it herself?
Perhaps it's cruel to cross such
writing as this but I had not time to write it all before dinner having been to
Hinckley in the morning & as you know there is not much time after.
Your fuchsia is beautiful. I wish you
could see it old fellow. I wd give
to change Staffy for
you – as far as I am concerned that is – perhaps it would not be very
advantageous to you. He is just as he used to be – not to be trusted 2 minutes
out of sight.
Goodbye old fellow. Your loving cousin
Emma
I have read your note – hope you have no objection.
She returns to Pesmes in about
a fortnight.
The letter is not dated but must be written some time in 1854 before Dr Evans
died in November.