Sunday July 25^th
My dear Henry,
The extreme heat of the weather prevented
my going to Church to day — this is our fourth day
of exceedingly warm weather — I have not been in the
street since it commenced and have had fewer visitors
Judge Conkling says he presumes it is warmer at Albany
than it is here — it seems hardly possible — Yesterday
I employed the afternoon reading Verplancks speech it
interested me extremely I am glad it is published
We talk much of Mc Cleod but have not commenced
the Catholic schools — I hope you will come soon
to help me answer some of the curious questions which
are propounded — The Canada question is agitated again
Clara says she hopes they will not murder any
more boys — Judge C– wonders why the E. J–
evinces so much hostility towards the General
Administration —

The worm is destroying all the locusts — Our garden
furnishes abundance of fruit and vegetables but is
not kept remarkably neat — John is rather behind
poor Peter in that respect — I should be sorry you
had lost all the fine strawberries could you eat
them — We have abundance of raspberries and cherries
yet — The grapes are promising — Willie spends
almost the whole of his time in the open air he
finds so much to amuse him — and Gus spends a
great proportion of his in the water these warm days
Fred has been engaged with the construction of a
camera obscura which he has succeeded making
very pretty saving the inversion of the pictures
I cannot say much in favour of the location —
after toiling one week to make a room of rough
boards he discovered that the light could not
be sufficiently excluded and was obliged to resort
to the wash room which among many other delightful
appurtenances emits a strong odour of codfish
The ten minutes I spent there yesterday made me

me sick some hours and is still fresh in my
recollection — Fred thinks with a suitable building
he could equal the camera at Niagara —
I am unable to tell how long Clarence's vacation
will be but I think about 4 or 5 weeks — I am
afraid he will be disappointed in not coming here —
I will write to Maryann and give all the directions
possible at this distance about his wardrobe —
I am sorry to hear your Father is more in-
disposed — Why do you doubt that he had a paral-
ysis previous to going to Europe? I suppose the length
of time which has elapsed between the two does
not render it improbable — Poor Miss Stansbury
is dead — She was confined to her bed more than a
year and died at last with dropsy — She was a
terrible sufferer the last month — Did you know that
she and her brother once had the charge of the Deaf and Dumb
Asylum at Hartford — We are all as well as the extreme
heat will admit — your own
Frances —

William H. Seward
Albany
AUBURN N.Y.
JUL 25
hMrs William H. Seward
July 26. 1841