Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, June 1, 1859

  • Posted on: 20 April 2021
  • By: admin
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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, June 1, 1859
x

transcriber

Transcriber:spp:msf

student editor

Transcriber:spp:vxa

Distributor:Seward Family Digital Archive

Institution:University of Rochester

Repository:Rare Books and Special Collections

Date:1859-06-01

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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, June 1, 1859

action: sent

sender: William Seward
Birth: 1801-05-16  Death: 1872-10-10

location: London, England, UK

receiver: Frances Seward
Birth: 1844-12-09  Death: 1866-10-29

location: Auburn, NY

transcription: msf 

revision: agw 2020-11-30

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Page 1

9
Wednesday June 1. 1859.
My dear Fanny,
Let me begin this days record with
acknowledging the receipt of your mothers
Birth: 1805-09-24 Death: 1865-06-21
first letter and
your own. Both are very beautiful and very affectionate.
They have relieved me of much anxiety and left me
very happy.
This has been a day!! filled with cares
and excitement that I fear I shall fail to make as
full an account as you I could want —
The Derby races are the great festival occasion
in England. Races or sweep stakes are run on a
great course seventeen miles from London — and all
the world go out to see them. High and low
rich and poor refined and vulgar — I went with
Mr Morgan
Birth: 1813-04-14 Death: 1890-04-08Certainty: Possible
a banker – who took a party of
four ladies
Unknown
and one Gentleman
Unknown
beside myself – in
the a great barouche drawn by four horses mana-
ged by two postillions who rode and strut[ t ]
x

Supplied

Reason: 
ed
their mounts – We found ourselves in a procession
of three carriages abreast and thus we were
four hours making fourteen or fifteen miles. The
whole scene was one like a carnival. John
Bull
appeared in his gala dress — He behaved
just as well as Brother Jonathon does on the
4 th of July, no better — Our horses became refractory
& tangled and hurt themselves, we deserted and
left our carriage. The party continued on to
Page 2

10
the race ground. I gave it up, and turned across
the fields to Epsom station, where after waiting
two hours t for a train and being in the mean
time requested to leave a train what I had mistaken
a private, Which I had mistaken for a
public booth, because I had onboarded with
a segar in my mouth, I l eft made my
way back to London.
Before I go And here I am to report to
you my “lunch” at Stafford House of yesterday.
The Lady Sutherland
Birth: 1806-05-21 Death: 1868-10-27
had invited a small
party of very high noble men, among them the
Marquis of Lansdowne
Birth: 1780-07-02 Death: 1863-01-31
— The House is the finest
and most magnificent private dwelling in
England. The grand Hall and stair way
and the gallery of pictures on a royal scale.
The Duke
Birth: 1786 Death: 1861-02-28
is old, infirm, almost absolutely deaf
but honest benevolent and amiable. The
Dutchess the most accomplished and elegant
lady in England. I could not tell you how kind
and gracious she was to me. She detained me
after the party had left, and we had a long and
most agreeable tete a tete.
Page 3

11
On the same evening I dined with her brother the
Earl of Carlisle
Birth: 1802-04-18 Death: 1864-12-05
, and a very large party of the
nobles and statesmen of the liberal po class —
It would be tedious to recount their names. The
Dutchess of Sutherland, the Duke
Unknown
and Dutchess of
Carlisle
Unknown
, Lord Granville
Birth: 1815-05-11 Death: 1891-03-31
, Lord
Birth: 1801-04-28 Death: 1885-10-01
and Lady
Shaftsbury
Birth: 1810-11-06 Death: 1872-10-15
, Lord
Birth: 1784-10-20 Death: 1865-10-18
and Lady Palmerston
Birth: 1787-04-21 Death: 1869-09-11
,
Lord John Russell
Birth: 1792-08-18 Death: 1878-05-28
, Mr
Birth: 1809-12-29 Death: 1898-05-19
G & Mrs Gladstone
Birth: 1812-01-06 Death: 1900-06-14

Mr Delany
Birth: 1817-10-11 Death: 1879-11-22
editor of the Times. It was a
most agreeable party — and I came away op-
pressed with a consciousness that I did not
deserve such attentions and courtesies —