Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, August 4, 1859

  • Posted on: 8 December 2021
  • By: admin
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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, August 4, 1859
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transcriber

Transcriber:spp:jdc

student editor

Transcriber:spp:cnk

Distributor:Seward Family Digital Archive

Institution:University of Rochester

Repository:Rare Books and Special Collections

Date:1859-08-04

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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, August 4, 1859

action: sent

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

location: Paris, France

receiver: Frances Seward
Birth: 1805-09-24  Death: 1865-06-21

location: Auburn, NY

transcription: jdc 

revision: vxa 2021-03-13

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Page 1

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Editorial Note

William Henry Seward's series of travel letters in 1859 are organized and listed by the date of each entry.
1
Lyons August 4th, Monday
My dearest Frances,
At eleven yesterday morning
we issued by railroad from the walls of Paris and
commenced the gentle but long ascent towards the
Cot d Or which divides the Atlantic rivers
from those which flow into the Mediterranean.
The suburbs of Paris are attractive, but there is a
lack of trees, and of crude dwellings which
renders the country in that part of France
monotonous. The law obliges a division of estates
equally among all the children on the death
of its proprietor, and so France is divided into
infinitely small estates, no one of which
as a general rule is worth improving by the
construction of good or costly dwellings. The
chateaux of the ante revolutionary aristocracy
are decayed and the rural population
is gathered every where into old mean
and shabby towns. Our road for a long
distance was on the same track that I had
followed when in this country before. It led
through Melun, Sens, Joigny, and Dijon
Page 2

2
and unlike
England France
was found substantially
unchanged. I passed with
regret Dijon the capital of Ancient
Burgundy, The seat of its proud dukes,
now decayed in the decline of that great
estate. I would have refreshed my recollections
of the Cathedral of Sens, the refuge of Thomas A Beckett
and those of Dijon the ^vast^ Cathredal at Dijon as well
as the Ducal Palace. But Rome was before me
and time was flying. At Dijon we confronted the
vue mountaine - and the hills were rocky and
barren. But turning to the Eastward we decended along
the side of the Cote d'Or - or Golden Hills and scenes
of unsurpassed luxurience attended us all the way
through Macon and Chalons sur Saone to this the
second city of France situated at the confluence of the
Saone and the Rhone -