Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, October 12, 1859

  • Posted on: 10 December 2021
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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, October 12, 1859
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transcriber

Transcriber:spp:nwh

student editor

Transcriber:spp:cnk

Distributor:Seward Family Digital Archive

Institution:University of Rochester

Repository:Rare Books and Special Collections

Date:1859-10-12

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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, October 12, 1859

action: sent

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

location: Corfu, Greece

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

location: Auburn, NY

transcription: cnk 

revision: jxw 2021-09-23

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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.
Corfu, In the Ionian Islands, Greece
Wednesday October 12
Throughout all yesterday and last night. I felicitated
myself on reclining over more of the day dreams of my
life. I awoke to look out upon Cerigo, the Southern-
most of the Western Islands of Greece. We crossed the
Gulf of Clocythia and Cape Matassi, looked in
upon Navarino, the scene of the naval battle
which gave new a new birth to Greece thirty years
ago but within my own memory. On the night was the
new Kingdom of Greece, presented the Morea as its
frontier and I was on the West the Ionian Islands
the also a new Grecian state under the protection
of Great Britain. I almost fancied that I saw
Tempe and her maids dancing in her vale
when the sun went down as I was passing thro
Arcadia. A land where none suffers to
call images of peace plenty and immanence
in every language and to every race. True I saw
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no monuments of the dead Greece, but there were
villages on the mountain sides and on the seashore
and graceful barges past me in all directions
indications of what is ^ever^ more ^ e ^ pleasant to contemplate
a Greece restored to a new life. Early this
morning I was on deck, and lo a great and
glorious change had come over the face of nature.
Dark clouds hung over us fr in every part
of the heavens, the atmosphere was moist
a fog was rising from the sea, the the Island
of Corfu lay close under our side on the
left car gently undulating, on the right
Albania broken into mountains and vallies
like the regions of the Highlands on the Hudson
river. Fields, gardens orchards fields
and meadows grass covered meadows
with villages country seats and farm homes
embellished the Island of Corfu. While the
even the mountains and vallies of Albania were
clothed with verdure. It is almost the first
day in which I have enjoyed a beautiful hot
sky attempered by moisture since I arrived
in Europe in May last, and the country below
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such a coast and that of Africa or even that of Asia
is delightful beyond description. At ten o clock
we ^came to^ anchored of in the port of Corfu. ^The town^ It is
seated on the rocky shore of a beautiful bay
and rises by terraces up the hill side. Strong
walls, a citadel and other fortifications sur-
mounted by the British flag defend it against
all enemies. The town is Italian in its construc-
tion modified by a contribution of Classic Greek
and Modern English structures. The Venetian blinds
the green lawns, the pleasant gardens look even
American The captain
Unknown
courteously sent the
American flag up to the mast head as
we came to our rest. And I confess that it
was not without pride that I saw that my
poor name even at this distance from home sufficed
to make it float be so proudly in on the breezes
of the Ionian sea.
This is the glow of the picture of my visit
to this interesting coast. I am allowed to
see but doomed never to enter Greece. The
authorities of Corfu sent up a yellow flag –
we must pass directly on, or be sent into
quarantine if we remain here — a f yet more
fruit of the stupidity of that wretched doctor
Unknown

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at Beyruit. The coalmen come along side
and send the coal up in baskets, the market
men send up the provisions and fowls, and
the baskets when dropped empty down to them
again. Although not a sick man woman or
child is aboard, yet we are in law deemed
to be infected with the plague. So I must
go on up the Adriatic content not even once
to set my foot on the soil of Greece.