The American Sharpe

by Gareth Glover

  When I return from my tour I will join you in Georgia and it will be then time to talk over these things, but really the state of this country just now gets every day so much worse, the degree of irritation to which the public mind is excited and which this affair of the queen who is merely a tool in the hands of a party continues to exasperate. The openness with which appeals to the worst feelings of the worst part of the people are made, by herself in her answers to the addresses sent to her, and by the party who pretend to be her advocates. All these present a picture of fearful demoralisation and may I think excite in the friends of order fears of the worst consequences. It is impossible to foresee how all this may end.

  I fear it cannot end quietly, if this country is to be revolutionised. America bids fair to be the only haven of tranquillity, for all other European countries seem to be even in a worse state than this. By the bye when I was at Corsbie Mr Murray was talking of sending out his second son Gabriel to the United States to make a tour of the country, in order to judge for himself whether he would like to settle there for he was thinking of farming in Scotland but his father cannot find any opening for establishing him to his satisfaction. In short there never, I suppose, was a period in which there was such a difficulty in finding an opening for a young man in all professions in this country as the present. Mr Gibbon who has been so long in Ireland is now in London but I am afraid this will be of no more use towards forwarding the business with Simpson & Davison than if he had remained where he was There is no seeing him at all, Mrs Mallet his mother in law has not seen him since he came over. He says that he is so occupied that he has not time to call. There is something strange in all this, I have attempted in vain to find him out. Mr Harvey does not give any hope that through his means anything can be effected. I perceive by your letter to my aunt of May 20th which (she sent me together with the bill for £400 drawn on William Mitchell and which has been duly honoured) that you have expected that I should have departed on my tour. I was obliged at any rate to wait until the arrival of the bill which you said in your letter you was to send me and am now writing for my friend Felix6 who is well as his brother a Captain7 in the navy are going to Italy & we are to travel together. I am afraid the funds in Mr Harvey’s hands are not so large as you mention in your letter. I myself have received no money from him since I wrote to you in March, which made the amount of all I have received as I then mentioned £1,000 since the period of my leaving Georgia and yet there appears to be from the account he sent me less than you suppose. However, he says he wrote to you in May which I suppose will explain it. I must ascertain however that my aunt is not likely to be exposed to any inconvenience before I make my arrangements for my departure, for my plan is to place in Coutt’s8 hands the sum at my disposal to get letter of credit from him available on the continent.

  I shall request Mr Harvey to send all your letters for me to my Uncle Gordon whilst I am abroad, who will know how to forward them. My Aunt Gordon with Laura are by this time at Wooden, I hope she will receive much benefit from the country air. You will have heard that young Adam Walker who married Katherine Murray, has had a son and heir. Mrs Moodie and her son are still at Liverpool, she has an unquiet speech that will not I suppose allow her to rest there long. I will write to you from the first place I make any stop on the other side of the water. We talk of Pisa as a winter residence. Pray do not give up writing to me, although I may be a little longer getting your letters and believe me my dear father your most affectionate son, James P Gairdner.

  Having arrived at Paris, James wrote to Laura of his adventures to date, next stop was Italy.

  To Miss Gairdner, 140 Princes Street, Edinburgh.

  Paris, 3rd October 1820

  My dear Laura,

  I had hoped to have been able to have answered before I left England your letter which I found at Dover, but I found the travelling along the coast to Portsmouth more tedious than I expected. I only arrived there on Saturday evening and as I had to sail on Tuesday, I could not make it out. In passing through Hastings where I only stopped a night, I found on entering the public room of the inn Captain Robertson9 who was making one of a whist party which had been obliged on account of the house being so full to hold its session in the room the travellers were shown into, a circumstance without which I should not have met with him.

  It was too late in the evening to call and see any of the ladies of the family and I could not stay the next day which he very kindly pressed me to do. His daughter Isabella he says he has no hope of whatever. It must be bad indeed when he can so express himself to an almost stranger. Long before this gets to hand you will I suppose have returned to Edinburgh. I wrote a letter to my aunt which I directed to Corsbie (when I was at Dover) supposing that she would be there by that time. I hope if she had not arrived, as I think by the date of one I received from her two days ago she had not, they will not send it travelling about the country for they are very careless about those things. I am really sorry that she has not derived more benefit from her visit to the country. I wish the next winter and spring may not be severe upon her but in Edinburgh it is very trying and I do not think your situation in Princes Street a warm one. I really do not think that your non appearance in London can give any offence to our friends there whose kindness to Jane I can never forget even though they had no other claims on our grateful remembrance and I should feel very uneasy at the idea of my aunt being left alone at the time she is so frequently unable to make exertion. On my journey from Dover to Portsmouth I met Orlando Felix as I expected at Brighton, but he there made another change in his plans. He had found himself so much fatigued with the travelling from London that he preferred sailing from Brighton to Dieppe, but as the captain had been appointed to meet us at Portsmouth and he did not know where to write to him he wanted me to proceed there with positive directions to sail on Tuesday on which same day he was to leave Brighton and we were all to meet at Rouen, which we did accordingly on the Friday. I found the Strachans as I left them except Mr S[trachan] who had returned home in the meantime poor man. He does not seem to feel himself much at home there. The business of the Grove is as unlikely in appearance to be brought to a satisfactory termination, as ever Mrs S[trachan] takes special care of her precious health. Magdalen who was not well when I was there first was looking much better. Emmy and Pattie in high preservation.

  The Churches had left the Isle of Wight for some place, I forget the name of it, not far from Portsmouth. They have it seems given up the idea of going to Hastings. By the bye when you write to Bessie Church I wish you would tell her that I wrote to her from Havre de Grace to tell her what I had done with the parcel I took charge of from her to Captain Evans10 at Caen, but it is very likely she might not get my note. The following was the substance of it, I made enquiries at the Havre about Captain Evans and the best means of forwarding the books to him. Mrs Wilkinson or Wilkins the landlady of the Hotel de Londres informed me that she was in the constant habit of forwarding things to Caen and that she was almost certain that Captain Evans had left it but that if I chose to leave the parcel with her she would send it safe to him if he is still there, if not she would keep it until she received further directions about it, so that should Captain E[vans] not have received it any of the captains of the packets sailing from Portsmouth or Southampton will enquire about it. We all met as I mentioned at Rouen, that is the captain and myself who travelled together and Orlando who travelled from Dieppe to that place alone. He suffered dreadfully he says from sea sickness but was looking I think all the better for it and has borne his journey here much better than I expected. We stayed a day at Rouen which is a most interesting old city, the cathedral and several of the churches are among the finest specimens of gothic architecture in France and the commodore who has a good deal of the antiquarian mania and is really a very intellectual companion was in raptures. We have been here about ten days, and will set off for Italy I believe about Monday next, for as the autumn is advancing we cannot afford to make a long
stay here, indeed nothing detains us now but the ceremonial of getting our passports countersigned by the different ambassadors. Orlando and myself having seen the lions11 here and Robert Felix intending to return this way. Pisa is the first place we intend to make any long stay at, so that you had better direct your letters there until you hear further from me. I received a packet of letters the other day enclosed by Jenny containing my aunt’s of the 11th September written at Wooden, also one from my father and Robert Walker.

  My father I am very sorry to learn was suffering at that time from the Erysipelas in his foot,12 I trust it will not prevent him from going to the westward in the fall of the year, though it is fortunate it did not come on while he was travelling. I hope we shall soon hear farther and better accounts of him. Jane’s letter is more cheering. She writes in good spirits and gives a very satisfactory account of herself. Paris is much as when I was last there, except that the birth of the little Duc de Bordeaux13 has given rise to a great deal of rejoicing and fetes, illuminations etc.

  They are obliged to exhibit the poor infant at the windows of the palace three or four times a day to gratify the loyal curiosity or whatever it may be of the Parisian gossips. I do not think that I ever in London in the same space of time met with so many acquaintances as I have since I have been here and it is really a most fascinating place to spend a short time in. On looking at my letter of credit I find no banker at Pisa so you had better direct to me at Florence, to the c/o Donat Orsi & co14. I shall stay a fortnight or three weeks there and will leave directions for the forwarding of any that may arrive after we leave it. If we do not travel all the way there together, we shall meet there. I have not time to look this over so pray excuse blunders. Best of love to all with you and believe me dear Laura yours most affectionately J. P Gairdner

  I am writing Jenny by this post and will write from Florence.

  James duly kept his promise to write again from Florence.

  To Miss Gairdner, 140 Princes Street, Edinburgh

  Florence, 2nd December 1820

  My dear Laura,

  I wrote to my aunt from Milan which I hope got to hand and as in my letter to yourself from Paris I gave my address to this place, vis., to Donat Orsi & co. I fully expected on my arrival here to find letters from your part of the world as also from some of the folks at Dover who by the bye are I suppose before this in town again. One from Patrick Thackery was however the only dispatch I found at my bankers, which was doubly welcome as giving me later accounts than I had of my friends in England and Scotland, both too, favourable. I left Milan a day or two after I wrote for Genoa. I travelled with two Italians and an Englishman of the name of Heyer a gentlemanly fellow. We lived together at Genoa and have travelled together from thence to this place stopping at different places on the route which presented anything of interest, of which there were very many.

  I mentioned that I had separated from the Felix’s at Lyons for the sake of passing through Switzerland and crossing the Alps and that I expected to hear about them at Genoa, which I did. They had arrived at Nice having been detained on the road longer than they expected and a physician to whom Orlando had letters advised him to stay there at all events until the end of this month as there were sometimes heavy rains until that period which it would be very imprudent in him to expose himself to the risk of travelling in. As my going to Nice would be only retrograding I decided on coming here to wait their arrival. If they come on to Pisa to pass the rest of the winter I can go to them in a day, if they go on at once to Rome to which at all events they will go in February they must pass through here. In the meantime, instead of passing four or five weeks in such an unprofitable place as Nice, I am in the centre of the purest Italian dialect and in one of the most delightful cities in the world. I am in very comfortable lodgings in the same house with [an] old brother officer of mine who like myself has gone on half pay for the purpose of free locomotion.

  The number of English people in Italy particularly Florence is astonishing. I was at a ball the other evening at the house of Madame Orsi, my banker’s wife, at which all the young ladies, at least all the dancing ones were English, which is rather a nuisance as one does not travel abroad to see the manners of one’s own country, indeed it is the only fault I find with Florence which is a delightful place to abode. I walked about the first days after my arrival quite bewildered with delight and I am only now though I have been here nearly a week beginning to get a little sober upon it, indeed I have been pleased hitherto with my tour in this country far beyond my expectation and I have yet the object of greatest interest viz [torn-Rome?] to see. My travelling companion from Milan Mr Heyer is a gentlemanly man, clever and well informed but desperately argumentative.

  That you will say I would not quarrel with, but it is on subjects on which I feel no interest that he is fondest of getting into, viz politics on which we cannot at all agree as he is a zealous advocate of the queen’s and a little of a radical. However he is mild and always the gentleman, never like our Uncle Murray, suffering himself to be carried away by the heat of argument. After battling for two entire days on the subject of parliamentary reform and the queen’s case, both of which I am heartily disgusted with, together with occasional digressions on the most inscrutable points of theology, viz free will and fore knowledge, I proposed that we were passing constantly through most beautiful country without observing it, we should come to the agreement that whenever either of us hold up his finger the other should hold his tongue and moreover that we should not argue on any subject that was not in some manner connected with Italy, a tolerably wide field and indeed we have discoursed with considerable profundity. We were much pleased with Genoa where we stayed a fortnight and with the country between it and Pisa, at least that part of it which we travelled through, for we left Genoa in a felucca15 for Lerici16 about half way to avoid the almost unpassable roads in the neighbourhood of Genoa to the south, which passes through the most rugged parts of the Argentines and is only to be travelled on mules at a very tedious rate. We got to Lerici in about twenty hours and had most delightful weather, from hence through Carrara, Massa and Lucca to Pisa. The country is among the most beautiful even in Italy. As my companion was anxious to get on to Florence, to join a friend from whom he had parted at Milan for the purpose of making the excursion to Genoa we only stayed a day at Pisa but I shall certainly go to that part of the country again even if the Felix’s do not come to stay there, and shall from Leghorn visit Elba and return to Florence by Piombino and Sienna which will enable me to take a different route to Rome for Sienna is a place to see though not on the most interesting route. However I shall be stationary here for some time and shall also wait until I know something positive about the movements of the Felix’s. I must defer saying anything about the wonders of Florence until another opportunity.

  I shall write again soon and hope it will not be long ere I hear from you. I am very anxious to hear of or from my father who mentioned in the letter I received from him at Paris that he was then suffering much pain from an attack in the foot of the Erysipalus. I am anxious to know whether my aunt has formed any plan yet with respect to her removal from Scotland, Patrick mentions in his letter that she was keeping her health wonderfully well since her return from the country, I hope that the winter will be less severe upon her than the last which indeed was a very hard winter and I think the house in Union Street was by no means a healthy one, at least I never suffered so much inconvenient health without actually being unwell. Pray when you write be particular in mentioning whatever you know about everybody. Tell me has Captain Robertson’s daughter got my letter or is it as he told me he thought past all hope. How is our Aunt Crosbie and in what part of the world is she now? I should not be much surprised at meeting her at the corner of the street some morning. Give my love to her when you write, also to Miss Robertson. Remember me to the Murrays, to Mrs Miller and all who may care about my dear Laura, yours most affectionately, James P Gairdner.

  Kiss Mary for
me and tell her I do not forget that I am in her debt a letter, I have written to Jenny by this post.

  The tour continued to the Eternal City.

  To Miss Gairdner, 140 Princes Street, Edinburgh, Scotland

  Rome, 12th March 1821

  My dear Laura,

  I wrote to my aunt about a month ago shortly after my arrival here which I hope she received for I find that letters frequently miscarry. I heard from Orlando Felix a short time since, the first account I had received after an interval of nearly three months. He mentioned having written several letters none of which I got. I have been expecting daily to hear from some of you, I had a letter from Jenny shortly after my arrival here, the only account I have received since I left Florence. She mentioned having heard from you a short time before and that you were getting the better of bad colds. I fancy such things are inevitable in Edinburgh, it is a bitter place to winter in. This climate is as delightful at this season of the year as it [is] severe with you.

  Now and then there is [a] wind from the mountains and as they are covered with snow all the winter it is rather piercing, but it never lasts above a day or two, and I have never seen it rain here two days running. We have just made an end here of a very curious ceremony, the Roman Carnival. The Carnival, properly so called, is the whole period between Christmas and Lent, but every principal city has some particular period of it which is appointed for being more than usually ridiculous, the Romans fix on the last ten days (excepting the Sunday and Friday which are within that term) if I were to describe all the absurdities of that time you would say that the nation that could be so amused must be superlatively children. But what would you say if I were to confess that I was as much delighted as any child among them, and I could not deny it. I did indeed at first think that it was unbecoming the descendants of the Brutuses, Catos and Caesars, and as it interrupted occupations of a very different cast I suspected it was not altogether worthy of those who came with the purpose of externally observing the monuments associated with such names, but by degrees I entered into the spirit of the thing and felt quite sorry when it was over. However the Romans have resumed their gravity and I have returned to ruined arches, broken columns and the materials of that magnificence which once overshadowed the world. It is impossible that any written description can give any idea of the deeply melancholy fascination, the very peculiar interest that this place inspires. It happens fortunately that the modern city extends over that part which in the early period was occupied by meadows, while the Forum, the greater part of the seven hills and the scenes most remarkable for the interesting events of their history are left in that imaginative solitude which accords so well with the mood with which we wish to view them.