BIB_ID
193934
Accession number
MA 4583
Creator
Stanhope, Hester, Lady, 1776-1839.
Display Date
1814 May 12-June 4.
Credit line
Purchase, Gordon N. Ray Fund; 1988.
Description
1 item (84 p.)
Notes
Lady Hester had left England in 1810 and met Bruce, who was nearly twenty years her junior, in Gibraltar. They lived together for almost three years; she refused to marry him, and in response to her father's pleas, encouraged him to return to England in 1813. This letter was written after his departure; it is unclear whether it ever reached him.
Summary
A letter to her lover describing her life in Lebanon. She reveals pain at his failure to write for some months and describes at length her life after Bruce's departure. She writes of many topics including the organization of her household, her delight and interest in the Levant, dislike of English compatriots, and of an epidemic of plague that began in neighboring villages and spread to her household. Her enthusiasms include silk-weaving, animal husbandry, and gun barrels and other weapons. She urges Bruce to go to good places and seek out "good society": "do not mistake ignorance of vice for virtue, there is a wide difference...be happy, that is all and never let a thought about me make you otherwise."
Housed in
Blue cloth drop-spine box (26.8 cm)
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