BIB_ID
408139
Accession number
MA 35.45
Creator
Arblay, Alexandre Jean Baptiste Piochard, comte d', 1754-1818.
Display Date
[1794] September 6.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1905.
Description
1 item (1 page, with address) ; 23.9 x 19.7 cm
Notes
This letter is written in the hand of FBA, and switches into her own voice halfway through. She appears to have also supplied her husband's signature.
There is a note in pencil on the letter giving "1795" as the year of writing. However, based on biographical evidence, Hemlow argues that the letter was actually written in 1794. See the published correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
The place of writing is given as "Bookham."
Address panel: "Captain Burney, / Margate, / Kent." The end of the address has been crossed out and an unknown hand (possibly Monsieur d'Arblay's) has substituted "James-Street / Westminster."
There is a note in pencil on the letter giving "1795" as the year of writing. However, based on biographical evidence, Hemlow argues that the letter was actually written in 1794. See the published correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
The place of writing is given as "Bookham."
Address panel: "Captain Burney, / Margate, / Kent." The end of the address has been crossed out and an unknown hand (possibly Monsieur d'Arblay's) has substituted "James-Street / Westminster."
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan from the London dealer Quaritch in July 1905 as part of a collection of Burney's correspondence and fragments of manuscripts, bound in three volumes. Disbound in 1925.
Summary
[M.d'A]: Saying that he is anxious to hear news of Martin's health and asking James to write: "We have heard nothing whatever since your Letter to Susanna, so long ago, & every post brings only disappointment. Do, conquer your repugnance to writing so far as to say where you are, & how you are"; sending his love to Sarah Payne Burney; [FBA]: writing that her husband interests himself greatly in Martin's health; mentioning that they dined at Mickleham the previous week with Charlotte and her children, and that they will be going to Chelsea soon for a few days; adding that Esther's daughter Amelia has caught smallpox and had been "miserably ill" but is now recovering; sending news of other family members, including her aunt Rebecca; writing that she will be "very sorry if you should not be in Town when we are at Chelsea."
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