BIB_ID
408221
Accession number
MA 35.53
Creator
Burney, Fanny, 1752-1840.
Display Date
[1821 November 19].
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1905.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 22.5 x 18.2 cm
Notes
This is essentially two letters in one: FBA writes a letter to her sister-in-law Sarah Payne Burney (James's wife) on the first two pages, then takes a new sheet and writes a separate letter to her niece Sarah Burney Payne (James's daughter).
The date of writing has been taken from the postmark.
There is no place of writing given. In The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, Hemlow suggests that this letter was probably written in Eliot Vale, Blackheath, where FBA was visiting Frederica Locke from November 8th to November 23rd.
Address panel with postmark: "Mrs. J. T. Payne / 26. James Street / Westminster." FBA has written and crossed out "Stratton Street" in the middle of the address.
Docketed: "Madame D'Arblay / 1821."
The date of writing has been taken from the postmark.
There is no place of writing given. In The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, Hemlow suggests that this letter was probably written in Eliot Vale, Blackheath, where FBA was visiting Frederica Locke from November 8th to November 23rd.
Address panel with postmark: "Mrs. J. T. Payne / 26. James Street / Westminster." FBA has written and crossed out "Stratton Street" in the middle of the address.
Docketed: "Madame D'Arblay / 1821."
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
[Addressing Sarah Payne Burney]: Lamenting the sudden death of her brother James on November 17; mentioning that her nephew Charles Parr had thought that James had been declining over the past two years, "yet This End -- Apoplexy, has nothing to do with declining -- 'tis what I should least of expected for this dear Brother -- though for the other [her brother Charles Burney] it was my constant apprehension from the time of my return to England. How chearful he was the last Evening I spent with you! -- My dear dear Brother!"; telling her that Frederica Locke is looking after her and will not let her return home for the time being, as she is so upset; inviting Sarah to go and stay at her house at Bolton Street "if you wish to be quite quiet for a week or a fortnight" and telling her to take Alexander's room, since he is still in Paris; saying that Sarah should use her own room for your "sitting & Eating room," because she has the keys to the other rooms ("my paper & picture room, & the little library") with her; writing that she will instruct her servant Ramsay to "keep good fires in both apartments"; mentioning that, the last time she saw James, he took "an uncommonly affectionate leave of me"; sending her "kind love" to Martin; [addressing Sarah Burney Payne]: sympathizing with her on the death of her father: "even my own affliction surrenders to what I know your warm overpowering filial grief must be! -- newer & fresher to misfortune, this, your first real trial"; mentioning that Mrs. Locke says she has written to Sarah's husband John Payne, "& I beg you to add my thanks for his & your dear Mother's considerate feeling for me at such a period"; telling Sarah to take great care of her health and writing that her "kind Partner will be your best physician"; sending, again, her "kind love" to Martin.
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