Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Letter from Lord Munster, London, to Mary Georgiana Dawson-Damer, 1838 May 9 : autograph manuscript signed with initial.

BIB_ID
425765
Accession number
MA 3498.234
Creator
Munster, George Augustus Frederick FitzClarence, Earl of, 1794-1842.
Display Date
London, England, 1838 May 9.
Credit line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cremin, 1980.
Description
1 item (5 pages, with address) ; 18.7 x 11.3 and 22.7 x 18.5 cm
Notes
There is a penciled note on one side of the address leaf, in the hand of Constance Dawson-Damer, Mrs. Damer's youngest child, "Description of my Parents happy family party."
Place and date of writing from postmark.
Detached address leaf with fragments of a seal and postmarks to "The Hon'ble / Mrs. D. Damer / Broom Villa / Fulham."
Provenance
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cremin, 1980.
Summary
Expressing his regret that he could not join her family party at the Broom Villa and discussing his sadness; saying with how much envy he watched everyone on the lawn and how much he realized that he was a stranger to good spirits and laughter; saying "Spirits, are not like the contagion of the Scarlet Fever, to be caught - or I would put up with the last for a chance of the first...I am a Bird of ill omen & must have been cradled by a screech owl and been [illegible] by a Vulture - I am sure the Harpies were at my Christening and the Fates [illegible] cross when then shewn my thread of existence - I wished they had clipped it when I went up the Hill at Toulouse on Easter Sunday 1814 - That I do wish, from my soul - what a deal of trouble I should have saved to others & misery to myself...What nonsense I have written - but I am out of sorts - with all but the Moon - Is it in hopes she will use her influence on me? I wonder if I could forget myself - if she qualified me for Bedlam - If so I dont care how soon I sign myself / your devoted Lunatic / M."