Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt Jackson, June 27, [1869?]

Letter from Charlotte Cushman to Helen Hunt Jackson, June 27, [1869?]

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876

Jackson, Helen Hunt

Illness

Social Events--Travels

Stebbins, Emma, 1815-1882

Relationships-- Intimate--Same-sex

Friendship

Arts--Literature

England--London

Charlotte Cushman is currently undergoing breast cancer treatment. She is surrounded by her friends and with Emma Stebbins.

Transcripts courtesy of Nancy Knipe, Colorado College.

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876

Colorado College, Tutt Library, Helen Hunt Jackson Papers, Part 2, Ms 0156, Box 2, Folder 34, letters from Charlotte Cushman to HH, 1869-70. Transcribed by Nancy Knipe, 2005.

1869-06-27

Reference

It is a shame, dear kind soul that I should have left your letter of the 15" [and another?] on the 21" so long unacknowledged, but it came on the morning I was leaving London for this place. I was staying out at Hampstead & this necessitated an early start in the morning to get to the Great Malvern Rway in time for the 10 o'clock train to this place. After I arrived, there was the usual hunt for lodgings (there are plenty of lodgings for Aunt if she will come, & somebody here to find them for her which is hard not [to?]. This occupied a good portion of the 1st day, after seeing the Dr. Then on third day began the treatment & for the first few days I was too busy to do anything else. Now I begin to feel a little less like a worn out broken wrinkled lunatic than I did & now I begin to indulge myself at the Expenses of my friends, & eccola, here flies off a white winged messenger tipped with black & spotted in violet to acknowledge with warm thanks your kind enquiry for my well being, and an embrace for the lovely little poems enclosed. You pay me a great compliment & give me a great pleasure in sending them. They are very lovely & I understand them well. What are you doing with them, have they gone home & have you sold them, am I at liberty to do something with them, if I can? And now you are at [Bechtengarten? Berchtesgaden?] (you were to have [conversation?] about the 23? Was it not so?) and surrounded by many of my friends, to whom you must commend me in all friendly ways. I hope dear Anne Gordon is with you there. You have formed such a clear clear [sic] estimate of her [in so] few words. "She is sweet & restful" - it is just what she is, & she is loyal & true. Poor dear, her measles kept her from having all the attention which any other common malady would have admitted. Her last letter sounded weak & feeble, but Miss [Swinshaw?] had been very attentive to her, & she proposed getting on as soon as possible. We hear that about the 15" there was a great [?] of heat in Italy, driving everybody out of Rome & Naples. How was it with you in Venice, dear lovely Venice? [George?] Sala the [Vile? obliterator?] says of Venice that it is a mixture of Cranhouse Alley & Waffing Old Stain?] - People must not tell [me?] that Frenchmen are the only people who compare everything [by?] their 'Bella France'. An English [press?] man is a beast, lowering & to lower everything. He looks with English Eyes, & a copied French wit, & -- sells his book, to demoralized young England! I mean to visit all of the condensed [poetry?] of Italy. I can't & won't see the prosaic side-all is quiet, peace & just when I think I must see it once more before I return to my native land, which you know I propose I might next summer, God Willing, I thought I should fit a holiday to visit some friends in & about London during the month of June & a portion of July, but my good Dr. Franco in Paris [finding?] me much run down from my one work last winter in Rome, orders me here immediately to get my general health restored to a proper tone & if I am not much better of an indurated gland in my left breast by the 1st of August, I must go to [Crustzmade?] near Coblintz for six weeks. Then my summer which was laid out for some pleasure & a little water treatment, which always tones me up, is given up to medical treatment. Ah what poor souls we are, or rather what poor bodies, & somehow souls don't perish while bodies are [poor?] at least mine doesn't, but then I am rebellious perhaps! Miss Stebbins is with me, & we are so quiet that nobody would know us. Oh I wish you had come here. This summer you would have spent a little more money, but you would have found this time the health here that you can anywhere else because your disposition would have been helped. Shall you not get a run up to St. Moritz? That is the most wonderful air on the continent of Europe I believe!

Give my kindest regards to your friends & companions. I have heard much of the beauty of [Bechtengarten? Berchtesgaden?] & hope you may find healing there. The food is bad. I imagine, all those [German?] places are dreadful in that respect, & therefore Malvern is so good-ah I wish you had come here. Miss Clarke & Miss Foley have not shown up yet. I dare say they will do so later. Miss Clarke had very thoroughly interested Dr. Sully in Miss Foley: so that he asked me very kindly for her. Now God bless you dear. Miss Stebbins sends warmest regards. Let me hear from you soon again & send me "more more" long poems. Believing [me?] ever as I wish you to do, very faithfully Yours,
Charlotte Cushman

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876

Jackson, Helen Hunt, 1830-1885

Knotsford Lodge, Great Malvern
Worcestershire, UK

52.1109798

-2.3285836

?1869-06-27