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Letter from J. Crawford - 1823. A letter sent by J. Crawford to his sister Anne at Elphin, Co. Roscommon in July 1823. Crawford is returning with his wife from a two-year "world-tour" and is looking forward to seeing his sister and his father or brother (?) Thomas. He declares himself a proud Englishman, and distains the "violent and savage" Irish.
The Crawford's were Protestant landowners in Elphin at the time of the Census of Elphin in 1749. A James Crawford is listed as a landowner in Deanspark, Elphin in an 1833 tithe return.
The letter was written in Balorus, near Montpellier on 26 June 1823. It was posted in Agen and has a red P.45 P. / Agen postmark, (front, top right). It also has a boxed P.P.P.P. mark. It passed through Paris on 8th July (receiving a black double circle JY / P (circled) 8 / 1823 stamp (on back)) and Calais, to London (getting a red diamond 10 JY 10 / 1823 receiver cancellation (on back)). The postage charge of 2/3 was collected on arrival. The cover also has a black dotted circle FPO / JY 8 / 1823 transit stamp on the back.
The letter appears to reads as follows: Balorus near Montpelier. June 26th 1823. My dear Anne, I am at last fast approaching home & the happy & much wished for period of meeting once more my dearest friends, however gratifying & amusing it may be to wander about the world at large & explore many of it’s chief beauties, as I have been doing for nearly two years. I feel that there is no happiness so great & so lasting as that to be enjoyed in ones native land & from the cultivation of our domestic affections - this feeling must belong particularly to an Englishman who would find in no other country the free & noble institutions - the high state of moral & intellectual improvement which exists in his own. My anxiety to return is not a little increased, my dear Anne, by the natural desire the glimpse I had of you has given me of further cultivating your acquaintance, this has besides been a particularly interesting period to all your friends & I am impatient to get to Paris in hopes of hearing of you there - I believe my last letter to Thomas was from Florence. We have made since a very agreeable journey to this place. We came to Genoa first & after admiring the beautiful situation & fine palaces of that splendid city we continued on to Nice by the road called the Cornice (?), along the coast - this we travelled on mules, & sent the carriages by sea there being no carriage road. From Nice we proceeded by Antibes - Cannes, Fryies (?) where Napoleon embarked to & disembarked from Elba - Toulon - Marseilles - Aix - Avignon & Nimes to Montpellier. This place is 15 miles distant from the latter. It is the most miserable village and country I know, but we have contrived to pass near a month in it for my lady to try it’s hot mineral baths & are at last preparing to leave it tomorrow for Paris. We go by Toulouse, Tours, Blois, Orleans & we shall have seen there, some of the best towns & most interesting country of the south of France. We shall reach Paris about 8th of July, are to stay there a fortnight & I expect [to] be in London by the beginning of August. After having delivered my charge safely to her family I shall have nothing more satisfying than to go over to Ireland & arrange to stay some time with you. I scarcely remember when I had a quiet week with Dear Thomas. I suppose you will have been very busy with the arrangements for your new house and perhaps I may find you comfortably settled there. I have not been easy at the accounts contained sometimes in the journals of the disturbances which still exist in many parts of Ireland. The people are so violent and savage that there can be but little safety amongst them. We are here within sight of the Pyrenees, at hand for getting news - but we have been so often deceived by the newspaper reports that we cannot place confidence in any of them. I should think however the constitutional party cannot hold out much longer & that the war will soon be terminated. If Thomas wants anything in London he can write to me there at the end of July. I had not time to finish this letter last night & am to begin our journey this morning in a few hours. So I can only add my love to Thomas & the assurance of the sincerest regard & love of your most affectionate brother. J. Crawford.
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