PS you may as well burn my letters as
better than that they should fall into other hands.
This is one of
only two letters I have encountered where the writer suggests it should be
burnt, perhaps because of references to “fair friends” in Newcastle and “the
Danseuse of the Port Martin”, shorthand for the Théâtre de la Porte Saint
Martin, an important venue for ballet, opera, theatre, and sex. There appears
to be a further reference to someone, the details lost from damage to the
letter but ending “I have not seen for some time”.
The recipient in
Durham, John Dawson Lambton, shares a family name with the Earls of Durham and,
like members of that family, is involved in horse breeding and horse racing;
his address at Old Elvet locates him adjacent to a riverside part of Durham
known as The Racecourse and on Old Elvet itself there were stables. The writer,
Milford Edwards, has a name which the internet reckons exclusively American but
is otherwise silent except for one fact. According to a Pennsylvania record, Milford Edwards Esq of London died in Paris
in December 1834, the provenance suggesting that he was an American living
in London. In the letter, Edwards asks about his addressee coming to London
not going to London which I take as confirmation. The Duke of Orleans referred to is
Ferdinand, son of the Louis-Philippe I who was installed on the French throne
in 1830. Ferdinand died in 1842 of a fractured skull; he was driving an open
carriage at speed and it overturned.
Some passages
are torn or illegible.
*
Transcription
Addressed to: John
Dawson Lambton Esqr Old Elvet Durham
Angleterre
Datelined: Paris March 25th 1834
Dear
Lambton
Since
the receipt of your last letter I have had some silver spoons stolen from my
little cupboard. I strongly suspect my porter, but as I cannot bring it home to
him I shall be obliged to pay the piper. The cause of my introducing the
subject is that I have a strong idea he robs me in another manner. The answer I
wrote you, touching how the money should be sent, I gave him to put in the post
& my suspicions are, as I have not since heard from you, that he has
destroyed my letter & put the amount of the postage in his pocket. If this
is the case such a breach of confidence is ten thousand times worse than the
first. If your answer confirms my suspicions, I will most assuredly denounce
him to the police these things annoy me much, particularly as I have plenty of
other troubles to contend with.
The
Duke of Orleans since his ducking [perhaps a joke to be read as “since his Dukeing”]
has taken to racing. Matches are constantly coming off in the Bois de Boulogne,
he has the vanity to suppose that French bred horses, their sires English and
of French mares, can beat our cattle bred & trained at Newmarket he
passively acknowledges the French jockies cant ride for he has got a fellow
over from England. However all would not do he has lost every race.
He
made a sort of general challenge which was immy [immediately]
snapped at by some of our knowing coves here, who in the short space of 17 days
got some …… stuff out of Chiffney’s stables [in Newmarket] &
brought over. He has dropped to the tune of a few thousands & got laughed
at (behind his back…) in the bargain.
Your
races must be near at hand. Do you need anything for the hunters sweeps stakes.
Do you intend coming to London? [Are] our fair friends at Newcastel well?... the
Danseuse of the Port St Martin …. I have not seen for some time I/M
Now
then to business. If my letter has not reached you which I strongly suspect is
the case, it is necessary I should state what you desired to know about
remittances. Get a bankers draft at sight on London payable to Messrs
Rothschilds & Co inclose it post paid to those gentlemen in London
with instructions for the amount to be forwarded to me (Milford Edwards) in
Paris which when done apprize me of yourself & the amount so forwarded.
Jack don’t forget poor me among your friends but tis idle for me so to say for
I know you don’t forget me & god reward you for it & if the prayers of
a poor worthless like myself for your happiness can avail anything you have
them, for at present as all I have to offer in return for your great & kind
treatment Ever yours faithfully
M
E
PS
you may as well burn my letters as better than that they should fall into other
hands. N’est ce pas my kind fellow?
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