[Letter from Ann Upshur Eyre to her step-father John Upshur - May 19, 1796]
Mentioned in this letter
- Home, Health, and Social Life
Health - Death- Health - Disease and illness - Ague
- Health - Disease and illness - Jaundice
Marriage
May 19th 96
I am ever ready my Dear Papa to acknowledge the receipt of your letters, but this so unexpected was doubly pleasing. I am much gratified at the prospect you have of visiting Phila in so short a Time, as tis likely I shall see you here before I return. You seem Doubtful whether I do not leave this place with regret. I can positively assure I have at present no object that can excite a desire to be more in one place than another. I am highly gratified at the assurance you give me of the welcome I shall be receiv’d with on my return. Attention and the respect of my friends is the only thing that can reconcile me to Virginia. It is in fact the only thing that attaches me to Phila for any other city would be equally fascinating to young minds that had the same attractions, as this. It is a charming place to dissipate a winter. But in summer a rural life seems more calculated to please even those who are fondest of dissipations. I shou’d love Virginia were its
situation more healthy, but I can never submit to the ague and fever, while I can shelter myself in a more healthy clime. Without the enjoyment of health, the pleasure of this world is nothing. My poor ears are continually assail'd by deaths whenever I receive letters from home. It’s certainly enough to prejudice me against the place. I never was more completely surfeited of any place than I was last fall previous to my return to Phila. The ague and fever had left me its saffron colour without a prospect of its being soon remov’d. You say you are in high spirits and thinking of matrimony. Well, I don’t know that you can pursue a more eligible plan of happiness, but you must certainly be the best judge of that state who have experienced it. Whether it is more congenial to your taste or otherwise, it is, I am sure not calculated to make me happy for I am not of a disposition to risk a certainty for an uncertainty and above all other miseries in this world that of an unhappy connexion must be the most torturing. It fits you for ever other vice so you go on till your
ruin is completely effected and then die of a broken heart. I am not capable of describing the many other miseries attending it, therefore I’ll dismiss the subject till there is a necessity to have it more fully discussed and when that time arrives your council will be gratefully received by
your affectionate
Ann Upshur
N.B.1 My love to all friends