# Letter from Anne Warren Weston to Deborah Weston, 1842

​Caroline was invited to be in town & paſs the night Wednesday. We called then at the Lisings and asked there & then the C. Place folks. We saw at the Lisings the beautiful Vandyke given to the family(?) by J.L. Goze. It is really a lovely thing. Mrs Jonathan Phillips says it ought not to be sold a cent under $1000. Miſs Shattink spent the afternoon with us & in the evening I went to hear Wendell lecture at Belknap St. The house was a shamefully thin one as there is a Revival going on among the col's folks. W. gave a good, useful lecture. Wednesday morning I called at C. Place. In the afternoon our party assembled. In addition to Maria, Mary, Caroline, Mr & Mrs Lising, were Harvey, a Mr & Mrs Spannier(?) half way transcendental Abolitionists & Mary Robbins. We had a cosy time enough. Rogers who was in town is asked but he was at an Irish Repeal meeting. Dickens, & his dinner was the absorbing subject. Dickens is surprised at finding every thing so like England, society & all. The folks he goes among are the very folks who are imitating English society. He has been invited to 40 different houses & every instance of their time is occupied when not in company with trying to answer notes & letters.
Caroline staid here all night & we had a cosy time. Thursday morning was a pouring rain. Nevertheless, she left for Roxbury & we had a quiet still day here nobody in till late in the afternoon when Bradburn & Rogers called. They were very agreeable & Henrietta asked them here to tea tonight. Rogers will certainly come & Bradburn if he is in town. I got Promersi(?) Shori safe & will send Abby some of my Italian exercises the very minute I can, but as it is in a book, I must write the exercise first myself, but I will have it continually on my mind. I am very busy all the time for Henrietta is like Mrs Isaiah Thayer, she loves to be where there is a good deal going on, & we lark about as you will see considerably. I met yesterday, no the day before  ​Mrs Ana Webb & Mrs Allen at two separate times & promised to call upon them both which I shall do. Mrs Webb looked very sober, Jane is to be confined in Maul(?). Mrs Allen has lost every remnant of beauty. I have heard from home this morning. All are well & they want Henry to come down on Sunday. He is rather more comfortable I believe than he has been. There has been great talk about his going away & his mother & Maria paid everything that was in their power, but he absolutely declined. I do not think he would go unleʃs an angel showed specially in form him that it would save his life. Maria's new gown, a striped lavender looks very handsome. She wore it here the other afternoon. Mary Mansfield is engaged to a young man named Patterson. She is going to be married & go to Paris for several (days), he being an agent for some dry goods house. Richard Luckers's estate has been rendered insolvent. Last night Elizabeth Peabody, (saw night before last) had a party at which Dickens was fully expected. It was one of her usual weekly conversations expanded into a party. But after the company was expectant all arrived, came a note from Boz, saying he was so worn out & exhausted by the preceding day's dinner that he could not come. The same misfortune befell Mrs Page where he was invited to dine that day. Tomorrow he is going to see the Manor St Chapel children, & as Henretta & I think there is a hope he may address them, we shall go. The Chapel is little, but we are good pushers.
I have made up my mind to send this by Hatch & shall send with it, the patterns, drawings I mean, & your collar which I mean to catch Caroline long enough to buy for I cannot take these vast responsibilities. Mrs Loring(?) came to me the other night I asked if I could not come & stay a day or two with her before I left Town. I told her I should like to, so if she sends a definite  ​invitation I shall go; be the matter how it will, I suppose I shall go home some time the latter part of next week. But I shall write you a few lines before I seal this with love to all yours ever AWW.
Saturday Morning.
Dear D.
This letter went out to Weymouth yesterday afternoon for D to read because I was so hurried & came in this morning — I could not really get time to write to her. Louise showed in town yesterday to go to Waner St in vain. It is all put off till June as Dickens could only have time to see the children & not address them. Rogers, Caroline, & Lucia took tea at Henrietta's last night. I am sorry for your being in difficulty about your cape or collar, but never set anybody to buying such a thing again for me is a most vexatious piece of work to do. This morning I took Caroline & Lucia down to Brownells & there even bought the collar that accompanies this & the lamé(?) to trim it. C. thought that better than the collars all made up. I gave for the whole $1.75. I spent part of the $5 you paid Ma for my white bonnet so I took of my annuity to pay this. I enclose a note of Elaine(?) Leary's to me which as containing their slate(?) under their own hand & (?)ll you may like. I hope you will like the collar. I send too your gown & the drawings. The Marks are going to Northampton (?) Adams' community I believe. Henry I think very poorly, but I do not know what to do for him. I advise him to have a homoeopathic doctor here in town. Write & my next will come by more shops. Yours ever AWW.  ​Dear Deborah
I send you a few things in the way of copies which may serve your present needs, you will find here
Pencil drawings of which you must be very careful as they are not mine but as they are pretty good drawings I thought they might be useful to you.
In love Caroline W.
Miss Deborah Weston.
J. B. Beane Esq.
    New Bedford.
Hatchs' Express
* ↑ http://charlesdickenspage.com/america.html (Wikisource contributor note)
* ↑ McCracken Co, KY History Book, Turner Publishing Company, 1989, p. 147, ISBN 9780938021360, <http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cpMzZe1INPMC>. (Wikisource contributor note)
[Annotations]
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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