F. A. B.

DEAR T----,

I shall not dine with you to-day for various, all good, reasons, and
send you word to that effect, simply because it would not be so civil,
either to S---- or you, to leave my excuse till the time when I should
present myself.

I had hoped to have returned to Philadelphia with Mr. F---- this
morning, but I am to remain till after Thursday, when we were to have
given a dinner to Macready. He called this morning, however, and said he
had another engagement for Thursday, so what will be done in the matter
of our proposed entertainment to him I know not.

I hope your eyes are not the worse for that hateful theatre last night.
You cannot imagine how that sort of thing, to which I was once so used,
now excites and irritates my nerves. The music, the lights, the noise,
the applause, the acting, the grand play itself, "Macbeth,"--it was all
violent doses of stimulant; and I begin to think my mental constitution
is like gunpowder, only unignitable when in the water: I suppose that
accounts for my affection for water, apart from fishing.

I have got the greatest quantity of letters to write, and must begin
upon Tennyson, so I shall not want for occupation while I am kept here.

Yours ever truly,
F. A. B.

NEW YORK, September 26th, 1843.
DEAREST HAL,

I was up till past two o'clock last night, and up at 5.30 this morning:
I have travelled half the day, from Philadelphia to New York, and
shopped the rest of the day, and am now steaming up the Hudson to
Albany, on my way to Lenox, where I am going to spend a few days with my
friends the Sedgwicks. Although I am very weary, and my eyes ache for
want of sleep, I must write to you before I go to bed; for once up in
Berkshire, I shall have but little time to myself, and I would not for a
great deal that the steamer should go to England without some word from
me to you.... So here I am wandering up forlornly enough, with poor
Margery for my attendant, who appears to me to be in the last stage of a
consumption, and to whom this little excursion may perhaps be slightly
beneficial, and will certainly be very pleasurable.... I shall in all
probability see none of the Sedgwicks again for a year....

I suppose, dear Hal, we are crossing the Tappan Zee (the broadest part
of the Hudson Riv