s going on a very tolerable band plays all
manner of Italian airs and German waltzes, and as there is a fine
long corridor into which my room-door opens, with a window at each
end, I have a very agreeable promenade, and take my exercise to
this musical accompaniment....

I have at this moment on my table a lovely nosegay--roses,
geraniums, rare heaths, and perfect white camellias. Our windows
are all wide open; the heat is intense, and the air that comes in
at them like a sirocco. It is unusual weather for the season even
here, and very unwholesome.

In a week's time we are going on to Washington, where we shall find
dear Washington Irving, whom I think I shall embrace, for England's
sake as well as his own. We have letters to the President, to whom
we are to be presented, and to his rival, Henry Clay, and to Daniel
Webster, whom I care more to know than either of the others.

After a short stay in Washington we return here, and then back to
Philadelphia and New York, till the 20th of February, after which
we sail for Charleston. There has been, and still exists at
present, a very considerable degree of political alarm and
excitement in this country, owing to the threat of the South
Carolinians to secede from the Union if the tariff is not annulled,
and the country is in hourly expectation of being involved in a
civil war. However, the prevailing opinion among the wise seems to
be that the Northern States will be obliged to give up the tariff,
as the only means of preserving the Union; and if matters come to a
peaceable settlement, we shall proceed in February to Charleston;
if not, South Carolina will have other things to think of besides
plays and play-actors. The summer we shall probably spend in
Canada; the winter perhaps in Jamaica, to which place we have
received a most pressing invitation from Lord Mulgrave. The end of
the ensuing spring will, I trust in God, see us embarked once more
for England....

We are earning money very fast, and though I think we work too
incessantly and too hard, yet, as every night we do not act is a
certain loss of so much out of my father's pocket, I do not like to
make many objections to it, although I think it is really not
unlikely to be detrimental to his own health and strength....

I spent ye