A Victorian Letter

To my dearest, sweetest, Elspeth;

What joy of hope, what song of heart
today my fate in love is sealed!
(I’m sure your sadness at my loss
with time and courtship shall be healed)
But listen pray, with eagerness
my tale unfolds my great delight
in finding paradise at my door
and of a future now so bright!
You recall we frequented the Lower Rooms
(As oft a lady may venture there)
and how we indulged in chatter gay
of the cordial partners we’d ensnare.
How we whirled around the room
dancing half the night away
and how my eyes were filled with tears
when you said you must go away.
(Well had I marked your absence dear
whilst you were traipsing all abroad)
but fortune soon assayed my loss
(t'was more than vanity could afford)
For I am to marry on the morrow
Sir James, (the same of Hendon Park)
and when I set my mind on it
my nerves go fluttering like a lark!
‘Tis only weeks since we first met
(I know of age he’s quite, quite old
but wisdom serves instead of looks
and from our troth love may unfold).
I cannot yet perceive my luck
in all its wealth and grandeur fine.
To be mistress of lands and gardened halls
never was such gratitude as mine.
And oh what preparations lay
intent on spoiling all my wake!
The chatter filling every moment
I hardly can my breath intake
and yet.....,
‘Tis nothing! I disquiet myself!
(Oh I would you’d listen to me dear
For I am pernicious to my soul
and wracked beneath a weight of fear!)
I love him not, nor ever will
it makes my poor heart bleed
to think the belle of all the balls
in domesticity must recede!
But Papa is for the terrible match
Mama’s in quite a swoon
and you my dearest friend alas
will see the end of me quite soon!
(Pray burn this correspondence dear
I would not that it be found;
you alone shall know my grief
in time I may ‘come around’)
But, leaving you is leaving life
though land and riches come my way
and here I sit, comb in hand
imagining a wonderful day.

Yours affectionately,
Amy