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N.M. Barracks Chatham, March 14th 1852
My dear Mr Hope,
I received your kind letter a short time since and as you said it would give you great pleasure to hear from me sometime I now intend answering it. Although I fear cannot write a very interesting letter from this place, it is very dull and the same things happen day after day but I must try my best, you tell me to give you an account of my voyage it was a very long and tedious one we had little bad weather, but so many calms and the ship was such a very slow sailer, we left Sydney on the twenty fourth of August and did not arrive in England until the eleventh of January very nearly five months, I should not have thought it half as long if my husband had been with me but he was obliged to come home in the Man of War he went out in. I suffered very much from sea sickness and feel quite a dread of the sea now but I think I should soon summon courage enough to go out to Sydney again, it seemed so strange to me to be away from all my friends, We were obliged to put in at Pernambuco for provisions such a wretched place it is, we only stayed two days there but it was quite enough, the heat was so intense we could hardly bear to walk across the sheds [?], I hope it will be my last visit there, it is a fearfully dirty place, but perhaps I am telling you what you know already, for I daresay you have been there - You want to know how I like England, it is hardly fair of me to judge for I have seen very little of it, I have been to London several times but was glad to leave it, I was quite bewildered and must confess astonished with everything / it is certainly a wonderful place I have not seen any sights yet but hope soon to be able to spend a few hours in that way, Mr Pym is very busy just now studying for an examination for a Staff appointment - he is very anxious to get an Adjutancy but I am sorry to say has not very much interest / he however intends to try what he can do for himself / if he succeeds it will make us very comfortable, for England is an expensive place to live in, the prices of things astonish me, every thing so much higher than in Sydney, at least when I left, but most likely there has been a great change on account of the Gold Mines, such numbers of people from all quarters of the world are flocking there attracted with the accounts of the quantity of gold there is to be found. I suppose you have had an account of the piece weighing a hundred pounds that was found in one solid lump but the person who purchased it to send home very foolishly broke it up it would have been much better to send it as it was for people are inclined to doubt the fact, but it is quite fun I can assure you. The people are mad about going to the Diggings, Sydney I fear for some time will be in a sad state, all the servants and labouring men were leaving and wages enormously high, The man left Grandmama because she would not give him more than a pound a week besides keeping him rather absurd is it not! I have not heard From Sydney since I wrote to you but am expecting long letters every day, I hope if you have a spare moment you will write to her soon, I am much obliged for your offer of showing me all the wonders of your beautiful country but I am afraid it will be a long time before I can have that pleasure / I should indeed like to see Scotland, must live in hopes of doing so, some day before I go out again. I have your parcel still, it is quite safe, if I have an opportunity of sending it to your brother at Deptford I shall be sure not to forget it. You will be tired reading such a long uninteresting letter but I told you at first that there was no news of any interest in this place to tell you, We have been very fortunate in getting nice quarters in Barracks and I dare say in course of time I shall like the place very well but we are both anxious to go out again / Mr Pym says if he does not succeed in getting a Staff appointment, he will try and go in the ship that relieves the Man of War now there, / [132] I cannot tell you how anxious I am to see my dear Mother and all my friends once again, / Grandmama often talks of coming to England but I do not think she ever will, indeed at her time of life it would be very foolish to risk such a long voyage, She has a very pretty place a few miles out of town / until the last few months has enjoyed excellent health, I forget if I told you that both my Aunts Atkinson and Thomson were in Sydney when I last heard / they went up to see Grandmama, the latter only intended staying a very short time I should think she was quite tired of moving about so much, they have left Melborne and gone back to their old house in Launceston, / cannot tell you much of the Arthurs or Reibeys. We never hear from them but believe they are all getting on very well, of course you know James has a little son, he is now about three years old, his wife has been very dangerously ill lately, Mary has an immense family of little ones, I think there are nine of them, altogether and all very nice children, one is very delicate, indeed I fear she will not live, she is subject to dreadful fits perhaps she may grow out of them some of the doctors say she will / I think I must now say good bye Mr Pym sends with me our kindest regards and Believe me dear Mr Hope [131]
Your sincere Cousin
Celia L. Pym
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