My dear Papa
Your obt and ever Devoted Daughter,
E. Lucas.
In the following letters we find her showing a lively interest in all that concerns her father, her brothers, her "cousens" and neighbours, and also a normally healthy liking for amusement, linked with her passionate love of nature and a milder interest in pretty clothes—and a still milder form of interest in love affairs!
Hard indeed it is in this day of quick delivery to realize the inconveniences of daily life in Eliza's time, and it evokes a smile to hear that if she or one of the family had neuralgia, it was necessary to write an account of the symptoms to Mrs. Boddicott in November, followed by a letter of thanks to her for her promptness, because of which "the meddicines will arrive by May, and tis allways worse in hott weather!" Think of waiting six months for a dose of medicine!
Eliza has already mentioned two neighbours of whom she had become very fond, and between her and Miss Pinckney's niece, a Miss Bartlett, who lived with Mrs. Pinckney either in her home in Charles Town, or at their country seat five miles out of town, a flourishing correspondence sprang up, and the following are some of Eliza's letters to her friend:
Janr 14th, 1741/2.
'Tis with pleasure I commence a Correspondence wch you promise to continue tho' I fear I shall often want matter to soport an Epistolary Intercourse in this solotary retirement—; however, you shall see my inclination, for rather than not scribble, you shall know both my waking and sleeping dreams, as well as how the spring comes on, when the trees bud, and inanimate nature grows gay to chear the rational mind with delight; and devout gratitude to the great Author of all; when my little darling that sweet harmonist the mocking bird, begins to sing.
Our best respects wait on Coll. Pinckney and lady, and believe me to be dear Miss Bartlett
Your most obedt Servt
E. Lucas.
Again she writes in a tone of quaint sarcasm: