Pots and jugs of different sizes;
A supply of yellow and red earthenware.
I forgot to ask you, when you were here, if there were kettles in iron like tin ones, and coffee-pots: for they would be of great use, as tin is destroyed in a day, and a large boiler would stand better on the fire than a tin kettle—for always, I mean—and better for my kitchen: better also for the milkboy, to wash up his pots and pans. I want too some iron spoons, and some wooden ladles and skimmers.
I should like to have Miss Pardoe’s book on Constantinople, if it is come out, for strangers; for, I fear, I never could get through with it myself, no more than the others you have sent me; but I must trust to chance. This just puts me in mind that one of the books I should like to have would be Graham’s Domestic Medicine—a good Red Book (Peerage, I mean)—and the book about the Prince of Wales, George the Fourth.
I have found out a person who can occasionally read French to me: so, if there was any very pleasing French book, you might send it—but no Bonapartes, &c., or “present times”—and a little brochure or two upon baking, pastry, gardening, &c.:—some haricot seeds, and also dahlias of different colours.
Are there no iron candlesticks for lamps, for the servants to work by at night? for my new people shall work like other servants: besides, in out-of-door rooms, there are no lamps to see by, and those thick glass globes, with two or three burners, would be useful. Add, also, some inkstands of thick glass, with a tray of tin or japan, like a coffee-tray.
I should think it right of you to send a line of certificate to Lord H., in case he should want it, just saying, “I have had a letter from Lady Hester Stanhope, in which she requests me to give your lordship, in writing, my opinion of her health,” &c.; then the essence of the said certificate to be (if you think so) “that, having known Lady Hester nearly thirty years, I can safely say that I never have yet seen such a constitution; that the most severe illnesses often have not appeared to attack or impair the stamina of it; that,” &c. &c.
I have had a very kind letter from the Prince [Pückler Muskau]; he is gone to Europe, or, at least, is on his way: his slaves, &c., went by Leghorn. He says, there were difficulties respecting the Queen’s letter in Germany; but he has another plan. He desires to be kindly remembered to you.
If I inquire about your health, or that of your family, it will be in my own way, with interest, and perhaps giving some opinion, which, as usual, may be taken ill: so I shall say nothing, either now or hereafter, on that subject. I strained my eyes to write a long letter, now before me, about your complaint on the chest; but I shall burn it. Everybody is laid up here; Logmagi with a bad fever, as also Mustafa and the cowboy; Mohammed with a fit of the gout, unable to walk or stir: Fatôom, half with whims, always under the coverlet; Zezefôon ill, but keeping to her work. The early rain has caused illness everywhere.
Arriàn’s troops being so diminished, and his resources failing, owing to want of assistance from the other Druzes, who hung back after Ibrahim Pasha’s declaration that he would burn all Druze property in the mountain, he has surrendered, they say severely wounded by the Arabs of his party for being a traitor in their eyes. Affairs are, therefore, a little quiet in that quarter for the present; but, towards Aleppo, the Kûrds and Turkmans are very troublesome, and every one seems alarmed. Corn has risen to a terrible price, and barley there is none: though some, they say, has been brought to Beyrout.