The Travelers' Charleston by Jennie Holton Fant

Author:Jennie Holton Fant [Fant, Jennie Holton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States
ISBN: 9781611175851
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 2016-01-31T05:00:00+00:00

Charleston to Savannah—Jacksonburough, South Carolina

March 6, 1828

MY DEAREST JANE,

It was only last night that I dispatched a long letter to you and it will be long before I dispatch another, and therefore until tea is ready I shall employ myself in writing to you. We breakfasted between seven and eight this morning, but it was nine before we first got off. We shall probably use the carriage we now have for a month, and therefore it is of considerable consequence that it should be as comfortable as we can make it. You know Basil’s genius for contrivances, and of course he adapts many a one to increase our comfort in travelling. We have a multitude of small things too which require sorting at first setting out. Mr. Wallace in his short tight jacket worked away on his province and at nine as I said before, we left Mrs. Kerrison’s boarding house, and I must confess that with one exception I should not care though I did not see any of the Charlestonians again. That exception is Mr. Petigru, the Attorney-General of the State. He sat a couple of hours with us last night and is a very intelligent, sensible man, tho’ he has never in his life been out of South Carolina. There surely is a greater want of interest in American society than in that of any other country I ever was in or heard of. My conscience too smites me for speaking so of persons who have shown us so much attention and civility, for somehow I cannot call it kindness, but I cannot help it. I cannot like their society and I cannot like themselves. Mrs. Cough, the English lady I met the other night says there is no tenderness in this country.

I forgot to mention that at all balls and dances at Charleston a favorite dance is the Spanish dance, as they call it, and in plan it certainly is a Spanish country dance, but in execution, Oh Heavens! To me it was actually excruciating to witness such barbarism and to remember the contrast of beautiful Spanish women with their graceful figures and sparkling eyes, instead of the dowdies and their clumsy partners I now saw, handling and elbowing each other about, for their propriety will not allow them to waltz, so they poussette and hold each other by the elbow instead of the side. I respect all scruples on the score of propriety and if people don’t like to waltz they are quite right to let it alone, but why murder a pretty dance by substituting most ungraceful alterations for the prettiest part of it? Why not leave it undone?

A mile from Charleston to-day we crossed the Ashley River in a horseboat. It is a very fine wide river, of whose existence I had never heard till within three or four miles of Charleston. After that we travelled thirty miles. On each side of the road for the greater part of the way there were

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