Letter
#47 to son Alex in Australia
Renton, 21st June, 1860
My Dear Son,
I have received two letters, one from Alex'r and
one from William and two papers.
Your adventure in the mortgage line has turned out
a most untoward affair. It was certainly no discredit to war with Slater; your
opposition was fair. But never forget old friends. Mrs. Slater deserved some
consideration. Did you think of the disagreeable lectures Slater would give her
on you account. I would have paid £25 rather than lost £50. It is a most
unpleasant affair. I hope you wont land in such a mess again.
You have still hopes of digging. I trust you wont
be disappointed this time and that a sum that will do you good will be
realized. Our black seems to have made a good hit. John and William
appear to be doing better than at digging. William mentions they intend putting
up a brick house before winter. That implies there is some money in their
purse. William has not improved his hanwriting. An estimate is none the worse
of being set down in good writing.
I am still at Cordale. We were slack for two or
three months, but I did not take it amiss as I felt rather weak. It was no
doubt the result of scurvy. I have taken three vials of solution of Arsienic
and I feel stronger and in better heart and fit for work. At present I work one
week from daylight to 12; the other week from 12 to dark. Too few patterns is the
cause.
The pain in my side from the fall in the ship has
left me.
Buchanan & Auld have taken the works. Sandy
Barr died of brain fever. Alex'r Wilson got married to a sister of Mrs. James
Hall's. They had 70 couples in the hall.
Busby print shops are shut, but the machines are
employed. The shawl printing seems to be expiring at Kilmarnock, and Paisley no
work and little at Barrhead, so that a great many printers and cutters are
poorly off. The Turkey Red shops are the only shops worth looking at, though we
were slack. I had always as much as did my turn and I expect my cash to grow
instead of getting less.
Alex'r Russell looked after a shop in Glasgow but
did not succeed in getting one. I have not got notice what he is doing. Annie
Russell left the looms for a bad job. She cannot learn them; she is at the caps
again. Aunty is in her usual and no changes among our acquaintances hereabouts.
Wm. Maxwell's son in law is still alive, but weak, weak.
William is full of resolve to have me out again should
he and John succeed. I am delighted with their spirit, but unless there is a
job for me I am perhaps as well at home for a time. I have now a hope your all
to be successful emigrants and I trust you will all continue to walk worthy of
success. I sent a paper to Wm.M.D. and I will write him next mail; and there
are also papers for you. I have these some months sent my letters by
Marseilles, but the rate of postage has been altered and I was not aware of it,
so the letters are likely to be a month later than I expected. The postage by
Marseilles is 9d under 1/2 oz.
The peers (our squatters) had a nibble at
Gladstone's Budget. They would not allow the duty on paper to be repealed. The
Reform bill is put off for a year. Ministers gave it up the talkers were taking
too much time over it, but it likely the bad temper shown by the peers had its
weight.
Alex'r Russell has given up looking after a shop;
he is looking for employment. I hear that And'w Hall is engaged to go to
America. James Murdoch is an apprentice cylinder printer with Mr. Craig at Mary
hill. Alpine has got his wages up. David Alexander looks rather poorly. John
Nimmo looks after the steaming &c.
We have had a rainy June and great floods in some
parts, but the crops are looking promising. There was a paper read before the
Royal Society on Quartz. The writer contended that Quartz, from its nature,
could not possibly be otherwise than deposited by water, I was not said that he
took notice of the gold in connexion with it, how the gold got mingled with it
and how it came to rest in the greatest quantity on top of the quartz.
The cry is still be prepared against invasion,
erect fortifications, prepare a fleet, enlist soldiers and sailors. But the cry
is not so general as it was. And Her Majesty's ministers seem rather to
discountenace that great evil, a useless expenditure of public money.
You have
got so manby hard hits in your speculations that misgivings come over me; with
your new one also, it will therefore be a great relief to my mind to learn that
it has done better than you dreamed of. And it may.
You appear to be all doing fully better than you
might have done at home; and by honest. I hope you will not have cause to
regret you left your native land.
I am your affectionate Father
Alex'r Dick.
Names
& Notes on Letter #47
Mr.& Mrs. Slater
Buchanan &.
Auld
Sandy Barr
Alex'r Wilson
Mrs. James Hall
Alex'r, Annie & Mary Russell
Wm. Maxwell
Gladstone
Andrew Hall
James Murdoch
Mr. Craig
Alpine.
David Alexander
John Nimmo
- transcription and
Names/Notes by Ian A Scales, c.1989
Scans
of the original letter (click on the thumbnail below for a larger image; note the order of the pages p.4-1,
then p.2-3):
page 4,1
p.2,3
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