Publication InformationTurin June 22 1862

Page 1

Dear Powers

Mrs Marsh & Carrie got home last night at 9'45, a little tired, but otherwise well. I was very sorry I could not go with them, more because I thought you would rather I should see the bust in the clay than for any other reason, though I should much have enjoyed the visit. I thought my presence superfluous because I hold your judgment infallible, & should know I saw wrong, if I did not see as you do; and besides, as I am now receiving the proofs of a book I have in press in London, I could not be away

at this time without occasioning much inconvenience, to myself, , to my publishers, & and to this great world, which has been waiting above 6000 years for this book of mine, and can't be put off any longer.

I have questioned & cross-questioned Mrs M., Carrie & Giacchino about the bust, & know that I shall find it just what I have so long wanted. I have made up my mind where it shall go, when Mrs Marsh & I have done with things of earth & marble, viz. to the Library of the University of Vermont, which will be a secure place of deposit, & will, I hope, have other artistic treasures by the side of this.

I hope you won't, by

any means, give up London. It will do you good for a dozen years to come. I wish I could go with you, but I can't until the last sheets of my book are printed, which will be some months hence.

When you arrive at Termi, don't go to a hotel. Take a little carriage & drive to my house, Casa d'Angennes, No 22, via del Teatro d'Angennes, & don't let it make the least difference at what hour of the night it is. Leave your luggage at the R.R. station, because you start from the same for Susa, &, there is no use in carting it back & forth. You have nothing to do about it at the station. Just come off & say

nothing, & it can be locked up when you go at night. I know the journey looks formidable to you. Your phrenological organ of stay-at-home-itiveness is too powerfully developed. What do you think of Mrs M. & me, who haven't been out of our trunks since 1843, & are ready to start for Timbuctoo at an hour's notice (if it wern't for that book) as soon as anybody will pay the cost? Well, don't see any lions in the way. They are only sheep. Come along. Mrs Marsh joins me, as does also Carrie in the sincerest regards to Mrs Powers & yourself as well as the young ones.

Yours trulyG P Marsh

H Powers Esq

References in this letter:

Powers, as a gesture of friendship to Caroline Crane Marsh (1816-1901) and her husband, George Perkins Marsh, American ambassador to Italy, had her sit for a bust in June 1862. The marble replica made from the plaster cast, presented to the Marshes in late 1864 or early 1865, is now in the Fleming Museum of the University of Vermont.

Marsh's The Origin and History of the English Language, and of the Early Literature It Embodies, was published in 1862; a revised edition appeared in 1885.

Carrie Marsh Crane, Caroline Marsh's niece, daughter of her brother Thomas, accompanied the Marshs for a number of years during his tenure as minister to Italy. She died in a shipwreck in 1874.