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PF2.1.116
Date
7-17-1832
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Kenyon College Gambier
July 17th 1832
Dear Susan
I received your long expected letter, yesterday and since reading it am not at all surprised at the delay. I think I can assign a reason to which you will subscribe. You had probably forgotten in the multiplicity of your engagements, and immersed as you say you were in the endless routine of “dissipation, that such a person as your poor correspondent, existed.
Now, Susan you must not take what I saw, in dudgeon, for I do not intend to scold you for not answering my letters as soon as I would wish, but I wish you to think of it, and abide by the decision of your own heart--whether or not you have dealt fairly by me. I wrote you, little more than a week since, by a particular friend of mine, Mr. Chase, a nephew of Bp. C’s. He has not probably arrived yet n your section of the country as he designed spending a fortnight in Steubenville, before he took his final leave of Ohio. He has been long a resident of Gambier, and can give you the history of Kenyon, from its foundation up to the present day. Mary and Eliza, unless they have thoroughly reformed are too wild for Mr. C, as he is a student at Divinity. So that they can let their “caps” remain “set” as they now are. I presume that my rudeness want of polish and ungallant deportment will insure me a few of their mad thanks. Even the polite and fashionable atmosphere of Wyoming did not formerly secure me from their satire and practical wit. However, I would not for the world, that they should know what I have written, as they would probably pursue the opposite course, and I should be debased even the sight of their pretty faces, and rather than suffer the imposition of such [assurance] I would willingly (I mean, with much happiness) endure (enjoy) whatever they may please to inflice (honor me with).
The fourth of July, you have rightly conjectured, was to me an excessively dull day. Prof Kendrick delivered an oration before the Colonization Society in the morning, and the Evening (after the customary dinner of bacon and corn bread) was spent in perambulating the woods, by which we are on all sides surrounded, sipping cool spring water and mourning our hapless destiny, which has cast out lot in this wild and “wooden” country. “Between you and I,” Sue, I would have seen the “Star in the West” totally eclipse, nay, annihilated, and sooner made a trip to its mother the moon had I known to what a desolate region I was coming. But it is too late to repine and indeed I have become so habituated to the endless and almost “pathless woods” and withal [?] coarse fare, that I have little disposition to leave them, save at such times as I reflect on “the girl I’ve left behind me” and then I felt as if one of her sweet smiles would place an effectual veto on my longer residence in these “far off wilds” &c. But pshaw! I am becoming altogether too sentimental and romantic--and in truth, there is nothingI so much detest as too much sentiment in matters of this kind. The soft, pliant, pining lover, “sighing like a furnace,” I despise--this fashionable, coxcombical and coquettish passion is all froth. There is an ought to be some little dignity in love as well as other matters, and really Susan I think there has been a due proportion exhibited in the intercourse between us, for to my recollection, the subject has not been mentioned more than two or three times, altho’ I can not say to what extent it has been felt. However, we will talk these matters over, “viva voce” in the course of six or eight weeks.
The session will close in about seven weeks, at the expiration of which I shall start as soon as possible for home. I shall probably purchase a horse and travel on horseback, as I shall have company in that way. I shall be accompanied by Slocum, and a gentleman by the name of Dyer, who is going to spend the vacation with me. The gentleman of whom I spoke in so high terms in my last letter,w ill not be able to go, which I fear will be a great disappointment to Mary and Eliza. I shall pursue the nearest route, home, at least for Sunbury, but I hope to find you in Wilkesbarre as I before [?]. I think you had better defer your visit to W. until September. The College classes on the first or second Wednesday in Sept. and I shall, if nothing occurs to prevent be in S. or Wilkesbarre in the course of two weeks afterwards. I wish you, if you please, to write me immediately and inform me where you will be at that time. The journey is so long (500 miles) that it will consume the greater part of the vacation in travelling and consequently I shall have less time to spend with my friends. I should therefore be happy to meet you in W. on my return so that I could enjoy a double meeting. I think you could do it with perfect propriety--if did not so think I should certainly not advise it. If you conclude to adopt this arrangement you will please inform me and I will read W. as soon as practicable and not visit S. on my route up. However, act precisely as your judgement dictates. But here comes a letter, permit me to read it before I proceed. Well, I have read my previous epistle. It is from Martha. She premises with a hearty scolding for my remissness in answering her last letter and then goes o to state the news and among other matters mentions that Moll O. has become an heiress. I begin to think Moll “no bad sort of a girl” however my opinion in her case will be regulated entirely by the amount of her fortune as she has very little else to recommend her. Excuse me if you please, but if I mistake not, we differ but very little on that point.
The Cholera has approached within eighty miles of us, altho’ its introduction into this state has been but very recent. The Indians are on the west of us, & doing almost as much mischief as the Cholera. Martha uniforms me that Lieut. Perkins & Hamilton Bowman have been ordered out with their regiments, against them. I trust they will preserve the honor of Wyoming unsullied.
In reference to the matter mentioned in a former letter--I thought I had given my “views” and “reasons” long since. However, I will take over the matter when we next meet and until then reflect on it seriously and insert a few lines on the subject in your next.
Our College has been, for some time past, in a great uproar. The students have been quarrelling and there has well night been bloodshed. Among the rest of these hopeful youths was your humble servant in these matters you will please preserve a profound secret and you shall hear the particulars when I next see you.
You will please write me as soon as possible and let your letter be a long one & more to the point.
I am Your Affectionate
William
Recommended Citation
Scott, William B., "Letter from William B. Scott to Susan Greenough" (1832). 19th Century Correspondence. 7.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/correspondence_19thc/7