The Opened Letter. Lindsay O'Neill
to the Continent usually reveal the need to maintain British connections rather than an attempt to sustain deep ties to other Europeans.
Colonial correspondents found power in their distance and stability. Members of the British elite were becoming increasingly entangled in the wider world, but few ever traversed it. The two William Byrds of Virginia and Hans Sloane, who spent time in Jamaica, were the only letter writers examined who ever crossed the Atlantic or visited the world beyond the well-worn grooves of the continental tour. Other Atlantic sojourners lay hidden within the sets of correspondence, though, for most of the letter writers had colonial ties and interests, even if they lacked colonial experience. Every correspondent examined either sent or received a letter from the North American colonies and many received letters from those in the West Indies, India, and Africa.45 Some of these connections were family ties, like Nicholas Blundell’s with his brother in the Chesapeake. Some were links with friends, like Cassandra Brydges’ correspondent in Antigua. Others were of a scientific bent, like those between Hans Sloane and William Byrd II or Peter Collinson and Cadwallader Colden of New York. Correspondents back in England were interested in the colonies. John Perceval wanted to know about Bermuda because his good friend was attempting to establish a college there. He even vaguely contemplated moving there for his wife’s health and the whole Perceval family had lengthy conversations about it.46 This interest manifested itself again when Perceval became involved in the establishment of the colony of Georgia. Cassandra and James Brydges never considered a move to the colonies, but they did have an Indian king and queen from Georgia over for dinner on 18 October 1734.47 Writers concerned with natural history and botany wanted to know more about the colonies: Hans Sloane wrote a natural history of Jamaica, Peter Collinson placed a description of North Carolina in his commonplace book, and the Royal Society was happy to receive the curiosities Byrd sent from the colonies.48 These colonial connections were distant ties that writers wished to nourish, and colonists played on this. They, more than other travelers, used their distance to their advantage.
Byrd’s distance allowed him to set himself up as an authority on colonial issues and as a reliable colonial connection. When John Perceval was pondering the establishment of Georgia he described the project to Byrd and Byrd replied with his opinions, agreeing that excluding slaves and rum would be a good idea.49 He did not always concur, however. When Perceval informed him of the plan to build a college in Bermuda to convert the indigenous people, Byrd remained skeptical, asking him where he expected to find any Indians to convert since “There are no Indians at Bermudas, nor within 200 leagues of it upon the Continent, and it will need the gift of Miracles to persuade them to leave their Country and venture themselves upon the great Ocean, on the temptation of being converted.”50 Here Byrd’s greater knowledge about the region shines through. Byrd made sure his correspondents called on him when they needed colonial assistance. When a friend of his had a difficult time settling in Virginia Perceval called on Byrd to help him and Byrd gladly obliged.51 This was the positive side of distance and stability, for while it strained connections, it also made those links special.
William Byrd II repeatedly used his colonial status to make himself and his letters more attractive. When writing to friends in England he used colonial references to spice up his correspondence. He included phrases like “I am with a true Indian sincerity, your humble and obedient servant” or “The many favours I was so happy as to receive from your Lordship in England, stick fast in my memory in all climates, and I believe I could go thro’ the ceremony of husquenawing without forgetting them.”52 Byrd then spent the next paragraph describing husquenawing, an initiation ceremony for young boys when they were to forget their youth. The description intrigued the receiver and he wrote in the margin of his letter book: “The Ceremony of husquenawing (among the Indians) described.”53 In another letter, Byrd threatened to haunt his sister-in-law with the help of an Indian magician.54 When he found that the Royal Society had not listed him as a member in 1741, he reminded them that “I am alive, and by the help of ginseng hope to survive some years longer.”55 When forgotten, Byrd promoted colonial products such as ginseng to remind his correspondents of his colonial knowledge and thus of his importance. These kinds of descriptions did find an audience in England. Years later John Eliot’s cousin wrote, “I have heard it said of the Indians in America that they always put up the first offense from the Whites, attributing it either to Mistake or Ignorance, we should do well to follow their example herein.”56 Interest in the Americas allowed colonists to slip small rarities into their letters to strengthen their epistolary connections.
However, many letter writers did not need to depend on their distant origins to maintain connections because they were but ephemeral visitors to these locations. A number of correspondents who wrote from beyond British shores were mobile correspondents, such as army officers, government officials, or traveling intellectuals who journeyed around the globe for shorter periods of time. Their residence in these strange places was finite and they could hope to reconnect with those who made up the centers of their world soon. These more mobile correspondents were like those who spent time on the Continent. For many, travel to the Continent was easier and more common than trips to the wilds of Ireland and Scotland or voyages across the Atlantic. Many members of the British elite were familiar with its social centers. Nicholas Blundell, a Catholic, had a continental education and strategically lived in Flanders during the aftermath of the 1715 Jacobite Rising. William Byrd II spent some time training at a merchant’s firm in Rotterdam and James Brydges lived in the Dutch Republic for a time when he served as paymaster to the queen’s forces. Both John Boyle and John Perceval traveled throughout Europe. Hans Sloane studied in Montpellier and the only time Peter Collinson left English shores was to travel to the Dutch Republic. However, none of these correspondents settled on the European continent. They were not stable connections.
Many of the letters that hailed from the European continent were from British travelers. The Grand Tour was gaining in popularity as the eighteenth century progressed and continental countries provided British gentlemen with a counterpoint to their own society.57 To a degree, this desire to travel to the Continent was a British acknowledgment that they did not necessarily sit at the center of the European world. As late as 1755 Londoner Peter Collinson declared Nuremburg “the Fountain of Ingenuity & Art, which flows on Every Side through your neighboring Countries” and sighed that “its Circulation is Stop’d to poor remote England.”58 Collinson was certainly flattering his correspondent, but his comment shows that many Britons still saw the Continent as a center of learning and culture and valued connections to it. British gentlemen traveled across it to gain the ability to judge their own homeland. John Perceval’s early travels around the Continent were to allow him to meet and judge “Men of all Countrys, & Degrees, their Tempers, modes of living, and Employments.”59 He was to see other places, meet new acquaintances, and gather ideas he could employ when he returned. For many Britons this meant seeing all the Continent had to offer and then judging England superior or equal. As George Berkeley, Perceval’s dear friend, declared in the midst of an extended trip: “I have seen enough to be satisfied that England has ye most learning, ye most riches, ye best Government, ye best people, & ye best religion in ye world.”60 In many ways, the Continent remained a troublingly alien place. There was always a frisson of danger reflected in letters from the Continent; travelers carried guns with them in their carriages and superstitious rites were always just around the corner.61 Many travelers kept the expected journals of their movements, which signaled that they were experiencing the Continent, but were not part of it.62
According to their letters, British travelers spent most of their time with other Britons. When Perceval returned to England after his first trip he corresponded with Lorenzo Magnolfi, a Florentine deeply involved in the Italian art world, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, but when he received news of his circle of friends in Florence or Rome it consisted mostly of news relating to English gentlemen.63 On a later trip, he mixed with a number of French acquaintances, most of whom were relatives of his wife, but the majority of his letters detail his English connections in France, such as the Marquis of Blandford and the Duke of Beaufort.64 Letters from the Continent contained travel reports on what the writers had seen and done, but the main purpose of these letters was to keep that writer in contact with his or her social