PEDIGREED ANTIQUES

The following interesting letter from Fanny Bingham to her brother Hervey Bingham and the interesting comment concerning it is quoted from the May number of Antiques edited by Homer E. Keyes '00, gratefully remembered by all readers of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. The material is printed entire as it appears in Antiques as is the decorative tailpiece.

Ordinarily, Antiques considers autograph material outside its domain. But the letter reproduced on the previous page possesses so much of coincidental interest that the temptation to publish it has proved overwhelming.

It comes to Antiques through courtesy of Mrs. Jane G. Monsarrat, of Providence, whose great-grandmother Fanny Bingham indited it to her brother Hervey Bingham, a junior at Dartmouth College, something more than one hundred and twenty-two years ago. At the time of writing, the young lady was just ten years of age. For a child of her years this letter is, assuredly, a remarkable performance. Some readers may conclude, however, that Fanny was a bit of a prig. Mrs. Monsarrat remarks that she is still remembered by a namesake grand-daughter as very austere and unapproachable.

This is what she says in her letter:

Dear brother Hervey As our Hon'd Parent expects to call at sandborntown on his way home from Boston and Portsmouth I could not content myself without writing a few lines jist to inform you that we are all in good health that we have a very agreeable winter to attend school and an agreeable Master and I think I make good proficiency in learning tho I could wish dear Hervey to be instructed by you at least to attend your singing school you can have no adequate Idea how I want to see you & to hear your Bass voil the very thoughts of your not coming home till next commensment is distressing but I hope you will improve the time & advantages indulged you so as to be very Profitable one thing I must mention which you may think strange for a Person of my years I am now and every day in mourning on account of the Death of our Countries father friend & benefactor—

GREAT WASHINGTON! I

have read so much of his Composition and have heard so much said by our Hon'd father of the invaluable services which he has rendered his country that I think every son & daughter of America ought to pay every mark of respect to the memory of such worth and greatness-

It now grows late in the evening and I must bid Dear Hervey Adieu Compliments to Mr. Webster Fanny Bingham

To her Brother Hervey Bingham Lempster Jany th20 1800 This day I was 10 years old—

Byway of additional information, it may be remarked that George Washington died December 14, 1799. Daniel Webster was a member of the class of 1801 at Dartmouth College, and was a close friend of Hervey Bingham. Webster is said to have been a frequent visitor at the Bingham home.

Hervey Bingham, properly James Hervey Bingham, to whom the letter was addressed, was born in Lempster, April 11, 1781, and died at Washington, March 31, 1859. At the time of his death he was a clerk in the Interior Department. There may be some query as to how young Hervey can have been simultaneously at Dartmouth College and at Sanborntown, which is in quite another part of New Hampshire. While there is no documentary evidence in the case, it seems reasonable to believe that the lad was helping out his college funds by teaching school during winter term, a form of winter sport which was common to Dartmouth students until a quarter century since.

Oddly enough, while Fanny Bingham's letter was under the editorial eye a package of stencils from the old Montague factory arrived. Among, them was that of a hitherto unidentified building, which the above noted eye recognized as a representation of old Dartmouth Hall. That in the days of Bingham and of Webster was virtually all of Dartmouth College. The stencil was in two pieces, for the application of two colors. For what use it was originally destined is beyond imagining—unless in good time to serve, as it now does, as decorative tail-piece to these notes.