Blackwell Family Marian Blackwell Blackwell, Anna1 rue des Ponchettes June 25/79 Dear Anna Your card is this moment come. It is too bad that I have neglected to send you the letter that I wrote mentally sending my good wishes & hopes that before another birthday came round your long efforts might be crowned with success. I have thought a great deal of you lately, & planned one morning to sit down & write; That it afterwards escaped my memory proves (with a hundred other occurrences) that I have really grown old. My thoughts & time have been fully occupied of late with searching for a country home. I wanted to leave the close neighborhood of the sea which makes me nervous & I have been enquiring & walking in all directions. As the time for giving notice approached - I grew more excited, overfatigued myself - & I suppose a cheek of perspiration has brought on an inflamation of gums & teeth with neuralgic pains in head face & neck - and now I really suppose a How much did you pay for doing up the little house at Wimille?gum boil or gathering of some sort is forming. For 10 days or more I have been very miserable. Cant lie without pain - or eat or sleep - for two days past, the pain when I take anything even to drink with my mouth is very great - & at times I am quite overwhelmed with it. Altho every thing is very slow with me, yet I think it must be nearly at its height and that a few days must bring relief. Under the circumstances, I am sure you will forgive my delay and accept the good wishes tho' sent too late. I must tell you that not being able to reach any suitable place at a price I can pay, I am thinking seriously of buying one. This is a secret to all but Elizabeth. The people over the water cannot understand my wants or see why I do not return to America & would oppose such a plan decidedly. Of course I must content myself with some thing [second column] very modest & at a low price. I have two or three in my mind but as yet I have not been able to make any satisfactory bargain. The people here have the habit of asking strangers fancy prices & it is rather difficult to find out the true value of the property. With time & patience however I think I shall succeed. How does the idea strike you? I do not like to fix myself away from all the family but Elizabeth strongly dissuades me from England - & she is right. Tis' too [dear?] & the climate would not suit & you have no centre. I wish I could guess at all, where you are likely to be in the next few years. You would not continue to move about even if you were free. You would feel the necessity of a home to which you could return from your wanderings. I see no fixed point to decide me to make any change from Nice where I am & which I now know well.You say nothing about yourself in your card. Tell me how you are & how things are going on. We are in full summer at last. The sun too hot from 11 to 3 1/2 to be agreable, but in the house it is quite cool enough. In fact I have not left off winter clothing excepting a thick cloth jacket I suppose I shall go to the mountains before long for change of air but just now I am profoundly thankful to be in my own home, & have space around me. I don't think Elizabeth is in love with her house or with English living, but she seems to keep well which is a great comfort. No news from the other side. I do not think any of them will visit Europe this year. I write with difficulty & in haste- Goodbye affty. Marian stoned terrace with a good deal of iron trellis work - an immense cistern that takes the water from both houses & from various parts of the grounds & is never dry - good cellars in the rock as is also the cistern a bake house where a woman comes & makes bread for them a very neat building in several compartments for fowls - pigeons rabbits &c - a pretty trellised aviary. Two summer houses or rustic work - an abundance of choice fruit & flowers just in bearing - substantial walls enclosing a large space & outside an addition lot bought to make a carriage drive & other little improvements of all kinds - a very nice spacious place - she said it had cost them more than F80.000 & they must have bought it cheap or it would have cost more I am sure - they are compelled to sell because the husbands affairs compell frequent journeys to Paris & so is in poor health & cannot stand the fatigue, & if theycan find any one to pay down all or nearly all the money so as to avoid anxiety & trouble about mortgages they will let it go for F40 0000. Some one is in treaty for it but cannot make the payment as they wish - & they will not sacrifice it at that price except for ready money. Tis one of those things that you see at once to be a rare chance for any one who can take it up - Tis a pity they did not advertise the early part of the winter but only just now when half the strangers are gone. I should think they might have got double according to the prices that I have known places sold at here. It seemed to me such a chance that I was inclined to write to you at once -a week ago, but on reflexion saw that it was useless as you could not command the ready money & would not feel prepared to put so much into a place where you did not live. By renting one house - one might live rent free in the other & the value of places is constantly rising - I met there an English lady who lives in that funny little turreted house round the corner looking to V. F & whom they say is a most kind and pleasant neighbor - she asked me to come in & look at her place which I did. A very fine view east towards Bordighera she says it is so lovely in the morning that she is up & out doors at 4 o'clock enjoying it - she says she was given up by her physicians who sent her to travel because they did not know what else to do. she came to Nice so weak that for months she was scarcely out of bed boarded on Mt. Baroie in a convent of english nuns that was there at that time - grew gradually better, found the climate suited her - rented or bought this little place & has lived there for 10 years in good health - does not feel lonely - never goes to town excepton business & returns as quickly as possible - says you can get meat butter eggs veg - fruit up there - butchers & bakers come to your door fish women pass from V. F to Nice - the neighbors a quiet & friendly - & she likes it very much indeed. & does not find it oppressive even in summer. tho' she thinks she is stronger when she takes a few weeks change the latter part of the summer. So much for my visit there I know if you have - say F90 000 to invest just now you cannot do better - & they tell me that the Credit fonciere lends money at 5 per cent - often to as much as 3/4 the value of real estate If it were one house instead of two at half the price, I should seriously set to work to see what I could do. I am sorry I have written on such thin greasy paper. I fear it will be difficult to read - I think of you getting in to your new quarters & wish you all success Thanks for the photograph which looks natural & brings up pleasant remembrances - but alas! also - dull heavy skies & coal smoke Goodbye - aff'tly M square house standing on a level peice of ground raised about 10 ft above the road with a substantial wall - a carriage entrance at the side with iron gates just before you turn to that pretty little chapel near the top of the hill. It belongs to a gardener who sells flowers to Monaco & has bought a place very near the railway for convenience & he wants to sell -The house looks southwest & is very well situated with a beautiful view towards the chateau hill. the garden is full of flowers - & he has judiciously left a group of olives close to the entrance gate - The place could be made to look very genteel. He asks $20 000 F but the rooms - 7 & a cellar are very small. I should have to cut side windows, a door between two rooms, put chimney pots a porch or something pretty in front - & after all tho a good substantial house it would be so small - & I must pay about 16 00 for transfer - & unless it were a place very desirable & room enough for us all I should not like to do it because the most of it couldremain on mortgage at 5 per cent - those who come after me - if they could not sell at once - would have the burden of paying a large yearly interest on a place that they might make no use of, but it is really the only thing except the Cougnet land that seems possible for Barberis asks 726 000 - & the kitchen & livingroom are so small as to be more cupboards & as there is no hall - the dining room must be made into an entrance, & I should have to build additional rooms If you really live in a place you cannot be too much cramped. When I write again I shall be able to tell you what my plans for the summer will be. I have two possibilities for the mountains which I must take or leave within a few days - but if I can find something at all attractive near Nice - I should rather on account of the better market possibilities stay here most of the time - going away for August. a note from Anna she has been disappointed in two more capitalists but still hopes & tries on - I begin to wonder whether she will ever consent to be beaten - I hope you