My Dear Henry
I ought to have thanked you sooner for the Photographs you have sent me – a most splendid donation & very particularly acceptable, as we could get no views of the interesting spots in Sicily & I had only time or capability to draw one or two architectural things such as Door Ways &c I hope soon to find an opportunity of sending you a specimen of Sicilian Agate <1> in the shape of the handle of a Paper Knife, but I do not like to trust it except to a safe hand – I suppose if I leave it chez Nicole alias Mr Henneman in Regt St <2> you will be here to receive it in the course of time –
We did see the precise scene of Proserpine’s <3> romantic adventure but it was not at Enna, <4> but on the Banks of the small river Anapus <5> that she was carried off whilst wandering in the “flowery meads” – NB Now that would be a dangerous pastime, at least in summer, not for fear of another such elopement, as swarms are extremely scarce in those parts but on account of the Malaria which persists to a great extent in the neighbourhood of Syracuse. We have got some Papyrus gathered by [ourselves?] growing in the Anapus. Pray envy us!
I must again thank you for your present of the Etymologies<6> – Poor Mr Mundy<7> daily laments that he can read so very little, but as he is improving by degrees we hope in time he may be able to profit both by that & all the other books which have accumulated during our two years absence.
Believe me Yr Afft Cousin & Sister
HGa Mundy
Markeaton
28 Oct.
Notes:
1. Sicilian Agate is a gemstone said to be named after the River Achates in Sicily.
2. Nicolaas Henneman (1813-1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT's valet, then assistant; photographer; opened calotype printing studio in Reading in 1843 and transferred to London in 1848.
3. The Roman godess Proserpine was abducted by Pluto, god of the underworld, from the banks of Anapus river and taken as his wife.
4. A Sicilian town near the Pergusa Lake.
5. The Anapus (or Anapos) River flowed into the Mediterranean Sea near the Greek colony of Syrakousa; it was also the name of a river god.
6. WHFT, English Etymologies (London: J. Murray, 1847).
5. William Mundy (1801-1877), politician, WHFT's brother-in-law.