193. HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Friedrich Kapp translation
Berlin, December 17th, 1856.
Another grateful, unconstrained, and amiable letter from the Grand Duke. He fixes February for the visit, and desires the drama to open with a request to search the archives. The permission being given, the material part is to follow, as he says, symbolically. You will arrange that with care, my dear friend. We are approaching the goal of our wishes.
I have another funeral to-morrow at the column in Tegel, which, under the hand of Thorwalsden, promises Hope. The oldest niece (daughter) of my brother, the wife of General Hedemann, born in Paris in 1800, a few days after Madame von Humboldt’s return from Spain, has departed after much suffering (liver complaint connected with dropsy), an amiable, cheerful housewife, 351who enjoyed good health for forty years in a very happy marriage. I live to bury all my kith and kin.
Yours,
A. v. H.
Wednesday Evening.