Letter from Susanna Moodie to James Bird in Suffolk:
My dear friend,
…Tell dearest Emma, a piece of now old news, that I was on the 4th instant at St. Pancras Church made the happiest girl on earth, in being united to the beloved being in whom I had long centred all my affections. Mr. Pringle ‘gave me’ away, and Black Mary, who had treated herself with a complete new suit upon the occasion, went on the coach box, to see her dear Missie and Biographer wed. I assure you that instead of feeling the least regret at the step I was taking, if a tear trembled in my eyes, it was one of joy, and I pronounced the fatal obey, with a firm determination to keep it. My blue stockings, since I became a wife, have turned so pale that I think they will soon be quite white, or at least only tinged with a hue of London smoke. We are settled in a very pleasant lodgings, only a few minutes walk from Mr. Pringle’s. I have a large, airy, well furnished sitting room, and a very pretty comfortable chamber. The house is entitled Middleton Villa. A pretty name you will say, and vastly romantic. I am perfectly satisfied with my quarters, and am indeed very happy, in the society of my dear and talented partner. By the by, dear friend, I have hardly learned my new name, and it is often twice repeated before I recollect that it is my fortune to be a Miss no longer (a miss of fortune I might have said).
