Lot 2226

1837 (September 25), disinfected folded letter written from the Civita Castellana Quarantine Station, addressed to Lord Gifford, Palazzo di Russia, Monte Cavallo, Roma, struck with "C. CASTLNA" straight-line, reverse with bold strike of oval "Disinfettata / dentro e fuori" cachet and Rome arrival c.d.s., fresh and very fine, with exceptional content; ex Vandervelde.

The enclosed letter, written in English from “Lazzeretto at Casale near Civita Castellana” and dated 25 September 1837, describes the writer’s travels in Italy during this period of the Second Cholera Pandemic, noting that his “experience of the landward journey is decidedly unfavourable.” He states that “the authorities have refused me pen and ink for fear of infection,” obliging him to write with “a very bad lead pencil.” The writer explains that he travels by “bye-roads over the mountains,” while “keeping clear of Macerata and all the great towns,” and refers to stopping at a place described as “half inn – half lazzeretto,” where travellers faced the alternative of sleeping one night in a bare room or remaining “ten days here … in quarantine.”