• 264. Cäcilie Gotter to Auguste Böhmer in Bocklet: Gotha, 18 June 1800 [*]
Gotha, 18 June [1]800
|605| . . . Just so you can see what a generous heart I believe you have, I am hoping that despite my having been wrong, [1] you will send us more news of your dear mother as soon as possible. We are all yearning so to hear news of a significant improvement.
Your last letter did not really give us much cause for optimism in this regard, since we had been thinking she was not as sick and not suffering as much as she apparently still is.
By now she has probably taken the waters enough to see whether they are having any beneficial effect, [2] so please write us about that as soon as you can, dear Gustel, even if it is no more than a short note, and also tell us something about her mood. We hope her weakened nerves have not had any detrimental effect on her usual cheerfulness except in moments when she is suffering, and that as long as she is free from unpleasant physical sensations she is able to enjoy the distractions of the journey and all the other things she is usually so interested in.
My warmest thanks for the description of your stay in Bamberg. [3] . . .
Notes
[*] That Cäcilie is writing Auguste in Bocklet is indicated by her reference to Caroline having probably already taken the waters. Caroline and Auguste seem to have left Bamberg on 12 June 1800. — This letter is the last extant letter to Auguste (Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
[1] Uncertain reference, though presumably something Cäcilie said over the course of this correspondence. Back.
[2] Concerning “taking the waters,” see the supplementary appendix on Bocklet. — Here the Stahlquelle (“steel mineral spring”) and staircase arrangement in Bocklet depicted on a postcard ca. 1910. The three mineral springs accessible to guests were originally separate, and only after 1835–36 were they united in this Stahlquelle; that is, this arrangement is not exactly the one Caroline would have encountered:
See the similar fountain arrangements in Karlsbad ([1] frontispiece to Dr. Kronser, Illustrirter Kurkatechismus von Karlsbad: Neueste Beschreibung alles Wissenswerten dieses Weltbades, rev. ed. [Leipzig 1873]; [2] (un des médecins de l’établissement), Guide des étrangers à Carlsbad et dans ses environs (Carlsbad 1842), plates following p. 32) and in Bad Teinach (W. Wurm, Das Königliche Bad Teinach (Mineralbad u nd Wasserheilanstalt) im Würtembergischen Schwarzwalde, 4the ed. [Vienna 1878], plate following p. 16):
[3] See Auguste’s letter to Cäcilie on 16 May 1800 (letter 260) along with the gallery on Bamberg. Back.
Translation © 2014 Doug Stott