Tag Archives: Valentines Day

*swoon*

We just stum­bled across this arti­cle that ran in the Feb­ru­ary 13, 2000 edi­tion of the St. Louis Post-Dis­patch. The quote is so good, we had to share it. From a let­ter Robert wrote to his fiancée Vir­ginia short­ly before the were mar­ried in 1841:

Pre­pare one of your sweet­est kiss­es and have it on the bor­der of your sweet lips to wel­come me on my arrival to con­trive our meet­ings so that I can, with your sense of pro­pri­ety, fold you in my embrace and rev­el in your charms with­out being inter­rupt­ed. I must not indulge in this strain for it pro­duces such excite­ment that my writ­ing would scarce be legible.

Yowsah.

An image of the Post-Dis­patch arti­cle that announces the dona­tion of the Diebel Col­lec­tion of Camp­bell let­ters and the inti­mate nature of their con­tents. Appro­pri­ate­ly, it ran right before Valen­tine’s Day 2000.

Remember Remember the 14th of February!

Wait, I think we may have that quote wrong.

Either way, don’t wait until the last minute to find some­thing fun to do with your hon­ey on Tues­day. We’re host­ing a tra­di­tion­al Eng­lish high tea in our house with the lovelies from the Lon­don Tea Room. (These peo­ple are orig­i­nal­ly from Eng­land, so they know what they’re doing.) You’ll be greet­ed at the door with a glass of Roman punch that you can enjoy while you browse the house. As you relax at a table in the Din­ing Room, Par­lor, Morn­ing Room or Kitchen, we’ll serve you a scrump­tious high tea, includ­ing your own pot of tea, fin­ger sand­wich­es, cur­rant scone with Devon­shire cream, petit fours and a choco­late-cov­ered strawberry.

We’ll have some spe­cial lovey-themed Camp­bell pieces on dis­play, and you’ll get a lit­tle good­ie bag. Tick­ets are $45 each and a por­tion of your tick­et price is a dona­tion to Camp­bell House.

Sound good? Call Camp­bell House at 314/421‑0325 to make your reservation.

And now we’ll dou­ble check that whole “Remem­ber Remem­ber” quote with our Eng­lish friends.….

Valentine’s Day at Campbell House with the London Tea Room

It’s time to start plan­ning a spe­cial Valen­tine’s Day fete with your sweet­iekins! For­get the same ol’ crowd­ed bars and restau­rants, and let Camp­bell House take care of your night. At 6:00 PM on Tues­day, Feb­ru­ary 14, 2012, bring your spe­cial some­one over to the house for a high tea host­ed by our pals from the Lon­don Tea Room.

This is what’s cookin:

  • Upon arrival, toast this day of romance and love with a glass of Vir­ginia Camp­bel­l’s Roman (read: Cham­pagne) Punch.* While wait­ing for the culi­nary bac­cha­na­lia, you can explore our house, one of the coun­try’s finest exam­ples of high Vic­to­ri­an inte­ri­or decor.
  • After you get com­fort­able seat­ed at a table in the Par­lor, Morn­ing Room, Din­ing Room or Kitchen, you will enjoy the fol­low­ing delicacies: 
    • An assort­ment of fin­ger sand­wich­es, includ­ing smoked salmon on wheat; ham on rye with grain mus­tard mayo; and cucum­ber on cream cheese with dill and chives.
    • Tra­di­tion­al Eng­lish black cur­rant scone, served with Devon­shire cream and jam.
    • Selec­tion of beau­ti­ful petit fours.
    • A per­son­al pot of tea, reg­u­lar or decaf.
  • We’re going to dig through our archive to find some excep­tion­al lovey-dovey-themed Camp­bell pieces (yep, we have a lot of these…Robert and Vir­ginia were crazy about each oth­er) to dis­play for this evening only.
  • When you leave, you’ll receive a good­ie bag with tea dis­count cards, pass­es for free admis­sion to Camp­bell House, infor­ma­tion on Vic­to­ri­an Valen­tine’s Day tra­di­tions, and a copy of one of Robert and Vir­gini­a’s love let­ters, along with some oth­er choice loot.

Tick­ets are $45.00 each, and Lon­don Tea Room will be donat­ing $12.50 of each tick­et to Camp­bell House. Ready to make your reser­va­tion? Give us a ring at 314/421‑0325 with your Visa, Mas­ter­card or Dis­cov­er to hold your seats. We only have 36 seats avail­able, so call us ear­ly — we think this is going to be a big hit.

*Roman Punch is a tra­di­tion­al palate-cleans­ing drink that was often served between savory cours­es. If you want to make a batch at home, here’s a mod­ern­ized ver­sion of Vir­gini­a’s recipe:

Vir­ginia Camp­bel­l’s Roman Punch
1 12-oz can frozen lemonade
1 12-oz can of water
4 T frozen orange concentrate
Zest of one orange
2/3 bot­tle of champagne
In a blender, blitz lemon­ade, water, orange con­cen­trate, and zest. Pour mix­ture into a con­tain­er suit­able for freez­ing and add cham­pagne. Mix well and freeze. When ready to serve, thaw to make a slush and serve. Enjoy!

Happy Valentines Day from Campbell House Museum

With Valen­tines Day on Sun­day, we thought it only fit­ting to post a love let­ter.  This was writ­ten Feb­ru­ary 14, 1841 from Robert Camp­bell to his fiance Vir­ginia Jane Kyle.  The orig­i­nal let­ter is in the Mis­souri His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety’s archives.

Robert is in Philadel­phia, mak­ing his final arrange­ments to go to Raleigh, North Car­oli­na for their wed­ding!  The two were mar­ried just 11 days lat­er on Feb­ru­ary 25, 1841 at her moth­er’s house in Raleigh, North Car­oli­na.  Robert is obvi­ous­ly eager to mar­ry Vir­ginia and have a wife.  In one of his more famous quotes to her, Robert says  “rec­ol­lect you will soon become my coun­cilor and advi­sor and it may be Man­ag­er — that of course I will not acknowl­edge and I feel con­fi­dent you will make “my Yoke easy” and my life hap­py.”  Although this is def­i­nite­ly a love let­ter writ­ten on Valen­tines day, Robert makes no spe­cial remarks as to the date.  Instead this is just anoth­er exam­ple of the won­der­ful rela­tion­ship between Robert and Vir­ginia — Valen­tines or no Valen­tines.  We hope you all enjoy Valen­tines day with your spe­cial some­one!  For those with­out a spe­cial some­one, we hope you some­day find a love as strong as Robert and Vir­ginia Camp­bel­l’s.  Hap­py Valen­tines day everyone!

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Philadel­phia Feb 14th 1841
My Beloved Virginia
Notwith­stand­ing I wrote you yes­ter­day and have not since heard from you, nor of you, I can­not allow Doct. McPheeters to leave with­out writ­ing you a few lines.

Tonight was the reg­u­lar time for a let­ter to arrive from Nor­folk but none came to hand, so I infer either that the Boat did not make her reg­u­lar trip, or that you had left there with­out writ­ing me, and that your next will be from Raleigh.

Should the let­ters which I expect from your Moth­er and your­self not change any present views I expect to leave here so as to be with you by 23 or 24th inst, and shall prob­a­bly be accom­pa­nied either by Mr. Kerr or Mr. Mar­tin — Mr. Kerr had writ­ten to his Lady Love that he would be with her on 24th so that if he be not delayed by the present very cold weath­er, I expect Mr. Mar­tin will be companion.

Mary was anx­ious to accept your kind Moth­ers invi­ta­tion and would have done so, had I insist­ed, but Hugh thought that to under­take a jour­ney of Eight Hun­dred miles to make a vis­it of 24 Hours would be rather too cer­e­mo­ni­ous — Mary I believe will write you.

[Pg. 2] Hugh and I had a long walk this evening and spoke a good deal of your good moth­er and your­self.  He observed that “if Vir­ginia makes as good a wife as her Moth­er has done she will be a pat­tern for the Ladies of St. Louis.”

Hugh told me that he expect­ed your moth­er to come on with us on a vis­it to him in Philadel­phia and that either he or Mary would write her to that effect.  Hugh wrote your Uncle David and expects him and Mr. [maybe Mrs?] Kyle to meet us in Philadel­phia so I hope we will all meet here and pass some hap­py days together.

I have a great deal to say to you when we meet and many lit­tle plans to con­sult you about — rec­ol­lect you will soon become my coun­cilor and advi­sor and it may be Man­ag­er — that of course I will not acknowl­edge and I feel con­fi­dent you will make “my Yoke easy” and my life happy.

Dear­est Vir­ginia you can­not imag­ine with what anx­i­ety I look for­ward to this ter­mi­na­tion of the time that keeps us apart.  I hope to receive a let­ter nam­ing the 20th as I solicit­ed and be assured my beloved one I will hail the announce­ment with the great­est delight.

Give my Love to your good Moth­er and Sis­ter and to any oth­er friend of yours as I am pre­dis­posed to Love all that you Love and pre­pared to dis­like any who has ever offend­ed my beloved Virginia.
Dear Vir­ginia Farewell for a time
Ever your most devoted
Robert Camp­bell [End of pg. 2]
[Pg. 3] I have just returned from Hugh’s and I find Mary has writ­ten you but I know not the sub­ject no doubt about dresses.

Rec­ol­lect I will not lis­ten to any pro­posed mar­riage the first of March or any such dis­tant day, so you may make your prepa­ra­tions for the 20th or any inter­me­di­ate day not lat­er than the 25th.

Again dear­est Vir­ginia Farewell and believe me ever dwelling on the hap­py rec­ol­lec­tion of the few days that I passed with you in Norfolk.

I will write your Uncle David tomor­row night.
Yours,
RC [End of pg. 3]