1882.04.18 English

[1] CB: Handwritten letter from RMH and his second wife Anna to the six daughters. The first half was written by the wife and the second part by RMH. They are traveling in Jutland – passing the towns of Herning and Fredericia. The latter apparently for reasons of visiting relatives; their business in Herning is not known. Fredericia is an ancient garrison town, whereas Herning is rather young, situated right in the heart of the moors of Jutland, an area which was reclaimed as late as in the 1870s after Denmark having lost South Jutland (North Schleswig) to Germany/Prussia at the war in 1864. Under the motto ‘internal gains shall make up for external losses’, the moors of Western Jutland were reclaimed in the following years. Hotel Eyde still exists and is run under the name of Hotel Eyde Best Western, still retaining the main building and outward appearance that it had in 1882.
SA: We must assume that the eldest daughter is under education and no longer staying at home, but we do not know for certain what kind of training she is undertaking. However, in a letter to the daughter Engelke, dated 1884, RMH mentions that Juliane is staying in Fredericia, so perhaps the parents’ intention is to visit her there.  Two other daughters, Engelke and Emma, were both a year in England working as tutors – in 1884 and 1888 respectively.  It is interesting to note the way RMH is describing the food and drink – apparently he was a real epicure and bon vivant, who enjoyed excessively everything that pleased the palate, including pipe, cigars and cigarettes in great quantity – perhaps these habits were fatal to him, since he died of cardiac arrest only 55 years old.
It is not easy to tell whom Anna and Rasmus visited, but a qualified guess is RMH’s brother-in-law Johan Alfred Heiberg, a good friend of the family. In 1880 he had a son named Johan and hence around 2 years old at the time – later to become a police superintendent. Unfortunately I don’t know whether there was also a girl named Gerda in that family, born around 1875 and thus 7 years old in 1882.