DLA004-0002  Translation

[Across the top of page 1]: Please address your letter not here but to London. They forward my letters to me every month during my absence.

Hotel Edinburgh

St. Leonards on the Sea

10th April 1902

My dear friend Pista [pet name for István]^[1]

We have come to stay here for a few weeks while our house in London is in the hands of cleaners and painters etc. I have written from here to the editor of The Studio that since we are in the middle of April, they should send a copy of the Studio’s monthly number to you, and I am letting you know in advance that we will [need?] patience because editors are very autocratic people and I have found Mr. Yardley and his people to be great procrastinators.

I have just received Mr. Yardley’s reply, and he writes

[The following paragraph in English in the original] “The portrait of General Görgey [5369] is being printed separately as a supplemental illustration, as it was found quite impossible to finish it in time for the April number. We have therefore been compelled to hold it over until May and when that number is ready,^[2] I hope you will do me the favour of accepting a copy. I will also ask you to allow me to send a copy to General Görgey free of charge”.

Thus I hope it will appear in the May number and that the portrait will embellish the number with a masterpiece.

Reading through my old papers and letters, largely with a view to destroying them, I found a fading letter from the beginning of my life as an emigrant - by Sándor Gál,^[3] the Szekler colonel who served under Bem,^[4] who I found to be an attractive personality when we met; but after the arrival of Kosuth^[5] a lot of things changed, and as I was naturally preoccupied with my medical studies I did not think a lot about meeting my compatriots as I did not have the time available. I do not need Gál’s letter, do with it what you like.

I enclose an interesting little article from The Times; it is of interest to us.

Csatáry^[6] has not yet informed me about the details of the payment of my pension – I hope they do not send it here, as my poor relatives in the home country need it.

God be with you, my wife and I embrace all of you with affection | Your affectionate old friend

Tivadar Duka

Editorial Notes:

This letter is not addressed to de László, but is of some historical interest (the address is unknown). Tivadar Duka (1825-1908) participated in the 1848-49 War of Independence and was General Görgei’s adjutant at the time of the surrender to the Russian army at Világos in October 1849. He emigrated to England, studied medicine in London, and was an army doctor with the Indian Army in Bengal 1854-1877. He retired to England and published a book on Kossuth and Görgey (Hertford, 1898). He donated valuable material that he collected in India to the Natural History department of the Hungarian National Museum.

Pd’O

24/03/2009