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diff --git a/1936-0.txt b/1936-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8249485 --- /dev/null +++ b/1936-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3654 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Letters from England, 1846-1849, by Elizabeth +Davis Bancroft + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Letters from England, 1846-1849 + + +Author: Elizabeth Davis Bancroft + + + +Release Date: April 5, 2015 [eBook #1936] +[This file was first posted on March 3, 1999] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM ENGLAND, 1846-1849*** + + +Transcribed from the 1904 Smith, Elder and Co. edition by Jane Duff and +proofed by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org + + [Picture: Elizabeth Davis Bancroft. Probably taken at Brady’s National +Gallery, New York, sometime after her return from England; from a picture + owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss] + + + + + + LETTERS + FROM ENGLAND + + + 1846–1849 + + BY + ELIZABETH DAVIS BANCROFT + (MRS. GEORGE BANCROFT) + + * * * * * + + _WITH PORTRAITS AND VIEWS_ + + * * * * * + + SMITH, ELDER & CO. + LONDON : : : : : : : 1904 + + * * * * * + + Copyright, 1903, by Charles Scribner’s Sons, for Great Britain and the + United States of America. + + * * * * * + + Printed by the Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company + New York, U. S. A. + + + + +PREFACE + + +ELIZABETH DAVIS BANCROFT, the writer of these letters, was the youngest +child and only daughter of William and Rebecca Morton Davis, and was born +at Plymouth, Mass., in October, 1803. She often spoke in later times of +what a good preparation for her life abroad were the years she spent at +Miss Cushing’s school at Hingham, and of her visits to her uncles, Judge +Davis and Mr. I. P. Davis of Boston. In 1825 she married Alexander +Bliss, a brilliant young lawyer and a junior partner of Daniel Webster. +On his death a few years later, her father having died, her mother and +brother formed a household with her and her two sons in Winthrop Place, +Boston. As a young girl in Plymouth she became a great friend of the +future Mrs. Emerson and later of Mr. Emerson and of Mr. and Mrs. Ripley, +and through them was much interested in Brook Farm. + +In 1838 she married George Bancroft, the historian and statesman, who was +then Collector of the Port of Boston and a widower with three children. +They continued to live in Winthrop Place till 1845, when for one year Mr. +Bancroft was Secretary of the Navy in Polk’s cabinet. While he was in +that position the Naval Academy at Annapolis was established; and he +played an important part in the earlier stages of the Mexican War. In +the fall of 1846 he became Minister to England. It was then that the +letters were written from which these extracts have been taken. A number +of passages not of general interest have been omitted, without any +indications of such omission in the text, but in no case has any change +in a sentence been made. Most of the letters are in the form of a diary +and were addressed to immediate relatives, and none of them were written +for publication; but owing to the standing of Mr. Bancroft as a man of +letters, as well as his official station, the writer saw London life +under an unusual variety of interesting aspects. + +In 1849 Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft returned to this country, and Mr. Bancroft +occupied himself with his history until 1868, when he was for seven years +Minister to Prussia and the German Empire. At the expiration of that +time they took up their residence in Washington, where they lived during +the remainder of their lives. + + + + +PORTRAITS AND VIEWS + +Elizabeth Davis Bancroft _Frontispiece_ + + Probably taken at Brady’s National Gallery, New + York, sometime after her return from England; + from a picture owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss. +Aston Hall (Bracebridge Hall) 8 +Henry Edward, fourth Lord Holland 14 + + From the portrait by C. R. Leslie, R. A., at + Holland House, by permission of the Earl of + Ilchester. +Augusta, Lady Holland 20 + + From the portrait by G. F. Watts, R. A., at + Holland House, by permission of the Earl of + Ilchester. +Holland House 26 +George Bancroft 34 + + From the painting by C. C. Ingham in the + possession of William J. A. Bliss. +Elizabeth Davis Bancroft 40 + + From the painting by C. C. Ingham in the + possession of William J. A. Bliss. +The Duke of Wellington 70 + + From the portrait by Count Alfred D’Orsay; + photograph copyright by Walker & Cockerell, + London. +Sir Stratford Canning 74 + + From the drawing by Richmond, make about 1848, by + permission of the Hon. Louisa Canning. +Lord Ashburton 84 + + After Sir T. Lawrence, R. A. +Miss Berry, at the Age of 86 88 + + From a crayon drawing by J. R. Swinton (1850); + from a picture owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss. +A. W. Kinglake (“Eothen”) 90 + + From a photograph. +Samuel Rogers 98 + + From the drawing by G. Richmond (1848); + photograph copyright by Walker & Cockerell, + London. +Lady Byron 106 + + From the portrait in the possession of Sir J. + Tollemache Sinclair, Bart. +George Hudson, the “Railway King” 114 + + From the engraving after F. Grant. +Lord Palmerston 130 + + From the portrait by Partridge; photograph + copyright by Walker & Cockerell, London. +Lady Palmerston 136 + + From a painting, by permission of Sir Francis + Gore. +Mrs. Dawson Damer 154 + + From the miniature by Isabey, by permission of + Lady Constance Leslie. +Mrs. Fitzherbert 160 + + From the pastel by J. Russell. +Richard Monckton Miles (Lord Houghton) 170 + + From a drawing by Cousins, by permission of the + Hon. Mrs. Arthur Henniker. +Lord George Bentinck 190 + + From a painting by Lane, by permission of the + Duke of Portland. +Sir Robert Peel 194 + + From the mezzotint after Sir T. Lawrence, R. A. +Lady Peel 198 + + After Sir T. Lawrence, R. A.; photograph + copyright by W. Mansell & Co., London. +George Bancroft 210 + + Probably taken at Brady’s National Gallery, New + York, sometime after his return from England; + from a picture owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss. + + + + +Letters from England + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + LIVERPOOL, October 26, 1846. + +MY DEAR SONS: Thank God with me that we are once more on _terra firma_. +We arrived yesterday morning at ten o’clock, after a very rough voyage +and after riding all night in the Channel in a tremendous gale, so bad +that no pilot could reach us to bring us in on Saturday evening. A +record of a sea voyage will be only interesting to you who love me, but I +must give it to you that you may know what to expect if you ever +undertake it; but first, I must sum it all up by saying that of all +horrors, of all physical miseries, tortures, and distresses, a sea voyage +is the greatest . . . The Liverpool paper this morning, after announcing +our arrival says: “The _Great Western_, notwithstanding she encountered +throughout a series of most severe gales, accomplished the passage in +sixteen days and twelve hours.” + +To begin at the moment I left New York: I was so absorbed by the pain of +parting from you that I was in a state of complete apathy with regard to +all about me. I did not sentimentalize about “the receding shores of my +country;” I hardly looked at them, indeed. Friday I was awoke in the +middle of the night by the roaring of the wind and sea and _such_ motion +of the vessel. + +The gale lasted all Saturday and Sunday, strong from the North, and as we +were in the region where the waters of the Bay of Fundy run out and meet +those of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, afterwards we had a strong cross sea. +May you never experience a “cross sea.” . . . Oh how I wished it had +pleased God to plant some little islands as resting-places in the great +waste of waters, some resting station. But no, we must keep on, on, with +everything in motion that your eye could rest on. Everything tumbling +about . . . We lived through it, however, and the sun of Sunday morn rose +clear and bright. A pilot got on board about seven and at ten we were in +Liverpool. + +We are at the Adelphi. Before I had taken off my bonnet Mr. Richard +Rathbone, one of the wealthiest merchants here, called to invite us to +dine the next day . . . Mrs. Richard Rathbone has written that beautiful +“Diary of Lady Willoughby,” and, what is more, they say it is a perfect +reflect of her own lovely life and character. When she published the +book no one knew of it but her husband, not even her brothers and +sisters, and, of course, she constantly heard speculations as to the +authenticity of the book, and was often appealed to for her opinion. She +is very unpretending and sweet in her manners; talks little, and seems +not at all like a literary lady. + +I like these people in Liverpool. They seem to me to think less of +fashion and more of substantial excellence than our wealthy people. I am +not sure but the existence of a higher class above them has a favorable +effect, by limiting them in some ways. There is much less show of +furniture in the houses than with us, though their servants and equipages +are in much better keeping. I am not sorry to be detained here for a few +days by my illness to become acquainted with them, and I think your +father likes it also, and will find it useful to him. Let me say, while +I think of it, how much I was pleased with the _Great Western_. That +upper saloon with the air passing through it was a great comfort to me. +The captain, the servants, the table, are all excellent. Everything on +board was as nice as in the best hotel, and my gruels and broths +beautifully made. One of the stewardesses did more for me than I ever +had done by any servant of my own . . . Your father and Louisa {7} were +ill but three or four days, and then your father read Tacitus and talked +to the ladies, while Louisa played with the other children. + +The Adelphi, my first specimen of an English hotel, is perfectly +comfortable, and though an immense establishment, is quiet as a private +house. There is none of the bustle of the Astor, and if I ring my +bedroom bell it is answered by a woman who attends to me assiduously. +The landlord pays us a visit every day to know if we have all we wish. + + LONDON, Sunday, November 1. + +Here I am in the mighty heart, but before I say one word about it I will +go on from Wednesday evening with my journal. On Thursday, though still +very feeble, I dined at Green Bank, the country-seat of Mr. William +Rathbone. I was unwilling to leave Liverpool without sharing with your +father some of the hospitalities offered to us and made a great effort to +go. The place is very beautiful and the house full of comfortable +elegance. + + [Picture: Aston Hall (Bracebridge Hall)] + +The next morning we started for Birmingham, ninety-seven miles from +Liverpool, on our way to London, as I am unable to travel the whole way +in a day. On this railway I felt for the first time the superiority of +England to our own country. The cars are divided into first, second, and +third classes. We took a first-class car, which has all the comforts of +a private carriage. + +Just as we entered Birmingham I observed the finest seat, surrounded by a +park wall and with a very picturesque old church, that I had seen on the +way. On enquiring of young Mr. Van Wart, who came to see us in +Birmingham (the nephew of Washington Irving), whose place it was, he said +it was now called Aston Hall and was owned by Mr. Watt, but it was +formerly owned by the Bracebridges, and was the veritable “Bracebridge +Hall,” and that his uncle had passed his Christmas there. + +On arriving here we found our rooms all ready for us at Long’s Hotel, +kept by Mr. Markwell, a wine merchant. The house is in New Bond Street, +in the very centre of movement at the West End, and Mr. Markwell full of +personal assiduity, which we never see with us. He comes to the carriage +himself, gives me his arm to go upstairs, is so much obliged to us for +honoring his house, ushers you in to dinner, at least on the first day, +and seats you, etc., etc. + +Do not imagine us in fresh, new-looking rooms as we should be in New York +or Philadelphia. No, in London even new things look old, but almost +everything _is_ old. Our parlor has three windows down to the floor, but +it is very dark. The paint is maple color, and everything is dingy in +appearance. The window in my bedroom looks like a horn lantern, so thick +is the smoke, and yet everything is scrupulously clean. On our arrival, +Boyd, the Secretary of Legation, soon came, and stayed to dine with us at +six. Our dinner was an excellent soup, the boiled cod garnished with +fried smelts, the roast beef and a _fricandeau_ with sweet breads, then a +pheasant, and afterwards, dessert. + +This morning Mr. Bates came very early to see us, and then Mr. Joseph +Coolidge, who looks very young and handsome; then Mr. Colman, who also +looks very well, Mr. Boyd and a Mr. Haight, of New York, and Mr. Gair, +son of Mr. Gair of Liverpool, a pleasing young man. + + Monday Evening. + +This morning came Mr. Aspinwall, then Captain Wormeley, then Dr. Holland, +then Mrs. Bates, then Mr. Joseph Jay and his sister, then Tom Appleton, +Mrs. and Miss Wormeley, and Mrs. Franklin Dexter. Dr. Holland came a +second time to take me a drive, but Mrs. Bates being with me he took your +father. Mrs. Bates took me to do some shopping, and to see about some +houses. They are very desirous we should be in their neighborhood, in +Portland Place, but I have a fancy myself for the new part of town. I +have been so used all my life to see things fresh and clean-looking, that +I cannot get accustomed to the London dinge, and some of the finest +houses look to me as though I would like to give them a good scouring. +Tell Cousin M. never to come to England, she would be shocked every +minute, with all the grandeur. A new country is cleaner-looking, though +it may not be so picturesque. + +I got your letters when I arrived here, and I wish this may give you but +a little pleasure they gave me. Pray never let a steamer come without a +token from both of you . . . With love to Grandma and Uncle Thomas, +believe me, with more love than ever before, + + ELIZABETH D. BANCROFT. + + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + LONDON, November 3, 1846. + +. . . This day, at five, your father had his first interview with Lord +Palmerston, who will acquaint the Queen with his arrival, and after she +has received him we shall leave our cards upon all the ministers and +_corps diplomatique_. + + November 4th. + +Your father had a most agreeable dinner at Lord Holland’s. He met there +Lord and Lady Palmerston, Lord Morpeth, Lord de Mauley, Mr. Harcourt, a +son of the Archbishop of York, etc. He took out Lady Holland and Lord +Morpeth, Lady Palmerston, the only ladies present. Holland House is +surrounded by 200 acres in the midst of the western part of London, or +rather Kensington. Lord Holland has no children, and the family dies +with him. They dined in the room in which Addison died. + + [Picture: Henry Edward, fourth Lord Holland. From the portrait by C. R. + Leslie, R. A., at Holland House, by permission of the Earl of Ilchester] + +To-day, to my surprise, came Lady Palmerston, which was a great courtesy, +as it was my place to make the first visit. She is the sister of Lord +Melbourne. Lord de Mauley has also been here. . . . To-day I have been +driving through some of the best streets in London, and my ideas of its +extent and magnificence are rising fast. The houses are more picturesque +than ours, and some of them most noble. The vastness of a great capital +like this cannot burst upon one at once. Its effect increases daily. +The extent of the Park, surrounded by mansions which look, some of them, +like a whole history in themselves, has to-day quite dazzled my +imagination. + + November 5th. + +This morning, Thursday, came an invitation to dine with Lord and Lady +Palmerston on Saturday. Sir George Grey, another of the ministers, came +to see us to-day and Lord Mahon. Your father and I have been all the +morning looking at houses, and have nearly concluded upon one in Eaton +Square. We find a hotel very expensive, and not very comfortable for us, +as your father is very restive without his books about him. Mr. Harcourt +also came to see us to-day. I mention as many of the names of our +visitors as I can recollect, as it will give you some idea of the +composition of English society . . . This moment a large card in an +envelope has been brought me, which runs thus: “The Lord Steward has +received Her Majesty’s commands to invite Mr. Bancroft to dinner at +Windsor Castle on Thursday, 12th November, to remain until Friday, 13th.” +I am glad he will dine there before me, that he may tell me the order of +performances. + + Friday, November 6th. + +. . . We had to-day a delightful visit from Rogers, the Poet, who is now +quite old, but with a most interesting countenance. He was full of +cordiality, and, at parting, as he took my hand, said: “Our acquaintance +must become friendship.” Mr. Harcourt came again and sat an hour with +us, and has introduced your father at the Traveller’s Club and the +Athenæum Club. To-night came my new lady’s maid, Russell. She dresses +hair beautifully, but is rather too great a person to suit my fancy. + + Sunday Evening, November 8th. + +On Friday evening we met at Mrs. Wormeley’s a cosy little knot of +Americans. The Dexters were staying there and there were Mr. and Mrs. +Atkinson and Miss Pratt, Mr. and Mrs. Aspinwall, Mr. and Miss Jay, Mr. +and Mrs. Putnam, Mr. Colman, Mr. Pickering, etc. + + Wednesday Evening. + +On Monday we came to our _home_, preferring it to the hotel, though it is +not yet in order for our reception, and we have not yet all our servants. +Last evening we dined with Lord Morpeth at his father’s house. His +family are all out of town, but he remains because of his ministerial +duties. Lord Morpeth took me out and I sat between him and Sir George +Grey. Your father took out Lady Theresa Lewis, who is a sister of Lord +Clarendon. She was full of intelligence and I like her extremely. Baron +and Lady Parke (a distinguished judge), Lady Morgan, Mr. Mackintosh, Dr. +and Mrs. Holland (Sidney Smith’s daughter), and Mr. and Mrs. Franklin +Dexter, with several others were the party. + +During dinner one gentleman was so very agreeable that I wondered who he +could be, but as Lord Palmerston had told me that Mr. Macaulay was in +Edinburgh, I did not think of him. After the ladies left the gentlemen, +my first question to Mrs. Holland was the name of her next neighbor. +“Why, Mr. Macaulay,” was her answer, and I was pleased not to have been +disappointed in a person of whom I had heard so much. When the gentlemen +came in I was introduced to him and talked to him and heard him talk not +a little. + +These persons all came the next day to see us, which gave rise to fresh +invitations. + +This morning we have been driving round to leave cards on the _corps +diplomatique_, and Mr. Harcourt has taken me all over the Athenæum +Club-house, a superb establishment. They have given your father an +invitation to the Club, a privilege which is sometimes sought for years, +Mr. Harcourt says. . . . Have I not needed all my energies? We have +been here just a fortnight, and I came so ill that I could hardly walk. +We are now at housekeeping, and I am in the full career in London +society. They told me I should see no one until spring, but you see we +dine out or go out in the evening almost every day. . . . For the +gratification of S. D. or Aunt I., who may wonder how I get along in +dress matters, going out as I did in my plain black dress, I will tell +you that Mrs. Murray, the Queen’s dressmaker, made me, as soon as I found +these calls and invitations pouring in, two dresses. One of black +velvet, very low, with short sleeves, and another of very rich black +watered silk, with drapery of black tulle on the corsage and sleeves. . . . +I have fitted myself with several pretty little head-dresses, some in +silver, some with plumes, but all white, and I find my velvet and silk +suit all occasions. I do not like dining with bare arms and neck, but I +must. + + [Picture: Augusta, Lady Holland. From the portrait by G. F. Watts, R. + A., at Holland House, by permission of the Earl of Ilchester] + + Tuesday, November 17th. + +Last evening we passed at the Earl of Auckland’s, the head of the +Admiralty. The party was at the Admiralty, where there is a beautiful +residence for the first lord. . . . I had a long talk with Lord Morpeth +last evening about Mr. Sumner, and told him of his nomination. He has a +strong regard for him. . . . Not a moment have I had to a London “lion.” +I have driven past Westminster, but have not been in it. I have seen +nothing of London but what came in my way in returning visits. + + + +_To I. P. D._ + + + LONDON, November 17, 1846. + +MY DEAR UNCLE: I cannot help refreshing the remembrance of me with you +and dear Aunty by addressing a separate letter to you. . . . Yesterday +we hailed with delight our letters from home. . . . One feels in a +foreign land the absence of common sympathies and interests, which always +surround us in any part of our own country. And yet nothing can exceed +the kindness with which we have been received here. + +Last evening I went to my first great English dinner and it was a most +agreeable one. . . . It seems a little odd to a republican woman to find +herself in right of her country taking precedence of marchionesses, but +one soon gets used to all things. We sat down to dinner at eight and got +through about ten. When the ladies rose, I found I was expected to go +first. After dinner other guests were invited and to the first person +who came in, about half-past ten, Lady Palmerston said: “Oh, thank you +for coming so early.” This was Lady Tankerville of the old French family +of de Grammont and niece to Prince Polignac. The next was Lady Emily de +Burgh, the daughter of the Marchioness of Clanricarde, a beautiful girl +of seventeen. She is very lovely, wears a Grecian braid round her head +like a coronet, and always sits by her mother, which would not suit our +young girls. Then came Lord and Lady Ashley, Lord Ebrington, and so many +titled personages that I cannot remember half. + +The dinner is much the same as ours in all its modes of serving, but they +have soles and turbot, instead of our fishes, and their pheasants are not +our pheasants, or their partridges our partridges. Neither have we so +many footmen with liveries of all colours, or so much gold and silver +plate. . . . The next morning Mr. Bancroft breakfasted with Dr. Holland +to meet the Marquis of Lansdowne alone. [Thursday] he went down to +Windsor to dine with the Queen. He took out to dinner the Queen’s +mother, the Duchess of Kent, the Queen going with the Prince of +Saxe-Weimar, who was paying a visit at the Castle. He talked German to +the Duchess during dinner, which I suspect she liked, for the Queen spoke +of it to him afterwards, and Lord Palmerston told me the Duchess said he +spoke very pure German. While he was dining at Windsor I went to a party +all alone at the Countess Grey’s, which I thought required some courage. + +Of all the persons I see here the Marquis of Lansdowne excites the most +lively regard. His countenance and manners are full of benevolence and I +think he understands America better than anyone else of the high +aristocracy. I told him I was born at Plymouth and was as proud of my +pure Anglo-Saxon Pilgrim descent as if it were traced from a line of +Norman Conquerors. Nearly all the ministers and their wives came to see +us immediately, without waiting for us to make the first visit, which is +the rule, and almost every person whom we have met in society, which +certainly indicates an amiable feeling toward our country. We could not +well have received more courtesy than we have done, and it has been +extended freely and immediately, without waiting for the forms of +etiquette. Pray say to Mr. Everett how often we hear persons speak of +him, and with highest regard. I feel as if we were reaping some of the +fruits of his sowing. + +Mr. Bancroft sends you a pack of cards, one of the identical two packs +with which the Queen played Patience the evening he was at Windsor. They +were the perquisite of a page who brought them to him. He was much +pleased with the Queen and thought her much prettier than any +representation of her which we have seen, and with a very sweet +expression. Lady Holland had been staying two or three days at Windsor, +and was to leave the next morning. When the Queen took leave of her at +night, she kissed her quite in my Virginia fashion. + + * * * * * + +DEAR UNCLE: How much more your niece would have written if to-day were +not packet day, I cannot say. I shall send you some newspapers and a +pack of cards which I saw in the Queen’s hands. The American Minister +and Mrs. Bancroft have since played a game of piquet with them. The +Queen’s hands were as clean as her smile was gracious. Best regards to +the Judge and Aunt Isaac. + + Yours most truly, + GEORGE BANCROFT. + + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + LONDON, November 29, 1846. + +After a long interval I find again a quiet Sunday evening to resume my +journal to you. On Monday we dined at Lord John Russell’s, and met many +of the persons we have met before and the Duchess of Inverness, the widow +of the Duke of Sussex. On Tuesday we dined at Dr. Holland’s. His wife +and daughter are charming, and then we met, besides, Lady Charlotte +Lindsay, the only surviving child of Lord North, Mr. and Mrs. Milman (the +author of the “Fall of Jerusalem”), and Mr. Macaulay. Yesterday I went +to return the visit of the Milmans and found that the entrance to their +house, he being a prebend of Westminster Abbey, was actually in the +cloisters of the Abbey. They were not at home, but I took my footman and +wandered at leisure through the cloisters, treading at every step on the +tomb of some old abbot with dates of 1160 and thereabouts. + + [Picture: Holland House] + +Nothing could be more delightful than London is now, if I had only a +little more physical vigor to enjoy it. We see everybody more +frequently, and know them better than in the full season, and we have +some of the best specimens of English society, too, here just now, as the +Whig ministry brings a good deal of the ability of the aristocracy to its +aid. The subjects of conversation among women are more general than with +us, and [they] are much more cultivated than our women as a body, not our +blues. They never sew, or attend, as we do, to domestic affairs, and so +live for social life and understand it better. + + LONDON, December 2, 1846. + +MY DEAR MRS. POLK: {28} you told me when I parted from you at Washington +that you would like to get from me occasionally some accounts of my +experiences in English society. I thought at that time that we should +see very little of it until the spring, but contrary to my expectation we +have been out almost every day since our arrival. We made our _début_ in +London on the first day of November (the suicidal month you know) in the +midst of an orange-colored fog, in which you could not see your hand +before you. The prospect for the winter seemed, I must say, rather +“triste,” but the next day the fog cleared off, people came constantly to +see us, and we had agreeable invitations for every day, and London put on +a new aspect. Out first dinner was at Lord Palmerston’s, where we met +what the newspapers call a distinguished circle. The Marquis of +Lansdowne, Lord and Lady John Russell, Marquis and Marchioness of +Clanricarde (Canning’s daughter), Earl and Countess Grey, Sir George and +Lady Grey, etc., etc. I was taken out by Lord Palmerston, with Lord Grey +on the other side, and found the whole thing very like one of our +Washington dinners, and I was quite as much at my ease, and they seemed +made of the same materials as our cabinet at home. I have since dined at +Lord Morpeth’s, Lord John Russell’s, Lord Mahon’s, Dr. Holland’s, Baron +Parke’s, The Prussian Minister’s, and to-day we dine with the Duchess of +Inverness, the widow of the Duke of Sussex; to-morrow with Mr. Milman, a +prebend of Westminster and a distinguished man of letters. We have been +at a great many _soirées_, at Lady Palmerston’s, Lady Grey’s, Lord +Auckland’s, Lady Lewis’s, etc., etc. + +And now, having given you some idea _whom_ we are seeing here, you will +wish to know how I like them, and how they differ from our own people. +At the smaller dinners and _soirées_ at this season I cannot, of course, +receive a full impression of English society, but certainly those persons +now in town are charming people. Their manners are perfectly simple and +I entirely forget, except when their historic names fall upon my ear, +that I am with the proud aristocracy of England. All the persons whose +names I have mentioned to you give one a decided impression not only of +ability and agreeable manners, but of excellence and the domestic +virtues. The furniture and houses, too, are less splendid and +ostentatious, than those of our large cities, though [they] have more +plate, and liveried servants. The forms of society and the standard of +dress, too, are very like ours, except that a duchess or a countess has +more hereditary point lace and diamonds. The general style of dress, +perhaps, is not so tasteful, so simply elegant as ours. Upon the whole I +think more highly of our own country (I mean from a social point of view +alone) than before I came abroad. There is less superiority over us in +manners and all the social arts than I could have believed possible in a +country where a large and wealthy class have been set apart from time +immemorial to create, as it were, a social standard of high refinement. +The chief difference that I perceive is this: In our country the position +of everybody is undefined and rests altogether upon public opinion. This +leads sometimes to a little assumption and pretension of manner, which +the highest class here, whose claims are always allowed by all about +them, are never tempted to put on. From this results an extreme +simplicity of manner, like that of a family circle among us. + +What I have said, however, applies less to the South than to the large +cities of the North, with which I am most familiar at home. I hope our +memory will not be completely effaced in Washington, for we cling to our +friends there with strong interest. Present my respectful regards to the +President, and my love to Mrs. Walker and Miss Rucker. To the Masons +also, and our old colleagues all, and pray lay your royal commands upon +somebody to write me. I long to know what is going on in Washington. +The Pleasantons promised to do so, and Annie Payne, to whom and to Mrs. +Madison give also my best love. Believe me yours with the highest +regard. + + E. D. BANCROFT. + + 2 December. + +Yesterday we dined at the Prussian Minister’s, Chevalier Bunsen’s. He +met your father in Rome twenty years since, and has received us with +great enthusiasm. Yesterday at dinner he actually rose in his seat and +made quite a speech welcoming him to England as historian, old friend, +etc., and ended by offering his health, which your father replied to +shortly, in a few words. Imagine such an outbreak upon routine at a +dinner in England! Nobody could have done it but one of German blood, +but I dare say the Everetts, who know him, could imagine it all. + + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + LONDON, December 19, 1846. + +MY DEAR SONS: . . . Yesterday we dined at Macready’s and met quite a new, +and to us, a most agreeable circle. There was Carlyle, who talked all +dinner-time in his broad Scotch, in the most inimitable way. He is full +of wit, and happened to get upon James I., upon which topic he was +superb. Then there was Babbage, the great mathematician, Fonblanc, the +editor of the _Examiner_, etc., etc. The day before we dined at Mr. +Frederick Elliott’s with a small party of eight, of which Lady Morgan was +one, and also a brother of Lord Normanby’s, whom I liked very much. Lady +Morgan, who had not hitherto much pleased me, came out in this small +circle with all her Irish wit and humor, and gave me quite new notions of +her talent. She made me laugh till I cried. On Saturday we dined at Sir +Roderick Murchison’s, the President of the Geological Society, very great +in the scientific way. + + [Picture: George Bancroft. From the painting by C. C. Ingham in the + possession of William J. A. Bliss] + +We have struck up a great friendship with Miss Murray, the Queen’s Maid +of Honor, who paid me a visit of three hours to-day, in the midst of +which came in Colonel Estcourt, whom I was delighted to see, as you may +suppose. Miss Murray is to me a very interesting person, though a great +talker; a convenient fault to a stranger. She is connected with half the +noble families in England, is the grand-daughter of the Duchess of Athol, +who governed the Isle of Man as a queen, and the descendant of Scott’s +Countess of Derby. Though sprung of such Tory blood, and a maid of +honor, she thinks freely upon all subjects. Religion, politics, and +persons, she decides upon for herself, and has as many benevolent schemes +as old Madam Jackson. + +I returned the visit of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie, the painter, this week, and +saw the picture he is now painting for the Vice-Chancellor. It is a +sketch of children, a boy driving his two little sisters as horses. One +of the little girls is very like Susie, {37} her size, hair, and +complexion. How I longed to be rich enough to order a copy, but his +pictures cost a fortune. I paid also a visit this week to the Duchess of +Inverness, whom I found in the prettiest, cosiest morning boudoir looking +onto the gardens of the Palace. In short, I do, or see, every hour, +something that if I were a traveller only, I could make quite a story of. + + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + LONDON, January 1, 1847. + +MY DEAR SONS: . . . I wrote my last sheet on the 19th and your father +went on that day to Cambridge to be present at the tri-centennial +celebration of Trinity College . . . He went also the day after the +anniversary, which was on our 22nd December, to Ely, with Peacock, the +great mathematician, who is Dean of Ely, to see the great cathedral there +. . . While he was at Cambridge I passed the evening of the 22nd at Lady +Morgan’s, who happened to have a most agreeable set . . . Lady Morgan’s +reunions are entertaining to me because they are collections of lions, +but they are not strictly and exclusively fashionable. They remind me in +their composition from various circles of Mrs. Otis’s parties in Boston. +We have in this respect an advantage over the English themselves, as in +our position we see a great variety of cliques. + +For instance, last evening, the 31st, I took Louisa, at half-past seven, +to the house of Mr. Hawes, an under Secretary of State, to see a +beautiful children’s masque. It was an impersonation of the “Old Year” +dressed a little like _Lear_ with snowy hair and draperies. _Old Year_ +played his part inimitably, at times with great pathos, and then +introducing witty hits at all the doings of his reign, such as exploding +cotton, the new planet, a subject which he put at rest as “_far beyond +our reach_,” etc., etc. He then introduced one by one the children of +all ages as “Days” of the coming year. There was _Twelfth Day_, crowned +as Queen with her cake in her hands; there was _Christmas_, covered with +holly and mistletoe; there was _April Fool’s Day_, dressed as Harlequin; +there was, above all, _Shrove Tuesday_, with her frying-pan of pancakes, +dressed as a little cook; there was a charming boy of fourteen or +fifteen, as _St. Valentine’s Day_ with his packet of valentines addressed +to the young ladies present; there was the _5th of November_, full of wit +and fun, etc.; the longest day, an elder brother, of William’s height, +with a cap of three or four feet high; and his little sister of five, as +the shortest day. This was all arranged to music and each made little +speeches, introducing themselves. The _Old Year_, after introducing his +successors, and after much pathos, is “going, going—gone,” and falls +covered with his drapery, upon removing which, instead of the lifeless +body of the _Old Year_, is discovered a sweet little flower-crowned girl +of five or six, as the _New Year_. It was charming, and I was so pleased +that, instead of taking Louisa away at nine o’clock as I intended, I left +her to see “Sir Roger de Coverly,” in the dress of his time. + +[Picture: Elizabeth Davis Bancroft. From the painting by C. C. Ingham in + the possession of William J. A. Bliss] + +Last night at Mr. Putnam’s, I met William and Mary Howitt, and some of +the lesser lights. I have put down my pen to answer a note, just brought +in, to dine next Thursday with the Dowager Countess of Charleville, where +we were last week, in the evening. She is eighty-four (tell this to +Grandmamma) and likes still to surround herself with _beaux_ and _belles +esprits_, and as her son and daughter reside with her, this is still easy +. . . The old lady talks French as fast as possible, and troubles me +somewhat by talking it to me, forgetting that a foreign minister’s wife +can talk English . . . Your father likes to be here. He has copying +going on in the State Paper Office and British Museum, and his heart is +full of manuscripts. It is the first thought, I believe, whoever he +sees, what papers are in their family. He makes great interest with even +the ladies sometimes for this purpose. Upon the whole, I love my own +country better than ever, but whether I shall not miss, upon my return, +some things to which I am gradually getting accustomed, I have yet to +learn. The gratification of mixing constantly with those foremost in the +world for rank, science, literature, or all which adorns society is +great, but there is a certain yearning toward those whose habits, +education, and modes of thought are the same as our own, which I never +can get over. In the full tide of conversation I often stop and think, +“I may unconsciously be jarring the prejudices or preconceived notions of +these people upon a thousand points; for how differently have I been +trained from these women of high rank, and men, too, with whom I am now +thrown.” Upon all topics we are accustomed to think, perhaps, with more +latitude, religion, politics, morals, everything. I like the English +extremely, even more than I expected, and yet happy am I to think that +our own best portions of society can bear a comparison with theirs. When +I see you I can explain to you the differences, but I think we need not +be ashamed of ourselves. + + + +_To I. P. D._ + + + LONDON, January 2, 1847. + +MY DEAR UNCLE: . . . I refer you to my letters to my boys, for all the +new persons and places we may have seen lately, while I give you for +Aunty’s amusement a minute account of my visit into the country at Mr. +Bates’s, where things are managed in a scrupulously English manner, so +that it will give her the same idea of country life here, as if it were a +nobleman’s castle. Our invitation was to arrive on Thursday, the day +before Christmas, to dine, and to remain until the following Tuesday +morning. His place is at East _Sheen_, which receives its name from the +Anglo-Saxon word for _beauty_. It adjoins Richmond Park, beyond which is +the celebrated Richmond Hill, Twickenham, Kew, etc., etc. . . . We +arrived at East Sheen at half-past five; but I ought first to mention the +_preparations_ for a country excursion. Our own carriage has, of course, +no dickey for my maid, or conveniences for luggage, so we take a +travelling carriage. The imperials (which are large, flat boxes, +covering the whole top of the carriage, _capital_ for velvet dresses, and +smaller ones fitting into all the seats _in_ the carriage, and _before_ +and _behind_) are brought to you the day before. I am merely asked what +dresses I wish taken, and that is all I know of the matter, so thoroughly +does an English maid understand her business. We were shown on our +arrival into a charming room, semi-library. + +In a few minutes a servant came to show me to my apartment, which was +very superb, with a comfortable dressing-room and fire for Mr. Bancroft, +where the faithful Keats unpacked his dressing materials, while I was in +a few moments seated at the toilet to undergo my hair-dressing, +surrounded by all my apparatus, and a blazing fire to welcome me with a +hissing tea-kettle of hot water and every comfort. How well the English +understand it, I learn more and more every day. My maid had a large room +above me, also with a fire; indeed, a “lady’s” maid is a _very great_ +character _indeed_, and would be much more unwilling to take her tea +with, or speak familiarly to, a footman or a housemaid than I should. My +greatest mistakes in England have been committed toward those high +dignitaries, my own maid and the butler, whose grandeur I entirely +misappreciated and invaded, as in my ignorance I placed them, as we do, +on the same level with other servants. She has her fire made for her, +and _loaf_ sugar in her tea, which she and Cates sip in solitary majesty. +However, she is most conscientious and worthy, as well as dignified, and +thoroughly accomplished in her business. As all these things are +pictures of English life, I mention them to amuse Aunty, who likes to +know how these matters are managed. + +After I am dressed, I join the circle in the library, where I am +introduced to Mr. and Madam Van de Weyer, and Louis Buonaparte, the son +of Louis, the ex-King of Holland, and of Hortense, Josephine’s daughter. +He was a long time imprisoned in the fortress of Ham, and has not long +been free. There was also Napoleon, son of Jerome Buonaparte, and the +Princess of Wurtemberg. They were most agreeable, intelligent, and +amiable young men, and I was glad to meet them. Lord and Lady Langdale +(who have a place in the neighborhood) were invited to dine with us. He +is Master of the Rolls and was elevated to the peerage from great +distinction at the bar. Lady Langdale is a sensible and excellent +person. At dinner I sat between Mr. Bates and Lord Langdale, whom I +liked very much. + +The next morning we assembled at ten for breakfast, which was at a round +table, with a sort of circular tray, which turns at the least touch in +the centre, leaving only a rim round the table for plates and cups. This +was covered also with a white cloth and on it were placed all the +breakfast viands, with butter, sugar, cream, bread, toast-rack and +preserves. You need no servants, but turn it round and help yourself. I +believe the Van de Weyers introduced it, from a visit in Wales. Tea and +coffee are served from a side-table always, here. Let me tell Aunty that +our simple breakfast _dress_ is unknown in England. You come down in the +morning dressed for the day, until six or seven in the evening, when your +dress is low neck and short sleeves for dinner. At this season the +morning dress is a rich silk or velvet, high body quite close in the +throat with handsome collar and cuffs, and _always_ a cap. Madam Van de +Weyer wore every day a different dress, all very rich, but I adhered to a +black watered silk with the same simple cap I wore at home. + +I took a drive through Richmond Park (where Henry the Eighth watched to +see a signal on the Tower when Anne Boleyn’s head fell, and galloped off +to marry Jane Seymour) to Richmond Terrace, which is ravishingly +beautiful even at this season. . . . The next day the gentleman all went +to town, and Madam Van de Weyer and I passed the day _tête-à-tête_, very +pleasantly, as her experience in diplomatic life is very useful to me. . . . +Her manners are very pleasing and entirely unaffected. She has +great tact and quickness of perception, great intelligence and amiability +and is altogether extremely well-fitted for the _rôle_ she plays in life. +Her husband is charming. . . . They have three children, very lovely. +The eldest, Victor, a fine boy of seven years old, Victoria, a girl of +four, for whom the Queen was sponsor, and Albert, to whom Prince Albert +performed the same office. This was, of course, voluntary in the royal +parties, as it was not a favor to be asked. . . . Madam Van de Weyer is +not spoiled, certainly, by the prominent part she was called to play in +this great centre of the world at so early an age, and makes an excellent +courtier. I could not help pitying her, however, for looking forward to +going through, year after year, the same round of ceremonies, forms, and +society. For us, it is a new study, and invaluable for a short time; but +I could not bear it for life, as these European diplomatists. Besides, +we Americans really enjoy a kind of society, and a much nearer +intercourse than other foreigners, in the literary, scientific, and even +social circles. + +On Saturday evening Lord William Fitzroy and daughter joined our party +with Sir William Hooker and Lady Hooker. . . . Sir William Hooker is one +of the most interesting persons I have seen in England. He is a great +naturalist and has the charge of the great Botanical Gardens at Kew. He +devoted a morning to us there, and it was the most delightful one I have +passed. There are twenty-eight different conservatories filled with the +vegetable wonders of the whole world. Length of time and regal wealth +have conspired to make the Kew gardens beyond our conceptions entirely. . . . +Sir William pointed out to us all that was very rare or curious, +which added much to my pleasure. . . . He showed us a drawing of the +largest _flower_ ever known on earth, which Sir Stamford Raffles +discovered in Sumatra. It was a parasite without leaves or stem, and the +flower weighed fifteen pounds. Lady Raffles furnished him the materials +for the drawing. I dined in company with her not long ago, and regret +now that I did not make her tell me about the wonders of that region. At +the same dinner you may meet so many people, each having their peculiar +gift, that one cannot avail oneself of the opportunity of extracting from +each what is precious. I always wish I could sit by everybody at the +same time, and I could often employ a dozen heads, if I had them, instead +of my poor, miserable one. From Sir William Hooker _I_ learned as much +about the _vegetable_ world, as Mr. Bancroft did from the Dean of Ely on +_architecture_, when he expounded to him the cathedral of Ely; pointing +out the successive styles of the Gothic, and the different periods in +which the different parts were built. Books are dull teachers compared +with these gifted men giving you a lecture upon subjects before your +eyes. + +On Sunday we dined with out own party; on Monday some diplomatic people, +the Lisboas and one of Mr. Bates’s partners, and on Tuesday we came home. +I must not omit a visit while we were there from Mr. Taylor (Van +Artevelde), who is son-in-law of Lord Monteagle, and lives in the +neighborhood. He has a fine countenance and still finer voice, and is +altogether one of those literary persons who do not disappoint you, but +whose whole being is equal to their works. I hope to see more of him, as +they spoke of “_cultivating_” us, and Mr. Taylor was quite a _protégé_ of +our kind and dear friend, Dr. Holland, and dedicated his last poem to +him. This expression, “I shall _cultivate_ you,” we hear constantly, and +it strikes me as oddly as our Western “_being raised_.” Indeed, I hear +improper Anglicisms constantly, and they have nearly as many as we have. +The upper classes, here, however, do _speak_ English so roundly and +fully, giving every _letter_ its due, that it pleases my ear amazingly. + +On Wednesday I go for the first time to Westminster Abbey, on Epiphany, +to hear the Athanasian Creed chanted. I have as yet had no time for +sight-seeing, as the days are so short that necessary visits take all my +time. No one goes out in a carriage till after two, as the servants dine +at one, and in the morning early the footman is employed in the house. A +coachman never leaves his box here, and a footman is indispensable on all +occasions. No visit can be paid till three; and this gives me very +little time in these short days. Everything here is inflexible as the +laws of the Medes and Persians, and though I am called “Mistress” even by +old Cates with his grey hair and black coat, I cannot make one of them do +anything, except _by_ the person and _at_ the time which English custom +prescribes. They are brought up to fill certain situations, and fill +them perfectly, but cannot or will not vary. + +I am frequently asked by the ladies here if I have formed a household to +please me and I am obliged to confess that I have a very nice household, +but that I am the only refractory member of it. I am always asking the +wrong person for coals, etc., etc. The division of labor, or rather +ceremonies, between the butler and footman, I have now mastered I believe +in some degree, but that between the _upper_ and _under_ house-maid is +still a profound mystery to me, though the upper has explained to me for +the twentieth time that she did only “the top of the work.” My cook +comes up to me every morning for orders, and always drops the deepest +curtsey, but then I doubt if her hands are ever profaned by touching a +poker, and she _never_ washes a dish. She is cook and _housekeeper_, and +presides over the housekeeper’s room; which has a Brussels carpet and +centre table, with one side entirely occupied by the linen presses, of +which my maid (my vice-regent, only _much_ greater than me) keeps the key +and dispenses every towel, even for the kitchen. She keeps lists of +everything and would feel bound to replace anything missing. I shall +make you laugh and Mrs. Goodwin stare, by some of my housekeeping +stories, the next evening I pass in your little pleasant parlor (a word +unknown here). + + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + LONDON, January 10, 1847. + +MY VERY DEAR CHILDREN: . . . Yesterday we dined at Lady Charleville’s, +the old lady of eighty-four, at whose house I mentioned an evening visit +in my last, and I must tell you all about it to entertain dear Grandma. +I will be minute for once, and give you the _little_ details of a London +dinner, and they are all precisely alike. We arrived at Cavendish Square +a quarter before seven (very early) and were shown into a semi-library on +the same floor with the dining-room. The servants take your cloak, etc., +in the passage, and I am never shown into a room with a mirror as with +us, and never into a chamber or bedroom. + +We found Lady Charleville and her daughter with one young gentleman with +whom I chatted till dinner, and who, I found, was Sir William Burdette, +son of Sir Francis and brother of Miss Angelina Coutts. I happened to +have on the corsage of my black velvet a white moss rose and buds, which +I thought rather youthful for _me_, but the old lady had [them] on her +cap. She is full of intelligence, and has always been in the habit of +drawing a great deal. . . . Very soon came in Lord Aylmer, [who] was +formerly Governor of Canada, and Lady Colchester, daughter of Lord +Ellenborough, a very pretty woman of thirty-five, I should think; Sir +William and Lady Chatterton and Mr. Algernon Greville, whose grandmother +wrote the beautiful “Prayer for Indifference,” an old favorite of mine, +and Mr. MacGregor, the political economist. Lord Aylmer took me out and +I found him a nice old peer, and discovered that ever since the death of +his uncle, Lord Whitworth, whose title is extinct, he had borne the arms +of both Aylmer and Whitworth. Mr. Bancroft took out Lady Colchester, and +the old lady was wheeled out precisely as Grandma is. + +At table she helped to the fish (cod, garnished round with smelts) and +insisted on carving the turkey herself, which she did extremely well. By +the way, I observe they never carve the breast of a turkey +_longitudinally_, as we do, but in short slices, a little diagonally from +the centre. This makes many more slices, and quite large enough where +there are so many other dishes. The four _entrée_ dishes are always +placed on the table when we sit down, according to our old fashion, and +not one by one. They have [them] warmed with hot water, so that they +keep hot while the soup and fish are eaten. Turkey, even _boiled_ +turkey, is brought on _after_ the _entrées_, mutton (a saddle always) or +venison, with a pheasant or partridges. With the roast is always put on +the _sweets_, as they are called, as the term dessert seems restricted to +the last course of fruits. During the dinner there are always long +strips of damask all round the table which are removed before the dessert +is put on, and there is no brushing of crumbs. You may not care for all +this, but the housekeepers may. I had Mr. Greville the other side of me, +who seemed much surprised that I, an American, should know the “Prayer +for Indifference,” which he doubted if twenty persons in England read in +these modern days. + +It is a great mystery to me yet how people get to know each other in +London. Persons talk to you whom you do not know, for no one is +introduced, as a general rule. I have sometimes quite an acquaintance +with a person, and exchange visits, and yet do not succeed for a long +time in putting their name and the person together. . . . It is a great +puzzle to a stranger, but has its conveniences for the English +themselves. We are endeavoring to become acquainted with the English +mind, not only through society, but through its products in other ways. +Natural science is the department into which they seem to have thrown +their intellect most effectively for the last ten or fifteen years. We +are reading Whewell’s “History of the Inductive Sciences,” which gives +one a summary of what has been accomplished in that way, not only in past +ages, but in the present. Every moment here is precious to me and I am +anxious to make the best use of it, but I have immense demands on my time +in every way. + + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + Tuesday night, January 19, 1847. + +To-day we have been present at the opening of Parliament, but how can I +picture to you the interest and magnificence of the scene. I will begin +quite back, and give you all the preparations for a “Court Day.” Ten +days before, a note was written to Lord Willoughby d’Eresby, informing +him of my intention to attend, that a seat might be reserved for me, and +also soliciting several tickets for American ladies and gentlemen. . . . +I cannot take them with me, however, as the seat assigned to the ladies +of Foreign Ministers is very near the throne. This morning when I awoke +the fog was thicker than I ever knew it, even here. The air was one +dense orange-colored mass. What a pity the English cannot borrow our +bright blue skies in which to exhibit their royal pageants! + +Mr. Bancroft’s court dress had not been sent home, our servants’ liveries +had not made their appearance, and our carriage only arrived last night, +and I had not passed judgment upon it. Fogs and tradesmen! these are the +torments of London. Very soon came the tailor with embroidered dress, +sword, and chapeau, but, alas! Mr. Isidore, who was to have dressed my +hair at half-past ten was not forthcoming, and to complete my perplexity, +he had my head-dress in his possession. At last, just as Russell had +resumed her office at the toilet, came Isidore, a little before twelve, +coiffure and all, which was so pretty that I quire forgave him all his +sins. It was of green leaves and white _fleur-de-lis_, with a white +ostrich feather drooping on one side. I wear my hair now plain in front, +and the wreath was very flat and classical in its style. My dress was +black velvet with a very rich bertha. A bouquet on the front of +_fleur-de-lis_, like the coiffure, and a Cashmere shawl, completed my +array. I have had the diamond pin and earrings which you father gave me, +reset, and made into a magnificent brooch, and so arranged that I can +also wear it as a necklace or bracelet. On this occasion it was my +necklace. + +Miss Murray came to go with me, as she wished to be by my side to point +out everybody, and her badge as Maid of Honor would take her to any part +of the house. At half-past twelve she and I set out, and after leaving +us the carriage returned for your father and Mr. Brodhead. But first let +me tell you something of our equipage. It is a _chariot_, not a coach; +that is, it has but one seat, but the whole front being glass makes it +much more agreeable to such persons as have not large families. The +color is maroon, with a silver moulding, and has the American arms on the +panel. The liveries are blue and red; on Court Days they have blue plush +breeches, and white silk stockings, with buckles on their shoes. Your +father leaves all these matters to me, and they have given me no little +plague. When I thought I had arranged everything necessary, the +coachman, good old Brooks, solicited an audience a day or two ago, and +began, “Mistress, did you tell them to send the pads and the fronts and +the hand-pieces?” “Heavens and earth! what are all these things?” said +I. “Why, ma’am, we always has pads under the saddle on Court Days, +trimmed round with the colors of the livery, and we has fronts made of +ribbin for the horses’ heads, and we has white hand-pieces for the +reins.” This is a specimen of the little troubles of court life, but it +has its compensations. To go back to Miss Murray and myself, who are +driving through the park between files of people, thousands and thousands +all awaiting with patient, loyal faces the passage of the Queen and of +the State carriages. The Queen’s was drawn by eight cream-colored +horses, and the servants flaming with scarlet and gold. This part of the +park, near the palace, is only accessible to the carriages of the foreign +ministers, ministers, and officers of the household. + +We arrive at the Parliament House, move through the long corridor and +give up our tickets at the door of the chamber. It is a very long, +narrow room. At the upper end is the throne, on the right is the seat of +the ambassadors, on the left, of their ladies. Just in front of the +throne is the wool-sack of the Lord Chancellor, looking like a +drawing-room divan, covered with crimson velvet. Below this are rows of +seats for the judges, who are all in their wigs and scarlet robes; the +bishops and the peers, all in robes of scarlet and ermine. Opposite the +throne at the lower end is the Bar of the Commons. On the right of the +Queen’s chair is a vacant one, on which is carved the three plumes, the +insignia of the Prince of Wales, who will occupy it when he is seven or +nine years old; on the left Prince Albert sits. + +The seat assigned me was in the front row, and quite open, like a sofa, +so that I could talk with any gentleman whom I knew. Madam Van de Weyer +was on one side of me and the Princess Callimachi on the other, and Miss +Murray just behind me. She insisted on introducing to me all her noble +relatives. Her cousin, the young Duke of Athol; the Duke of Buccleuch; +her nephew the Marquis of Camden; her brother the Bishop of Rochester. +There were many whom I had seen before, so that the hour passed very +agreeably. Very soon came in the Duke of Cambridge, at which everybody +rose, he being a royal duke. He was dressed in the scarlet kingly robe, +trimmed with ermine, and with his white hair and whiskers (he is an old +man) was most picturesque and scenic, reminding me of King Lear and other +stage kings. He requested to be introduced to me, upon which I rose, of +course. He soon said, “Be seated,” and we went on with the conversation. +I told him how much I liked Kew Garden, where he has a favorite place. + +When I first entered I was greeted very cordially by a personage in a +black gown and wig, whom I did not know. He laughed and said: “I am Mr. +Senior, whom you saw only Saturday evening, but you do not know me in my +wig.” It is, indeed, an entire transformation, for it reaches down on +the shoulders. He is a master in chancery. He stood by me nearly all +the time and pointed out many of the judges, and some persons not in Miss +Murray’s line. + +But the trumpets sound! the Queen approaches! The trumpet continues, and +first enter at a side door close at my elbow the college of heralds +richly dressed, slowly, two and two; then the great officers of the +household, then the Lord Chancellor bearing the purse, seal, and speech +of the Queen, with the macebearers before him. Then Lord Lansdowne with +the crown, the Earl of Zetland, with the cap of maintenance, and the Duke +off Wellington, with the sword of State. Then Prince Albert, leading the +Queen, followed by the Duchess of Sutherland, Mistress of the Robes, and +the Marchioness of Douro, daughter-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, who +is one of the ladies in waiting. The Queen and Prince sit down, while +everybody else remains standing. The Queen then says in a voice most +clear and sweet: “My lords (rolling the r), be seated.” Upon which the +peers sit down, except those who enter with the Queen, who group +themselves about the throne in the most picturesque manner. The Queen +had a crown of diamonds, with splendid necklace and stomacher of the +same. The Duchess of Sutherland close by her side with her ducal coronet +of diamonds, and a little back, Lady Douro, also, with her coronet. On +the right of the throne stood the Lord Chancellor, with scarlet robe and +flowing wig, holding the speech, surrounded by the emblems of his office; +a little farther, one step lower down, Lord Lansdowne, holding the crown +on a crimson velvet cushion, and on the left the Duke of Wellington, +brandishing the sword of State in the air, with the Earl of Zetland by +his side. The Queen’s train of royal purple, or rather deep crimson, was +borne by many train-bearers. The whole scene seemed to me like a dream +or a vision. After a few minutes the Lord Chancellor came forward and +presented the speech to the Queen. She read it sitting and most +exquisitely. Her voice is flute-like and her whole emphasis decided and +intelligent. Very soon after the speech is finished she leaves the +House, and we all follow, as soon as we can get our carriages. + + [Picture: The Duke of Wellington. From the portrait by Count Alfred + D’Orsay; photograph copyright by Walker & Cockerell, London] + +Lord Lansdowne told me before she came in that the speech would be longer +than usual, “but not so long as your President’s speeches.” It has been +a day of high pleasure and more like a romance than a reality to me, and +being in the very midst of it as I was, made it more striking than if I +had looked on from a distant gallery. + + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + LONDON, February 7, 1847. + +MY DEAR SONS: . . . On Friday we dined with two bachelors, Mr. Peabody +and Mr. Coates, who are American bankers. Mr. Peabody is a friend of Mr. +Corcoran and was formerly a partner of Mr. Riggs in Baltimore. Mr. +Coates is of Boston. . . . They mustered up all the Americans that could +be found, and we dined with twenty-six of our countrymen. + + Monday Morning. + +Last evening we were at home to see any Americans who might chance to +come. . . . I make tea in the drawing-room, on a little table with a +white cloth, which would not be esteemed _comme il faut_ with us. There +is none of the parade of eating in the largest evening party here. I see +nothing but tea, and sometimes find an informal refreshment table in the +room where we put on our cloaks. + +I got a note yesterday from the O’Connor Don, enclosing an order to admit +me to the House of Commons on Monday. . . . You will be curious to know +who is “The O’Connor Don.” He is Dennis O’Connor, Esq., but is of the +oldest family in Ireland, and the representative of the last kings of +Connaught. He is called altogether the O’Connor Don, and begins his note +to me with that title. You remember Campbell’s poem of “O’Connor’s +Child”? + + Sunday, 14th February. + +. . . Yesterday morning was my breakfast at Sir Robert Inglis’s. The +hour was halfpast nine, and as his house is two miles off I had to be up +wondrous early for me. The weather has been very cold for this climate +for the last few days, though we should think it moderate. They know +nothing of extreme cold here. But, to return to or breakfast, where, +notwithstanding the cold, the guests were punctually assembled: The +Marquis of Northampton and his sisters, the Bishop of London with his +black apron, Sir Stratford Canning, Mr. Rutherford, Lord Advocate for +Scotland, the Solicitor-General and one or two others. The conversation +was very agreeable and I enjoyed my first specimen of an English +breakfast exceedingly. . . . Our invitations jostle each other, now +Parliament has begun, for everybody invites on Wednesday, Saturday, or +Sunday, when there are no debates. We had three dinner invitations for +next Wednesday, from Mr. Harcourt, Marquis of Anglesey, and Mrs. +Mansfield. We go to the former. The Queen held a levée on Friday, for +gentlemen only. Your father went, of course. + + [Picture: Sir Stratford Canning. From the drawing by Richmond, make + about 1848, by permission of the Hon. Louisa Canning] + + Sunday, February 21st. + +I left off on Sunday, on which day I got a note from Lady Morgan, saying +that she wished us to come and meet some agreeables at her house. . . . +There I met Sir William and Lady Molesworth, Sir Benjamin Hall, etc., and +had a long talk with “Eōthen,” who is a quiet, unobtrusive person in +manner, though his book is quite an effervescence. . . . On Wednesday we +dined with Mr. Harcourt, and met there Lord Brougham, who did the talking +chiefly, Lord and Lady Mahon, Mr. Labouchere, etc. It was a most +agreeable party, and we were very glad to meet Lord Brougham, whom we had +not before seen. + +Lord Brougham is entertaining, and very much listened to. Indeed, the +English habit seems to be to suffer a few people to do up a great part of +the talking, such as Macaulay, Brougham, and Sydney Smith and Mackintosh +in their day. . . . On Saturday evening, at ten o’clock, we went to a +little party at Lady Stratheden’s. After staying there three-quarters of +an hour we went to Lady Palmerston’s, where were all the _great_ London +world, the Duchess of Sutherland among the number. She is most noble, +and at the same time lovely. . . . We had an autograph note from Sir +Robert Peel, inviting us to dine next Saturday, and were engaged. I hope +they will ask us again, for I know few things better than to see him, as +we should in dining there. I have the same interest in seeing the really +distinguished men of England, that I should have in the pictures and +statues of Rome, and indeed, much greater. I wish I was better prepared +for my life here by a more extensive culture; mere fine ladyism will not +do, or prosy bluism, but one needs for a thorough enjoyment of society, a +healthy, practical, and extensive culture, and a use of the modern +languages in our position would be convenient. I do not know how a +gentleman can get on without it here, and I find it so desirable that I +devote a good deal of time to speaking French with Louisa’s governess. +Your father uses French a great deal with his colleagues, who, many of +them, speak English with great difficulty, and some not at all. . . . +Lady Charlotte Lindsay came one day this week to engage us to dine with +her on Wednesday, but yesterday she came to say that she wanted Lord +Brougham to meet us, and he could not come till Friday. Fortunately we +had no dinner engagement on that day, and we are to meet also the Miss +Berrys; Horace Walpole’s Miss Berrys, who with Lady Charlotte herself, +are the last remnants of the old school here. + + + +_To I. P. D._ + + + February 21st. + +MY DEAR UNCLE: . . . I wrote [J. D.] a week or two before I heard of his +death, but was unable to tell him anything of Lord North, as I had not +met Lady Charlotte Lindsay. I have seen her twice this week at Baron +Parke’s and at Lord Campbell’s, and told her how much I had wished to do +so before, and on what account. She says her father heard reading with +great pleasure, and that one of her sisters could read the classics: +Latin and, I think, Greek, which he enjoyed to the last. She says that +he never complained of losing his sight, but that her mother has told her +that it worried him in his old age that he remained Minister during our +troubles at a period when he wished, himself, to resign. He sometimes +talked of it in the solitude of sleepless nights, her mother has told +her. + +On Tuesday morning we were invited by Dr. Buckland, the Dean of +Westminster, to go to his house, and from thence to the Abbey, to witness +the funeral of the Duke of Northumberland. The Dean, who has control of +everything in the Abbey, issued tickets to several hundred persons to go +and witness the funeral, but only Lord Northampton’s family, the Bunsens +(the Prussian Minister), and ourselves, went to his house, and into the +Dean’s little gallery. + +After the ceremony there were a crowd of visitors at the Dean’s, and I +met many old acquaintances, and made many new ones, among whom were Lady +Chantrey, a nice person. After the crowd cleared off, we sat down to a +long table at lunch, always an important meal here, and afterward the +Dean took me on his arm and showed me everything within the Abbey +precincts. He took us first to the Percy Chapel to see the vault of the +Percys. . . . From thence the Dean took us to the Jerusalem chamber where +Henry IV died, then all over the Westminster school. We first went to +the hall where the young men were eating their dinner. . . . We then went +to the school-room, where every inch of the wall and benches is covered +with names, some of them most illustrious, as Dryden’s. There were two +bunches of rods, which the Dean assured me were not mere symbols of +power, but were daily used, as, indeed, the broken twigs scattered upon +the floor plainly showed. Our ferules are thought rather barbarous, but +a gentle touch from a slender twig not at all so. These young men looked +to me as old as our collegians. We then went to their study-rooms, +play-rooms, and sleeping-rooms. The whole forty sleep in one long and +well-ventilated room, the walls of which were also covered with names. +At the foot of each bed was a large chest covered with leather, as +mouldering and time-worn as the Abbey itself. Here are educated the sons +of some of the noblest families, and the Archbishop of York has had six +sons here, and all of them were in succession the Captain of the school. . . . + +On Wednesday evening we went first to our friends, the Bunsens, where we +were invited to meet the Duchess of Sutherland with a few other persons. +Bunsen is very popular here. He is learned and accomplished, and was so +much praised in the Biography of Dr. Arnold, the late historian of Rome, +that he has great reputation in the world of letters. . . . Although we +have great pleasure in the society of Chevalier and Madam Bunsen, and in +those whom we meet at their house. On this occasion we only stayed half +an hour, which I passed in talking with the Bishop of Norwich and his +wife, Mrs. Stanley, and went to Lady Morgan’s without waiting till the +Duchess of Sutherland came. There we found her little rooms full of +agreeable people. . . . The next day, Thursday, there was a grand opera +for the benefit of the Irish, and all the Diplomatic Corps were obliged +to take boxes. Lady Palmerston, who was one of the three patronesses, +secured a very good box for us, directly opposite the Queen, and only +three from the stage. + +We took with us Mrs. Milman and W. T. Davis, to whom it gave a grand +opportunity of seeing the Queen and the assembled aristocracy, at least +all who are now in London. “God save the Queen,” sung with the whole +audience standing, was a noble sight. The Queen also stood, and at the +end gave three curtsies. On Friday Captain and Mrs. Wormeley, with Miss +Wormeley, dined with us, with Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle, Miss Murray, the Maid +of Honor, Mr. and Mrs. Pell of New York, with William T. and Mr. +Brodhead. William was very glad to see Carlyle, who showed himself off +to perfection, uttering his paradoxes in broad Scotch. + +Last evening we dined at Mr. Thomas Baring’s, and a most agreeable dinner +it was. The company consisted of twelve persons, Lord and Lady +Ashburton, etc. I like Lady Ashburton extremely. She is full of +intelligence, reads everything, talks most agreeably, and still loves +America. She is by no means one of those who abjure their country. I +have seen few persons in England whom I should esteem a more delightful +friend or companion than Lady Ashburton, and I do not know why, but I had +received a different impression of her. Lord Ashburton, by whom I sat at +dinner, struck me as still one of the wisest men I have seen in England. +Lady Ashburton, who was sitting by Mr. Bancroft, leant forward and said +to her husband, “_We_ can bring bushels of corn this year to England.” +“Who do you mean by _we_?” said he. “Why, we Americans, to be sure.” + + [Picture: Lord Ashburton. After Sir T. Lawrence, R. A.] + + Monday Evening. + +Yesterday we dined at Count St. Aulair’s, the French Ambassador, who is a +charming old man of the old French school, at a sort of amicable dinner +given to Lord and Lady Palmerston. Lord John Russell was of the party, +with the Russian Ambassador and lady, Mr. and Madam Van de Weyer, the +Prussian and Turkish Ministers. The house of the French Embassy is fine, +but these formal grand dinners are not so charming as the small ones. +The present state of feeling between Lord Palmerston and the French +Government gave it a kind of interest, however, and it certainly went off +in a much better spirit than Lady Normanby’s famous party, which Guizot +would not attend. It seems very odd to me to be in the midst of these +European affairs, which I have all my life looked upon from so great a +distance. + + + +_To Mrs. W. W. Story_ + + + LONDON, March 23, 1847. + +MY DEAR MRS. STORY: I should have thanked you by the last steamer for +your note and the charming volume which accompanied it, but my thoughts +and feelings were so much occupied by the sad tidings I heard from my own +family that I wrote to no one out of it. The poems, which would at all +times have given me great pleasure, gave me still more here than they +would if I were with you on the other side of the Atlantic. I am not +cosmopolitan enough to love any nature so well as our American nature, +and in addition to the charm of its poetry, every piece brought up to me +the scenes amidst which it had been written. . . . How dear these +associations are your husband will soon know when he too is separated +from his native shores and from those he loves. . . . I shall look +forward with great pleasure to seeing him here, and only wish you were to +accompany him, for your own sake, for his, and for ours. His various +culture will enable him to enjoy most fully all that Europe can yield him +in every department. My own regret ever since I have been here has been +that the seed has not “fallen upon better ground,” for though I thought +myself not ignorant wholly, I certainly lose much that I might enjoy more +keenly if I were better prepared for it. I envy the pleasure which Mr. +Story will receive from music, painting, and sculpture in Europe, even if +he were destitute of the creative inspiration which he will take with +him. For ourselves, we have everything to make us happy here, and I +should be quite so, if I could forget that I had a country and children +with very dear friends 3,000 miles away. . . . There are certain +sympathies of country which one cannot overcome. On the other hand I +certainly enjoy pleasures of the highest kind, and am every day floated +like one in a dream into the midst of persons and scenes that make my +life seem more like a drama than a reality. Nothing is more unreal than +the actual presence of persons of whom one has heard much, and long +wished to see. One day I find myself at dinner by the side of Sir Robert +Peel, another by Lord John Russell, or at Lord Lansdowne’s table, with +Mrs. Norton, or at a charming breakfast with Mr. Rogers, surrounded by +pictures and marbles, or with tall feathers and a long train, making +curtsies to a queen. + + [Picture: Miss Berry, at the age of 86. From a crayon drawing by J. R. + Swinton (1850); from a picture owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss] + + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + LONDON, April 2 [1847]. + +Here it is the day before the despatches leave and I have not written a +single line to you. . . . On Friday we dined at Lady Charlotte Lindsay’s, +where were Lord Brougham and Lady Mallet, Mr. Rogers and the Bishop of +Norwich and his wife. In the evening Miss Agnes Berry, who never goes +out now, came on purpose to appoint an evening to go and see her sister, +who is the one that Horace Walpole wished to marry, and to whom so many +of his later letters are addressed. She is eighty-four, her sister a few +years younger, and Lady Charlotte not much their junior. + +These remnants of the _belles-esprits_ of the last age are charming to +me. They have a vast and long experience of the best social circles, +with native wit, and constant practice in the conversation of society. . . . +On Wednesday, we dined at Sir Robert Peel’s, with whom I was more +charmed than with anybody I have seen yet. I sat between him and the +Speaker of the House of Commons. I was told that he was stiff and +stately in his manners, but did not think him so, and am inclined to +imagine that free from the burden of the Premiership, he unbends more. +He talked constantly with me, and in speaking of a certain picture said, +“When you come to Drayton Manor I shall show it to you.” I should like +to go there, but to see himself even more than his pictures. Lady Peel +is still a very handsome woman. + +The next morning we breakfasted with Mr. Rogers. He lives, as you +probably know, in [a] beautiful house, though small, whose rooms look +upon the Green Park, and filled with pictures and marbles. We stayed an +hour or more after the other guests, listening to his stores of literary +anecdote and pleasant talk. In the evening we went to the Miss Berrys’, +where we found Lord Morpeth, who is much attached to them. Miss Berry +put her hand on his head, which is getting a little gray, and said: “Ah, +George, and I remember the day you were born, your grandmother brought +you and put you in my arms.” Now this grandmother of Lord Morpeth’s was +the celebrated Duchess of Devonshire, who electioneered for Fox, and he +led her to tell me all about her. “Eothen” was also there, Lady Lewis +and many of my friends. . . . Aunty wishes to know who is “Eothen.” She +has probably read his book, “Eothen, or Traces of Travel,” which was very +popular two or three years since. He is a young lawyer, Mr. Kinglake, +the most modest, unassuming person in his manners, very shy and +altogether very unlike the dashing, spirited young Englishman I figured +to myself, whom nothing could daunt from the Arab even to the plague, +which he defied. + + [Picture: A. W. Kinglake (“Eothen”). From a photograph] + + + +_To I. P. D._ + + +DEAR UNCLE AND AUNT: On Thursday [the 25th] we were invited to Sir John +Pakington’s, whose wife is the Bishop of Rochester’s daughter, but were +engaged to Mr. Senior, who had asked us to meet the Archbishop of Dublin, +the celebrated Dr. Whately. He had come over from Ireland to make a +speech in the House of Lords upon the Irish Poor Law. He is full of +learning [and] simplicity, and with most genial hearty manners. Rogers +was also there and said more fine things than I have heard him say before +at dinner, as he is now so deaf that he does not hear general +conversation, and cannot tell where to send his shaft, which is always +pointed. He retains all his sarcasm and epigrammatic point, but he +shines now especially at breakfast, where he has his audience to himself. + +We went from Mr. Senior’s to Mr. Milman’s, but nearly all the guests +there were departed or departing, though one or two returned with us to +the drawing-room to stay the few minutes we did. Among the lingerers we +found Sir William and Lady Duff Gordon, the two Warburtons, “Hochelaga” +and “Crescent and Cross,” and “Eothen.” Mrs. Milman I really love, and +we see much of them. + +On Saturday was the dreaded Drawing-Room, on which occasion I was to be +presented to the Queen. . . . Mr. Bancroft and I left home at a quarter +past one. On our arrival we passed through one or two corridors, lined +by attendants with battle-axes and picturesque costumes, looking very +much like the supernumeraries on the stage, and were ushered into the +ante-room, a large and splendid room, where only the Ministers and Privy +Councillors, with their families, are allowed to go with the Diplomatic +Corps. Here we found Lady Palmerston, who showed me a list she had got +Sir Edward Cust, the master of ceremonies, to make out of the order of +precedence of the Diplomatic Corps, and when the turn would come for us +who were to be newly presented. The room soon filled up and it was like +a pleasant party, only more amusing, as the costumes of both gentlemen +and ladies were so splendid. I got a seat in the window with Madam Van +de Weyer and saw the Queen’s train drive up. At the end of this room are +two doors: at the left hand everybody enters the next apartment where the +Queen and her suite stand, and after going round the circle, come out at +the right-hand door. After those who are privileged to go _first_ into +the _ante-room_ leave it, the general circle pass in, and they also go in +and out the same doors. But to go back. The left-hand door opens and +Sir Edward Cust leads in the Countess Dietrichstein, who is the eldest +Ambassadress, as the Countess St. Aulair is in Paris. As she enters she +drops her train and the gentlemen ushers open it out like a peacock’s +tail. Then Madam Van de Weyer, who comes next, follows close upon the +train of the former, then Baroness Brunnow, the Madam Bunsen, then Madam +Lisboa, then Lady Palmerston, who, as the wife of the Minister for +Foreign Affairs, is to introduce the Princess Callimachi, Baroness de +Beust, and myself. She stations herself by the side of the Queen and +names us as we pass. The Queen spoke to none of us, but gave me a very +gracious smile, and when Mr. Bancroft came by, she said: “I am very glad +to have had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Bancroft to-day.” I was not [at] +all frightened and gathered up my train with as much self-possession as +if I were alone. I found it very entertaining afterward to watch the +reception of the others. The Diplomatic Corps remain through the whole, +the ladies standing on the left of the Queen and the gentlemen in the +centre, but all others pass out immediately. . . . On Sunday evening Mr. +Bancroft set off for Paris to pass the Easter recess of Parliament. . . . +I got a very interesting letter yesterday from Mr. Bancroft. It seems +that the Countess Circourt, whose husband has reviewed his book and +Prescott’s, is a most charming person, and makes her house one of the +most brilliant and attractive in Paris. Since he left, a note came from +Mr. Hallam, the contents of which pleased me as they will you. It +announced that Mr. Bancroft was chosen an Honorary Member of the Society +of Antiquaries, of which Lord Mahon is president, Hallam, vice-president. +Hallam says the society is very old and that he is the first citizen of +the United States upon whom it has been conferred, but that he will not +long possess it exclusively, as his “highly distinguished countryman, Mr. +Prescott, has also been proposed.” + + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + Tuesday. + +MY DEAR SONS: . . . On Monday morning came the dear Miss Berrys, to beg +me to come that evening to join their circle. They have always the best +people in London about them, young as well as old. + +The old and the middle-aged are more attended to here than with us, where +the young are all in all. As Hayward said to me the other evening, “it +takes time to make _people_, like cathedrals,” and Mr. Rogers and Miss +Berry could not have been what they are now, forty years ago. A long +life of experience in the midst constantly of the highest and most +cultivated circles, and with several generations of distinguished men +gives what can be acquired in no other way. Mr. Rogers said to me one +day: “I have learnt more from men that from _books_, and when I used to +be in the society of Fox and other great men of that period, and they +would sometimes say ‘I have always thought so and so,’ then I have opened +my ears and listened, for I said to myself, now I shall get at the +treasured results of the experience of these great men.” This little +saying of Mr. Rogers expresses precisely my own feelings in the society +of the venerable and distinguished here. With us society is left more to +the crudities of the young than in England. The young may be interesting +and promise much, but they are still _crude_. The elements, however +fine, are not yet completely assimilated and brought to that more perfect +tone which comes later in life. + + [Picture: Samuel Rogers. From the drawing by G. Richmond (1848); + photograph copyright by Walker & Cockerell, London] + + Monday, April 12th. + +. . . On Saturday I went with Sir William and Lady Molesworth to their +box in the new Covent Garden opera, which has been opened for the first +time this week. There I saw Grisi and Alboni and Tamburini in the +“Semiramide.” It was a new world of delight to me. Grisi, so statuesque +and so graceful, delights the eye, the ear, and the soul. She is +sculpture, poetry, and music at the same time. . . . Mr. Bancroft has +been received with great cordiality in Paris. He has been three times +invited to the Palace, and Guizot and Mignet give him access to all that +he wants in the archives, and he passes his evenings with all the eminent +men and beautiful women of Paris. Guizot, Thiers, Lamartine, Cousin, +Salvandi, Thierry, he sees, and enjoys all. They take him to the salons, +too, of the Faubourg St. Germain, among the old French aristocracy, and +to innumerable receptions. + + Wednesday. + +To-morrow I go to the Drawing-Room alone, and to complete the climax, the +Queen has sent us an invitation to dine at the Palace to-morrow, and I +must go _alone_ for the _first time_. If I live through it, I will tell +you all about it; but is it not awkward in the extreme? + + Friday Morning. + +At eight o’clock in the evening I drove to the Palace. My dress was my +currant-colored or grosseille velvet with a wreath of white Arum lilies +woven into a kind of turban, with green leave and bouquet to match, on +the bertha of Brussels lace. I was received by a servant, who escorted +me through a long narrow corridor the length of Winthrop Place and +consigned me to another who escorted me in his turn, through another +wider corridor to the foot of a flight of stairs which I ascended and +found another servant, who took my cloak and showed me into the grand +corridor or picture gallery; a noble apartment of interminable length; +and surrounded by pictures of the best masters. General Bowles, the +Master of the Household, came forward to meet me, and Lord Byron, who is +one of the Lords in Waiting. I found Madam Lisboa already arrived, and +soon came in Lord and Lady Palmerston, the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis +and Marchioness of Exeter, Lord and Lady Dalhousie, Lord Charles +Wellesley, son of the Duke of Wellington, Lady Byron, and Mr. Hallam. We +sat and talked as at any other place, when at last the Queen was +announced. The gentlemen ranged themselves on one side, and we on the +other, and the Queen and Prince passed through, she bowing, and we +profoundly curtseying. As soon as she passed the Marquis of Exeter came +over and took Madam Lisboa, and Lord Dalhousie came and took me. The +Queen and Prince sat in the middle of a long table, and I was just +opposite the Prince, between Lord Exeter and Lord Dalhousie, who is the +son of the former Governor of Nova Scotia, was in the last ministry, and +a most agreeable person. I talked to my neighbors as at any other +dinner, but the Queen spoke to no one but Prince Albert, with a word or +two to the Duke of Norfolk, who was on her right, and is the first peer +of the realm. + +The dinner was rather quickly despatched, and when the Queen rose we +followed her back into the corridor. She walked to the fire and stood +some minutes, and then advanced to me and enquired about Mr. Bancroft, +his visit to Paris, if he had been there before, etc. I expressed, of +course, the regret he would feel at losing the honor of dining with Her +Majesty, etc. She then had a talk with Lady Palmerston, who stood by my +side, then with all the other ladies in succession, until at last Prince +Albert came out, soon followed by the other gentlemen. The Prince then +spoke to all the ladies, as she had done, while she went in succession to +all the gentlemen guests. This took some time and we were obliged to +stand all the while. + +At last the Queen, accompanied by her Lady in Waiting, Lady Mount +Edgcumbe, went to a sofa at the other end of the corridor in front of +which was a round table surrounded by arm-chairs. When the Queen was +seated Lady Mount Edgcumbe came to us and requested us to take our seats +round the table. This was a little prim, for I did not know exactly how +much I might talk to others in the immediate presence of the Queen, and +everybody seemed a little constrained. She spoke to us all, and very +soon such of the gentlemen as were allowed by their rank, joined us at +the round table. Lord Dalhousie came again to my side and I had as +pleasant a conversation with him, rather _sotto voce_, however, as I +could have had at a private house. At half-past ten the Queen rose and +shook hands with each lady; we curtsied profoundly, and she and the +Prince departed. We then bade each other good-night, and found our +carriages as soon as we chose. + + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + LONDON, May 16, 1847. + +MY DEAR SONS: My letters by this steamer will have very little interest +for you, as, from being in complete retirement, I have no new things to +related to you. . . . We have taken advantage of our leisure to drive a +little into the country, and on Tuesday I had a pleasure of the highest +order in driving down to Esher and passing a quiet day with Lady Byron, +the widow of the poet. She is an intimate friend of Miss Murray, who has +long wished us to see her and desired her to name the day for our visit. + + [Picture: Lady Byron. From the portrait in the possession of Sir J. + Tollemache Sinclair, Bart.] + +Esher is a little village about sixteen miles from London, and Lady Byron +has selected it as her residence, though her estates are in +Leicestershire, because it is near Lord and Lady Lovelace, her only +child, the “_Ada_” of poetry. We went in our own carriage, taking Miss +Murray with us, and as the country is now radiant with blossoms and +glowing green, the drive itself was very agreeable. We arrived at two +o’clock, and found only Lady Byron, with the second boy of Lady Lovelace +and his tutor. Lady Byron is now about fifty-five, and with the remains +of an attractive, if not brilliant beauty. She has extremely delicate +features, and very pale and finely delicate skin. A tone of voice and +manner of the most trembling refinement, with a culture and strong +intellect, almost masculine, but which betrays itself under such sweet +and gentle and unobtrusive forms that one is only led to perceive it by +slow degrees. She is the most modest and unostentatious person one can +well conceive. She lives simply, and the chief of her large income (you +know she was the rich Miss Milbank) she devotes to others. After lunch +she wished me to see a little of the country round Esher and ordered her +ponies and small carriage for herself and me, while Mr. Bancroft and Miss +Murray walked. We went first to the royal seat, Claremont, where the +Princess Charlotte lived so happily with Leopold, and where she died. +Its park adjoins Lady Byron’s, and the Queen allows her a private key +that she may enjoy its exquisite grounds. Here we left the pedestrians, +while Lady Byron took me a more extensive drive, as she wished to show me +some of the heaths in the neighborhood, which are covered with furze, now +one mass of yellow bloom. + +Every object is seen in full relief against the sky, and a figure on +horseback is peculiarly striking. I am always reminded of the beginning +of one of James’s novels, which is usually, you know, after this manner: +“It was toward the close of a dull autumn day that two horsemen were +seen,” etc., etc. Lady Byron took me to the estate of a neighboring +gentleman, to show me a fine old tower covered with ivy, where Wolsey +took refuge from his persecutors, with his faithful follower, Cromwell. + +Upon our return we found the last of the old harpers, blind, and with a +genuine old Irish harp, and after hearing his national melodies for half +an hour, taking a cup of coffee, and enjoying a little more of Lady +Byron’s conversation, we departed, having had a day heaped up with the +richest and best enjoyments. I could not help thinking, as I was walking +up and down the beautiful paths of Claremont Park, with the fresh spring +air blowing about me, the primroses, daisies, and wild bluebells under my +feet, and Lady Byron at my side, that it was more like a page out of a +poem than a reality. + +On Sunday night any Americans who are here come to see us. . . . Mr. +Harding brought with him a gentleman, whom he introduced as Mr. Alison. +Mr. Bancroft asked him if he were related to Archdeacon Alison, who wrote +the “Essay on Taste.” “I am his son,” said he. “Ah, then, you are the +brother of the historian?” said Mr. Bancroft. “I am the historian,” was +the reply. . . . An evening visitor is a thing unheard of, and therefore +my life is very lonely, now I do not go into society. I see no one +except Sunday evenings, and, occasionally, a friend before dinner. + + + +_To W. D. B. and A. B._ + + + LONDON, May 24, [1847]. + +MY DEAR SONS: . . . On Friday we both went to see the Palace of Hampton +Court with my dear, good, Miss Murray, Mr. Winthrop and son, and Louise. +. . . On our arrival, we found, to our great vexation, that Friday was +the only day in the week in which visitors were not admitted, and that we +must content ourselves with seeing the grounds and go back without a +glimpse of its noble galleries of pictures. Fortunately for us, Miss +Murray had several friends among the persons to whom the Queen has +assigned apartments in the vast edifice, and they willingly yielded their +approbation of our admission if she could possibly win over Mrs. Grundy, +the housekeeper. This name sounded rather inauspicious, but Mr. Winthrop +suggested that there might be a “Felix” to qualify it, and so in this +case it turned out. Mrs. Grundy asserted that such a thing had never +been done, that it was a very dangerous precedent, etc., but in the end +the weight of a Maid of Honor and a Foreign Minister prevailed, and we +saw everything to much greater advantage than if we had 150 persons +following on, as Mr. Winthrop says he had the other day at Windsor +Castle. . . . On our way [home] we met Lady Byron with her pretty little +carriage and ponies. She alighted and we did the same, and had quite a +pleasant little interview in the dusty road. + + Sunday, May 30th. + +Your father left town on Monday. . . . He did not return until the 27th, +the morning of the Queen’s Birthday Drawing-Room. On that occasion I +went dressed in white mourning. . . . It was a petticoat of white crape +flounced to the waist with the edges notched. A train of white glacé +trimmed with a ruche of white crape. A wreath and bouquet of white +lilacs, without any green, as green is not used in mourning. The array +of diamonds on this occasion was magnificent in the highest degree, and +everybody was in their most splendid array. The next evening there was a +concert at the Palace, at which Jenny Lind, Grisi, Alboni, Mario, and +Tamburini sang. I went dressed in [a] deep black dress and enjoyed the +music highly. Seats were placed in rows in the concert-room and one sat +quietly as if in church. At the end of the first part, the royal family +with their royal guests, the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, and the +Grand Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Weimar went to the grand dining-room and +supped by themselves, with their suites, while another elegant +refreshment table was spread in another apartment for the other guests. . . . +Jenny Lind a little disappointed me, I must confess, but they tell me +that her songs were not adapted on that evening to the display of her +voice. + +On Sunday evening your father dined with Baron Brunnow, the Russian +Minister, to meet the Grand Duke Constantine. It so happened that the +Grand Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Weimar appointed an audience to Baron and +Baroness Brunnow at seven, and they had not returned at half-past seven, +when the Grand Duke and their other guests arrived. The Baroness +immediately advanced to the Grand Duke and sunk on her knees before him, +asking pardon in Russian. He begged her to rise, but she remained in the +attitude of deep humiliation, until the Grand Duke sunk also on _his_ +knees and gently raised her, and then kissed her on the cheek, a +privilege, you know, of royalty. + +. . . On Monday evening we both went to a concert at Mr. Hudson’s, the +great railway “king,” who has just made an immense fortune from railway +stocks, and is now desirous to get into society. These things are +managed in a curious way here. A _nouveau riche_ gets several ladies of +fashion to patronize their entertainment and invite all the guests. Our +invitation was from Lady Parke, who wrote me two notes about it, saying +that she would be happy to meet me at Mrs. Hudson’s splendid mansion, +where would be the best music and society of London; and, true enough, +there was the Duke of Wellington and all the world. Lady Parke stood at +the entrance of the splendid suite of rooms to receive the guests and +introduce them to their host and hostess. On Tuesday morning I got a +note from Mr. Eliot Warburton (brother of “Hochelaga”) to come to his +room at two o’clock and look at some drawings. To our surprise we found +quite a party seated at lunch, and a collection of many agreeable persons +and some lions and lionesses. There was Lord Ross, the great astronomer; +Baroness Rothschild, a lovely Jewess; Miss Strickland, the authoress of +the “Queens of England”; “Eōthen,” and many more. Mr. Polk, _Chargé_ at +Naples, and brother of the President, dined with us, and Miss Murray, and +in the evening came Mr. and Mrs. McLean, he a son of Judge McLean, of +Ohio. + +[Picture: George Hudson, the “Railway King”. From the engraving after F. + Grant] + + June 17th. + +On Friday evening we went to the Queen’s Ball, and for the first time saw +Her Majesty dance, which she does very well, and so does the Duchess of +Sutherland, grandmother though she be. + +On Monday evening we went to a concert given to the Queen by the Duke of +Wellington at Apsley House. This was an occasion not to be forgotten, +but I cannot describe it. On Tuesday I went for the first time to hear a +debate upon the Portugal interference in the House of Lords. It brought +out all the leaders, and I was so fortunate as to hear a most powerful +speech from Lord Stanley, one from Lord Lansdowne in defence of the +Ministry and one from the Duke of Wellington, who, on this occasion, +sided with the Ministers. On Wednesday was the great _fête_ given by the +Duchess of Sutherland to the Queen. It was like a chapter of a fairy +tale. Persons from all the courts of Europe who were there told us that +nowhere in Europe was there anything as fine as the hall and grand +staircase where the Duchess received her guests. It exceeded my utmost +conceptions of magnificence and beauty. The vast size of the apartment, +the vaulted ceilings, the arabesque ornaments, the fine pictures, the +profusion of flowers, the music, the flourish of trumpets, as the Queen +passed backward and forward, the superb dresses and diamonds of the +women, the parti-colored full dress of the gentlemen all contributed to +make up a scene not to be forgotten. The Queen’s Ball was not to be +compared to it, so much more effective is Stafford House than Buckingham +Palace. . . . We were fortunate to be present there, for Stafford House +is not opened in this way but once in a year or two, and the Duke’s +health is now so very uncertain, that it may be many years before it +happens again. He was not present the other evening. + + + +_To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D._ + + + LONDON, June 20, 1847. + +MY DEAR UNCLE AND AUNT: On the 19th, Saturday, we breakfasted with Lady +Byron and my friend, Miss Murray, at Mr. Rogers’. He and Lady Byron had +not met for many, many years, and their renewal of old friendship was +very interesting to witness. Mr. Rogers told me that he first introduced +her to Lord Byron. After breakfast he had been repeating some lines of +poetry which he thought fine, when he suddenly exclaimed: “But there is a +bit of American _prose_, which, I think, had more poetry in it than +almost any modern verse.” He then repeated, I should think, more than a +page from Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast,” describing the falling +overboard of one of the crew, and the effect it produced, not only at the +moment, but for some time afterward. I wondered at his memory, which +enabled him to recite so beautifully a long prose passage, so much more +difficult than verse. Several of those present with whom the book was a +favorite, were so glad to hear from me that it was as _true_ as +interesting, for they had regarded it as partly a work of imagination. +Lady Byron had told Mr. Rogers when she came in that Lady Lovelace, her +daughter (Ada) wished also to pay him a visit, and would come after +breakfast to join us for half an hour. She also had not seen Rogers, I +_believe_, ever. Lady Lovelace joined us soon after breakfast, and as we +were speaking of the enchantment of Stafford House on Wednesday evening, +Mr. Rogers proposed to go over it and see its fine pictures by daylight. +He immediately went himself by a short back passage through the park to +ask permission and returned with all the eagerness and gallantry of a +young man to say that he had obtained it. We had thus an opportunity of +seeing, in the most leisurely way and in the most delightful society, the +fine pictures and noble apartments of Stafford House again. + +. . . On Tuesday Mr. Hallam took us to the British Museum, and being a +director, he could enter on a private day, when we were not annoyed by a +crowd, and, moreover, we had the advantage of the best interpreters and +guides. We did not even enter the library, which requires a day by +itself, but confined ourselves to the Antiquity rooms. . . . As I entered +the room devoted to the Elgin marbles, the works of the “divine Phidias,” +I stepped with awe, as if entering a temple, and the Secretary, who was +by my side, observing it, told me that the Grand Duke Constantine, when +he came a few days before, made, as he entered, a most profound and +reverential bow. This was one of my most delightful mornings, and I left +the Antiquities with a stronger desire to see them again than before I +had seen them at all. + + Sunday, June 27th. + +. . . I went on Wednesday to dine at Lord Monteagle’s to meet Father +Mathew, and the Archbishop of Dublin (Dr. Whately) also dined there. +Father Mathew spoke with great interest of America and of American +liberality, and is very anxious to go to our country. He saw Mr. Forbes +at Cork and spoke of him with great regard. . . . On [Saturday] Mr. +Bancroft went to the palace to see the King of the Belgians, with the +rest of the Diplomatic Corps. After his return we went to Westminster +Hall to see the prize pictures, as Lord Lansdowne had sent us tickets for +the private view. The Commission of Fine Arts have offered prizes for +the best historical pictures that may serve to adorn the new Houses of +Parliament, and the pictures of this collection were all painted with +that view. One of those which have received a prize is John Robinson +bestowing his farewell blessing upon the Pilgrims at Leyden, which is +very pleasing. It was to me like a friend in a strange country, and I +lingered over it the longest. + + July 2d. + +Wednesday [evening] we went to Lady Duff Gordon’s, who is the daughter of +Mrs. Austin, where was a most agreeable party, and among others, +Andersen, the Danish poet-author of the “Improvisatore.” He has a most +striking poetical physiognomy, but as he talked only German or bad +French, I left him to Mr. Bancroft in the conversation way. + +The next morning before nine o’clock we were told that Mr. Rogers, the +poet, was downstairs. I could not imagine what had brought him out so +early, but found that Moore, the poet, had come to town and would stay +but a day, and we must go that very morning and breakfast with him at ten +o’clock. We went and found a delightful circle. I sat between Moore and +Rogers, who was in his very best humor. Moore is but a wreck, but most a +interesting one. + + + +_To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D._ + + + NUNEHAM PARK, July 27, 1847. + +MY DEAR UNCLE AND AUNT: . . . I must go back to the day when my last +letters were despatched, as my life since has been full of interest. On +Monday evening, the 19th, we went to the French play, to see Rachel in +“Phèdre.” She far surpassed my imagination in the expression of all the +powerful passions. . . . On Tuesday Mr. Bancroft went down to hear Lord +John make a speech to his constituents in the city, while I went to see +Miss Burdett-Coutts lay the corner-stone of the church which “the Bishop +of London has permitted her to build,” to use her own expression in her +note to me. In the evening we dined there with many of the clergy, and +Lord Brougham, Lord Dundonald, etc. I went down with the Dean of +Westminster, who was very agreeable and instructive. He and Dr. Whately +have the simplicity of children, with an immense deal of knowledge, which +they impart in the most pleasant way. Saturday, the 24th, we were to +leave town for our first country excursion. We were invited by Dr. +Hawtrey, the Head Master of Eton, to be present at the ceremonies +accompanying the annual election of such boys on the Foundation as are +selected to go up to King’s College, Cambridge, where they are also +placed on a Foundation. From reading Dr. Arnold’s life you will have +learned that the head master of one of these very great schools is no +unimportant personage. Dr. Hawtrey has an income of six or seven +thousand pounds. He is unmarried, but has two single sisters who live +with him, and his establishment in one of the old college houses is full +of elegance and comfort. We took an open travelling carriage with +imperials, and drove down to Eton with our own horses, arriving about one +o’clock. At two, precisely, the Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, +was to arrive, and to be received under the old gateway of the cloister +by the Captain of the school with a Latin speech. After dinner there is +a regatta among the boys, which is one of the characteristic and pleasing +old customs. All the fashionables of London who have sons at Eton come +down to witness their happiness, and the river bank is full of gayety. +The evening finished with the most beautiful fireworks I ever saw, which +lighted up the Castle behind and were reflected in the Thames below, +while the glancing oars of the young boatmen, and the music of their band +with a merry chime of bells from St. George’s Chapel, above, all combined +to give gayety and interest to the scene. The next morning (Sunday), +after an agreeable breakfast in the long, low-walled breakfast-room, +which opens upon the flower garden, we went to Windsor to worship in St. +George’s Chapel. The Queen’s stall is rather larger than the others, and +one is left vacant for the Prince of Wales. + + LONDON, July 29th. + +And now with a new sheet I must begin my account of Nuneham. . . . The +Archbishop of York is the second son of Lord Vernon, but his uncle, Earl +Harcourt, dying without children, left him all his estate, upon which he +took the name of Harcourt. We arrived about four o’clock. . . . The +dinner was at half-past seven, and when I went down I found the Duchess +of Sutherland, Lady Caroline Leveson-Gower, Lord Kildare, and several of +the sons and daughters of the Archbishop. The dinner and evening passed +off very agreeably. The Duchess is a most high-bred person, and +thoroughly courteous. As we were going in or out of a room instead of +preceding me, which was her right, she always made me take her arm, which +was a delicate way of getting over her precedence. . . . At half-past +nine the [next morning] we met in the drawing-room, when the Archbishop +led the way down to prayers. This was a beautiful scene, for he is now +ninety, and to hear him read the prayers with a firm, clear voice, while +his family and dependents knelt about him was a pleasure never to be +forgotten. . . . At five I was to drive round the park with the +Archbishop himself in his open carriage. This drive was most charming. +He explained everything, told me when such trees would be felled, and +when certain tracts of underwood would be fit for cutting, how old the +different-sized deer were—in short, the whole economy of an English park. +Every pretty point of view, too, he made me see, and was as active and +wide-awake as if he were thirty, rather than ninety. . . . The next +morning, after prayers and breakfast, I took my leave. + + + +_To A. H._ + + + BISHOP’S PALACE, NORWICH, August 1st. + +MY DEAR ANN: How I wish I could transport you to the spot where I am +writing, but if I could summon it before your actual vision you would +take it for a dream or a romance, so different is everything within the +walls which enclose the precincts of an English Cathedral from anything +we can conceive on our side of the water. . . . Some of the learned +people and noblemen have formed an Archæological Society for the study +and preservation [of] the interesting architectural antiquities of the +kingdom, and [it] is upon the occasion of the annual meeting of this +society for a week at Norwich that the Bishop has invited us to stay a +few days at the palace and join them in their agreeable antiquarian +excursions. We arrived on Friday at five o’clock after a long dull +journey of five hours on the railway. . . . Staying in the house are our +friends, Mr. and Mrs. Milman, Lord Northampton and his son, Lord Alwyne +Compton, and the Bishop’s family, consisting of Mrs. Stanley, and of two +Miss Stanleys, agreeable and highly cultivated girls, and Mr. Arthur +Stanley, the writer of Dr. Arnold’s Biography. + + [Picture: Lord Palmerston. From the portrait by Partridge; photograph + copyright by Walker & Cockerell, London] + +After dinner company soon arrived. Among them were Mrs. Opie, who +resides here. She is a pleasing, lively old lady, in full Quaker dress. +The most curious feature of the evening was a visit which the company +paid to the cellar and kitchen, which were lighted up for the occasion. +They were build by the old Norman bishops of the twelfth century, and had +vaulted stone roofs as beautifully carved and ribbed as a church. + +The next day, Saturday, the antiquarians made a long excursion to hunt up +some ruins, while the Milmans, Mr. Stanley, and ourselves, went to visit +the place of Lady Suffield, about twelve miles distant, and which is the +most perfect specimen of the Elizabethan style. Lady Suffield herself is +as Elizabethan as her establishment; she is of one [of] the oldest high +Tory families and so opposed to innovations of all sorts that though her +letters, which used to arrive at two, before the opening of the railway +two years ago, now arrive at seven in the morning, they are never allowed +to be brought till the old hour. . . . This morning Mr. Bancroft and the +rest are gone on an excursion to Yarmouth to see some ruins, while I +remain here to witness the chairing of two new members of Parliament, who +have just been elected, of whom Lord Douro, son of the Duke of +Wellington, is one. + + + +_To I. P. D._ + + + AUDLEY END, October 14, 1847. + +DEAR UNCLE: We are staying for a few days at Lord Braybrooke’s place, one +of the most magnificent in England; but before I say a word about it I +must tell you of A.’s safe arrival and how happy I have been made by +having him with me again. . . . On Saturday the 9th we had the honor of +dining with the _Lord Mayor_ to meet the Duke of Cambridge, a _fête_ so +unlike anything else and accompanied by so many old and peculiar customs +that I must describe it to you at full length. The Mansion House is in +the heart of the _City_, and is very magnificent and spacious, the +Egyptian Hall, as the dining-room is called, being one of the noblest +apartments I have seen. The guests were about 250 in number and were +received by the Lady Mayoress _sitting_. When dinner was announced, the +Lord Mayor went out first, preceded by the sword-bearer and mace-bearer +and all the insignia of office. Then came the Duke of Cambridge and the +Lady Mayoress, then Mr. Bancroft and I together, which is the custom at +these great civic feasts. We marched through the long gallery by the +music of the band to the Egyptian Hall, where two raised seats like +thrones were provided for the Lord Mayor and Mayoress at the head of the +hall. On the right hand of the Lord Mayor sat the Duke of Cambridge in a +_common chair_, for royalty yields entirely to the Mayor, on his own +ground. On the right of the Duke of Cambridge sat the Mayoress-elect +(for the present dignitaries go out of office on the 1st of November). +On the left hand of the present Lady Mayoress sat the Lord Mayor-_elect_, +then I came with my husband on my left hand in very conjugal style. + +There were three tables the whole length of the hall, and that at which +we were placed went across at the head. When we are placed, the herald +stands behind the Lord Mayor and cries: “My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen, +pray silence, for grace.” Then the chaplain in his gown, goes behind the +Lord Mayor and says grace. After the second course two large gold cups, +nearly two feet high, are placed before the Mayor and Mayoress. The +herald then cries with a loud voice: “His Royal Highness the Duke of +Cambridge, the American Minister, the Lord Chief Baron,” etc., etc. +(enumerating about a dozen of the most distinguished guests), “and ladies +and gentlemen all, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress do bid you most +heartily welcome and invite you to drink in a loving cup.” Whereupon the +Mayor and Mayoress rise and each turn to their next neighbor, who take +off the cover while they drink. After my right-hand neighbor, the Lord +Mayor-elect, had put on the cover, he turns to me and says, “Please take +off the cover,” which I do and hold it while he drinks; then I replace +the cover and turn round to Mr. Bancroft, who rises and performs the same +office for me while I drink; then he turns to his next neighbor, who +takes off the cover for him. I have not felt so solemn since I stood up +to be married as when Mr. Bancroft and I were standing up alone together, +the rest of the company looking on, I with this great heavy gold cup in +my hand, so heavy that I could scarcely lift it to my mouth with both +hands, and he with the cover before me, with rather a mischievous +expression in his face. Then came two immense gold platters filled with +rose water, which were also passed round. These gold vessels were only +used by the persons at the head table; the other guests were served with +silver cups. When the dessert and the wine are placed on the table, the +herald says, “My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen, please to charge your +glasses.” After we duly charge our glasses the herald cries: “Lords, +Ladies, and Gentlemen, pray silence for the Lord Mayor.” He then rises +and proposes the first toast, which is, of course, always “The Queen.” +After a time came the “American Minister,” who was obliged to rise up at +my elbow and respond. We got home just after twelve. + +[Picture: Lady Palmerston. From a painting, by permission of Sir Francis + Gore] + +And now let me try to give you some faint idea of Audley End, which is by +far the most magnificent house I have seen yet. It was built by the Earl +of Suffolk, son of the Duke of Norfolk who was beheaded in Elizabeth’s +reign for high treason, upon the site of an abbey, the lands of which had +been granted by the crown to that powerful family. One of the Earls of +Suffolk dying without sons, the _Earldom_ passed into another branch and +the _Barony_ and _estate_ of Howard de Walden came into the female line. +In course of time, a Lord Howard de Walden dying without a son, his title +also passed into another family, but his estate went to his nephew, Lord +Braybrooke, the father of the present Lord. Lady Braybrooke is the +daughter of the Marquis of Cornwallis, and granddaughter of our American +Lord Cornwallis. + +The house is of the Elizabethan period and is one of the best preserved +specimens of that style, but of its vast extent and magnificence I can +give you no idea. We arrived about five o’clock, and were ushered +through an immense hall of carved oak hung with banners up a fine +staircase to the grand saloon, where we were received by the host and +hostess. Now of this grand saloon I must try to give you a conception. +It was, I should think, from seventy-five to one hundred feet in length. +The ceiling overhead was very rich with hanging corbels, like +stalactites, and the entire walls were panelled, with a full-length +family portrait in each panel, which was arched at the top, so that the +whole wall was composed of these round-topped pictures with rich gilding +between. Notwithstanding its vast size, the sofas and tables were so +disposed all over the apartment as to give it the most friendly, warm, +and social aspect. + +Lady Braybrooke herself ushered me to my apartments, which were the state +rooms. First came Mr. Bancroft’s dressing-room, where was a blazing +fire. Then came the bedroom, with the state bed of blue and gold, +covered with embroidery, and with the arms and coronet of Howard de +Walden. The walls were hung with crimson and white damask, and the sofas +and chairs also, and it was surrounded by pictures, among others a full +length of Queen Charlotte, just opposite the foot of the bed, always +saluted me every morning when I awoke, with her fan, her hoop, and her +deep ruffles. + +My dressing-room, which was on the opposite side from Mr. Bancroft’s, was +a perfect gem. It was painted by the famous Rebecco who came over from +Italy to ornament so many of the great English houses at one time. The +whole ceiling and walls were covered with beautiful designs and with +gilding, and a beautiful recess for a couch was supported by fluted +gilded columns; the architraves and mouldings of the doors were gilt, and +the panels of the doors were filled with Rebecco’s beautiful designs. +The chairs were of light blue embroidered with thick, heavy gold, and all +this bearing the stamp of antiquity was a thousand times more interesting +than mere modern splendor. In the centre of the room was a toilet of +white muslin (universal here), and on it a gilt dressing-glass, which +gave pretty effect to the whole. + +I sat at dinner between Lord Braybrooke and Sir John Boileau, and found +them both very agreeable. The dining-room is as magnificent as the other +apartments. The ceiling is in the Elizabethan style, covered with +figures, and the walls white and gold panelling hung with full-length +family portraits not set into the wall like the saloon, but in frames. +In the evening the young people had a round game at cards and the elder +ones seemed to prefer talking to a game at whist. The ladies brought +down their embroidery or netting. At eleven a tray with wine and water +is brought in and a quantity of bed candlesticks, and everybody retires +when they like. The next morning the guests assembled at half-past nine +in the great gallery which leads to the chapel to go in together to +prayers. The chapel is really a beautiful little piece of architecture, +with a vaulted roof and windows of painted glass. On one side is the +original cast of the large monument to Lord Cornwallis (our lord) which +is in Westminster Abbey. After breakfast we passed a couple of hours in +going all over the house, which is in perfect keeping in every part. + +We returned to the library, a room as splendid as the saloon, only +instead of pictured panels it was surrounded by books in beautiful gilt +bindings. In the immense bay window was a large Louis Quatorze table, +round which the ladies all placed themselves at their embroidery, though +I preferred looking over curious illuminated missals, etc., etc. + +The next day was the meeting of the County Agricultural Society. . . . At +the hour appointed we all repaired to the ground where the prizes were to +be given out. . . . Lord Braybrooke made first a most paternal and +interesting address, which showed me in the most favorable view the +relation between the noble and the lower class in England, a relation +which must depend much on the personal character of the lord of the +manor. . . . First came prizes to ploughmen, then the plough boys, then +the shepherds, then to such peasants as had reared many children without +aid, then to women who had been many years in the same farmer’s service, +etc., etc. A clock was awarded to a poor man and his wife who had reared +six children and buried seven without aid from the parish. The rapture +with which Mr. and Mrs. Flitton and the whole six children gazed on this +clock, an immense treasure for a peasant’s cottage, was both comic and +affecting. . . . The next morning we made our adieus to our kind host and +hostess, and set off for London, accompanied by Sir John Tyrrell, Major +Beresford, and young Mr. Boileau. + + + +_To W. D. B._ + + + LONDON, November 4, 1847. + +DEAR W.: . . . Mr. Bancroft and I dined on Friday, the 22d, with Mr. and +Mrs. Hawes, under-Secretary of State, to meet Mr. Brooke, the Rajah of +Sarawak, who is a great lion in London just now. He is an English +gentleman of large fortune who has done much to Christianize Borneo, and +to open its trade to the English. I sat between him and Mr. Ward, +formerly Minister to Mexico before Mr. Pakenham. He wrote a very nice +book on Mexico, and is an agreeable and intelligent person. . . . On +Wednesday A. and I went together to the National Gallery, and just as we +were setting out Mr. Butler of New York came in and I invited him to join +us. . . . While we were seated before a charming Claude who should come +in but Mr. R. W. Emerson and we had quite a joyful greeting. Just then +came in Mr. Rogers with two ladies, one on each arm. He renewed his +request that I would bring my son to breakfast with him, and appointed +Friday morning, and then added if those gentlemen who are with you are +your friends and countrymen, perhaps they will accompany you. They very +gladly acceded, and I was thankful Mr. Emerson had chanced to be with me +at that moment as it procured him a high pleasure. + +Yesterday your father and I dined with Sir George Grey. . . . About four +o’clock came on such a fog as I have not seen in London, and the +newspapers of this morning speak of it as greater than has been known for +many years. Sir George Grey lives in Eaton Place, which is parallel and +just behind Eaton Square. In going that little distance, though there is +a brilliant gas light at every door, the coachman was completely +bewildered, and lost himself entirely. We could only walk the horses, +the footman exploring ahead. When the guests by degrees arrived, there +was the same rejoicing as if we had met on Mont St. Bernard after a +contest with an Alpine snow-storm. . . . Lady Grey told me she was dining +with the Queen once in one of these tremendous fogs, and that many of the +guests did not arrive till dinner was half through, which was horrible at +a royal dinner; but the elements care little for royalty. + + November 14th. + +On Saturday we dined at the Duc de Broglie’s. He married the daughter of +Madam de Staël, but she is not now living. I was very agreeably placed +with Mr. Macaulay on one side of me, so that I found it more pleasant +than diplomatic dinners usually. At the English tables we meet people +who know each other well, and have a common culture and tastes and habits +of familiarity, and a fund of pleasant stories, but of course, at foreign +tables, they neither know each other or the English so well as to give +the same easy flow to conversation. I am afraid we are the greatest +diners-out in London, but we are brought into contact a great deal with +the literary and Parliamentary people, which our colleagues know little +about, as also with the clergy and the judges. I should not be willing +to make it the habit of my life, but it is time not misspent during the +years of our abode here. . . . The good old Archbishop of York is dead, +and I am glad I paid my visit to him when I did. Mr. Rogers has paid me +a long visit to-day and gave me all the particulars of his death. It was +a subject I should not have introduced, for of that knot of intimate +friends, Mr. Grenville, the Archbishop, and himself, he is now all that +remains. + + November 28th. + +. . . On Monday evening I went without Mr. Bancroft to a little party at +Mrs. Lyell’s, where I was introduced to Mrs. Somerville. She has resided +for the last nine years abroad, chiefly at Venice, but has now come to +London and taken a house very near us. . . . Her daughter told me that +nothing could exceed the ease and simplicity with which her literary +occupations were carried on. She is just publishing a book upon Natural +Geography without regard to political boundaries. She writes principally +before she rises in the morning on a little piece of board, with her +inkstand on a table by her side. After she leaves her room she is as +much at leisure as other people, but if an idea strikes her she takes her +little board into a corner or window and writes quietly for a short time +and returns to join the circle. + +Dr. Somerville told me that his wife did not discover her genius for +mathematics till she was about sixteen. Her brother, who has no talent +for it, was receiving a mathematical lesson from a master while she was +hemming and stitching in the room. In this way she first heard the +problems of Euclid stated and was ravished. When the lesson was over, +she carried off the book to her room and devoured it. For a long time +she pursued her studies secretly, as she had scaled heights of science +which were not considered feminine by those about her. + + December 2d. + +I put down my pen yesterday when the carriage came to the door for my +drive. It was a day bright, beaming, and exhilarating as one of our own +winter days. I was so busy enjoying the unusual beams of the unclouded +sun that I did not perceive for some time that I had left my muff, and +was obliged to drive home again to get it. While I was waiting in the +carriage for the footman to get it, two of the most agreeable old-lady +faces in the world presented themselves at the window. They were the +Miss Berrys. They had driven up behind me and got out to have a little +talk on the sidewalk. I took them into Mr. Bancroft’s room and was +thankful that my muff had sent me back to receive a visit which at their +age is rarely paid. . . . I found them full of delight at Mr. Brooke, the +Rajah of Sarawak, with whose nobleness of soul they would have great +sympathy. He is just now the lion of London, and like all other lions is +run after by most people because he is one, and by the few because he +deserves to be one. Now, lest you should know nothing about him, let me +tell you that at his own expense he fitted out a vessel, and established +himself at Borneo, where he soon acquired so great [an] ascendancy over +the native Rajah, that he insisted on resigning to him the government of +his province of Sarawak. Here, with only three European companions, by +moral and intellectual force alone, he succeeded in suppressing piracy +and civil war among the natives and opened a trade with the interior of +Borneo which promises great advantages to England. . . . Everybody here +has the _Influenza_—a right-down influenza, that sends people to their +beds. Those who have triumphed at their exemption in the evening, wake +up perhaps in the morning full of aches in every limb, and scoff no +longer. . . . Dinner parties are sometimes quite broken up by the excuses +that come pouring in at the last moment. Lady John Russell had seven +last week at a small dinner of twelve; 1,200 policemen at one time were +taken off duty, so that the thieves might have had their own way, but +they were probably as badly off themselves. + + + +_To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D._ + + + LONDON, December 16, 1847. + +MY DEAR UNCLE AND AUNT: . . . On Saturday Mr. Hallam wrote us that Sir +Robert Peel had promised to breakfast with him on Monday morning and he +thought we should like to meet him in that quiet way. So we presented +ourselves at ten o’clock, and were joined by Sir Robert, Lord Mahon, +Macaulay, and Milman, who with Hallam himself, formed a circle that could +not be exceeded in the wide world. I was the only lady, except Miss +Hallam; but I am especially favored in the breakfast line. I would cross +the Atlantic only for the pleasure I had that morning in hearing such men +talk for two or three hours in an entirely easy unceremonious breakfast +way. Sir Robert was full of stories, and showed himself as much the +scholar as the statesman. Macaulay was overflowing as usual, and Lord +Mahon and Milman are full of learning and accomplishments. The classical +scholarship of these men is very perfect and sometimes one catches a +glimpse of awfully deep abysses of learning. But then it is _only_ a +glimpse, for their learning has no cumbrous and dull pedantry about it. +They are all men of society and men of the world, who keep up with it +everywhere. There is many a pleasant story and many a good joke, and +everything discussed but politics, which, as Sir Robert and Macaulay +belong to opposite dynasties, might be dangerous ground. + +After dinner we went a little before ten to Lady Charlotte Lindsay’s. +She came last week to say that she was to have a little dinner on Monday +and wished us to come in afterwards. This is universal here, and is the +easiest and most agreeable form of society. She had Lord Brougham and +Colonel and Mrs. Dawson-Damer, etc., to dine. . . . Mrs. Damer wished us +to come the next evening to her in the same way, just to get our cup of +tea. These nice little teas are what you need in Boston. There is no +supper, no expense, nothing but society. Mrs. Damer is the granddaughter +of the beautiful Lady Waldegrave, the niece of Horace Walpole, who +married the Duke of Gloucester. She was left an orphan at a year old and +was confided by her mother to the care of Mrs. Fitzherbert. She lived +with her until her marriage and was a great pet of George IV, and tells a +great many interesting stories of him and Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was five +years older than he. + +[Picture: Mrs. Dawson Damer. From the miniature by Isabey, by permission + of Lady Constance Leslie] + + + +_To W. D. B._ + + + LONDON, December 30, 1847. + +DEAR W.: Your father left me on the 18th to go to Paris. This is the +best of all seasons for him to be there, for the Ministers are all out of +town at Christmas, and in Paris everything is at its height. My friends +are very kind to me—those who remain in town. . . . One day I dined at +Sir Francis Simpkinson’s and found a pleasant party. Lady Simpkinson is +a sister of Lady Franklin, whom I was very glad to meet, as she has been +in America and knows many Americans, Mrs. Kirkland for one. . . . Then I +have passed one evening for the first time at Mr. Tagent’s, the Unitarian +clergyman, where I met many of the literary people who are out of the +great world, and yet very desirable to see. + +There, too, I met the Misses Cushman, Charlotte and Susan, who attend his +church. I was very much pleased with both of them. I have never seen +them play, but they will send me a list of their parts at their next +engagement and I shall certainly go to hear them. They are of Old Colony +descent (from Elder Cushman), and have very much of the New England +character, culture, and good sense. On Monday I dined at Sir Edward +Codrington’s, the hero of Navarino, with the Marquis and Marchioness of +Queensberry, and a party of admirals and navy officers. On Tuesday I +dined at Lady Braye’s, where were Mr. Rogers, Dr. Holland, Sir Augustus +and Lady Albinia Foster, formerly British Minister to the United States. +He could describe _our Court_, as he called it, in the time of Madison +and Monroe. + + January 1, 1848. + +This evening, in addition to my usual morning letter from your father, I +have another; a new postal arrangement beginning to-day with the New +Year. He gives me a most interesting conversation he has just been +having with Baron von Humboldt, who is now in Paris. He says he poured +out a delicious stream of remarks, anecdotes, narratives, opinion. He +feels great interest in our Mexican affairs, as he has been much there, +and is a Mexican by adoption. + +His letter, dated the 31st December, says: “Madam Adelaide died at three +this morning.” This death astonished me, for he saw her only a few +evenings since at the Palace. She was a woman of strong intellect and +character, and her brother, the King, was very much attached to her as a +counsellor and friend. . . . There were more than 100 Americans to be +presented on New Year’s Day at Paris, and, as Madam Adelaide’s death took +place without a day’s warning, you can imagine the embroidered coats and +finery which were laid on the shelf. + + Saturday, January 7th. + +Yesterday, my dear son, I had a delightful dinner at the dear Miss +Berrys. They drove to the door on Thursday and left a little note to +say, “Can you forgive a poor sick soul for not coming to you before, when +you were all alone,” and begging me to come the next day at seven, to +dine. There was Lady Charlotte and Lady Stuart de Rothesay, who was many +years ambassadress at Paris, and very agreeable. Then there was Dr. +Holland and Mr. Stanley, the under-Secretary of State, etc. In the +evening came quite an additional party, and I passed it most pleasantly. +. . . Your father writes that on Friday he dined at Thiers’ with Mignet, +Cousin, Pontois, and Lord Normanby. He says such a dinner is “unique in +a man’s life.” “Mignet is delightful, frank, open, gay, full of +intelligence, and of that grace which makes society charming.” . . . Your +father to-day gives me some account of Thiers. He is now fifty: he rises +at five o’clock every morning, toils till twelve, breakfasts, makes +researches, and then goes to the Chambers. In the evening he always +receives his friends except Wednesdays and Thursdays, when he attends his +wife to the opera and to the Académie. + + + +_To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D._ + + + LONDON, January 28th, 1848. + +MY DEAR UNCLE AND AUNT: . . . Last Monday I received [this] note from +George Sumner, which I thought might interest you: “My dear Mrs. +Bancroft: I hasten to congratulate you upon an event most honorable to +Mr. Bancroft and to our country. The highest honor which can be bestowed +in France upon a foreigner has just been conferred on him. He was chosen +this afternoon a Corresponding Member of the Institute. Five names were +presented for the vacant chair of History. Every vote but one was in +favor of Mr. Bancroft (that one for Mr. Grote of London, author of the +‘History of Greece’). A gratifying fact in regard to this election is +that it comes without the knowledge of Mr. Bancroft, and without any of +those preliminary visits on his part, and those appeals to academicians +whose votes are desired, that are so common with candidates for vacancies +at the Institute. The honor acquires double value for being unsought, +and I have heard with no small satisfaction several Members of the +Academy contrast the modest reserve of Mr. Bancroft with the restless +manoeuvres to which they have been accustomed. Prescott, you know, is +already a member, and I think America may be satisfied with two out of +seven of a class of History which is selected from the world.” + + [Picture: Mrs. Fitzherbert. From the pastel by J. Russell] + + + +_To T. D._ + + + LONDON, February 24, 1848. + +MY DEAR BROTHER: . . . Great excitement exists in London to-day at the +reception of the news from France. Guizot is overthrown, and Count Molé +is made Prime Minister. The National Guards have sided with the people, +and would not fire upon them, and that secret of the weakness of the army +being revealed, I do not see why the Liberal party cannot obtain all they +want in the end. Louis Philippe has sacrificed the happiness of France +for the advancement of his own family, but nations in the nineteenth +[century] have learned that they were not made to be the slaves of a +dynasty. Mr. Bancroft dines with the French Minister to-day, not with a +party, but quite _en famille_, and he will learn there what the hopes and +fears of the Government are. + + February 25th. + +The news this morning is only from Amiens, which has risen in support of +France. The railways are torn up all round Paris, to prevent the passage +of troops, and the roads and barriers are all in possession of the +people. All France will follow the lead of Paris, and what will be the +result Heaven only knows. + + + +_To I. P. D._ + + + LONDON, February 26, 1848. + +MY DEAR UNCLE: . . . On Thursday Mr. Bancroft dined with Count Jarnac, +the Minister in the Duc de Broglie’s absence, and he little dreamed of +the blow awaiting him. The fortifications and the army seemed to make +the King quite secure. On Friday Mr. Bancroft went to dine with Kenyon, +and I drove there with him for a little air. On my return Cates, the +butler, saluted me with the wondrous news of the deposition and flight of +the royal family, which Mr. Brodhead had rushed up from his club to +impart to us. I was engaged to a little party at Mr. Hallam’s, where I +found everybody in great excitement. + + Sunday Noon. + +To-day we were to have dined with Baron de Rothschild, but this morning I +got a note from the beautiful baroness, saying that her sister-in-law and +her mother with three children, had just arrived from Paris at her house +in the greatest distress, without a change of clothes, and in deep +anxiety about the Baron, who had stayed behind. + +Our colleagues all look bewildered and perplexed beyond measure. . . . +The English aristocracy have no love for Louis Philippe, but much less +for a republic, so near at hand, and everybody seemed perplexed and +uneasy. + + Tuesday. + +On Sunday the Duc de Nemours arrived at the French Embassy, and Monday +the poor Duchess de Montpensier, the innocent cause of all the trouble. +No one knows where the Duchess de Nemours and her young children are, and +the King and Queen are entirely missing. At one moment it is reported +that he is drowned, and then, again, at Brussels. + + Wednesday. + +To-day the French Embassy have received despatches announcing the new +government, and Count Jarnac has immediately resigned. This made it +impossible for the Duc de Nemours and the Duchess de Montpensier to +remain at the Embassy, and they fell by inheritance to Mr. Van de Weyer, +whose Queen is Louis Philippe’s daughter. The Queen has taken Louis +Philippe’s daughter, Princess Clementine, who married Prince Auguste de +Saxe-Coburg to the Palace, but for State Policy’s sake she can do nothing +about the others. Mr. Van de Weyer offered Mr. Bates’s place of East +Sheen, which was most gratefully accepted. + + Friday. + +This morning came Thackeray, who is the soul of _Punch_, and showed me a +piece he had written for the next number. + + Saturday. + +The King has arrived. What a crossing of the Channel, pea-jacket, +woollen comforter, and all! The flight is a perfect comedy, and if +_Punch_ had tried to invent anything more ludicrous, it would have +failed. Panic, despotism, and cowardice. + +These things are much more exciting here than across the water. We are +so near the scene of action and everybody has a more personal interest +here in all these matters. The whole week has been like a long play, and +now, on Saturday night, I want nothing but repose. What a dream it must +be to the chief actors! The Queen, who is always good and noble, was +averse to such ignominious flight; she preferred staying and taking what +came, and if Madam Adelaide had lived, they would never have made such a +[word undecipherable] figure. Her pride and courage would have inspired +them. With her seemed to fly Louis Philippe’s star, as Napoleon’s with +Josephine. . . . Mr. Emerson has just come to London and we give him a +dinner on Tuesday, the 14th. Several persons wish much to see him, and +Monckton Milnes reviewed him in _Blackwood_. + + + +_To W. D. B._ + + + LONDON, March 11, 1848. + +DEAR W.: . . . Yesterday we dined at Lord Lansdowne’s. Among the guests +were M. and Madam Van de Weyer, and Mrs. Austin, the translatress, who +has been driven over here from Paris, where she has resided for several +years. She is a vehement friend of Guizot’s, though a bitter accuser of +Louis Philippe, but how can they be separated? She interests herself +strongly now in all his arrangements, and is assisting his daughters to +form their humble establishment. He and his daughters together have +about eight hundred pounds a year, and that in London is poverty. They +have taken a small house in Brompton Square, a little out of town, and +one of those suburban, unfashionable regions where the most +accommodations can be had at the least price. What a change for those +who have witnessed their almost regal receptions in Paris! The young +ladies bear very sweetly all their reverses. . . . Guizot, himself, I +hear, is as _fier_ as ever, and almost gay. Princess de Lieven is here +at the “Clarendon,” and their friendship is as great as ever. + + March 15th. + +Yesterday we had an agreeable dinner at our own house. Macaulay, Milman, +Lord Morpeth and Monckton Milnes were all most charming, and we ladies +listened with eager ears. Conversation was never more interesting than +just now, in this great crisis of the world’s affairs. Mr. Emerson was +here and seemed to enjoy [it] much. + + Friday, March 17th. + +Things look rather darker in France, but we ought not to expect a +republic to be established without some difficulties. . . . You cannot +judge of the state of France, however, through the medium of the English +newspapers, for, of course, English sympathies are all entirely against +it. They never like France, and a republic of any kind still less. A +peaceful and prosperous republic in the heart of Europe would be more +deprecated than a state of anarchy. The discussion of French matters +reveals to me every moment the deep repugnance of the English to +republican institutions. It lets in a world of light upon opinions and +feelings, which, otherwise, would not have been discovered by me. + + [Picture: Richard Monckton Miles, (Lord Houghton). From a drawing by + Cousins, by permission of the Hon. Mrs. Arthur Henniker] + + Sunday, March 19th. + +Yesterday we breakfasted at Mrs. Milman’s. I was the only lady, but +there were Macaulay, Hallam, Lord Morpeth, and, above all, Charles +Austin, whom I had not seen before, as he never dines out, but who is the +most striking talker in England. He has made a fortune by the law in the +last few years, which gives him an income of £8,000. He has the great +railroad cases which come before the House of Lords. . . . On Tuesday +came a flying report of a revolution in Berlin, but no one believed it. +We concluded it rather a speculation of the newsmen, who are hawking +revolutions after every mail in second and third editions. We were going +that evening to a _soirée_ at Bunsen’s, whom we found cheerful as ever +and fearing no evil. On Monday the news of the revolution in Austria +produced a greater sensation even than France, for it was the very pivot +of conservatism. . . . On Thursday I received the letter from A. at eight +A.M., which I enclose to you. It gives an account of the revolution in +Berlin. + + + +_To T. D._ + + + March 31. + +The old world is undergoing a complete reorganization, and is unfolding a +rapid series of events more astonishing than anything in history. Where +it will stop, and what will be its results, nobody can tell. Royalty has +certainly not added to its respectability by its conduct in its time of +trial. Since the last steamer went, Italy has shaken off the Austrian +yoke, Denmark has lost her German provinces, Poland has risen, or is +about to rise, which will bring Russia thundering down upon Liberal +Europe. . . . Our whole Diplomatic Corps are certainly “in a fix,” and we +are really the only members of it who have any reason to be quite at +ease. Two or three have been called home to be Ministers of Foreign +Affairs, as they have learned something of constitutional liberty in +England. England is, as yet, all quiet, and I hope will keep so, but the +Chartists are at work and Ireland is full of inflammable matter. But +England does love her institutions, and is justly proud of their +comparative freedom, and long may she enjoy them. . . . On Sunday Mr. +Emerson dined with us with Lady Morgan and Mrs. Jameson—the authoress. +On Monday I took him to a little party at Lady Morgan’s. His works are a +good deal known here. I have great pleasure in seeing so old a friend so +far from home. . . . I think we shall have very few of our countrymen out +this spring, as travelling Europe is so uncertain, with everything in +commotion. Those who are passing the winter in Italy are quite shut in +at present, and if war begins, no one knows where it will spread. + + + +_To W. D. B._ + + + LONDON, April 7, 1848. + +. . . On Wednesday we had an agreeable dinner at Mrs. Milner Gibson’s. +Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli, Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan (brother of Mrs. Norton), +etc., were among the guests. After dinner I had a very long talk with +Disraeli. He is, you know, of the ultra Tory party here, and looks at +the Continental movements from the darkest point of view. He cannot +admit as a possibility the renovation of European society upon more +liberal principles, and considers it as the complete dissolution of +European civilization which will, like Asia, soon present but the ashes +of a burnt-out flame. This is most atheistic, godless, and un-christian +doctrine, and he cannot himself believe it. The art of printing and the +rapid dissemination of thought changes all these things in our days. + + + +_To I. P. D._ + + + April 10. + +This is the day of the “Great Chartist Meeting,” which has terrified all +London to the last degree, I think most needlessly. The city and town is +at this moment stiller than I have ever known it, for not a carriage +dares to be out. Nothing is to be seen but a “special constable” (every +gentleman in London is sworn into that office), occasionally some on +foot, some on horseback, scouring the streets. I took a drive early this +morning with Mr. Bancroft, and nothing could be less like the eve of a +revolution. This evening, when the petition is to be presented, may +bring some disturbance, not from the Chartists themselves, but from the +disorderly persons who may avail themselves of the occasion. The Queen +left town on Saturday for the Isle of Wight, as she had so lately been +confined it was feared her health might suffer from any agitation. . . . +I passed a long train of artillery on Saturday evening coming into town, +which was the most earnest looking thing I have seen. . . . To-day we +were to have dined at Mrs. Mansfield’s, but her dinner was postponed from +the great alarm about the Chartists. There is not the slightest danger +of a revolution in England. The upper middle-class, which on the +continent is entirely with the people, the professional and mercantile +class, is here entirely conservative, and without that class no great +changes can ever be made. The Duc de Montebello said of France, that he +“knew there were lava streams below, but he did not know the crust was so +thin.” Here, on the contrary, the crust is very thick. And yet I can +see in the most conservative circles that a feeling is gaining ground +that some concessions must be made. An enlargement of the suffrage one +hears now often discussed as, perhaps, an approaching necessity. + + Friday, April 14. + +The day of the Chartists passed off with most ridiculous quiet, and the +government is stronger than ever. . . . If the Alien Bill passes, our +American friends must mind their p’s and q’s, for if they praise the +“model republic” too loudly, they may be packed off at any time, +particularly if they have “long beards,” for it seems to be an axiom here +that beards, mustaches, and barricades are cousins-german at least. . . . +Mr. Bancroft goes to Paris on Monday, the 17th, to pass the Easter +holidays. He will go on with his manuscripts, and at the same time +witness the elections and meeting of the Convention. + + + +_To W. D. B._ + + + LONDON, April 19, 1848. + +DEAR W.: . . . To-day I have driven down to Richmond to lunch with Mrs. +Drummond, who is passing Easter holidays there. On coming home I found a +letter from Mr. Bancroft from which I will make some extracts, as he has +the best sources of knowledge in Paris. “Then I went to Mignet, who, you +know, is politically the friend of Thiers. He pointed out to me the +condition of France, and drew for me a picture of what it was and of the +change. I begin to see the difference between France and us. Here they +are accustomed to _be_ governed. _We_ are accustomed to _govern_. +_Here_ power may be seized and exercised, if exercised in a satisfactory +manner; with us the foundation of power, its constitutionality and the +legality of its acts are canvassed and analyzed. Here an unpopularity is +made away with by a revolution, and you know how _we_ deal with it. +Thus, power, if in favor, may dare anything, and if out of favor is +little likely to be forgiven.” . . . “Our fathers had to unite the +thirteen States; here they have unity enough and run no risk but from the +excess of it. My hopes are not less than they were, but all that France +needs may not come at once. We were fourteen years in changing our +confederation into a union, perhaps France cannot be expected to jump at +once into perfect legislation or perfect forms. Crude ideas are afloat, +but as to Communism, it is already exploded, or will be brushed away from +legislative power as soon as the National Assembly meets, though the +question of ameliorating the condition of the laboring class is more and +more engaging the public mind.” . . . “I spent an hour with Cousin, the +Minister of a morning. He gave me sketches of many of the leading men of +these times, and I made him detail to me he scene of Louis Philippe’s +abdication, which took place in a manner quite different from what I had +heard in London.” . . . “Cousin, by the way, says that the Duc de Nemours +throughout, behaved exceedingly well. Thence to the Club de la Nouvelle +Republique. Did not think much of the speaking which I heard. From the +club I went to Thiers, where I found Cousin and Mignet and one or two +more. Some change since I met him. A leader of opposition, then a prime +minister, and now left aground by the shifting tide.” . . . “Everybody +has given up Louis Philippe, everybody considers the nonsense of Louis +Blanc as drawing to its close. The delegates from Paris will full half +be _universally_ acceptable. Three-fourths of the provincial delegates +will be _moderate_ republicans. The people are not in a passion. They +go quietly enough about their business of constructing new institutions. +Ledru-Rollin, Louis Blanc, and Flocon tried to lead the way to ill, but +Lamartine, whose heroism passes belief and activity passes human power, +won the victory over them, found himself on Sunday, and again yesterday, +sustained by all Paris, and has not only conquered but _conciliated_ +them, and everybody is now firmly of opinion that the Republic will be +established quietly.” . . . “But while there are no difficulties from the +disorderly but what can easily be overcome, the want of republican and +political experience, combined with vanity and self-reliance and +idealism, may throw impediments in the way of what the wisest wish, +_viz._, two elected chambers and a president.” + + + +_To W. D. B._ + + + LONDON, May 5, 1848. + +MY DEAR W.: . . . Last evening, Thursday, we went to see Jenny Lind, on +her first appearance this year. She was received with enthusiasm, and +the Queen still more so. It was the first time the Queen had been at the +opera since the birth of her child, and since the republican spirit was +abroad, and loyalty burst out in full force. Now loyalty is very novel, +and pleasant to witness, to us who have never known it. + + LONDON, May 31, 1848. + +. . . Now for my journal, which has gone lamely on since the 24th of +February. The Queen’s Ball was to take place the evening on which I +closed my last letter. My dress was a white crêpe over white satin, with +flounces of Honiton lace looped up with pink tuberoses. A wreath of +tuberoses and bouquet for the corsage. We had tickets sent us to go +through the garden and set down at a private door, which saves waiting in +the long line of carriages for your turn. The Diplomatic Corps arrange +themselves in a line near the door at which the Queen enters the suite of +rooms, which was at ten precisely. She passes through, curtseying and +bowing very gracefully, until she reaches the throne in the next room, +where she and the Duchess of Cambridge, the Duchess of Saxe-Weimar and +her daughters, who are here on a visit, etc., sit down, while Prince +Albert, the Prince of Prussia and other sprigs of royalty stand near. +The dancing soon began in front of the canopy, but the Queen herself did +not dance on account of her mourning for Prince Albert’s grandmother. +There was another band and dancing in other rooms at the same time. +After seeing several dances here the Queen and her suite move by the +flourish of trumpets to another room, the guests forming a lane as she +passes, bowing and smiling. Afterward she made a similar progress to +supper, her household officers moving backwards before her, and her +ladies and royal relatives and friends following. At half-past one Her +Majesty retired and the guests departed, such as did not have to wait two +hours for their carriages. On Saturday we went at two to the _fête_ of +flowers at Chiswick, and at half-past seven dined at Lord Monteagle’s to +meet Monsieur and Mademoiselle Guizot. He has the finest head in the +world, but his person is short and insignificant. + +On Wednesday we dined at Lady Chantrey’s to meet a charming party. +Afterward we went to a magnificent ball at the Duke of Devonshire’s, with +all the great world. On Friday we went to Faraday’s lecture at the Royal +Institution. We went in with the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, and +I sat by her during the lecture. On Saturday was the Queen’s Birthday +Drawing-Room. . . . Mr. Bancroft dined at Lord Palmerston’s with all the +diplomats, and I went in the evening with a small party of ladies. On +coming home we drove round to see the brilliant birthday illuminations. +The first piece of intelligence I heard at Lady Palmerston’s was the +death of the Princess Sophia, an event which is a happy release for her, +for she was blind and a great sufferer. It has overturned all court +festivities, of course, for the present, and puts us all in deep +mourning, which is not very convenient just now, in the brilliant season, +and when we had all our dress arrangements made. The Queen was to have a +concert to-night, a drawing-room next Friday, and a ball on the 16th, +which are all deferred. . . . I forgot to say that I got a note from Miss +Coutts on Sunday, asking me to go with her the next day to see the +Chinese junk, so at three the next day we repaired to her house. Her +sisters (Miss Burdetts) and Mr. Rogers were all the party. At the junk +for the first time I saw Metternich and the Princess, his wife. + + + +_To W. D. B._ + + + LONDON, June 29, 1848. + +MY DEAR W.: . . . When I last left off I was going to dine at Miss +Coutts’s to meet the Duchess of Cambridge. The party was brilliant, +including the Duke of Wellington, Lord and Lady Douro, Lady Jersey and +the beautiful Lady Clementina Villiers, her daughter, etc. When royal +people arrive everybody rises and remains standing while they stand, and +if they approach you or look at you, you must perform the lowest of +“curtsies.” The courtesy made to royalty is very like the one I was +taught to make when a little girl at Miss Tuft’s school in Plymouth. One +sinks down instead of stepping back in dancing-school fashion. After +dinner the Duchess was pleased to stand until the gentlemen rejoined us; +of course, we must all stand. . . . The next day we dined at the Lord +Mayor’s to meet the Ministers. This was a most interesting affair. We +had all the peculiar ceremonies which I described to you last autumn, but +in addition the party was most distinguished, and we had speeches from +Lord Lansdowne, Lord Palmerston, Lord John, Lord Auckland, Sir George +Grey, etc. + + + +_To W. D. B._ + + + LONDON, July 21, 1848. + +I was truly grieved that the last steamer should go to Boston without a +line from me, but I was in Yorkshire and you must forgive me. . . . I +left off with the 26th of June. . . . The next evening was the Queen’s +Concert, which was most charming. I sat very near the Duke of +Wellington, who often spoke to me between the songs. . . . The next day +we went with Miss Coutts to her bank, lunched there, and went all over +the building. Then we went to the Tower and the Tunnel together, she +never having seen either. So ignorant are the West End people of city +lions. . . . And now comes my pleasant Yorkshire excursion. We left +London, at half-past three, at distance of 180 miles. This was Saturday, +July 8. At York we found Mr. Hudson ready to receive us and conduct us +to a special train which took us eighteen miles on the way to Newby Park, +and there we found carriages to take us four miles to our destination. +We met at dinner and found our party to consist of the Duke of Richmond, +Lord Lonsdale, Lord George Bentinck, Lord Ingestre, Lord John Beresford, +Lady Webster, whose husband, now dead, was the son of Lady Holland, two +or three agreeable talkers to fill in, and ourselves. + + [Picture: Lord George Bentinck. From a painting by Lane, by permission + of the Duke of Portland] + + Tuesday. + +Lady Webster, Mr. Bancroft, and myself, went to Castle Howard, as Lord +Morpeth had written to his mother that we were to be there and would +lunch with her. Castle Howard is twenty-five miles the other side of +York, which is itself twenty-five miles from Newby. But what is fifty +miles when one is under the wing of the Railway King and can have a +special engine at one’s disposal. On arriving at the Castle Howard +station we found Lord Carlisle’s carriage with four horses and most +venerable coachman waiting to receive us. We enter the Park almost +immediately, but it is about four miles to the Castle, through many +gates, which we had mounted footmen open for us. Lady Carlisle received +us in the most delightful manner. . . . I was delighted to see Lord +Morpeth’s home and his mother, who seldom now goes to London. She was +the daughter of the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire, and took me into her +own dressing-room to show me her picture. . . . On Wednesday we went into +York to witness the reception of Prince Albert, to see the ruins of St. +Mary’s Abbey, the Flower Show, to lunch with the Lord Mayor, and above +all, to attend prayers in the Minister and hear a noble anthem. The +Cathedral was crowded with strangers and a great many from London. The +next day was the day of the great dinner, and I send you the _Post_ +containing Mr. Bancroft’s speech. It was warmly admired by all who heard +it. + +At ten at night we ladies set out for York to go [to] the Lord Mayor’s +Ball, where the gentlemen were to meet us from the dinner. Everybody +flocked round to congratulate me upon your father’s speech. Even Prince +Albert, when I was led up to make my curtsey, offered me his hand, which +is a great courtesy in royalty, and spoke of the great beauty and +eloquence of Mr. B.’s speech. The Prince soon went away: the Lord Mayor +took me down to supper and I sat between him and the Duke of Richmond at +the high table which went across the head of the hall. Guildhall is a +beautiful old room with a fine old traceried window, and the scene, with +five tables going the length of the hall and the upper one across the +head, was very gay and brilliant. There were a few toasts, and your +father again made a little speech, short and pleasant. We did not get +home till half-past three in the morning. . . . On Friday morning [July +14th] many of the guests, the Duke of Richmond, etc., took their +departure and Mr. Hudson had to escort Prince Albert to town, but +returned the same evening. . . . The next day we all went to pay a visit +to an estate of Mr. Hudson’s [name of estate indecipherable] for which he +paid five hundred thousand pounds to the Duke of Devonshire. . . . It is +nobly situated in the Yorkshire wolds, a fine range of hills, and +overlooking the valley of the Humber, which was interesting to me, as it +was the river which our Pilgrim fathers sailed down and lay in the Wash +at its mouth, awaiting their passage to Holland. They came, our Plymouth +fathers, mostly from Lincolnshire and the region which lay below us. I +thought of them, and the scene of their sufferings was more ennobled in +my eyes, from their remembrance than from the noble mansions and rich +estates which feast the eye. + + [Picture: Sir Robert Peel. From the mezzotint after Sir T. Lawrence, R. + A.] + +On Monday morning we left Newby for York on our way home. It so happened +that the judges were to open the court that very morning, on which +occasion they always breakfast with the Lord Mayor in their scarlet robes +and wigs, the Lord Mayor and aldermen are also in their furred scarlet +robes and the Lady Mayoress presents the judges with enormous bouquets of +the richest flowers. We were invited to this breakfast, and I found it +very entertaining. I was next the High Sheriff, who was very desirous +that we should stay a few hours and go to the castle and see the court +opened and listen to a case or two. The High Sheriff of a county is a +great character and has a carriage and liveries as grand as the Queen’s. +After breakfast we bade adieu to our York friends, and set off with our +big bouquets (for the distribution was extended to us) for home. + + + +_To T. D._ + + + LONDON, August 9, 1848. + +MY DEAR BROTHER: . . . On Saturday we set off for Nuneham, the +magnificent seat of the late Archbishop of York, now in possession of his +eldest son, Mr. Granville Harcourt. . . . The guests besides ourselves +were Sir Robert and Lady Peel, Lord and Lady Villiers, Lord and Lady +Norreys, Lord Harry Vane, etc. We considered it a great privilege to be +staying in the same house with Sir Robert Peel, and I had also the +pleasure of sitting by him at dinner all the three days we were there. +He was full of conversation of the best kind. Mr. Denison and Lady +Charlotte, his wife, were also of our party. She was the daughter of the +Duke of Portland and sister of Lord George Bentinck, Sir Robert’s great +antagonist in the House. + +On Sunday morning we attended the pretty little church on the estate +which with its parsonage is a pleasing object on the grounds. The next +day the whole party were taken to Blenheim, the seat of the famous Duke +of Marlborough, built at the expense of the country. The grounds are +exquisite, but I was most charmed by the collection of pictures. Here +were the finest Vandykes, Rubens, and Sir Joshua Reynolds which I have +seen. Sir Robert Peel is a great connoisseur in art and seemed highly to +enjoy them. Altogether it was a truly delightful day: the drive of +fifteen miles in open carriages, and through Oxford, being of itself a +high pleasure. Yesterday we returned to London, and on Thursday we set +out for Scotland. + + + +_To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D._ + + + EDINBURGH, August 16, 1848. + +MY DEAR UNCLE AND AUNT: . . . Of Edinburgh I cannot say enough to express +my admiration. The Castle Rock, Arthur’s Seat, Salisbury Craigs and +Calton Hill are all separate and fine mountains and, with the Frith of +Forth, the ocean and the old picturesque town, make an assemblage of fine +objects that I have seen nowhere else. Mr. Rutherford, the Lord +Advocate, who is of the Ministry, had written to his friends that we were +coming, and several gentlemen came by breakfast time the next morning. +Mr. Gordon, his nephew, married the daughter of Prof. Wilson, and invited +us to dine that day to meet the professor, etc. . . . We drove out after +breakfast into the country to Hawthornden, formerly the residence of +Drummond the poet, and to Lord Roslin’s grounds, where are the ruins of +Roslin Castle and above all, of the Roslin Chapel. . . . After lingering +and admiring long we returned to Edinburgh just in season for dinner at +Mr. Gordon’s, where we found Prof. Wilson, and another daughter and son, +Mrs. Rutherford, wife of the Lord Advocate, and Capt. Rutherford, his +brother, with his wife. We had a very agreeable evening and engaged to +dine there again quite _en famille_, with only the professor, whose +conversation is delightful. + + [Picture: Lady Peel. After Sir T. Lawrence, R. A.; photograph copyright + by W. Mansell & Co., London] + +The next morning we went out to Craigcrook, Lord Jeffrey’s country seat, +to see and lunch with him. He was confined to his couch. . . . He is +seventy-three or seventy-four, but looks not a minute older than fifty. +He has a fine head and forehead, and most agreeable and courteous +manners, rather of the old school. As he could not rise to receive me he +kissed my hand. Mrs. Jeffrey is an intelligent and agreeable woman but +has been much out of health the last year. She was Miss Wilkes of New +York, you know. The house was an old castellated and fortified house, +and with modern additions is a most beautiful residence. Capt. +Rutherford told me that when he received the Lord Advocate’s letter +announcing that we were coming, he went to see Lord Jeffrey to know if he +would be well enough to see us, and he expressed the strongest admiration +for Mr. Bancroft’s work. + +This may have disposed them to receive us with the cordiality which made +our visit so agreeable. Mr. Empson, his son-in-law and the president +editor of the Edinburgh Review, was staying there, and after talking two +hours with Lord and Mrs. Jeffrey we took with him a walk in the grounds +from which are delightful and commanding views of the whole environs, and +never were environs so beautiful. + + + +_To W. D. B._ + + + TARBET ON LOCH LOMOND, August 28, 1848. + +DEAR W. . . . Being detained here by rain this morning I devote it to you +and to my journal. . . . The next day was Sunday but the weather being +fine we concluded to continue our journey, and followed the Tay seeing +Birnam Wood and Dunsinane on our way up to Dunkeld, near to which is the +fine seat of the Duke of Athol. We took a delightful walk in the +beautiful grounds, and went on to Blair Athol to sleep. This is the +chief residence of the Duke of Athol and he has here another house and +grounds very pretty though not as extensive as those at Dunkeld. . . . +When the innkeeper found who we were he insisted on sending a message to +the Duke who sent down an order to us to drive up Glen Tilt and met us +there himself. We entered through the Park and followed up the Tilt. +Nothing could be more wild than this narrow winding pass which we +followed for eight miles till we came to the Duke’s forest lodge. Here +were waiting for us a most picturesque group in full Highland dress: the +head stalker, the head shepherd, the kennel keepers with their dogs in +leashes, the piper, etc., etc. They told us that the Duke had sent up +word that we were coming and he would soon be there himself. + +In a few moments he appeared also in full Highland costume with bare +knees, kilt, philibeg, etc. He told us he had then on these mountains +15,000 head of dear, and thought we might like to see a _start_, as it is +called. The head stalker told him, however, that the wind had changed +which affects the scent, and that nothing could be done that day. The +Duke tried to make us amends by making some of his people sing us Gaelic +songs and show us some of the athletic Highland games. The little lodge +he also went over with us, and said that the Duchess came there and lived +six or seven weeks in the autumn, and that the Duke and Duchess of +Buccleuch rented it for many years while he was a minor. If you could +see the tiny little rooms, you would be astonished to find what the love +of sport can do for these people who possess actual palaces. + +After dining again upon salmon and grouse at the pretty little inn, we +took a post chaise to go on to Taymouth, a little village adjoining Lord +Breadalbane’s place. We did not arrive at the inn till after eight and +found it completely full. . . . We were sent to the schoolmaster’s to +sleep in the smallest of little rooms, with a great clock which ticked +and struck so loud that we were obliged to silence it, to the great +bewilderment, I dare say, of the scholars the next day. Before we were +in bed, there was a knock at the door, which proved to be from Lord +Breadalbane’s butler, to say that he had been commissioned to enquire +whenever we arrived at the inn, as his Lordship had heard that we were in +Scotland and wished us to make them a visit. + +Next morning before we were up came a note from Lord Breadalbane urging +us to come immediately to the Castle. . . . Taymouth Castle, though not +more than fifty years old, has the air of an old feudal castle. . . . As +we were ushered up the magnificent staircase through first a large +antechamber, then through a superb hall with lofty ceiling glowing with +armorial bearings, and with the most light and delicate carving on every +part of the oaken panelling, then through a long gallery, of heavier +carving filled with fine old cabinets, into the library, it seemed to me +that the whole Castle was one of those magical delusions that one reads +of in Fairy Tales, so strange did it seem to find such princely +magnificence all alone amid such wild and solitary scenes. I had always +the feeling that it would suddenly vanish, at some wave of an enchanter’s +wand, as it must have arisen also. The library is by far the finest room +I ever saw. Its windows and arches and doorways are all of a fine carved +Gothic open work as light as gossamer. One door which he lately added +cost a thousand pounds, the door alone, not the doorway, so you can judge +of the exquisite workmanship. Here Lady Breadalbane joined us, whom I +had never before met. . . . During dinner the piper in full costume was +playing the pibroch in a gallery outside the window, and after he had +done a band, also in full Highland dress, played some of the Italian, +German as well as Scotch music, at just an agreeable distance. I have +seen nothing in England which compares in splendor with the state which +is kept up here. + +We passed Wednesday and Thursday here most agreeably, and we rode or +walked during the whole days. Lord Breadalbane, by the way, has just +been appointed Lord High Chamberlain to the Queen in place of Lord +Spencer. I am glad of this because we are brought often in contact with +the Lord Chamberlain, but it is very strange to me that a man who lives +like a king, and through whose dominions we travelled a hundred miles +from the German Ocean to the Atlantic, can be Chamberlain to any Queen. +These feudal subordinations we republicans cannot understand. . . . We +stopped at the little town of Oban. After reading our letters and +getting a dinner, we went out just before sunset for a walk. + +We wished much to see the ruins of Dunolly. We passed the porter’s lodge +and found ourselves directly in the most picturesque grounds on the very +shore of the ocean and with the Western Islands lying before us. Mr. +Bancroft sent in his card, which brought out instantly the key to the old +castle, and in a few moments Capt. MacDougal and Mr. Phipps, a brother of +Lord Normanby’s, joined us. They pointed out the interesting points in +the landscape, the Castle of Ardtornish, the scene of Lord of the Isles, +etc., in addition to the fine old ruin we came to see. We lingered till +the lighthouses had begun to glow, and I was reminded very much of the +scenery at Wood’s Hole, which I used to enjoy so much, only that could +not boast the association with poetry and feudal romance. We then went +into the house, and found a charming domestic circle in full evening +dress with short sleeves, so that my gray travelling cloak and straw +bonnet were rather out of place. Here were Mrs. Phipps, and Miss +Campbell, her sister, daughters of Sir Colin Campbell, and to my great +delight, Captain MacDougal brought out the great brooch of Lorn, which +his ancestor won from Bruce and the story of which you will find in the +Lord of the Isles. It fastened the Scotch Plaid, and is larger than a +teacup. He described to me the reverential way in which Scott took it in +both hands when he showed it to him. The whole evening was pleasant and +the more so from being unexpected. . . . One little thing which adds +always to the charm of Scotch scenery is the dress of the peasantry. One +never sees the real Highland costume, but every shepherd has his plaid +slung over one shoulder, making the most graceful drapery. This, with +the universal Glengarry bonnet, is very pretty. + +At Glasgow we intended to pay a visit of a day to the historian Alison, +but found letters announcing Governor Davis’s arrival in London with Mr. +Corcoran and immediately turned our faces homeward. We were to have +passed a week on our return amidst the lakes, and I protested against +going back to London without one look at least. So we stopped at Kendal +on Saturday, took a little carriage over to Windermere and Ambleside and +passed the whole evening with the poet and Mrs. Wordsworth, at their own +exquisite home on Rydal Mount. At ten o’clock we went from there to Miss +Martineau, who has built the prettiest of houses in this valley near to +Mrs. Arnold at Fox Howe. As we had only one day we made an arrangement +with Miss Martineau to go with us and be our guide, and set out the next +day at six o’clock and went over to Keswick to breakfast. From thence we +went to Borrowdale, by the side of Derwentwater, and afterward to +Ulswater and home by the fine pass of Kirkstone. On my return, I found +the Duke and Duchess of Argyle had been to see us. + +The time of closing the despatch bag has come and I must hurry over my +delight at the scenery of the lakes. I could have spent a month there, +much to my mind. We arrived home on Monday and early next morning came +Mr. Davis and Mr. Corcoran. They went to see the Parliament prorogued in +person by the Queen. + + [Picture: George Bancroft. Probably taken at Brady’s National Gallery, +New York, sometime after his return from England; from a picture owned by + Elizabeth B. Bliss] + + + +_To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D._ + + + LONDON, December 14, 1848. + +DEAR UNCLE AND AUNT: On Friday we dined at Mr. Tufnell’s, who married +last spring the daughter of Lord Rosebery, Lady Anne Primrose, a very +“nice person,” to use the favorite English term of praise. . . . Sir John +Hobhouse was of our party and he told us so much of Byron, who was his +intimate friend, as you will remember from his Life, that we stayed much +longer than usual at dinner. . . . On Tuesday we were invited to dine +with Miss Coutts, but were engaged to Mr. Gurney, an immensely rich +Quaker banker, brother of Mrs. Fry. His daughter is married to Ernest +Bunsen, the second son of our friend. We were delighted with the whole +family scene, which was quite unlike anything we have seen in England. +They live at Upton Park, a pretty country seat about eight miles from us, +and are surrounded by their children and grandchildren. Their costume +and language are strictly Quaker, which was most becoming to Mrs. +Gurney’s sweet, placid face. . . . Louis Napoleon’s election seems fixed, +and is to me one of the most astounding things of the age. When we +passed several days with him at Mr. Bates’s, I would not have given two +straws for his chance of a future career. To-night Mendelssohn’s +“Elijah” is to be performed, and Jenny Lind sings. We had not been able +to get tickets, which have been sold for five guineas apiece the last few +days. To my great joy Miss Coutts has this moment written me that she +has two for our use, and asks us to take an early dinner at five with her +and accompany her. + + + +_To I. P. D._ + + + LONDON, June 8, 1849. + +I thank you, my dear Uncle, for your pleasant letter, which contained as +usual much that was interesting to me. And so Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence are +to be our successors. . . . Happy as we have been here, I have a great +satisfaction that we are setting rather than rising; that we have done +our work, instead of having it to do. Like all our pleasures, those here +are earned by fatigue and effort, and I would not willingly live the last +three years over again, or three years like them, though they have +contained high and lasting gratifications. We have constantly the +strongest expressions of regret at our approaching departure, and in many +cases it is, I know, most genuine. My relations here have been most +agreeable, and particularly in that intellectual circle whose high +character and culture have made their regard most precious to me. The +manifestations of this kindness increase as the time approaches for our +going and we are inundated with invitations of all kinds. + +Young Prescott is here. I wish Prescott could have seen his reception at +Lady Lovelace’s the other evening when there happened to be a collection +of genius and literature. What a blessing it is _sometimes_ to a son to +have a father. + +To-morrow we dine with Lord John Russell down at Pembroke Lodge in +Richmond Park. On Monday we breakfast with Macaulay. We met him at +dinner this week at Lady Waldegrave’s, and he said: “Would you be willing +to breakfast with me some morning, if I asked one or two other ladies?” +“Willing!” I said, “I should be delighted beyond measure.” So he sent us +a note for Monday next. I depend upon seeing his bachelor establishment, +his library, and mode of life. On Wednesday we go to a ball at the +Palace. But it is useless to go on, for every day is filled in this way, +and gives you an idea of London in the season. + + + +_To I. P. D._ + + + LONDON, June 22, 1849. + +MY DEAR UNCLE: Yesterday I passed one of the most agreeable days I have +had in England at Oxford, where I went with a party to see Mr. Bancroft +take his degree. . . . Nothing could have gone off better than the whole +thing. Mr. Bancroft went up the day before, but Mrs. Stuart Mackenzie +and her daughter, with Lady Elizabeth Waldegrave, Louisa, and myself went +up yesterday morning and returned at night. We lunched at the +Vice-Chancellor’s (where Mr. B. made a pleasant little informal speech) +and were treated with great kindness by everybody. I wish you could have +seen Mr. Bancroft walking round all day with his scarlet gown and round +velvet cap, such as you see in old Venetian pictures. From this time +forward we shall have the pain of bidding adieu, one by one, to our +friends, as they leave town not to return till we are gone. + + + + +FOOTNOTES. + + +{7} Mr. Bancroft’s daughter. + +{28} Wife of President Polk. + +{37} Only child of Mrs. Bancroft’s second marriage, who had died at the +age of seven. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM ENGLAND, 1846-1849*** + + +******* This file should be named 1936-0.txt or 1936-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/3/1936 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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