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diff --git a/1936-h/1936-h.htm b/1936-h/1936-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4cee969 --- /dev/null +++ b/1936-h/1936-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4114 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Letters from England, 1846-1849, by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +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: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM ENGLAND, 1846-1849*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1904 Smith, Elder and Co. edition by Jane +Duff and proofed by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/fpb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"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" +title= +"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" + src="images/fps.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h1>LETTERS<br /> +FROM ENGLAND</h1> +<p style="text-align: center">1846–1849</p> +<p style="text-align: center">BY<br /> +ELIZABETH DAVIS BANCROFT<br /> +(<span class="smcap">Mrs</span>. GEORGE BANCROFT)</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall"><i>WITH +PORTRAITS AND VIEWS</i></span></p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">SMITH, ELDER & CO.<br /> +LONDON : : : : : : : 1904</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">Copyright, +1903, by Charles Scribner’s Sons, for Great Britain and +the</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">United States of America.</span></p> + +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">Printed by +the Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">New York, U. S. A.</span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Davis Bancroft</span>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>PORTRAITS AND VIEWS</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>Elizabeth Davis Bancroft</p> +<p class="gutindent">Probably taken at Brady’s National +Gallery, New York, sometime after her return from England; from a +picture owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Frontispiece</i></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Aston Hall (Bracebridge Hall)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image8">8</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Henry Edward, fourth Lord Holland</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the portrait by C. R. Leslie, R. A., at +Holland House, by permission of the Earl of Ilchester.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image14">14</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Augusta, Lady Holland</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the portrait by G. F. Watts, R. A., at +Holland House, by permission of the Earl of Ilchester.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image20">20</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Holland House</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image26">26</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>George Bancroft</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the painting by C. C. Ingham in the +possession of William J. A. Bliss.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image34">34</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Elizabeth Davis Bancroft</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the painting by C. C. Ingham in the +possession of William J. A. Bliss.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image40">40</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Duke of Wellington</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the portrait by Count Alfred +D’Orsay; photograph copyright by Walker & Cockerell, +London.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image70">70</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Sir Stratford Canning</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the drawing by Richmond, make about +1848, by permission of the Hon. Louisa Canning.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image74">74</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lord Ashburton</p> +<p class="gutindent">After Sir T. Lawrence, R. A.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image84">84</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Miss Berry, at the Age of 86</p> +<p class="gutindent">From a crayon drawing by J. R. Swinton +(1850); from a picture owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image88">88</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A. W. Kinglake (“Eothen”)</p> +<p class="gutindent">From a photograph.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image90">90</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Samuel Rogers</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the drawing by G. Richmond (1848); +photograph copyright by Walker & Cockerell, London.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image98">98</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lady Byron</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the portrait in the possession of Sir +J. Tollemache Sinclair, Bart.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image106">106</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>George Hudson, the “Railway King”</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the engraving after F. Grant.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image114">114</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lord Palmerston</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the portrait by Partridge; photograph +copyright by Walker & Cockerell, London.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image130">130</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lady Palmerston</p> +<p class="gutindent">From a painting, by permission of Sir +Francis Gore.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image136">136</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Mrs. Dawson Damer</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the miniature by Isabey, by permission +of Lady Constance Leslie.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image154">154</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Mrs. Fitzherbert</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the pastel by J. Russell.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image160">160</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Richard Monckton Miles (Lord Houghton)</p> +<p class="gutindent">From a drawing by Cousins, by permission of +the Hon. Mrs. Arthur Henniker.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image170">170</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lord George Bentinck</p> +<p class="gutindent">From a painting by Lane, by permission of +the Duke of Portland.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image190">190</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Sir Robert Peel</p> +<p class="gutindent">From the mezzotint after Sir T. Lawrence, R. +A.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image194">194</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lady Peel</p> +<p class="gutindent">After Sir T. Lawrence, R. A.; photograph +copyright by W. Mansell & Co., London.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image198">198</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>George Bancroft</p> +<p class="gutindent">Probably taken at Brady’s National +Gallery, New York, sometime after his return from England; from a +picture owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="imageref"><a +href="#image210">210</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2>Letters from England</h2> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Liverpool</span>, October 26, 1846.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sons</span>: Thank God with me +that we are once more on <i>terra firma</i>. 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 <i>Great Western</i>, notwithstanding she encountered +throughout a series of most severe gales, accomplished the +passage in sixteen days and twelve hours.”</p> +<p>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 <i>such</i> motion of the vessel.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Great Western</i>. 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 <a name="citation7"></a><a +href="#footnote7" class="citation">[7]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +Sunday, November 1.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image8" href="images/p8b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Aston Hall (Bracebridge Hall)" +title= +"Aston Hall (Bracebridge Hall)" + src="images/p8s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>is</i> 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 <i>fricandeau</i> with sweet breads, +then a pheasant, and afterwards, dessert.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Monday Evening.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Elizabeth D. +Bancroft</span>.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +November 3, 1846.</p> +<p>. . . 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 <i>corps diplomatique</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">November 4th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image14" href="images/p14b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Henry Edward, fourth Lord Holland. From the portrait by C. R. +Leslie, R. A., at Holland House, by permission of the Earl of +Ilchester" +title= +"Henry Edward, fourth Lord Holland. From the portrait by C. R. +Leslie, R. A., at Holland House, by permission of the Earl of +Ilchester" + src="images/p14s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">November 5th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Friday, November 6th.</p> +<p>. . . 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Sunday Evening, November 8th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Wednesday Evening.</p> +<p>On Monday we came to our <i>home</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>These persons all came the next day to see us, which gave rise +to fresh invitations.</p> +<p>This morning we have been driving round to leave cards on the +<i>corps diplomatique</i>, 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image20" href="images/p20b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Augusta, Lady Holland. From the portrait by G. F. Watts, R. A., +at Holland House, by permission of the Earl of Ilchester" +title= +"Augusta, Lady Holland. From the portrait by G. F. Watts, R. A., +at Holland House, by permission of the Earl of Ilchester" + src="images/p20s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: right">Tuesday, November 17th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +November 17, 1846.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Uncle</span>: 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Uncle</span>: 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Yours most truly,<br /> +<span class="smcap">George Bancroft</span>.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +November 29, 1846.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image26" href="images/p26b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Holland House" +title= +"Holland House" + src="images/p26s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +December 2, 1846.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Polk</span>: <a +name="citation28"></a><a href="#footnote28" +class="citation">[28]</a> 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 <i>début</i> 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 +<i>soirées</i>, at Lady Palmerston’s, Lady +Grey’s, Lord Auckland’s, Lady Lewis’s, etc., +etc.</p> +<p>And now, having given you some idea <i>whom</i> 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 +<i>soirées</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">E. D. <span +class="smcap">Bancroft</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">2 December.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +December 19, 1846.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sons</span>: . . . 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 <i>Examiner</i>, +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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image34" href="images/p34b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"George Bancroft. From the painting by C. C. Ingham in the +possession of William J. A. Bliss" +title= +"George Bancroft. From the painting by C. C. Ingham in the +possession of William J. A. Bliss" + src="images/p34s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <a name="citation37"></a><a +href="#footnote37" class="citation">[37]</a> 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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +January 1, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sons</span>: . . . 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Lear</i> with snowy hair and draperies. <i>Old +Year</i> 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 “<i>far beyond our reach</i>,” etc., +etc. He then introduced one by one the children of all ages +as “Days” of the coming year. There was +<i>Twelfth Day</i>, crowned as Queen with her cake in her hands; +there was <i>Christmas</i>, covered with holly and mistletoe; +there was <i>April Fool’s Day</i>, dressed as Harlequin; +there was, above all, <i>Shrove Tuesday</i>, with her frying-pan +of pancakes, dressed as a little cook; there was a charming boy +of fourteen or fifteen, as <i>St. Valentine’s Day</i> with +his packet of valentines addressed to the young ladies present; +there was the <i>5th of November</i>, 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 +<i>Old Year</i>, 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 <i>Old Year</i>, is discovered a sweet +little flower-crowned girl of five or six, as the <i>New +Year</i>. 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image40" href="images/p40b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Elizabeth Davis Bancroft. From the painting by C. C. Ingham in +the possession of William J. A. Bliss" +title= +"Elizabeth Davis Bancroft. From the painting by C. C. Ingham in +the possession of William J. A. Bliss" + src="images/p40s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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 <i>beaux</i> and +<i>belles esprits</i>, 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.</p> +<h3><i>To I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +January 2, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Uncle</span>: . . . 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 <i>Sheen</i>, which receives its name from the Anglo-Saxon +word for <i>beauty</i>. 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 <i>preparations</i> 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, <i>capital</i> for velvet +dresses, and smaller ones fitting into all the seats <i>in</i> +the carriage, and <i>before</i> and <i>behind</i>) 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>very great</i> character <i>indeed</i>, 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 <i>loaf</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>dress</i> 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 <i>always</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>tête-à-tête</i>, +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 <i>rôle</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>flower</i> 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>I</i> learned as much about the +<i>vegetable</i> world, as Mr. Bancroft did from the Dean of Ely +on <i>architecture</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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 +“<i>cultivating</i>” us, and Mr. Taylor was quite a +<i>protégé</i> of our kind and dear friend, Dr. +Holland, and dedicated his last poem to him. This +expression, “I shall <i>cultivate</i> you,” we hear +constantly, and it strikes me as oddly as our Western +“<i>being raised</i>.” Indeed, I hear improper +Anglicisms constantly, and they have nearly as many as we +have. The upper classes, here, however, do <i>speak</i> +English so roundly and fully, giving every <i>letter</i> its due, +that it pleases my ear amazingly.</p> +<p>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 <i>by</i> the person and +<i>at</i> the time which English custom prescribes. They +are brought up to fill certain situations, and fill them +perfectly, but cannot or will not vary.</p> +<p>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 <i>upper</i> and <i>under</i> +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 <i>never</i> washes a dish. She is cook and +<i>housekeeper</i>, 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 <i>much</i> 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).</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +January 10, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My very dear Children</span>: . . . +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 +<i>little</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>me</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>longitudinally</i>, 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 <i>entrée</i> 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 <i>boiled</i> turkey, is brought on +<i>after</i> the <i>entrées</i>, mutton (a saddle always) +or venison, with a pheasant or partridges. With the roast +is always put on the <i>sweets</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right">Tuesday night, January 19, 1847.</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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 <i>fleur-de-lis</i>, +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 +<i>fleur-de-lis</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>chariot</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image70" href="images/p70b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Duke of Wellington. From the portrait by Count Alfred +D’Orsay; photograph copyright by Walker & Cockerell, +London" +title= +"The Duke of Wellington. From the portrait by Count Alfred +D’Orsay; photograph copyright by Walker & Cockerell, +London" + src="images/p70s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +February 7, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sons</span>: . . . 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Monday Morning.</p> +<p>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 <i>comme il +faut</i> 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.</p> +<p>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”?</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Sunday, 14th February.</p> +<p>. . . 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image74" href="images/p74b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Sir Stratford Canning. From the drawing by Richmond, make about +1848, by permission of the Hon. Louisa Canning" +title= +"Sir Stratford Canning. From the drawing by Richmond, make about +1848, by permission of the Hon. Louisa Canning" + src="images/p74s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: right">Sunday, February 21st.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>great</i> 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.</p> +<h3><i>To I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right">February 21st.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Uncle</span>: . . . 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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. . . .</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, “<i>We</i> can bring bushels of corn this year to +England.” “Who do you mean by <i>we</i>?” +said he. “Why, we Americans, to be sure.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image84" href="images/p84b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Lord Ashburton. After Sir T. Lawrence, R. A." +title= +"Lord Ashburton. After Sir T. Lawrence, R. A." + src="images/p84s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: right">Monday Evening.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To Mrs. W. W. Story</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +March 23, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Story</span>: 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image88" href="images/p88b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Miss Berry, at the age of 86. From a crayon drawing by J. R. +Swinton (1850); from a picture owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss" +title= +"Miss Berry, at the age of 86. From a crayon drawing by J. R. +Swinton (1850); from a picture owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss" + src="images/p88s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +April 2 [1847].</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>These remnants of the <i>belles-esprits</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image90" href="images/p90b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"A. W. Kinglake (“Eothen”). From a photograph" +title= +"A. W. Kinglake (“Eothen”). From a photograph" + src="images/p90s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h3><i>To I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Uncle and Aunt</span>: 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>first</i> into the <i>ante-room</i> 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.”</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right">Tuesday.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sons</span>: . . . 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>people</i>, +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 +<i>books</i>, 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 +<i>crude</i>. The elements, however fine, are not yet +completely assimilated and brought to that more perfect tone +which comes later in life.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image98" href="images/p98b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Samuel Rogers. From the drawing by G. Richmond (1848); +photograph copyright by Walker & Cockerell, London" +title= +"Samuel Rogers. From the drawing by G. Richmond (1848); +photograph copyright by Walker & Cockerell, London" + src="images/p98s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: right">Monday, April 12th.</p> +<p>. . . 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Wednesday.</p> +<p>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 <i>alone</i> for the <i>first +time</i>. If I live through it, I will tell you all about +it; but is it not awkward in the extreme?</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Friday Morning.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>sotto voce</i>, 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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +May 16, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sons</span>: 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image106" href="images/p106b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Lady Byron. From the portrait in the possession of Sir J. +Tollemache Sinclair, Bart." +title= +"Lady Byron. From the portrait in the possession of Sir J. +Tollemache Sinclair, Bart." + src="images/p106s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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 “<i>Ada</i>” 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B. and A. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +May 24, [1847].</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sons</span>: . . . 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Sunday, May 30th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>his</i> knees and gently raised her, and then kissed her on +the cheek, a privilege, you know, of royalty.</p> +<p>. . . 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 <i>nouveau riche</i> 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, +<i>Chargé</i> 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image114" href="images/p114b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"George Hudson, the “Railway King”. From the +engraving after F. Grant" +title= +"George Hudson, the “Railway King”. From the +engraving after F. Grant" + src="images/p114s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: right">June 17th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>fête</i> 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.</p> +<h3><i>To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +June 20, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Uncle and Aunt</span>: 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 +<i>prose</i>, 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 <i>true</i> 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 +<i>believe</i>, 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.</p> +<p>. . . 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Sunday, June 27th.</p> +<p>. . . 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">July 2d.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Nuneham +Park</span>, July 27, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Uncle and Aunt</span>: . . . 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +July 29th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To A. H.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Bishop’s +Palace</span>, <span class="smcap">Norwich</span>, August +1st.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Ann</span>: 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image130" href="images/p130b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Lord Palmerston. From the portrait by Partridge; photograph +copyright by Walker & Cockerell, London" +title= +"Lord Palmerston. From the portrait by Partridge; photograph +copyright by Walker & Cockerell, London" + src="images/p130s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Audley +End</span>, October 14, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Uncle</span>: 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 <i>Lord Mayor</i> to meet the +Duke of Cambridge, a <i>fête</i> 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 <i>City</i>, 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 +<i>sitting</i>. 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 <i>common +chair</i>, 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-<i>elect</i>, then I came with my +husband on my left hand in very conjugal style.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image136" href="images/p136b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Lady Palmerston. From a painting, by permission of Sir Francis +Gore" +title= +"Lady Palmerston. From a painting, by permission of Sir Francis +Gore" + src="images/p136s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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 <i>Earldom</i> passed into +another branch and the <i>Barony</i> and <i>estate</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +November 4, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear</span> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">November 14th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">November 28th.</p> +<p>. . . 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">December 2d.</p> +<p>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 <i>Influenza</i>—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.</p> +<h3><i>To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +December 16, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Uncle and Aunt</span>: . . . 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 +<i>only</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image154" href="images/p154b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Mrs. Dawson Damer. From the miniature by Isabey, by permission +of Lady Constance Leslie" +title= +"Mrs. Dawson Damer. From the miniature by Isabey, by permission +of Lady Constance Leslie" + src="images/p154s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +December 30, 1847.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear</span> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>our Court</i>, as he called +it, in the time of Madison and Monroe.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">January 1, 1848.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Saturday, January 7th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +January 28th, 1848.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Uncle and Aunt</span>: . . . 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.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image160" href="images/p160b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Mrs. Fitzherbert. From the pastel by J. Russell" +title= +"Mrs. Fitzherbert. From the pastel by J. Russell" + src="images/p160s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h3><i>To T. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +February 24, 1848.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Brother</span>: . . . 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 <i>en famille</i>, and he +will learn there what the hopes and fears of the Government +are.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">February 25th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +February 26, 1848.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Uncle</span>: . . . 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Sunday Noon.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Tuesday.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Wednesday.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Friday.</p> +<p>This morning came Thackeray, who is the soul of <i>Punch</i>, +and showed me a piece he had written for the next number.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Saturday.</p> +<p>The King has arrived. What a crossing of the Channel, +pea-jacket, woollen comforter, and all! The flight is a +perfect comedy, and if <i>Punch</i> had tried to invent anything +more ludicrous, it would have failed. Panic, despotism, and +cowardice.</p> +<p>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 +<i>Blackwood</i>.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +March 11, 1848.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear</span> 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 <i>fier</i> as +ever, and almost gay. Princess de Lieven is here at the +“Clarendon,” and their friendship is as great as +ever.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">March 15th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Friday, March 17th.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image170" href="images/p170b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Richard Monckton Miles, (Lord Houghton). From a drawing by +Cousins, by permission of the Hon. Mrs. Arthur Henniker" +title= +"Richard Monckton Miles, (Lord Houghton). From a drawing by +Cousins, by permission of the Hon. Mrs. Arthur Henniker" + src="images/p170s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: right">Sunday, March 19th.</p> +<p>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 <i>soirée</i> 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 <span +class="GutSmall">A.M.</span>, which I enclose to you. It +gives an account of the revolution in Berlin.</p> +<h3><i>To T. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right">March 31.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +April 7, 1848.</p> +<p>. . . 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.</p> +<h3><i>To I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right">April 10.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Friday, April 14.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +April 19, 1848.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear</span> 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 <i>be</i> governed. <i>We</i> are accustomed +to <i>govern</i>. <i>Here</i> 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 <i>we</i> +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 +<i>universally</i> acceptable. Three-fourths of the +provincial delegates will be <i>moderate</i> 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 <i>conciliated</i> 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, <i>viz.</i>, two elected chambers and a +president.”</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +May 5, 1848.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear</span> 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +May 31, 1848.</p> +<p>. . . 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 +<i>fête</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +June 29, 1848.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear</span> 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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +July 21, 1848.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image190" href="images/p190b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Lord George Bentinck. From a painting by Lane, by permission of +the Duke of Portland" +title= +"Lord George Bentinck. From a painting by Lane, by permission of +the Duke of Portland" + src="images/p190s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: right">Tuesday.</p> +<p>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 <i>Post</i> containing Mr. +Bancroft’s speech. It was warmly admired by all who +heard it.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image194" href="images/p194b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Sir Robert Peel. From the mezzotint after Sir T. Lawrence, R. +A." +title= +"Sir Robert Peel. From the mezzotint after Sir T. Lawrence, R. +A." + src="images/p194s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To T. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +August 9, 1848.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Brother</span>: . . . 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, August 16, 1848.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Uncle and Aunt</span>: . . . 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 <i>en +famille</i>, with only the professor, whose conversation is +delightful.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image198" href="images/p198b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Lady Peel. After Sir T. Lawrence, R. A.; photograph copyright +by W. Mansell & Co., London" +title= +"Lady Peel. After Sir T. Lawrence, R. A.; photograph copyright +by W. Mansell & Co., London" + src="images/p198s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To W. D. B.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Tarbet on Loch +Lomond</span>, August 28, 1848.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear</span> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>start</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a name="image210" href="images/p210b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"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" +title= +"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" + src="images/p210s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h3><i>To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +December 14, 1848.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Uncle and Aunt</span>: 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.</p> +<h3><i>To I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +June 8, 1849.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>sometimes</i> to a son to have a +father.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3><i>To I. P. D.</i></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +June 22, 1849.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Uncle</span>: 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.</p> +<h2>FOOTNOTES.</h2> +<p><a name="footnote7"></a><a href="#citation7" +class="footnote">[7]</a> Mr. Bancroft’s daughter.</p> +<p><a name="footnote28"></a><a href="#citation28" +class="footnote">[28]</a> Wife of President Polk.</p> +<p><a name="footnote37"></a><a href="#citation37" +class="footnote">[37]</a> Only child of Mrs. +Bancroft’s second marriage, who had died at the age of +seven.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM ENGLAND, 1846-1849***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 1936-h.htm or 1936-h.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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