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LETTERS FROM ENGLAND
LETTERS FROM ENGLAND
1846–1849 BY ELIZABETH DAVIS BANCROFT ( Mrs . GEORGE BANCROFT) WITH PORTRAITS AND VIEWS SMITH, ELDER & CO. LONDON : : : : : : : 1904 Copyright, 1903, by Charles Scribner’s Sons, for Great Britain and the United States of America. Printed by the Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company New York, U. S. A....
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PREFACE
PREFACE
Elizabeth Davis Bancroft , the writer of these letters, was the youngest child and only daughter of William and Rebecca Morton Davis, and was born at Plymouth, Mass., in October, 1803. She often spoke in later times of what a good preparation for her life abroad were the years she spent at Miss Cushing’s school at Hingham, and of her visits to her uncles, Judge Davis and Mr. I. P. Davis of Boston. In 1825 she married Alexander Bliss, a brilliant young lawyer and a junior partner of Daniel Webs
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PORTRAITS AND VIEWS
PORTRAITS AND VIEWS
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. Frontispiece Aston Hall (Bracebridge Hall) 8 Henry Edward, fourth Lord Holland From the portrait by C. R. Leslie, R. A., at Holland House, by permission of the Earl of Ilchester. 14 Augusta, Lady Holland From the portrait by G. F. Watts, R. A., at Holland House, by permission of the Earl of Ilchester. 20 Holland House 26 George Bancrof
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
Liverpool , October 26, 1846. My dear Sons : Thank God with me that we are once more on terra firma . We arrived yesterday morning at ten o’clock, after a very rough voyage and after riding all night in the Channel in a tremendous gale, so bad that no pilot could reach us to bring us in on Saturday evening. A record of a sea voyage will be only interesting to you who love me, but I must give it to you that you may know what to expect if you ever undertake it; but first, I must sum it all up by
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
London , November 3, 1846. . . . This day, at five, your father had his first interview with Lord Palmerston, who will acquaint the Queen with his arrival, and after she has received him we shall leave our cards upon all the ministers and corps diplomatique . November 4th. Your father had a most agreeable dinner at Lord Holland’s. He met there Lord and Lady Palmerston, Lord Morpeth, Lord de Mauley, Mr. Harcourt, a son of the Archbishop of York, etc. He took out Lady Holland and Lord Morpeth, L
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To I. P. D.
To I. P. D.
London , November 17, 1846. My dear Uncle : I cannot help refreshing the remembrance of me with you and dear Aunty by addressing a separate letter to you. . . . Yesterday we hailed with delight our letters from home. . . . One feels in a foreign land the absence of common sympathies and interests, which always surround us in any part of our own country. And yet nothing can exceed the kindness with which we have been received here. Last evening I went to my first great English dinner and it wa
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
London , November 29, 1846. After a long interval I find again a quiet Sunday evening to resume my journal to you. On Monday we dined at Lord John Russell’s, and met many of the persons we have met before and the Duchess of Inverness, the widow of the Duke of Sussex. On Tuesday we dined at Dr. Holland’s. His wife and daughter are charming, and then we met, besides, Lady Charlotte Lindsay, the only surviving child of Lord North, Mr. and Mrs. Milman (the author of the “Fall of Jerusalem”), and
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
London , December 19, 1846. My dear Sons : . . . Yesterday we dined at Macready’s and met quite a new, and to us, a most agreeable circle. There was Carlyle, who talked all dinner-time in his broad Scotch, in the most inimitable way. He is full of wit, and happened to get upon James I., upon which topic he was superb. Then there was Babbage, the great mathematician, Fonblanc, the editor of the Examiner , etc., etc. The day before we dined at Mr. Frederick Elliott’s with a small party of eigh
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
London , January 1, 1847. My dear Sons : . . . I wrote my last sheet on the 19th and your father went on that day to Cambridge to be present at the tri-centennial celebration of Trinity College . . . He went also the day after the anniversary, which was on our 22nd December, to Ely, with Peacock, the great mathematician, who is Dean of Ely, to see the great cathedral there . . . While he was at Cambridge I passed the evening of the 22nd at Lady Morgan’s, who happened to have a most agreeable se
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To I. P. D.
To I. P. D.
London , January 2, 1847. My dear Uncle : . . . I refer you to my letters to my boys, for all the new persons and places we may have seen lately, while I give you for Aunty’s amusement a minute account of my visit into the country at Mr. Bates’s, where things are managed in a scrupulously English manner, so that it will give her the same idea of country life here, as if it were a nobleman’s castle. Our invitation was to arrive on Thursday, the day before Christmas, to dine, and to remain until
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
London , January 10, 1847. My very dear Children : . . . Yesterday we dined at Lady Charleville’s, the old lady of eighty-four, at whose house I mentioned an evening visit in my last, and I must tell you all about it to entertain dear Grandma. I will be minute for once, and give you the little details of a London dinner, and they are all precisely alike. We arrived at Cavendish Square a quarter before seven (very early) and were shown into a semi-library on the same floor with the dining-room.
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
Tuesday night, January 19, 1847. To-day we have been present at the opening of Parliament, but how can I picture to you the interest and magnificence of the scene. I will begin quite back, and give you all the preparations for a “Court Day.” Ten days before, a note was written to Lord Willoughby d’Eresby, informing him of my intention to attend, that a seat might be reserved for me, and also soliciting several tickets for American ladies and gentlemen. . . . I cannot take them with me, howeve
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
London , February 7, 1847. My dear Sons : . . . On Friday we dined with two bachelors, Mr. Peabody and Mr. Coates, who are American bankers. Mr. Peabody is a friend of Mr. Corcoran and was formerly a partner of Mr. Riggs in Baltimore. Mr. Coates is of Boston. . . . They mustered up all the Americans that could be found, and we dined with twenty-six of our countrymen. Monday Morning. Last evening we were at home to see any Americans who might chance to come. . . . I make tea in the drawing-room
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To I. P. D.
To I. P. D.
February 21st. My dear Uncle : . . . I wrote [J. D.] a week or two before I heard of his death, but was unable to tell him anything of Lord North, as I had not met Lady Charlotte Lindsay. I have seen her twice this week at Baron Parke’s and at Lord Campbell’s, and told her how much I had wished to do so before, and on what account. She says her father heard reading with great pleasure, and that one of her sisters could read the classics: Latin and, I think, Greek, which he enjoyed to the last.
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To Mrs. W. W. Story
To Mrs. W. W. Story
London , March 23, 1847. My dear Mrs. Story : I should have thanked you by the last steamer for your note and the charming volume which accompanied it, but my thoughts and feelings were so much occupied by the sad tidings I heard from my own family that I wrote to no one out of it. The poems, which would at all times have given me great pleasure, gave me still more here than they would if I were with you on the other side of the Atlantic. I am not cosmopolitan enough to love any nature so well
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
London , April 2 [1847]. Here it is the day before the despatches leave and I have not written a single line to you. . . . On Friday we dined at Lady Charlotte Lindsay’s, where were Lord Brougham and Lady Mallet, Mr. Rogers and the Bishop of Norwich and his wife. In the evening Miss Agnes Berry, who never goes out now, came on purpose to appoint an evening to go and see her sister, who is the one that Horace Walpole wished to marry, and to whom so many of his later letters are addressed. She i
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To I. P. D.
To I. P. D.
Dear Uncle and Aunt : On Thursday [the 25th] we were invited to Sir John Pakington’s, whose wife is the Bishop of Rochester’s daughter, but were engaged to Mr. Senior, who had asked us to meet the Archbishop of Dublin, the celebrated Dr. Whately. He had come over from Ireland to make a speech in the House of Lords upon the Irish Poor Law. He is full of learning [and] simplicity, and with most genial hearty manners. Rogers was also there and said more fine things than I have heard him say befo
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
Tuesday. My dear Sons : . . . On Monday morning came the dear Miss Berrys, to beg me to come that evening to join their circle. They have always the best people in London about them, young as well as old. The old and the middle-aged are more attended to here than with us, where the young are all in all. As Hayward said to me the other evening, “it takes time to make people , like cathedrals,” and Mr. Rogers and Miss Berry could not have been what they are now, forty years ago. A long life of
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
London , May 16, 1847. My dear Sons : My letters by this steamer will have very little interest for you, as, from being in complete retirement, I have no new things to related to you. . . . We have taken advantage of our leisure to drive a little into the country, and on Tuesday I had a pleasure of the highest order in driving down to Esher and passing a quiet day with Lady Byron, the widow of the poet. She is an intimate friend of Miss Murray, who has long wished us to see her and desired her
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To W. D. B. and A. B.
To W. D. B. and A. B.
London , May 24, [1847]. My dear Sons : . . . On Friday we both went to see the Palace of Hampton Court with my dear, good, Miss Murray, Mr. Winthrop and son, and Louise. . . . On our arrival, we found, to our great vexation, that Friday was the only day in the week in which visitors were not admitted, and that we must content ourselves with seeing the grounds and go back without a glimpse of its noble galleries of pictures. Fortunately for us, Miss Murray had several friends among the persons
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To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
London , June 20, 1847. My dear Uncle and Aunt : On the 19th, Saturday, we breakfasted with Lady Byron and my friend, Miss Murray, at Mr. Rogers’. He and Lady Byron had not met for many, many years, and their renewal of old friendship was very interesting to witness. Mr. Rogers told me that he first introduced her to Lord Byron. After breakfast he had been repeating some lines of poetry which he thought fine, when he suddenly exclaimed: “But there is a bit of American prose , which, I think,
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To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
Nuneham Park , July 27, 1847. My dear Uncle and Aunt : . . . I must go back to the day when my last letters were despatched, as my life since has been full of interest. On Monday evening, the 19th, we went to the French play, to see Rachel in “Phèdre.” She far surpassed my imagination in the expression of all the powerful passions. . . . On Tuesday Mr. Bancroft went down to hear Lord John make a speech to his constituents in the city, while I went to see Miss Burdett-Coutts lay the corner-ston
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To A. H.
To A. H.
Bishop’s Palace , Norwich , August 1st. My dear Ann : How I wish I could transport you to the spot where I am writing, but if I could summon it before your actual vision you would take it for a dream or a romance, so different is everything within the walls which enclose the precincts of an English Cathedral from anything we can conceive on our side of the water. . . . Some of the learned people and noblemen have formed an Archæological Society for the study and preservation [of] the interesting
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To I. P. D.
To I. P. D.
Audley End , October 14, 1847. Dear Uncle : We are staying for a few days at Lord Braybrooke’s place, one of the most magnificent in England; but before I say a word about it I must tell you of A.’s safe arrival and how happy I have been made by having him with me again. . . . On Saturday the 9th we had the honor of dining with the Lord Mayor to meet the Duke of Cambridge, a fête so unlike anything else and accompanied by so many old and peculiar customs that I must describe it to you at full le
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To W. D. B.
To W. D. B.
London , November 4, 1847. Dear W.: . . . Mr. Bancroft and I dined on Friday, the 22d, with Mr. and Mrs. Hawes, under-Secretary of State, to meet Mr. Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak, who is a great lion in London just now. He is an English gentleman of large fortune who has done much to Christianize Borneo, and to open its trade to the English. I sat between him and Mr. Ward, formerly Minister to Mexico before Mr. Pakenham. He wrote a very nice book on Mexico, and is an agreeable and intelligent
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To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
London , December 16, 1847. My dear Uncle and Aunt : . . . On Saturday Mr. Hallam wrote us that Sir Robert Peel had promised to breakfast with him on Monday morning and he thought we should like to meet him in that quiet way. So we presented ourselves at ten o’clock, and were joined by Sir Robert, Lord Mahon, Macaulay, and Milman, who with Hallam himself, formed a circle that could not be exceeded in the wide world. I was the only lady, except Miss Hallam; but I am especially favored in the br
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To W. D. B.
To W. D. B.
London , December 30, 1847. Dear W.: Your father left me on the 18th to go to Paris. This is the best of all seasons for him to be there, for the Ministers are all out of town at Christmas, and in Paris everything is at its height. My friends are very kind to me—those who remain in town. . . . One day I dined at Sir Francis Simpkinson’s and found a pleasant party. Lady Simpkinson is a sister of Lady Franklin, whom I was very glad to meet, as she has been in America and knows many Americans, M
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To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
London , January 28th, 1848. My dear Uncle and Aunt : . . . Last Monday I received [this] note from George Sumner, which I thought might interest you: “My dear Mrs. Bancroft: I hasten to congratulate you upon an event most honorable to Mr. Bancroft and to our country. The highest honor which can be bestowed in France upon a foreigner has just been conferred on him. He was chosen this afternoon a Corresponding Member of the Institute. Five names were presented for the vacant chair of History.
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To T. D.
To T. D.
London , February 24, 1848. My dear Brother : . . . Great excitement exists in London to-day at the reception of the news from France. Guizot is overthrown, and Count Molé is made Prime Minister. The National Guards have sided with the people, and would not fire upon them, and that secret of the weakness of the army being revealed, I do not see why the Liberal party cannot obtain all they want in the end. Louis Philippe has sacrificed the happiness of France for the advancement of his own fam
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To I. P. D.
To I. P. D.
London , February 26, 1848. My dear Uncle : . . . On Thursday Mr. Bancroft dined with Count Jarnac, the Minister in the Duc de Broglie’s absence, and he little dreamed of the blow awaiting him. The fortifications and the army seemed to make the King quite secure. On Friday Mr. Bancroft went to dine with Kenyon, and I drove there with him for a little air. On my return Cates, the butler, saluted me with the wondrous news of the deposition and flight of the royal family, which Mr. Brodhead had
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To W. D. B.
To W. D. B.
London , March 11, 1848. Dear W.: . . . Yesterday we dined at Lord Lansdowne’s. Among the guests were M. and Madam Van de Weyer, and Mrs. Austin, the translatress, who has been driven over here from Paris, where she has resided for several years. She is a vehement friend of Guizot’s, though a bitter accuser of Louis Philippe, but how can they be separated? She interests herself strongly now in all his arrangements, and is assisting his daughters to form their humble establishment. He and his
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To T. D.
To T. D.
March 31. The old world is undergoing a complete reorganization, and is unfolding a rapid series of events more astonishing than anything in history. Where it will stop, and what will be its results, nobody can tell. Royalty has certainly not added to its respectability by its conduct in its time of trial. Since the last steamer went, Italy has shaken off the Austrian yoke, Denmark has lost her German provinces, Poland has risen, or is about to rise, which will bring Russia thundering down up
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To W. D. B.
To W. D. B.
London , April 7, 1848. . . . On Wednesday we had an agreeable dinner at Mrs. Milner Gibson’s. Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli, Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan (brother of Mrs. Norton), etc., were among the guests. After dinner I had a very long talk with Disraeli. He is, you know, of the ultra Tory party here, and looks at the Continental movements from the darkest point of view. He cannot admit as a possibility the renovation of European society upon more liberal principles, and considers it as the complete d
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To I. P. D.
To I. P. D.
April 10. This is the day of the “Great Chartist Meeting,” which has terrified all London to the last degree, I think most needlessly. The city and town is at this moment stiller than I have ever known it, for not a carriage dares to be out. Nothing is to be seen but a “special constable” (every gentleman in London is sworn into that office), occasionally some on foot, some on horseback, scouring the streets. I took a drive early this morning with Mr. Bancroft, and nothing could be less like
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To W. D. B.
To W. D. B.
London , April 19, 1848. Dear W.: . . . To-day I have driven down to Richmond to lunch with Mrs. Drummond, who is passing Easter holidays there. On coming home I found a letter from Mr. Bancroft from which I will make some extracts, as he has the best sources of knowledge in Paris. “Then I went to Mignet, who, you know, is politically the friend of Thiers. He pointed out to me the condition of France, and drew for me a picture of what it was and of the change. I begin to see the difference b
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To W. D. B.
To W. D. B.
London , May 5, 1848. My dear W.: . . . Last evening, Thursday, we went to see Jenny Lind, on her first appearance this year. She was received with enthusiasm, and the Queen still more so. It was the first time the Queen had been at the opera since the birth of her child, and since the republican spirit was abroad, and loyalty burst out in full force. Now loyalty is very novel, and pleasant to witness, to us who have never known it. London , May 31, 1848. . . . Now for my journal, which has g
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To W. D. B.
To W. D. B.
London , June 29, 1848. My dear W.: . . . When I last left off I was going to dine at Miss Coutts’s to meet the Duchess of Cambridge. The party was brilliant, including the Duke of Wellington, Lord and Lady Douro, Lady Jersey and the beautiful Lady Clementina Villiers, her daughter, etc. When royal people arrive everybody rises and remains standing while they stand, and if they approach you or look at you, you must perform the lowest of “curtsies.” The courtesy made to royalty is very like th
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To W. D. B.
To W. D. B.
London , July 21, 1848. I was truly grieved that the last steamer should go to Boston without a line from me, but I was in Yorkshire and you must forgive me. . . . I left off with the 26th of June. . . . The next evening was the Queen’s Concert, which was most charming. I sat very near the Duke of Wellington, who often spoke to me between the songs. . . . The next day we went with Miss Coutts to her bank, lunched there, and went all over the building. Then we went to the Tower and the Tunnel t
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To T. D.
To T. D.
London , August 9, 1848. My dear Brother : . . . On Saturday we set off for Nuneham, the magnificent seat of the late Archbishop of York, now in possession of his eldest son, Mr. Granville Harcourt. . . . The guests besides ourselves were Sir Robert and Lady Peel, Lord and Lady Villiers, Lord and Lady Norreys, Lord Harry Vane, etc. We considered it a great privilege to be staying in the same house with Sir Robert Peel, and I had also the pleasure of sitting by him at dinner all the three days w
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To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
Edinburgh , August 16, 1848. My dear Uncle and Aunt : . . . Of Edinburgh I cannot say enough to express my admiration. The Castle Rock, Arthur’s Seat, Salisbury Craigs and Calton Hill are all separate and fine mountains and, with the Frith of Forth, the ocean and the old picturesque town, make an assemblage of fine objects that I have seen nowhere else. Mr. Rutherford, the Lord Advocate, who is of the Ministry, had written to his friends that we were coming, and several gentlemen came by break
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To W. D. B.
To W. D. B.
Tarbet on Loch Lomond , August 28, 1848. Dear W. . . . Being detained here by rain this morning I devote it to you and to my journal. . . . The next day was Sunday but the weather being fine we concluded to continue our journey, and followed the Tay seeing Birnam Wood and Dunsinane on our way up to Dunkeld, near to which is the fine seat of the Duke of Athol. We took a delightful walk in the beautiful grounds, and went on to Blair Athol to sleep. This is the chief residence of the Duke of Atho
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To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
To Mr. and Mrs. I. P. D.
London , December 14, 1848. Dear Uncle and Aunt : On Friday we dined at Mr. Tufnell’s, who married last spring the daughter of Lord Rosebery, Lady Anne Primrose, a very “nice person,” to use the favorite English term of praise. . . . Sir John Hobhouse was of our party and he told us so much of Byron, who was his intimate friend, as you will remember from his Life, that we stayed much longer than usual at dinner. . . . On Tuesday we were invited to dine with Miss Coutts, but were engaged to Mr. G
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To I. P. D.
To I. P. D.
London , June 8, 1849. I thank you, my dear Uncle, for your pleasant letter, which contained as usual much that was interesting to me. And so Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence are to be our successors. . . . Happy as we have been here, I have a great satisfaction that we are setting rather than rising; that we have done our work, instead of having it to do. Like all our pleasures, those here are earned by fatigue and effort, and I would not willingly live the last three years over again, or three years li
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To I. P. D.
To I. P. D.
London , June 22, 1849. My dear Uncle : Yesterday I passed one of the most agreeable days I have had in England at Oxford, where I went with a party to see Mr. Bancroft take his degree. . . . Nothing could have gone off better than the whole thing. Mr. Bancroft went up the day before, but Mrs. Stuart Mackenzie and her daughter, with Lady Elizabeth Waldegrave, Louisa, and myself went up yesterday morning and returned at night. We lunched at the Vice-Chancellor’s (where Mr. B. made a pleasant li
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