I T is difficult to express one’s gratitude. Mine I owe to my brother, R. E. Dickinson, to Mrs. Ernest Farquhar (granddaughter of Lady Theresa Lewis), to Sir Guy Campbell, Mrs. W. Rendel, and Sir Arthur Stanley, for the loan of letters in this book. I also thank Mr. Claud Paget and Mr. W. Barclay Squire for the help they have given me. Doubtless, through want of experience, I have been guilty of leaving out much that might have been left in, and leaving in much that might not be of interest. The

I N the autumn of 1913 a Life of Lord Clarendon [1] was published, and among many of his letters were a few written to him by an old friend, Miss Eden. It was thought that a further selection of Emily Eden’s letters might be of interest. She was a keen politician of the Whig order, clever, amusing, critical, an excellent friend and a devoted sister. Her father, William Eden, [2] was the third son of Sir Robert Eden, Bart., of West Auckland, Durham, and he married in 1776 Eleanor Elliot, a sister

Hon. Emily Eden (aged 17) to her Sister the Countess of Buckinghamshire (aged 37). [6] E DEN F ARM , B ECKENHAM , K ENT , Monday, September 26, 1814. W E have been very much surprised by a letter from Miss Milbanke [7] to Mary [8] informing her she was engaged to marry Lord Byron, a “person of whose character she has had the best opportunity of judging, and who, as he merits her greatest esteem, possesses her strongest attachment.” That last sentence certainly sounds very well, but, that she doe

Miss Eden to the Dowager Lady Buckinghamshire. N EWBY H ALL , Sunday, February 14 [1819]. M Y DEAREST S ISTER , I was very sorry to hear of the unfortunate state in which you have been, and in which Sarah [Lady Sarah Robinson] is, as I have a sufficient recollection of the Mumps to know what a very disagreeable disorder they are, or they is. We have had a spirt of company for the last three days, but they all very kindly walked off yesterday, and as it is wrong to dwell upon past evils, I spare

B OWOOD , February, 1820 . H USH , hush, Emmy, the King is dead, [124] and we have entered a new reign, yes, yes, and George IV. has been proclaimed, and I have wondered what he’ll do with his wife, and Henry VII. would not let his Queen be crowned for two years, and Hume says so, and all the newspapers are very black, and the Times blacker than any, and there is an end of the topics and we know it all. Now to our old channel. My hair is on tip-toe. I have heard with my outward ears to-day, that

Eyam , Saturday [1825]. M Y DEAR M ISS V ILLIERS , What a shame it is that I should have been so long writing to you, particularly after Mrs. Villiers had made the discovery that my letters amused her. My sister Louisa [Colvile] and four of her children passed a fortnight here at the end of last month, and our whole time was spent in “exploring in the barouche landau,” as Mrs. Elton observes. By the time I have had nine or ten more of my sisters here, and thirty or forty of their children, I sha

Lady Campbell to Miss Eden. C ORK , May 21, 1827 . S AILED at two, Saturday; landed at passage within the Cove of Cork last night at six. All sick, but the children so good and patient. I was quite proud of my brood, even the Baby [241] showed an esprit de conduite that edified me. Six boats came out and fought for our bodies under the ship till I thought we should be torn to pieces in the skrimmage. They, however, landed us whole, when another battle was livrée for us among the jingle-boys who

[A few extracts are given here from Miss Eden’s Journal kept in the early part of 1828.] January 7, 1828. Stayed at Grosvenor Place on our way home to dinner, and saw Mary [Drummond] with the three children dressed to go to the Duke of Atholl’s for twelfth cake. Came home at 9, I suppose, to settle in town. How I hate it! But then I have had a very excellent absence of six months from it, and enjoyed my Irish tour, and my summer altogether as much as I expected. Found an invitation to Cobham, to

Miss Eden to Miss Villiers. G ROSVENOR S TREET , Wednesday, April 30, 1829 . M Y DEAREST T HERESA , How attentive we become! frightened to death at the idea of our near meeting, unwritten to. I had your Genoa letter three days ago in the leisure of Hertingfordbury, where I have been Eastering, and could have drawn my pen on the spot to answer you, but I thought some account of the Hatfield theatricals would be more diverting than pure unadulterated daffy-down-dillies and cowslips. Robert and I w

Miss Eden to Miss Villiers. Saturday, January 1830. M Y DEAREST T HERESA , I did write the day I had your first letter. To be sure you were not bound to know it, for I put my letter by so carefully, that at post time it was entirely missing. Then I was took with a cold, and took to my bed, and by the time I was well enough to institute a successful search for my lost letter, it had grown so dull and dry by keeping that it was not worth sending. So you are snowed up at an inn. Odd! Your weather m

Miss Eden to Mrs. Lister. G REENWICH P ARK , [ October or November ] 1831. M Y DEAREST T HERESA , I would take a larger sheet of paper, but it does so happen that ever since we have nominally had stationery for nothing, I have never been able to find anything in the nature of paper, pen, or sealing-wax; indeed, for some time one pen served the whole house. It never came to my turn to have it, as you perceived, and I scorned to buy one. The country may yet afford a quarter of a hundred of pens, a

Lady Campbell to Miss Eden. July, 1835. I HAVE really escaped with my life— I ain’t dead yet , but such a big monster of a girl! [423] —a regular Megalonia of a female, that if you happened to find a loose joint of hers you would think it must belong to an antediluvian Ox. Je vous demande un peu what am I to do with a seventh girl of such dimensions? Well, my own darling, your letter came just as I was allowed to read, and it cheered me and delighted me, because you know we cannot help thinking

Miss Eden to her Sister, Mrs. Drummond. G OVERNMENT H OUSE , January 16, 1837 . T HERE is a Lady Henry Gordon [443] here, on her way home with two of the loveliest children I ever beheld. One of them puts me in mind of her aunt, poor Lady M. Seymour, [444] but it is still more beautiful. They are older than most children here, and have come from a cold part of the country with fresh rosy cheeks. George and I had met them twice on the plain when we were out riding, and had bored everybody to deat

Miss Eden to Mr. C. Greville. B ARRACKPORE , March 13, 1840 . M Y DEAR M R . G REVILLE , I give it up; I succumb; I see clearly I was all wrong; generally am, quite mistaken, very sorry, very stupid, etc. But you and every friend I have will do me the justice to say that since the first year we passed here I have mentioned openly that I was regularly twaddling, that I hardly remembered a proper name, and never knew what was meant for jest or earnest. I have written it home twenty times, and it i

Miss Eden to Lady Theresa Lister. K NIGHTSBRIDGE , Tuesday[1845]. M Y DEAREST T HERESA , I can write to no one in all the nervous flurry of these first meetings but yourself, my poor afflicted friend. Amongst all the happiness of others your hard trial [512] haunts me, and shocked me more, much more than I can say, when I heard it at Southampton. I had dwelt so much on seeing you, as I was told you were unaltered, and then to hear of this! I will not write more now, but even the first moments of

Miss Eden to Lady Campbell. E DEN L ODGE , K ENSINGTON G ORE , Tuesday evening, 1849 . M Y OWN D EAREST P AM , I hear to-day that you too are bereaved of what was most dear to you; [549] and it has roused me to write, for if any one has a right to feel for and with you, through my old, deep, unchanged affection, early ties, association in happy days, and now through calamity,—it is I. Dearest, how kindly you wrote to me in my first bitter hours, [550] when I hardly understood what comfort could