Of All The Persons I See Here The Marquis Of Lansdowne Excites The
Most Lively Regard.
His countenance and manners are full of
benevolence and I think he understands America better than anyone
else of the high aristocracy.
I told him I was born at Plymouth and
was as proud of my pure Anglo-Saxon Pilgrim descent as if it were
traced from a line of Norman Conquerors. Nearly all the ministers
and their wives came to see us immediately, without waiting for us
to make the first visit, which is the rule, and almost every person
whom we have met in society, which certainly indicates an amiable
feeling toward our country. We could not well have received more
courtesy than we have done, and it has been extended freely and
immediately, without waiting for the forms of etiquette. Pray say
to Mr. Everett how often we hear persons speak of him, and with
highest regard. I feel as if we were reaping some of the fruits of
his sowing.
Mr. Bancroft sends you a pack of cards, one of the identical two
packs with which the Queen played Patience the evening he was at
Windsor. They were the perquisite of a page who brought them to
him. He was much pleased with the Queen and thought her much
prettier than any representation of her which we have seen, and with
a very sweet expression. Lady Holland had been staying two or three
days at Windsor, and was to leave the next morning. When the Queen
took leave of her at night, she kissed her quite in my Virginia
fashion.
Dear Uncle: How much more your niece would have written if to-day
were not packet day, I cannot say. I shall send you some newspapers
and a pack of cards which I saw in the Queen's hands. The American
Minister and Mrs. Bancroft have since played a game of piquet with
them. The Queen's hands were as clean as her smile was gracious.
Best regards to the Judge and Aunt Isaac.
Yours most truly, George Bancroft.
LETTER: To W.D.B. and A.B.
LONDON, November 29, 1846
After a long interval I find again a quiet Sunday evening to resume
my journal to you. On Monday we dined at Lord John Russell's, and
met many of the persons we have met before and the Duchess of
Inverness, the widow of the Duke of Sussex. On Tuesday we dined at
Dr. Holland's. His wife and daughter are charming, and then we met,
besides, Lady Charlotte Lindsay, the only surviving child of Lord
North, Mr. and Mrs. Milman (the author of the "Fall of Jerusalem"),
and Mr. Macaulay. Yesterday I went to return the visit of the
Milmans and found that the entrance to their house, he being a
prebend of Westminster Abbey, was actually in the cloisters of the
Abbey. They were not at home, but I took my footman and wandered at
leisure through the cloisters, treading at every step on the tomb of
some old abbot with dates of 1160 and thereabouts.
Nothing could be more delightful than London is now, if I had only a
little more physical vigor to enjoy it. We see everybody more
frequently, and know them better than in the full season, and we
have some of the best specimens of English society, too, here just
now, as the Whig ministry brings a good deal of the ability of the
aristocracy to its aid. The subjects of conversation among women
are more general than with us, and [they] are much more cultivated
than our women as a body, not our blues. They never sew, or attend,
as we do, to domestic affairs, and so live for social life and
understand it better.
LONDON, December 2, 1846
My dear Mrs. Polk: 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 DEBUT 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 SOIREES,
at Lady Palmerston's, Lady Grey's, Lord Auckland's, Lady Lewis's,
etc., etc.
And now, having given you some idea WHOM we are seeing here, you
will wish to know how I like them, and how they differ from our own
people. At the smaller dinners and SOIREES 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.
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