My Greatest Mistakes In
England Have Been Committed Toward Those High Dignitaries, My Own
Maid And The Butler, Whose Grandeur I Entirely Misappreciated And
Invaded, As In My Ignorance I Placed Them, As We Do, On The Same
Level With Other Servants.
She has her fire made for her, and LOAF
sugar in her tea, which she and Cates sip in solitary majesty.
However, she is most conscientious and worthy, as well as dignified,
and thoroughly accomplished in her business.
As all these things
are pictures of English life, I mention them to amuse Aunty, who
likes to know how these matters are managed.
After I am dressed, I join the circle in the library, where I am
introduced to Mr. and Madam Van de Weyer, and Louis Buonaparte, the
son of Louis, the ex-King of Holland, and of Hortense, Josephine's
daughter. He was a long time imprisoned in the fortress of Ham, and
has not long been free. There was also Napoleon, son of Jerome
Buonaparte, and the Princess of Wurtemberg. They were most
agreeable, intelligent, and amiable young men, and I was glad to
meet them. Lord and Lady Langdale (who have a place in the
neighborhood) were invited to dine with us. He is Master of the
Rolls and was elevated to the peerage from great distinction at the
bar. Lady Langdale is a sensible and excellent person. At dinner I
sat between Mr. Bates and Lord Langdale, whom I liked very much.
The next morning we assembled at ten for breakfast, which was at a
round table, with a sort of circular tray, which turns at the least
touch in the centre, leaving only a rim round the table for plates
and cups. This was covered also with a white cloth and on it were
placed all the breakfast viands, with butter, sugar, cream, bread,
toast-rack and preserves. You need no servants, but turn it round
and help yourself. I believe the Van de Weyers introduced it, from
a visit in Wales. Tea and coffee are served from a side-table
always, here. Let me tell Aunty that our simple breakfast DRESS is
unknown in England. You come down in the morning dressed for the
day, until six or seven in the evening, when your dress is low neck
and short sleeves for dinner. At this season the morning dress is a
rich silk or velvet, high body quite close in the throat with
handsome collar and cuffs, and ALWAYS a cap. Madam Van de Weyer
wore every day a different dress, all very rich, but I adhered to a
black watered silk with the same simple cap I wore at home.
I took a drive through Richmond Park (where Henry the Eighth watched
to see a signal on the Tower when Anne Boleyn's head fell, and
galloped off to marry Jane Seymour) to Richmond Terrace, which is
ravishingly beautiful even at this season. . . . The next day the
gentleman all went to town, and Madam Van de Weyer and I passed the
day TETE-A-TETE, 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 ROLE she plays in life. Her husband
is charming. . . . They have three children, very lovely. The
eldest, Victor, a fine boy of seven years old, Victoria, a girl of
four, for whom the Queen was sponsor, and Albert, to whom Prince
Albert performed the same office. This was, of course, voluntary in
the royal parties, as it was not a favor to be asked. . . . Madam
Van de Weyer is not spoiled, certainly, by the prominent part she
was called to play in this great centre of the world at so early an
age, and makes an excellent courtier. I could not help pitying her,
however, for looking forward to going through, year after year, the
same round of ceremonies, forms, and society. For us, it is a new
study, and invaluable for a short time; but I could not bear it for
life, as these European diplomatists. Besides, we Americans really
enjoy a kind of society, and a much nearer intercourse than other
foreigners, in the literary, scientific, and even social circles.
On Saturday evening Lord William Fitzroy and daughter joined our
party with Sir William Hooker and Lady Hooker. . . . Sir William
Hooker is one of the most interesting persons I have seen in
England. He is a great naturalist and has the charge of the great
Botanical Gardens at Kew. He devoted a morning to us there, and it
was the most delightful one I have passed. There are twenty-eight
different conservatories filled with the vegetable wonders of the
whole world. Length of time and regal wealth have conspired to make
the Kew gardens beyond our conceptions entirely. . . . Sir William
pointed out to us all that was very rare or curious, which added
much to my pleasure. . . . He showed us a drawing of the largest
FLOWER ever known on earth, which Sir Stamford Raffles discovered in
Sumatra. It was a parasite without leaves or stem, and the flower
weighed fifteen pounds. Lady Raffles furnished him the materials
for the drawing. I dined in company with her not long ago, and
regret now that I did not make her tell me about the wonders of that
region. At the same dinner you may meet so many people, each having
their peculiar gift, that one cannot avail oneself of the
opportunity of extracting from each what is precious. I always wish
I could sit by everybody at the same time, and I could often employ
a dozen heads, if I had them, instead of my poor, miserable one.
From Sir William Hooker I learned as much about the VEGETABLE world,
as Mr. Bancroft did from the Dean of Ely on ARCHITECTURE, when he
expounded to him the cathedral of Ely; pointing out the successive
styles of the Gothic, and the different periods in which the
different parts were built.
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