Letters from England, 1846-1849Bancroft, Elizabeth Davis
History
Letters from England, 1846-1849
Bancroft, Elizabeth Davis
England -- Description and travel
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.
[Picture: A. W. Kinglake (“Eothen”). From a photograph]
_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 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.
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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