Letters from England, 1846-1849Bancroft, Elizabeth Davis
History
Letters from England, 1846-1849
Bancroft, Elizabeth Davis
England -- Description and travel
Yesterday your father and I dined with Sir George Grey. . . . About four
o’clock came on such a fog as I have not seen in London, and the
newspapers of this morning speak of it as greater than has been known for
many years. Sir George Grey lives in Eaton Place, which is parallel and
just behind Eaton Square. In going that little distance, though there is
a brilliant gas light at every door, the coachman was completely
bewildered, and lost himself entirely. We could only walk the horses,
the footman exploring ahead. When the guests by degrees arrived, there
was the same rejoicing as if we had met on Mont St. Bernard after a
contest with an Alpine snow-storm. . . . Lady Grey told me she was dining
with the Queen once in one of these tremendous fogs, and that many of the
guests did not arrive till dinner was half through, which was horrible at
a royal dinner; but the elements care little for royalty.
November 14th.
On Saturday we dined at the Duc de Broglie’s. He married the daughter of
Madam de Staël, but she is not now living. I was very agreeably placed
with Mr. Macaulay on one side of me, so that I found it more pleasant
than diplomatic dinners usually. At the English tables we meet people
who know each other well, and have a common culture and tastes and habits
of familiarity, and a fund of pleasant stories, but of course, at foreign
tables, they neither know each other or the English so well as to give
the same easy flow to conversation. I am afraid we are the greatest
diners-out in London, but we are brought into contact a great deal with
the literary and Parliamentary people, which our colleagues know little
about, as also with the clergy and the judges. I should not be willing
to make it the habit of my life, but it is time not misspent during the
years of our abode here. . . . The good old Archbishop of York is dead,
and I am glad I paid my visit to him when I did. Mr. Rogers has paid me
a long visit to-day and gave me all the particulars of his death. It was
a subject I should not have introduced, for of that knot of intimate
friends, Mr. Grenville, the Archbishop, and himself, he is now all that
remains.
November 28th.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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