Meanwhile, one aspect of this glimpse into the past requires but little insistence. Among these two generations of Stanhopes a high standard of education prevailed. This, coupled with the opportunities which they possessed of mingling with the best-known people of their day, both in England and France, makes it obvious that records written by such writers, with all the happy abandon of a complete sympathy between scribe and recipient, have a value which transcends any more laboured enumeration of historical data. The worth of their correspondence lies in the fact that it presents, artlessly and candidly, the outlook of a contemporary family, of good position and more than average intelligence, upon events ordinary and extraordinary, under four sovereigns. And while many books have been edited describing the sayings and doings of Royal personages and political leaders during that period, few have yet been published which present them in the intimate guise in which they jostle each other throughout the following pages, and fewer still which give any adequate picture of the social life as lived during these years by the less notable bulk of the community. Yet more, the writers of these letters are no mere puppets of ancient history, who move in a world unreal to us and shadowy. Their remarks to us are instinct with the freshness--the actuality--of to-day. Whether as happy, noisy schoolboys and girls, or as men and women of the fashionable world bent on pursuit of pleasure or of learning, to us they are emphatically alive. Almost we can hear and echo the laughter of that merry home-circle; their jests are our own, differently phrased, their joys and sorrows knit our hearts to them across the century. They lived at a date so near our own that it has all the charm of similarity--with a difference; and it is just this likeness and unlikeness which lend such piquancy to their experiences. CONTENTS PREFACE DRAMATIS PERSONAE CHAPTER I. LETTERS RELATING TO THE WORLD OF _TON_, 1805-1806 II. LETTERS OF AN EXILE, 1805-1810 III. _ON DITS_ FROM LONDON, YORKSHIRE AND RAMSGATE, 1806-1807 IV. _ON DITS_ FROM GROSVENOR SQUARE AND CANNON HALL, 1808-1810 V. ANECDOTES FROM A PRISONER OF NAPOLEON, 1810-1812 VI. LETTERS FROM AN ESCAPED PRISONER, 1812-1813 VII. LETTERS FROM ENGLAND AND FRANCE, 1811-1821 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE VISCOUNTESS ANSON _Frontispiece_ _From a miniature by Cosway_ SILHOUETTES OF MRS SPENCER-STANHOPE AND HER DAUGHTERS MARIANNE AND ANNE SILHOUETTES OF ISABELLA, FRANCES, AND MARIA SPENCER-STANHOPE MRS TRIMMER "THE YOUNG ROSCIUS" CARICATURE OF SIR LUMLEY SKEFFINGTON MADAME CATALANI SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, BT. _From a picture painted while he was a prisoner in the Tower_ PASSPORT GIVEN BY NAPOLEON IST TO JOHN SPENCER-STANHOPE EDWARD COLLINGWOOD SIR RICHARD CARR GLYN, BT. PRINT OF GEORGE III. WHEN MAD THE MARCHIONESS CONYNGHAM QUEEN CAROLINE, BY HARLOWE WALTER SPENCER-STANHOPE, AETAT. 70 _From an ivory bust_