The
Duchess is a most high-bred person, and thoroughly courteous.
As we
were going in or out of a room instead of preceding me, which was
her right, she always made me take her arm, which was a delicate way
of getting over her precedence. . . . At half-past nine the [next
morning] we met in the drawing-room, when the Archbishop led the way
down to prayers. This was a beautiful scene, for he is now ninety,
and to hear him read the prayers with a firm, clear voice, while his
family and dependents knelt about him was a pleasure never to be
forgotten. . . . At five I was to drive round the park with the
Archbishop himself in his open carriage. This drive was most
charming. He explained everything, told me when such trees would be
felled, and when certain tracts of underwood would be fit for
cutting, how old the different-sized deer were--in short, the whole
economy of an English park. Every pretty point of view, too, he
made me see, and was as active and wide-awake as if he were thirty,
rather than ninety. . . . The next morning, after prayers and
breakfast, I took my leave.
LETTER: To A.H.
BISHOP'S PALACE, NORWICH, August 1st
My dear Ann: How I wish I could transport you to the spot where I
am writing, but if I could summon it before your actual vision you
would take it for a dream or a romance, so different is everything
within the walls which enclose the precincts of an English Cathedral
from anything we can conceive on our side of the water. . . . Some
of the learned people and noblemen have formed an Archaeological
Society for the study and preservation [of] the interesting
architectural antiquities of the kingdom, and [it] is upon the
occasion of the annual meeting of this society for a week at Norwich
that the Bishop has invited us to stay a few days at the palace and
join them in their agreeable antiquarian excursions. We arrived on
Friday at five o'clock after a long dull journey of five hours on
the railway. . . . Staying in the house are our friends, Mr. and
Mrs. Milman, Lord Northampton and his son, Lord Alwyne Compton, and
the Bishop's family, consisting of Mrs. Stanley, and of two Miss
Stanleys, agreeable and highly cultivated girls, and Mr. Arthur
Stanley, the writer of Dr. Arnold's Biography.
After dinner company soon arrived. Among them were Mrs. Opie, who
resides here. She is a pleasing, lively old lady, in full Quaker
dress. The most curious feature of the evening was a visit which
the company paid to the cellar and kitchen, which were lighted up
for the occasion. They were build by the old Norman bishops of the
twelfth century, and had vaulted stone roofs as beautifully carved
and ribbed as a church.
The next day, Saturday, the antiquarians made a long excursion to
hunt up some ruins, while the Milmans, Mr. Stanley, and ourselves,
went to visit the place of Lady Suffield, about twelve miles
distant, and which is the most perfect specimen of the Elizabethan
style. Lady Suffield herself is as Elizabethan as her
establishment; she is of one [of] the oldest high Tory families and
so opposed to innovations of all sorts that though her letters,
which used to arrive at two, before the opening of the railway two
years ago, now arrive at seven in the morning, they are never
allowed to be brought till the old hour. . . . This morning Mr.
Bancroft and the rest are gone on an excursion to Yarmouth to see
some ruins, while I remain here to witness the chairing of two new
members of Parliament, who have just been elected, of whom Lord
Douro, son of the Duke of Wellington, is one.
LETTER: To I.P.D.
AUDLEY END, October 14, 1847
Dear Uncle: We are staying for a few days at Lord Braybrooke's
place, one of the most magnificent in England; but before I say a
word about it I must tell you of A.'s safe arrival and how happy I
have been made by having him with me again. . . . On Saturday the
9th we had the honor of dining with the LORD MAYOR to meet the Duke
of Cambridge, a FETE so unlike anything else and accompanied by so
many old and peculiar customs that I must describe it to you at full
length. The Mansion House is in the heart of the CITY, and is very
magnificent and spacious, the Egyptian Hall, as the dining-room is
called, being one of the noblest apartments I have seen. The guests
were about 250 in number and were received by the Lady Mayoress
SITTING. When dinner was announced, the Lord Mayor went out first,
preceded by the sword-bearer and mace-bearer and all the insignia of
office. Then came the Duke of Cambridge and the Lady Mayoress, then
Mr. Bancroft and I together, which is the custom at these great
civic feasts. We marched through the long gallery by the music of
the band to the Egyptian Hall, where two raised seats like thrones
were provided for the Lord Mayor and Mayoress at the head of the
hall. On the right hand of the Lord Mayor sat the Duke of Cambridge
in a COMMON CHAIR, for royalty yields entirely to the Mayor, on his
own ground. On the right of the Duke of Cambridge sat the Mayoress-
elect (for the present dignitaries go out of office on the 1st of
November). On the left hand of the present Lady Mayoress sat the
Lord Mayor-ELECT, then I came with my husband on my left hand in
very conjugal style.
There were three tables the whole length of the hall, and that at
which we were placed went across at the head. When we are placed,
the herald stands behind the Lord Mayor and cries: "My Lords,
Ladies, and Gentlemen, pray silence, for grace." Then the chaplain
in his gown, goes behind the Lord Mayor and says grace.
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