"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.
LETTER: 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.
On Saturday was the dreaded Drawing-Room, on which occasion I was to
be presented to the Queen. . . . Mr. Bancroft and I left home at a
quarter past one. On our arrival we passed through one or two
corridors, lined by attendants with battle-axes and picturesque
costumes, looking very much like the supernumeraries on the stage,
and were ushered into the ante-room, a large and splendid room,
where only the Ministers and Privy Councillors, with their families,
are allowed to go with the Diplomatic Corps. Here we found Lady
Palmerston, who showed me a list she had got Sir Edward Cust, the
master of ceremonies, to make out of the order of precedence of the
Diplomatic Corps, and when the turn would come for us who were to be
newly presented. The room soon filled up and it was like a pleasant
party, only more amusing, as the costumes of both gentlemen and
ladies were so splendid. I got a seat in the window with Madam Van
de Weyer and saw the Queen's train drive up. At the end of this
room are two doors: at the left hand everybody enters the next
apartment where the Queen and her suite stand, and after going round
the circle, come out at the right-hand door.
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