I took a drive through Richmond Park (where Henry the Eighth watched to see a signal on the Tower when Anne Boleyn's head fell,and galloped off to marry Jane Seymour)to Richmond Terrace,which is ravishingly beautiful even at this season....The next day the gentleman all went to town,and Madam Van de Weyer and I passed the day TETE-A-TETE,very pleasantly,as her experience in diplomatic life is very useful to me....Her manners are very pleasing and entirely unaffected.She has great tact and quickness of perception,great intelligence and amiability and is altogether extremely well-fitted for the ROLE she plays in life.Her husband is charming....They have three children,very lovely.The eldest,Victor,a fine boy of seven years old,Victoria,a girl of four,for whom the Queen was sponsor,and Albert,to whom Prince Albert performed the same office.This was,of course,voluntary in the royal parties,as it was not a favor to be asked....Madam Van de Weyer is not spoiled,certainly,by the prominent part she was called to play in this great centre of the world at so early an age,and makes an excellent courtier.I could not help pitying her,however,for looking forward to going through,year after year,the same round of ceremonies,forms,and society.For us,it is a new study,and invaluable for a short time;but I could not bear it for life,as these European diplomatists.Besides,we Americans really enjoy a kind of society,and a much nearer intercourse than other foreigners,in the literary,scientific,and even social circles.
On Saturday evening Lord William Fitzroy and daughter joined our party with Sir William Hooker and Lady Hooker....Sir William Hooker is one of the most interesting persons I have seen in England.He is a great naturalist and has the charge of the great Botanical Gardens at Kew.He devoted a morning to us there,and it was the most delightful one I have passed.There are twenty-eight different conservatories filled with the vegetable wonders of the whole world.Length of time and regal wealth have conspired to make the Kew gardens beyond our conceptions entirely....Sir William pointed out to us all that was very rare or curious,which added much to my pleasure....He showed us a drawing of the largest FLOWER ever known on earth,which Sir Stamford Raffles discovered in Sumatra.It was a parasite without leaves or stem,and the flower weighed fifteen pounds.Lady Raffles furnished him the materials for the drawing.I dined in company with her not long ago,and regret now that I did not make her tell me about the wonders of that region.At the same dinner you may meet so many people,each having their peculiar gift,that one cannot avail oneself of the opportunity of extracting from each what is precious.I always wish I could sit by everybody at the same time,and I could often employ a dozen heads,if I had them,instead of my poor,miserable one.
From Sir William Hooker I learned as much about the VEGETABLE world,as Mr.Bancroft did from the Dean of Ely on ARCHITECTURE,when he expounded to him the cathedral of Ely;pointing out the successive styles of the Gothic,and the different periods in which the different parts were built.Books are dull teachers compared with these gifted men giving you a lecture upon subjects before your eyes.
On Sunday we dined with out own party;on Monday some diplomatic people,the Lisboas and one of Mr.Bates's partners,and on Tuesday we came home.I must not omit a visit while we were there from Mr.
Taylor (Van Artevelde),who is son-in-law of Lord Monteagle,and lives in the neighborhood.He has a fine countenance and still finer voice,and is altogether one of those literary persons who do not disappoint you,but whose whole being is equal to their works.
I hope to see more of him,as they spoke of "CULTIVATING"us,and Mr.Taylor was quite a PROTEGE of our kind and dear friend,Dr.
Holland,and dedicated his last poem to him.This expression,"Ishall CULTIVATE you,"we hear constantly,and it strikes me as oddly as our Western "BEING RAISED."Indeed,I hear improper Anglicisms constantly,and they have nearly as many as we have.The upper classes,here,however,do SPEAK English so roundly and fully,giving every LETTER its due,that it pleases my ear amazingly.
On Wednesday I go for the first time to Westminster Abbey,on Epiphany,to hear the Athanasian Creed chanted.I have as yet had no time for sight-seeing,as the days are so short that necessary visits take all my time.No one goes out in a carriage till after two,as the servants dine at one,and in the morning early the footman is employed in the house.A coachman never leaves his box here,and a footman is indispensable on all occasions.No visit can be paid till three;and this gives me very little time in these short days.Everything here is inflexible as the laws of the Medes and Persians,and though I am called "Mistress"even by old Cates with his grey hair and black coat,I cannot make one of them do anything,except BY the person and AT the time which English custom prescribes.They are brought up to fill certain situations,and fill them perfectly,but cannot or will not vary.
I am frequently asked by the ladies here if I have formed a household to please me and I am obliged to confess that I have a very nice household,but that I am the only refractory member of it.
I am always asking the wrong person for coals,etc.,etc.The division of labor,or rather ceremonies,between the butler and footman,I have now mastered I believe in some degree,but that between the UPPER and UNDER house-maid is still a profound mystery to me,though the upper has explained to me for the twentieth time that she did only "the top of the work."My cook comes up to me every morning for orders,and always drops the deepest curtsey,but then I doubt if her hands are ever profaned by touching a poker,and she NEVER washes a dish.She is cook and HOUSEKEEPER,and presides over the housekeeper's room;which has a Brussels carpet and centre table,with one side entirely occupied by the linen presses,of which my maid (my vice-regent,only MUCH greater than me)keeps the key and dispenses every towel,even for the kitchen.She keeps lists of everything and would feel bound to replace anything missing.I shall make you laugh and Mrs.Goodwin stare,by some of my housekeeping stories,the next evening I pass in your little pleasant parlor (a word unknown here).
