LONDON,January 10,1847
My very dear Children:...Yesterday we dined at Lady Charleville's,the old lady of eighty-four,at whose house Imentioned an evening visit in my last,and I must tell you all about it to entertain dear Grandma.I will be minute for once,and give you the LITTLE details of a London dinner,and they are all precisely alike.We arrived at Cavendish Square a quarter before seven (very early)and were shown into a semi-library on the same floor with the dining-room.The servants take your cloak,etc.,in the passage,and I am never shown into a room with a mirror as with us,and never into a chamber or bedroom.
We found Lady Charleville and her daughter with one young gentleman with whom I chatted till dinner,and who,I found,was Sir William Burdette,son of Sir Francis and brother of Miss Angelina Coutts.Ihappened to have on the corsage of my black velvet a white moss rose and buds,which I thought rather youthful for ME,but the old lady had [them]on her cap.She is full of intelligence,and has always been in the habit of drawing a great deal....Very soon came in Lord Aylmer,[who]was formerly Governor of Canada,and Lady Colchester,daughter of Lord Ellenborough,a very pretty woman of thirty-five,I should think;Sir William and Lady Chatterton and Mr.
Algernon Greville,whose grandmother wrote the beautiful "Prayer for Indifference,"an old favorite of mine,and Mr.MacGregor,the political economist.Lord Aylmer took me out and I found him a nice old peer,and discovered that ever since the death of his uncle,Lord Whitworth,whose title is extinct,he had borne the arms of both Aylmer and Whitworth.Mr.Bancroft took out Lady Colchester,and the old lady was wheeled out precisely as Grandma is.
At table she helped to the fish (cod,garnished round with smelts)and insisted on carving the turkey herself,which she did extremely well.By the way,I observe they never carve the breast of a turkey LONGITUDINALLY,as we do,but in short slices,a little diagonally from the centre.This makes many more slices,and quite large enough where there are so many other dishes.The four ENTREE dishes are always placed on the table when we sit down,according to our old fashion,and not one by one.They have [them]warmed with hot water,so that they keep hot while the soup and fish are eaten.
Turkey,even BOILED turkey,is brought on AFTER the ENTREES,mutton (a saddle always)or venison,with a pheasant or partridges.With the roast is always put on the SWEETS,as they are called,as the term dessert seems restricted to the last course of fruits.During the dinner there are always long strips of damask all round the table which are removed before the dessert is put on,and there is no brushing of crumbs.You may not care for all this,but the housekeepers may.I had Mr.Greville the other side of me,who seemed much surprised that I,an American,should know the "Prayer for Indifference,"which he doubted if twenty persons in England read in these modern days.
It is a great mystery to me yet how people get to know each other in London.Persons talk to you whom you do not know,for no one is introduced,as a general rule.I have sometimes quite an acquaintance with a person,and exchange visits,and yet do not succeed for a long time in putting their name and the person together....It is a great puzzle to a stranger,but has its conveniences for the English themselves.We are endeavoring to become acquainted with the English mind,not only through society,but through its products in other ways.Natural science is the department into which they seem to have thrown their intellect most effectively for the last ten or fifteen years.We are reading Whewell's "History of the Inductive Sciences,"which gives one a summary of what has been accomplished in that way,not only in past ages,but in the present.Every moment here is precious to me and Iam anxious to make the best use of it,but I have immense demands on my time in every way.
