LONDON,November 4,1847
Dear W.:...Mr.Bancroft and I dined on Friday,the 22d,with Mr.and Mrs.Hawes,under-Secretary of State,to meet Mr.Brooke,the Rajah of Sarawak,who is a great lion in London just now.He is an English gentleman of large fortune who has done much to Christianize Borneo,and to open its trade to the English.I sat between him and Mr.Ward,formerly Minister to Mexico before Mr.
Pakenham.He wrote a very nice book on Mexico,and is an agreeable and intelligent person....On Wednesday A.and I went together to the National Gallery,and just as we were setting out Mr.Butler of New York came in and I invited him to join us....While we were seated before a charming Claude who should come in but Mr.R.W.
Emerson and we had quite a joyful greeting.Just then came in Mr.
Rogers with two ladies,one on each arm.He renewed his request that I would bring my son to breakfast with him,and appointed Friday morning,and then added if those gentlemen who are with you are your friends and countrymen,perhaps they will accompany you.
They very gladly acceded,and I was thankful Mr.Emerson had chanced to be with me at that moment as it procured him a high pleasure.
Yesterday your father and I dined with Sir George Grey....About four o'clock came on such a fog as I have not seen in London,and the newspapers of this morning speak of it as greater than has been known for many years.Sir George Grey lives in Eaton Place,which is parallel and just behind Eaton Square.In going that little distance,though there is a brilliant gas light at every door,the coachman was completely bewildered,and lost himself entirely.We could only walk the horses,the footman exploring ahead.When the guests by degrees arrived,there was the same rejoicing as if we had met on Mont St.Bernard after a contest with an Alpine snow-storm....Lady Grey told me she was dining with the Queen once in one of these tremendous fogs,and that many of the guests did not arrive till dinner was half through,which was horrible at a royal dinner;but the elements care little for royalty.
November 14th On Saturday we dined at the Duc de Broglie's.He married the daughter of Madam de Stael,but she is not now living.I was very agreeably placed with Mr.Macaulay on one side of me,so that Ifound it more pleasant than diplomatic dinners usually.At the English tables we meet people who know each other well,and have a common culture and tastes and habits of familiarity,and a fund of pleasant stories,but of course,at foreign tables,they neither know each other or the English so well as to give the same easy flow to conversation.I am afraid we are the greatest diners-out in London,but we are brought into contact a great deal with the literary and Parliamentary people,which our colleagues know little about,as also with the clergy and the judges.I should not be willing to make it the habit of my life,but it is time not misspent during the years of our abode here....The good old Archbishop of York is dead,and I am glad I paid my visit to him when I did.Mr.
Rogers has paid me a long visit to-day and gave me all the particulars of his death.It was a subject I should not have introduced,for of that knot of intimate friends,Mr.Grenville,the Archbishop,and himself,he is now all that remains.
