LONDON,November 29,1846
After a long interval I find again a quiet Sunday evening to resume my journal to you.On Monday we dined at Lord John Russell's,and met many of the persons we have met before and the Duchess of Inverness,the widow of the Duke of Sussex.On Tuesday we dined at Dr.Holland's.His wife and daughter are charming,and then we met,besides,Lady Charlotte Lindsay,the only surviving child of Lord North,Mr.and Mrs.Milman (the author of the "Fall of Jerusalem"),and Mr.Macaulay.Yesterday I went to return the visit of the Milmans and found that the entrance to their house,he being a prebend of Westminster Abbey,was actually in the cloisters of the Abbey.They were not at home,but I took my footman and wandered at leisure through the cloisters,treading at every step on the tomb of some old abbot with dates of 1160and thereabouts.
Nothing could be more delightful than London is now,if I had only a little more physical vigor to enjoy it.We see everybody more frequently,and know them better than in the full season,and we have some of the best specimens of English society,too,here just now,as the Whig ministry brings a good deal of the ability of the aristocracy to its aid.The subjects of conversation among women are more general than with us,and [they]are much more cultivated than our women as a body,not our blues.They never sew,or attend,as we do,to domestic affairs,and so live for social life and understand it better.
