Transcribed from the 1904 Smith, Elder and Co. edition by Jane Duff and
proofed by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
[Picture: Elizabeth Davis Bancroft. Probably taken at Brady’s National
Gallery, New York, sometime after her return from England; from a picture
owned by Elizabeth B. Bliss]
LETTERS
FROM ENGLAND
1846–1849
BY
ELIZABETH DAVIS BANCROFT
(MRS. GEORGE BANCROFT)
* * * * *
_WITH PORTRAITS AND VIEWS_
* * * * *
SMITH, ELDER & CO.
LONDON : : : : : : : 1904
* * * * *
Copyright, 1903, by Charles Scribner’s Sons, for Great Britain and the
United States of America.
* * * * *
Printed by the Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company
New York, U. S. A.
PREFACE
ELIZABETH DAVIS BANCROFT, the writer of these letters, was the youngest
child and only daughter of William and Rebecca Morton Davis, and was born
at Plymouth, Mass., in October, 1803. She often spoke in later times of
what a good preparation for her life abroad were the years she spent at
Miss Cushing’s school at Hingham, and of her visits to her uncles, Judge
Davis and Mr. I. P. Davis of Boston. In 1825 she married Alexander
Bliss, a brilliant young lawyer and a junior partner of Daniel Webster.
On his death a few years later, her father having died, her mother and
brother formed a household with her and her two sons in Winthrop Place,
Boston. As a young girl in Plymouth she became a great friend of the
future Mrs. Emerson and later of Mr. Emerson and of Mr. and Mrs. Ripley,
and through them was much interested in Brook Farm.
In 1838 she married George Bancroft, the historian and statesman, who was
then Collector of the Port of Boston and a widower with three children.
They continued to live in Winthrop Place till 1845, when for one year Mr.
Bancroft was Secretary of the Navy in Polk’s cabinet. While he was in
that position the Naval Academy at Annapolis was established; and he
played an important part in the earlier stages of the Mexican War. In
the fall of 1846 he became Minister to England. It was then that the
letters were written from which these extracts have been taken. A number
of passages not of general interest have been omitted, without any
indications of such omission in the text, but in no case has any change
in a sentence been made. Most of the letters are in the form of a diary
and were addressed to immediate relatives, and none of them were written
for publication; but owing to the standing of Mr. Bancroft as a man of
letters, as well as his official station, the writer saw London life
under an unusual variety of interesting aspects.
In 1849 Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft returned to this country, and Mr. Bancroft
occupied himself with his history until 1868, when he was for seven years
Minister to Prussia and the German Empire. At the expiration of that
time they took up their residence in Washington, where they lived during
the remainder of their lives.