On Friday we went to Pakenham Hall. We sat down thirty-two to dinner,
and in the evening a party of twenty from Pakenham Hall went to a grand
ball at Mrs. Pollard's. Mrs. Edgeworth and I went, papa and Aunt Mary
stayed with Lady Elizabeth. Lord Longford acted his part of Earl Marshal
in the great hall, sending off carriage after carriage, in due
precedence, and with its proper complement of beaux and belles. I was
much entertained: had Mrs. Tuite, and mamma, and Mrs. Pakenham, and the
Admiral to talk and laugh with: saw abundance of comedy. There were
three Miss ----s, from the County of Tipperary, three degrees of
comparison--the positive, the comparative, and the superlative;
excellent figures, with white feathers as long as my two arms joined
together, stuck in the front of what were meant for Spanish hats. How
they towered above their sex, divinely vulgar, with brogues of true
Milesian race! Supper so crowded that Caroline Pakenham and I agreed to
use one arm by turns, and thus with difficulty found means to reach our
mouths. Caroline grows upon me every time I see her; she is as quick as
lightning, understands with half a word literary allusions as well as
humour, and follows and leads in conversation with that playfulness and
good breeding which delight the more because they are so seldom found
together. We stayed till between three and four in the morning. Lord
Longford had, to save our horses which had come a journey, put a pair of
his horses and one of his postillions to our coach: the postillion had,
it seems, amused himself at a _club_ in Castle Pollard while we were at
the ball, and he had amused himself so much that he did not know the
ditch from the road: he was ambitious of passing Mr. Dease's
carriage--passed it: attempted to pass Mr. Tuite's, ran the wheels on a
drift of snow which overhung the ditch, and laid the coach fairly down
on its side in the ditch. We were none of us hurt. The _us_ were my
mother, Mr. Henry Pakenham, and myself. My mother fell undermost; I
never fell at all, for I clung like a bat to the handstring at my side,
determined that I would not fall upon my mother and break her arm. None
of us were even bruised. Luckily Mrs. Tuite's carriage was within a few
yards of us, and stopped, and the gentlemen hauled us out immediately.
Admiral Pakenham lifted me up and carried me in his arms, as if I had
been a little doll, and set me down actually on the step of Mrs. Tuite's
carriage, so I never wet foot or shoe. And now, my dear aunt, I have
established a character for courage in overturns for the rest of my
life! The postillion was not the least hurt, nor the horses; if they had
not been the quietest animals in the world we should have been undone:
one was found with his feet level with the other's head. The coach could
not be got out of the deep ditch that night, but Lord Longford sent a
man to sleep in it, that nobody else might, and that no one might steal
the glasses. It came out safe and sound in the morning, not a glass
broken. Miss Fortescue, Caroline, and Mr. Henry Pakenham went up, just
as we left Pakenham Hall, to town or to the Park to Lady Wellesley, who
gives a parting ball, and then follows Sir Arthur to England.