I had a letter from the Duchess of Wellington the day before yesterday,
dated from Deal, just when she was going to embark for France. The whole
of the letter was full of her children and of sorrow for quitting them.
Two days ago came a young gentleman, Mr. James Gordon, a nephew of Lady
Elizabeth Whitbread's, with a very polite introductory note from Lady
Elizabeth. He has a great deal of anecdote and information. He has just
come from Paris, and he has given me a better account of Paris, and more
characteristic, well-authenticated anecdotes than I have heard from
anybody else. He mentioned some instances of the gratitude which Louis
XVIII. has shown to people of inferior note in England from whom he had
received kindness, especially to the innkeeper's wife at Berkhampstead.
I am glad for the honour of human nature that this is so.
What do you think Walter Scott says is the most poetical performance he
has read for years? That account of the battle of Leipsic which Richard
lent to us.
We went to Coolure and had a pleasant day. _Waverley_ was in everybody's
hands. The Admiral does not like it: the hero, he says, is such a
shuffling fellow. While he was saying this I had in my pocket a letter
from Miss Fanshawe, received that morning, saying it was delightful.
Lady Crewe tells me that Madame d'Arblay cannot settle in England
because the King of France has lately appointed M. d'Arblay to some high
situation in consequence of his distinguished services.
Shall I tell you what they, my father and all of them, are doing at this
moment? Sprawling on the floor looking at a new rat-trap. Two pounds of
butter vanished the other night out of the dairy; they had been put in a
shallow pan with water in it, and it is averred the rats ate it, and
Peggy Tuite, the dairymaid, to make the thing more credible, gives the
following reason for the rats' conduct. "Troth, ma'am, they were
affronted at the new rat-trap, they only licked the milk off it, and
that occasioned them to run off with the butter!"
Mr. and Mrs. Pollard have spent a day here, and brought with them Miss
Napier. My father is charmed with her beauty, her voice, and her
manners. We talked over _Waverley_ with her. I am more delighted with it
than I can tell you: it is a work of first-rate genius.
_To the_ AUTHOR of "WAVERLEY."