* * * * *
Thus does fancy paint. What however in reality unhinges me is, that it
is a long time since I had a letter from you, and I really want one to
restore my nerves. But I must dress for a couple of 'Russian steam
balls' as they ought to be called.
_April 7th._
As the Lord Mayor has invited me to his great dinner, I rode into the
city this morning to call on him: this is rather a perilous enterprise,
with a fidgetty horse. Once I got so entangled in the crowd, that I was
absolutely forced to turn my horse on the 'trottoir.' This the people
regarded as an invasion of their rights; and not observing that
necessity drove me thither, began to abuse me, and some to strike my
horse: a huge gigantic carter held up his fist and challenged me to box
with him: as however I felt no inclination to make this practical
application of the lessons I have taken in the 'noble art of
self-defence,' I pressed forward to a small gap which happily offered
itself, and made my escape.
I dined with Count Munster, a noble representative of Germany, who has
endeavoured as far as possible to preserve German simplicity in his
household. Everybody knows his distinguished qualities as a statesman:
he is not less remarkable for his agreeable manners and talents in
social and domestic life.
Since his residence in England, he has designed and painted the
decorations for his castle in the Harz, with great taste and skill; and
his wife's paintings on glass are very beautiful: in a few years all the
windows of the castle chapel will be adorned with her own works. The
German housewife however is no mere modern bel-esprit, or artist, but,
like one of the knightly dames who are the subjects of her pencil, she
takes care to have excellent beer brewed in her own house:--she gave me
some, which I drank with all the gratitude of a guest in the hall of
Valhalla.
In the evening a great fête at Lord Hertford's, with concert, ball,
French-play, &c., assembled the fashionable and half-fashionable
world[52] in a magnificent and tastefully furnished house. The
singularity in it is, that all the rooms are decorated in the same
manner,--flesh-coloured stucco and gold, with black bronze, very large
looking-glasses, and curtains of crimson and white silk. This uniformity
produces a very 'grandiose' effect. One room alone (of extraordinary
size for London) is white and gold, carpeted with scarlet cloth, and
with furniture and curtains of the same colour.
The company, 'c'est a dire la foule,' was not more vivacious than usual,
and the whole affair 'magnifiquement ennuyex.'
Another house worth seeing is that of the great banker ----, especially
on account of the fine collection of pictures. Here is also that triumph
of modern sculpture, Thorwaldson's Jason, and some valuable antiques. On
a sort of terrace on part of the house are hanging-gardens; and though
the shrubs have only three feet of earth, they grow very luxuriantly.
The lady of the gardens is however no Semiramis; 'il s'en faut,'
whatever she may think * * *
* * * * *
I could not help comparing her with her far more wealthy rival Madame
R----, and remarking how far the Jewish golden queen surpassed the
Christian one in cordial amiability and external dignity and
good-breeding.
_April 8th._
What contributes much to the 'dullness' of English society, is the
haughty aversion which Englishmen (note well that I mean in their own
country, for 'abroad' they are ready enough to make advances) show to
addressing an unknown person; if he should venture to address them, they
receive it with the air of an insult. They sometimes laugh at themselves
for this singular incivility, but no one makes the least attempt to act
differently when an opportunity offers.
There is a story that a lady saw a man fall into the water, and
earnestly entreated the dandy who accompanied her, and who was a
notoriously good swimmer, to save his life. Her friend raised his
'lorgnette' with the phlegm indispensable to a man of fashion, looked
earnestly at the drowning man, whose head rose for the last time, and
calmly replied, "It's impossible, Madam, I never was introduced to that
gentleman."
I made the acquaintance of a man of very different manners this evening;
the Persian Chargé d'Affaires, an Asiatic of very pleasant address, and
whose splendid costume and black beard were only deformed, in my eyes,
by the Persian peaked cap of black sheepskin. He speaks very good
English, and made very acute observations on European society. Among
other things he said, that though in many respects we were much further
advanced than they, yet that all their views of existence were of a
firmer and more composed character; that every man reconciled himself to
his lot; whereas he remarked here an incessant fermentation, an
everlasting discontent, both of masses and of individuals; nay, he
confessed that he felt himself infected by it, and should have great
trouble, on his return to Persia, to fall back into that old happy
track, in which a man who is unfortunate consoles himself, exclaiming,
"Whose dog am I then, to want to be happy?"
This indeed furnishes ample matter for reflection to the pursuers of the
ideal, to which secret association I, alas! belong.
A ball at Mrs. Hope's was very splendid, 'mais c'est toujours la même
chose.' In a party to which I went before this, I was presented to the
Duke of Gloucester. I only mention the fact for the sake of remarking,
that the English Princes of the Blood observe a much more courteous sort
of etiquette than most of those on the Continent: the Duke, who was
playing whist, rose from the table, and did not sit down again till our
short conversation was ended.
But let me go back for a moment to the beginning of the day.
The gardens of the neighbourhood are now in full bloom, the weather is
fine, and my ride this morning brought me about thirty miles from town.
In variety and richness the suburbs of London surpass those of any other
capital; which here and there display natural beauties, but never that
exquisite mixture of nature and the highest cultivation,--never at least
in any considerable masses.
I should have gladly ridden further and further, and returned at length
with great regret. The meadows around me were so luxuriant, that it was
only at a distance they looked green; when you were near them they were
embroidered with blue, yellow, red, and lilac, like a carpet of Tournay.
The cows were wading up to their bellies in the gay flowers, or resting
under the shadow of huge domes of foliage, impenetrable to every ray of
sun. It was magnificent, and adorned with a richness which art can never
reach. In an hour's riding I reached a hill where the ruins of a church
stood in the midst of a garden. The sun darted its rays from behind a
cloud athwart the whole sky, like a huge torch, the centre of which
rested directly on the metropolis of the world,--the immeasurable Babel
which lay outstretched with its thousand towers, and its hundred
thousand sins, its fog and smoke, its treasures and its misery, further
than the eye could reach. It was in vain! I must plunge into it again,
from the spring and its bursting blossoms, from the green meadows--again
into the macadamized slough,--into the everlasting dead monotony,--into
dinners and routs.
Accept my farewell--my next letter will go on to tell what became of
Daniel in the lion's den.