I sent your MS. off to Wills yesterday, with instructions to forward it
to you without delay. I hope you will have received it before this
notification comes to hand.
The usual festivity of this place at present--which is the blessing of
soldiers by the ten thousand--has just now been varied by the baptising
of some new bells, lately hung up (to my sorrow and lunacy) in a
neighbouring church. An English lady was godmother; and there was a
procession afterwards, wherein an English gentleman carried "the relics"
in a highly suspicious box, like a barrel organ; and innumerable English
ladies in white gowns and bridal wreaths walked two and two, as if they
had all gone to school again.
At a review, on the same day, I was particularly struck by the
commencement of the proceedings, and its singular contrast to the usual
military operations in Hyde Park. Nothing would induce the general
commanding in chief to begin, until chairs were brought for all the
lady-spectators. And a detachment of about a hundred men deployed into
all manner of farmhouses to find the chairs. Nobody seemed to lose any
dignity by the transaction, either.
With kindest regards, my dear Mrs. Gaskell,
Faithfully yours always.
[Sidenote: Rev. William Harness.]
VILLA DU CAMP DE DROITE, BOULOGNE,
_Saturday, Aug. 19th, 1854._