Yesterday we visited the Tower. There is no place in England better worth seeing when we remember all that it’s old grey walls have seen. An American should feel the influence of the grand recollections attached to the Tower of London even more than an Englishman. Our common origin connects us as...
Mr Coolidge, Mrs Searle & myself visited the Thames Tunnel. I called at Chester Terrace in Regent’s Park for Mrs Searle & we went by way of the New Road to Bishopsgate St. where Mr Coolidge joined us about half past three P.M. when we proceeded to the Tunnel. After paying the usual fee we...
Eugenia marks has lived with me, as housekeeper & cook for nearly five years, & I recommend her in the strongest terms, as capable, honest, industrious & good tempered—
Peter marks has been in my service for nearly five years—he is perfectly honest & good tempered, & an accomplished house servant. Understands also the care of horses & is a good driver—
I have been hoping for some time past to get away from London before the fine season was quite over. It is now decided that we go to Edinburgh. I am overjoyed at the thought. I shall see Scotland, I shall hear the “sweet Doric” of her spoken tongue, and in the home of Burns and Walter Scott do...
Visited the London Docks—St. Katherine’s the London & the West India.—Gave me the best idea I have yet had of the immense trade & wealth of London. It is the heart of the civilized world & receives & propels the “vital fluid” which circulates through the whole body—And what a...
We have been to-day at Leslie’s house in Pine Apple Row. Being admitted to his painting room we saw the Coronation picture in a very unfinished state but promising well. The moment chosen is the taking of the Sacrament. The Queen, divested of her crown and ornaments, her dress concealed by an...
Yesterday, Christmas day, we went in the morning to the Church of the Foundlings where the music is good, the preaching “mediocre.” The services were long and the execrable creed of St. Athanasius formed a part. What an insult to God and Man the reciting of this blasphemous relic of barbarous...
Yesterday was a dark, turbid day. I staid at home and wrote a long letter to Mrs Gorham. Sunday in London is perfectly quiet. The stillness of the streets is remarkable, and more striking from the contrast with the six week days which are noisy & bustling enough. Capt. Wormeley called and Mr...
Yesterday I passed an hour & a half at the National Gallery. I have been there repeatedly before but I am just now beginning to see clearly & understand understandingly. Hitherto my mind has been confused and my eyes dazzled by a multitude of objects which I am learning to separate &...
Rain, rain, rain, rain but the weather as mild and dark as an April night in Virginia. Yesterday Mr Coolidge & myself went to Highgate to see our little son, whom, thank heaven, we found well. I have gone on with Mrs Jamieson’s book, “Winter studies & Summer rambles.” The studies are...
the last day of the month I do not know how it is that doing so little I have so little time to do any thing in. It is a problem I cannot solve. On Sunday, feeling somewhat feeble from my late indisposition, I went with Mrs Stevenson, by appointment, to call on Mrs Grote, wife of the radical...
yesterday was a busy day with me. In the morning Mr C. & myself received a note from Mr Stevenson and two cards of admittance to the House of Lords. The Queen was to go in state to open Parliament and the ceremonies were expected to be brilliant and imposing. They would be very curious &...
Sunshine & showers—April weather in February. Have received letters from home—one from my dear Randolph. Sunday I accompanied Mrs Bates to the Cemetery on the Harrow road, called I believe Kensall Green. It is a pleasant morning drive from the West End, is well situated and commands a fine...
A great day every four years in America—here this year at least, a bright one, the Sun shining & blue sky visible—I am going again to Tottenham Green & shall call for Miss Rogers to go with me. More talk about the Queen & her Court. Another version of the story of Lady Flora Hastings,...
We dined yesterday with Mr Davis in Spanish Place with a set of old Indians. A yellow-faced General Somebody half deaf & half tipsy; A doctor, in shape and movement like a huge turtle; A Captain who seemed a cross between a Spaniel & a Donkey, fawning as the one, dull as the other. There...
Very busy with my preparations for departure. Saturday March 30th, we visited the two great Artists, Mulready & Landseer, than whom there cannot be two persons more unlike. Mulready is a large, full-faced, middle-aged man, somewhat brusque and something of a humorist, complaining in a tone...
Off the Banks of Newfoundland. Three weeks at sea. Dismal weeks of incessant sickness & suffering. Let no one talk of sea-sickness who has not felt it in it’s horrors—it’s weakness, it’s helplessness, it’s utter prostration of all power bodily and mental. O long days & weeks of giddiness ...
As I approach America the thought of my children, from whom I am again so soon to part, saddens rather than cheers me. Tuesday 9th April was my last evening in England. I passed part of it with my friend Mrs Stevenson. On my return to my lodgings, after bidding her a sad farewell, I found Mr...
Faithful to my promise, dearest —, I shall spend an hour every Sunday in writing all my childish recollections of my dear grandfather, which are sufficiently distinct to relate to you. My memory seems crowded with them, and they have the vividness of realities; but all are trifles in themselves,...
The within letter was recd, with the paper I now enclose you, from my friend Trist—It is his desire that the short piece marked, might appear in the Nashville Union—he is a man of sterling worth—a pure Democrat, who by a combination of Whiggs, has been cruelly traduced, & persecuted, to have...
I hope soon to have a breathing spell, in which to write to you—My victory will be such as never was seen before: no, not even at New Orleans.—Great as the confidence of my friends in my character may be, they even cannot form the remotest conception of the strength of my position. How it defies...
How long it is since I have written to you! You will not, however, I am sure have distrusted on that account the fidelity of my attachment; or ever supposed for a moment that I did not often think of you, and always with warm affection. Wherever I might be, and under whatever circumstances, you...
I write to you, dearest Jane, a little before the time; as the Steamer leaves England not before the first of next month and I usually allow not more than a week for my letter to reach Liverpool, but if I do not write now I may have to wait five or six weeks, as I am going to a place pretty much...
We arrived here safe & sound, dearest Virginia, on saturday, but as I was obliged to write for the Steamer, it is only now, Monday, that I have time to write to you. Tell Cousin Beverley that his recommendations procured me all sorts of attentions from his friends. Mr Bomford was very civil,...