Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Lady Morgan to Sydney Inwood-Jones, [26 June 1850]
I am leading a very gay life, for I think with so
solitary a home as mine is, social excitement is almost necessary for me. I am,
thank goodness, in better health than I have been for a long time. I will turn
to mon livre des bénéfices
and give you the cream of the day as it passed me, leaving the skim milk in
oblivion. ![]()
| 512 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. | |
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First, Lady
Beauchamp’s grand majority rout (where I only staid half
an hour) the heat and crowd was too much for me; but I had a “word and a
blow,” with fifty of my particular friends—old Rogers in the thick of the fight. Next on my list, on the 24th a dinner at Wentworth Dilke’s; dinner excellent;
company, the Earls of Carlisle and
Granville, and all Her Majesty’s
commissioners for the Exhibition, and many other eminent persons—a
charming dinner. I must tell you of my visit to the Crystal Palace the other
morning, where I have permission to go early, as I cannot encounter the crowd.
It is impossible to convey an idea of the beauty of this miraculous building,
as I saw it, in the bright sunshine and freshness of the morning, all silent
and solitary! The fountains, flowers, statues and gold and silver draperies,
and heaps of jewels, sparkling in the sun—a scene of magic, that one
dreams of, but never till now was created. Whilst I was lost in wonder and
admiration, and fixed in silent adoration of a beautiful statue, I heard a
slight movement of feet, and sweet voices approaching me,—when lo! the
whole royal party issued from an adjoining compartment; the Queen leaning on the arm of the King of the Belgians, in animated
conversation,—Prince Albert
looking both pleased and proud of this great and noble work. The children, with
their governess, and the whole charming procession, preceded by our friend,
Wentworth Dilke, chapeau
bas! I never saw so happy a party—certainly,
la Reine est la plus grande Reine du
monde, as my dear Madame de
Sevigné said of Le Roi, when he asked her to dance. The whole ![]()
| LADY MORGAN AND CARDINAL WISEMAN. | 513 |
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scene was a fairy tale in the Arabian Nights, and had for
me a charm that I cannot explain; for there was before me, in that moment, all that was greatest and best, visible and invisible, and the sublime sun shining down
his rays on this beautiful creation of man!
On my return from this palace of the genii, a charming
Bohemian lady, Madame Noel, took me to a matinée, given for the benefit of the
distressed Hungarians, for which I had passed tickets and subscribed; but it
was a hot crowd with cold draughts. Fanny
Kemble recited the divine Allegro and il Penseroso. It went to my very soul,
where every line was impressed half a century back; but I returned tired and
weary. Alas! I feel
“I am wearing away to the land of the leal.” |
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Still my spirits keep me afloat, and I am good for— “A few gay soarings yet.” |
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Poor Rogers! I sat an hour with him
the other day; he is the ghost of his former ghost; he talked with compassion
of Moore’s state, who is now bed
ridden, and has lost his memory,—remembers nothing but some of his own
early songs, which he sings as he lies, and which is heart-rending to hear by
those who are around him.
Frances Butler [née Kemble] (1809-1893)
English actress and writer, daughter of Charles Kemble and Maria Theresa Kemble; on a
tour to America in 1834 she was unhappily married to Pierce Butler (1807-1867).
Charles Wentworth Dilke (1789-1864)
In 1816 he settled in Hampstead and befriended Leigh Hunt, John Hamilton Reynolds, and
John Keats; he contributed antiquarian material to periodicals and was editor of the
Athenaeum (1830-46).
Granville George Leveson- Gower, second earl Granville (1815-1891)
English statesman educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford; he was a Whig MP for
Morpeth (1837-40) and Lichfield (1841) before succeeding his father in 1846; he was
minister for foreign affairs in the Russell and Gladstone cabinets.
Leopold I King of Belgium (1790-1865)
The son of Prince Francis Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; after serving in the Russian
army he married Princess Charlotte in May 1816; in 1831 he was inaugurated as the first
king of the Belgians.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet and biographer, author of the
Irish Melodies (1807-34),
The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and
Lalla
Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular
Pleasures of Memory (1792),
Columbus (1810),
Jaqueline (1814), and
Italy (1822-28).
Marie de Sévigné (1626-1696)
French woman of letters; the manner of her correspondence was imitated throughout the
eighteenth century.
