The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope, vol 1 | Page 2

the first time--not as
a public character, a world-wide benefactor--but in the intimacy of his
domestic life, as "Majesty," the butt of his daughter's playful sallies, as
the beloved father, the tender grandfather, a gracious, benevolent
presence. We read the romance of his daughter, that pretty, prim
courtship of a bygone day; we see her home life as a young wife, the
coming of another race of merry children; by and by, we follow the
fortunes of graceful "little Madam" with her brilliant eyes, and see the
advent of yet another lover of a later day. So the scenes shift, the
figures come and go, the great things and the small of life intermingle.
And as we read, by almost imperceptible stages, the Georgian has
merged into the Victorian, and the young generation of one age has
faded into the older generation of the next, till we are left confronted
with the knowledge, albeit difficult of credence, that both have
vanished into the mists of the Unknown.
Meanwhile, one aspect of this glimpse into the past requires but little
insistence. Among these two generations of Stanhopes a high standard
of education prevailed. This, coupled with the opportunities which they
possessed of mingling with the best-known people of their day, both in
England and France, makes it obvious that records written by such
writers, with all the happy abandon of a complete sympathy between
scribe and recipient, have a value which transcends any more laboured
enumeration of historical data. The worth of their correspondence lies
in the fact that it presents, artlessly and candidly, the outlook of a
contemporary family, of good position and more than average

intelligence, upon events ordinary and extraordinary, under four
sovereigns. And while many books have been edited describing the
sayings and doings of Royal personages and political leaders during
that period, few have yet been published which present them in the
intimate guise in which they jostle each other throughout the following
pages, and fewer still which give any adequate picture of the social life
as lived during these years by the less notable bulk of the community.
Yet more, the writers of these letters are no mere puppets of ancient
history, who move in a world unreal to us and shadowy. Their remarks
to us are instinct with the freshness--the actuality--of to-day. Whether
as happy, noisy schoolboys and girls, or as men and women of the
fashionable world bent on pursuit of pleasure or of learning, to us they
are emphatically alive. Almost we can hear and echo the laughter of
that merry home-circle; their jests are our own, differently phrased,
their joys and sorrows knit our hearts to them across the century. They
lived at a date so near our own that it has all the charm of
similarity--with a difference; and it is just this likeness and unlikeness
which lend such piquancy to their experiences.

CONTENTS
PREFACE
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
CHAPTER I.
LETTERS RELATING TO THE WORLD OF TON, 1805-1806 II.
LETTERS OF AN EXILE, 1805-1810 III. ON DITS FROM LONDON,
YORKSHIRE AND RAMSGATE, 1806-1807 IV. ON DITS FROM
GROSVENOR SQUARE AND CANNON HALL, 1808-1810 V.
ANECDOTES FROM A PRISONER OF NAPOLEON, 1810-1812 VI.
LETTERS FROM AN ESCAPED PRISONER, 1812-1813 VII.
LETTERS FROM ENGLAND AND FRANCE, 1811-1821

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE VISCOUNTESS ANSON Frontispiece From a miniature by
Cosway
SILHOUETTES OF MRS SPENCER-STANHOPE AND HER
DAUGHTERS MARIANNE AND ANNE
SILHOUETTES OF ISABELLA, FRANCES, AND MARIA
SPENCER-STANHOPE
MRS TRIMMER
"THE YOUNG ROSCIUS"
CARICATURE OF SIR LUMLEY SKEFFINGTON
MADAME CATALANI
SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, BT. From a picture painted while he was a
prisoner in the Tower
PASSPORT GIVEN BY NAPOLEON IST TO JOHN
SPENCER-STANHOPE
EDWARD COLLINGWOOD
SIR RICHARD CARR GLYN, BT.
PRINT OF GEORGE III. WHEN MAD
THE MARCHIONESS CONYNGHAM
QUEEN CAROLINE, BY HARLOWE
WALTER SPENCER-STANHOPE, AETAT. 70 From an ivory bust

"In town what numbers into fame advance, Conscious of merit in the
coxcombs' dance, The Op'ra, Almack's, park, assembly, play, Those
dear destroyers of the tedious day, That wheel of fops, that saunter of
the town, Call it diversion, and the pill goes down." Young

DRAMATIS PERSONAE
For the enlightenment of those readers who have not read the previous
volumes of which the present is the continuation, it may be well to
recapitulate briefly the material with which these dealt.
In 1565 a branch of the Stanhopes came from Lancashire into
Yorkshire, and eventually settled at Horsforth, Low Hall, near
Calverley Bridge, in the latter county. During the period of the Civil
Wars, a branch of the family of Spencer migrated from the borders of
Wales into Yorkshire, and in the reign of Charles II. one of them
purchased the house and land at that date constituting the estate of
Cannon Hall. In 1748 Walter Stanhope of Horsforth united the two
families by his