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

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The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth?by A. M. W. Stirling (compiler)

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Title: The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope v. I.
Author: A. M. W. Stirling (compiler)
Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7253] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 31, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
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[Illustration: THE VISCOUNTESS ANSON]
THE LETTER-BAG OF LADY ELIZABETH SPENCER-STANHOPE
COMPILED FROM THE CANNON HALL PAPERS, 1806-1873 BY A. M. W. STIRLING
TWO VOLUMES: VOLUME ONE

"TON IS INDEED A CAMELEON WHOSE HUE CHANGES WITH EVERY RAY OF LIGHT." ALMACK'S

TO CHARLES G. STIRLING THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

PREFACE
The following papers, which extend over a space of nearly seventy years during a most interesting period of our National History, may be said to form a sequel and a conclusion to two previous publications, Coke of Norfolk and his Friends, which appeared in 1906, and Annals of a Yorkshire House, which appeared in 1911. They are, however, more essentially a continuation of the latter, in which the Cannon Hall muniments and anecdotes were brought down to the years 1805-6, from which date the narrative is resumed in the present volume.
In that first series of Papers which was published in the Annals, the bulk of the correspondence centred round the personality of Walter Spencer- Stanhope, M.P., who lived from 1749 to 1821. In the present series, the correspondence is principally addressed to or written by John Spencer- Stanhope, his son, who lived from 1787 to 1873. Other letters, doubtless, there were in plenty, to and from other members of the family, but only those have survived which found their way back to the old Yorkshire house whence so many of them had originally set forth with their messages of love and home tidings, and which were there preserved, eventually, by the grandmother of the present writer, Lady Elizabeth, wife of John Stanhope and daughter of the celebrated 'Coke of Norfolk.'
The following book, therefore, is appropriately termed the "Letter-bag" of the lady to whom its existence is due, although her personal contribution to its contents does not commence before the year 1822, when she first became a member of the family circle of its correspondents. In it, in brief, is represented the social existence of two generations and the current gossip of over half-a-century, as first set forth by their nimble pens in all the freshness of novelty. Thus it is an ever-shifting scene to which we are introduced. We become one with the daily life of a bygone century, with a family party absorbed in a happy, busy existence. We mingle with the gay throng at the routs and assemblies which they frequented. We meet the "very fine" beaux at whom they mocked, and the "raging belles" whom they envied. Then the scene changes, and we are out on the ocean with Cuthbert Collingwood, in our ears rings a clash of arms long since hushed, a roar of cannon which has been silent throughout the passing of a century, while we gauge with a grim realisation the iron that entered into the soul of a strong man battling for his country's gain. Then the black curtain of death shrouds that scene, and we are back once more in the gay world of ton, with its petty gossip and its petty aims.... Later, other figures move across the boards; Wellington, as the ball-giver, the gallant chevalier des dames; Napoleon, in his bonnet de nuit, a mysterious, saturnine figure; his subordinates, who shared his greed without the dignity of its magnitude; next, in strange contrast, Coke of Norfolk, the peaceful English squire, seen thus for 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