pheasants are not our pheasants, or their partridges our partridges.
Neither have we so many footmen with liveries of all colours, or so
much gold and silver plate. . . . The next morning Mr. Bancroft
breakfasted with Dr. Holland to meet the Marquis of Lansdowne alone.
[Thursday] he went down to Windsor to dine with the Queen. He took
out to dinner the Queen's mother, the Duchess of Kent, the Queen
going with the Prince of Saxe-Weimar, who was paying a visit at the
Castle. He talked German to the Duchess during dinner, which I
suspect she liked, for the Queen spoke of it to him afterwards, and
Lord Palmerston told me the Duchess said he spoke very pure German.
While he was dining at Windsor I went to a party all alone at the
Countess Grey's, which I thought required some courage.

Of all the persons I see here the Marquis of Lansdowne excites the
most lively regard. His countenance and manners are full of
benevolence and I think he understands America better than anyone
else of the high aristocracy. I told him I was born at Plymouth and
was as proud of my pure Anglo-Saxon Pilgrim descent as if it were
traced from a line of Norman Conquerors. Nearly all the ministers
and their wives came to see us immediately, without waiting for us
to make the first visit, which is the rule, and almost every person
whom we have met in society, which certainly indicates an amiable
feeling toward our country. We could not well have received more
courtesy than we have done, and it has been extended freely and
immediately, without waiting for the forms of etiquette. Pray say
to Mr. Everett how often we hear persons speak of him, and with
highest regard. I feel as if we were reaping some of the fruits of
his sowing.

Mr. Bancroft sends you a pack of cards, one of the identical two