his pictures cost a fortune. I paid also a visit this week to the
Duchess of Inverness, whom I found in the prettiest, cosiest morning
boudoir looking onto the gardens of the Palace. In short, I do, or
see, every hour, something that if I were a traveller only, I could
make quite a story of.



LETTER: To W.D.B. and A.B.
LONDON, January 1, 1847



My dear Sons: . . . I wrote my last sheet on the 19th and your
father went on that day to Cambridge to be present at the tri-
centennial celebration of Trinity College . . . He went also the day
after the anniversary, which was on our 22nd December, to Ely, with
Peacock, the great mathematician, who is Dean of Ely, to see the
great cathedral there . . . While he was at Cambridge I passed the
evening of the 22nd at Lady Morgan's, who happened to have a most
agreeable set . . . Lady Morgan's reunions are entertaining to me
because they are collections of lions, but they are not strictly and
exclusively fashionable. They remind me in their composition from
various circles of Mrs. Otis's parties in Boston. We have in this
respect an advantage over the English themselves, as in our position
we see a great variety of cliques.

For instance, last evening, the 31st, I took Louisa, at half-past
seven, to the house of Mr. Hawes, an under Secretary of State, to
see a beautiful children's masque. It was an impersonation of the