time lovely. . . . We had an autograph note from Sir Robert Peel,
inviting us to dine next Saturday, and were engaged. I hope they
will ask us again, for I know few things better than to see him, as
we should in dining there. I have the same interest in seeing the
really distinguished men of England, that I should have in the
pictures and statues of Rome, and indeed, much greater. I wish I
was better prepared for my life here by a more extensive culture;
mere fine ladyism will not do, or prosy bluism, but one needs for a
thorough enjoyment of society, a healthy, practical, and extensive
culture, and a use of the modern languages in our position would be
convenient. I do not know how a gentleman can get on without it
here, and I find it so desirable that I devote a good deal of time
to speaking French with Louisa's governess. Your father uses French
a great deal with his colleagues, who, many of them, speak English
with great difficulty, and some not at all. . . . Lady Charlotte
Lindsay came one day this week to engage us to dine with her on
Wednesday, but yesterday she came to say that she wanted Lord
Brougham to meet us, and he could not come till Friday. Fortunately
we had no dinner engagement on that day, and we are to meet also the
Miss Berrys; Horace Walpole's Miss Berrys, who with Lady Charlotte
herself, are the last remnants of the old school here.



LETTER: To I.P.D.
February 21st



My dear Uncle: . . . I wrote [J.D.] a week or two before I heard of