_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.

MARDOAKS, _Jan. 19, 1822._

We called at Hatfield on our way here: a fine pile of old house with
many pictures--Burleigh, Cecil, Leicester, and Elizabeth. Do you
remember meeting Lady Salisbury [Footnote 1: Amelia, daughter of the
first Marquis of Downshire, and wife of the first Marquis of Salisbury.
She was burnt to death in Hatfield House, 27th November 1835.] at Lady
Darnley's? little, lively, good-humoured, very alert and active. What do
you think of her fox-hunting, though past seventy? Mr. Franks and Mr.
Giles, whom we met at Beechwood, and all the young men, declare that she
is more lively and good-humoured out hunting than any of them. An old
groom goes out with her on a hunter a little better than her own, always
a little before her, to show her where she may go, and turns to her
every now and then, "Come on! why the d---l don't you leap?" or "You
must not go there! why the d---l do you go there?"

We arrived here in our usual happy time--firelight, an hour before
dinner: most cordially received both by Sir James and Lady Macintosh:
house pretty, library comfortable, hall and staircase beautiful: house
filled with books.

I must tell you an anecdote of Wilberforce and a dream of Dr.
Wollaston's. Mr. Wilberforce, you know, sold his house at Kensington
Gore: the purchaser was a Chinaman, or, I should say, the keeper of a
china-shop in Oxford Street--Mr. Mortlock. When the purchase-money was