George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

[179] have taken a house for a few weeks to enjoy London, and from the pretty Mrs. Milman, whose kind and urgent invitations to dinner we were really sorry to refuse. After they were gone we went to visit Lady Mulgrave, who is just arrived from Ireland . . . . . She is ‘fair, fat, and forty,’ I should think; but she has a certain sort of beauty still, most sweet and winning manners, and a great deal of tact and intelligence. She is fit to be a queen, every inch. Indeed, all these Ravensworths are remarkable people. Scott's visit to them, which he so well describes, shows what a race they are.

May 29.—We are beginning now to be extremely busy, in our labors to finish up this three-years' absence from home, and get our affairs ready for embarkation. . . . .

In the evening I went to a late and very aristocratic dinner at Murchison's, the great geologist and man of fortune, at the west end of the town, who seems to have his house really at the ultra west end, so that I thought I never should get there. The party, however, was worth the trouble, for it was a striking mixture of talent and aristocracy and fashion. The talent might be considered as represented by Sedgwick, Lubbock,—the mathematician, whom I liked a good deal,—Lockhart, and Murchison; and the aristocracy and fashion, by the haggard, dried — up Lady Davy, Sir Charles Dalbiack,—the Commander of the Cavalry,—the Duke and Duchess of Roxburgh,— both young, handsome, and well-bred,—and the Earl of Dartmouth, who renewed an acquaintance I had with him formerly at Rome, and invited me to his place in Staffordshire. It was all quite agreeable. Even Lockhart was softened by the society, and introduced the subject of ‘Ferdinand and Isabella,’ which he would not have done if he had not been very amiable. . . . . He promised, when he should be in the country, to look it over, and if he finds it what he expects to find it, to give it to some person who understands Spanish literature, to make an article about it . . . . . This is a good deal, and it is still more that he was really good-humored about it . . . . . It was a pleasant time with such people, but we did not stay late; and when we left, I took Sedgwick to the Athenaeum, and there bade him farewell with much regret. He goes to Cambridge to-morrow.

May 30.—. . . . A party at Mr. Bates's, entirely American, except Baron Stockmar, a Saxon, formerly confidential secretary to Prince Leopold, now much about the Queen. I had him pretty much to myself, and found him very acute, and full of knowledge. He talks English almost like a native.

May 31.—We breakfasted, by very especial invitation, with Rogers,