[144] her Ladyship. Prince Napoleon1 is always there, and of course D'Orsay. The Duchess of Sutherland2 I lunched with a day or two ago. She is wonderfully beautiful; I think even more so than Mrs. Norton. But I will tell you of these things when we meet. Strange contrast awaits me! To quit these iris-colored visions for the stern realities of American life! To throw aside the dreamy morning-gown and slippers, and pull on the boots of hard work! Let it come! I am content. But who will employ me? I have read with great delight your ‘Agency,’ Longfellow's ‘Hyperion,’ and Hillard's ‘Introduction to Spenser,’—three entertaining productions. Love to all your family. Ever affectionately yours,
To George S. Hillard.
London, March 28, 1840.dear Hillard,—These are my last words to you from this side. I sail from Portsmouth, 4th April, in the ‘Wellington,’—perhaps shall reach you before this note. London is more bewitching than ever. Have already seen many people,—the Lansdownes; Duke and Duchess of Sutherland (the most beautiful woman in the world); Mrs. Norton; Lady Seymour (both very beautiful); Hayward; Sydney Smith; Senior; Fonblanque; Milnes; Milman; the Grotes; Charles Austin (more brilliant than ever); the Wortleys, &c. But I must stop. I must go now to breakfast with Sydney Smith; to-morrow, with Rogers; next day, with dear Sir Robert Inglis; the next with Milnes. But I must be off. Good-by. I shall soon be with you. Ever affectionately yours,
To George W. Greene, Rome.
London, March 30, 1840.dear Greene,—This is my last salute to you from this side of the Atlantic. Since I wrote you from Berlin I have enjoyed myself much,
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1 Louis Napoleon was ‘one of the most constant and intimate guests at Gore House, both before and after his imprisonment at Ham.’—‘Life, Letters, and Correspondence of the Countess of Blessington,’ by R. R. Madden, Chap. XI. Sumner referring in a letter of July 4, 1848, to the impression made on him by Louis Napoleon as they met at Lady Blessington's, wrote: ‘He seemed to me an ordinary character.’
2 The Duchess of Sutherland, daughter of the sixth Earl of Carlisle, and sister of Sumner's friend. Lord Morpeth, who became the seventh Earl of Carlisle, was married to George Granville, the second Duke of Sutherland, and died in 1868. She became Mistress of the Robes to the Queen. More than any one in the English nobility she gave the influence of her character and position against American slavery. Sumner received many courtesies from the Duchess on his visit to England in 1857, and was invited by her to be her guest at Stafford House. Her daughter, the Duchess of Argyll, was to the end of Sumner's life one of his most faithful friends and correspondents. Sumner met with a welcome from the Argylls, in 1857.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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