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

[392] the usual hour, which is seven, so that the evening was rather short. . . .

The Harcourts have, many times since I have been here, expressed their regret that you could not have come with me, and just now, when I was down stairs, Mrs. Harcourt charged me afresh to express it to you. You remember what a charming woman she is, but I assure you she is nowhere so charming as in her own house. The interest she has taken in Lizzie's sickness . . . . is most gratifying. I am very sorry to leave them . . . .

Wentworth House, August 13.—. . . . At half past 3 I bade the good, kind, intellectual Harcourts good by, and between seven and eight drove through the grand old park, and came up to that famous Italian front which is a good deal longer than Park Street. . . . . A magnificent porter and six or seven livery-servants appeared at once, and then the groom of the chambers, who said in his most elegant black-silk-stocking manner, ‘My lord will receive you, sir’; and then, perhaps noticing that I looked amused, he added very blandly, ‘My lord hoped you would come to-night.’ I was carried at once to the long gallery. . . . . There was no mistake about the matter. They were glad to see me, and in ten minutes it was as if I had been there a month.

Lord Fitzwilliam is somewhat infirm, but is stronger than he was two or three years ago, when his health was impaired by an accident. He was, as Lady Charlotte told me, stopping on the sea-coast with the ladies of the family,—at Folkestone, I think,—and one day, as he stood on the shore, observed a young servant who was bathing and playing in the water. He turned to see something else, and on looking back in an instant the youth had disappeared. Old as he was— sixty-eight—he plunged in, swam to him, and, seizing him and seized by him, turned for the shore. But he was soon exhausted, and both were at last saved by his coachman. It was above a year before he recovered from the effects of his exertions.

August 14.— . . . . After breakfast Lord Fitzwilliam asked me to go, with him and Lady Charlotte, to an examination of his schools by the Inspector of the District. It was in the village of Wentworth; . . . . that is, the girls were there to the number of one hundred and eighty, from four years to fourteen. The boys are elsewhere, to be examined next week. The school-house, divided into several rooms, is excellent and in good taste, built by the present lord. . . . . The examination was excellent, done with kindness and skill. . . . . The doctrines of the church and the history of the Jews were well