LONDON,May 24,[1847]
My dear Sons:...On Friday we both went to see the Palace of Hampton Court with my dear,good,Miss Murray,Mr.Winthrop and son,and Louise....On our arrival,we found,to our great vexation,that Friday was the only day in the week in which visitors were not admitted,and that we must content ourselves with seeing the grounds and go back without a glimpse of its noble galleries of pictures.
Fortunately for us,Miss Murray had several friends among the persons to whom the Queen has assigned apartments in the vast edifice,and they willingly yielded their approbation of our admission if she could possibly win over Mrs.Grundy,the housekeeper.This name sounded rather inauspicious,but Mr.
Winthrop suggested that there might be a "Felix"to qualify it,and so in this case it turned out.Mrs.Grundy asserted that such a thing had never been done,that it was a very dangerous precedent,etc.,but in the end the weight of a Maid of Honor and a Foreign Minister prevailed,and we saw everything to much greater advantage than if we had 150persons following on,as Mr.Winthrop says he had the other day at Windsor Castle....On our way [home]we met Lady Byron with her pretty little carriage and ponies.She alighted and we did the same,and had quite a pleasant little interview in the dusty road.
Sunday,May 30th Your father left town on Monday....He did not return until the 27th,the morning of the Queen's Birthday Drawing-Room.On that occasion I went dressed in white mourning....It was a petticoat of white crape flounced to the waist with the edges notched.Atrain of white glace trimmed with a ruche of white crape.A wreath and bouquet of white lilacs,without any green,as green is not used in mourning.The array of diamonds on this occasion was magnificent in the highest degree,and everybody was in their most splendid array.The next evening there was a concert at the Palace,at which Jenny Lind,Grisi,Alboni,Mario,and Tamburini sang.I went dressed in [a]deep black dress and enjoyed the music highly.Seats were placed in rows in the concert-room and one sat quietly as if in church.At the end of the first part,the royal family with their royal guests,the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia,and the Grand Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Weimar went to the grand dining-room and supped by themselves,with their suites,while another elegant refreshment table was spread in another apartment for the other guests....Jenny Lind a little disappointed me,I must confess,but they tell me that her songs were not adapted on that evening to the display of her voice.
On Sunday evening your father dined with Baron Brunnow,the Russian Minister,to meet the Grand Duke Constantine.It so happened that the Grand Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Weimar appointed an audience to Baron and Baroness Brunnow at seven,and they had not returned at half-past seven,when the Grand Duke and their other guests arrived.
