1843-1845] A Visit to Combe Florey 91 



and very pleasant Sydney was. To-day as we can't get 

 wits, we are to have Somersetshire Squires, and Syd. says 

 he is not responsible for them. . . . 



Fanny Allen to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



WOODCHESTER, Thursday [12 Sept. 1844]. 

 (Her niece Lady Gifford's house near Stroud.) 



I left the Smiths (true to my purpose of not exceeding 

 a week there) yesterday morning. They have been kind and 

 affectionate, and have performed their parts as hosts ex- 

 ceedingly well; but these extraordinary efforts of 150 miles 

 to see people whom you are not in the habit of seeing very 

 frequently, are beyond the warmth of my years. 



The life at Combe Florey was very easy, pleasant, and 

 epicurean. Sydney is a gay and very happy man, and poor 

 Mrs Sydney is very nearly the reverse. I am convinced 

 that the wife of a wit is under the constant discipline of 

 mortification. She has detailed ruder and more offensive 

 things done to her than I ever heard committed towards 

 anybody. It seems to me that in the gay world they com- 

 mit more offences against the decencies of society than in 

 the middle classes, and yet they consider themselves as the 

 rulers of les bienseances. Mrs L. did not intend to be rude, 

 I dare say, but she did not show common attention to Mrs 

 Smith, who was unwell and infirm. She never sat a single 

 minute with her in the drawing-room, but went below to 

 Sydney in the library, when she talked about the polka much 

 more than listening to him about anything. The power of 

 a handsome woman is quite extraordinary over men, if she 

 is not a wife. 



I enjoyed your letter very much. It is very pleasant to 

 get one's letters, as we did at Combe Florey, in our bedrooms 

 at 8 o'clock in the morning. It was pleasant too to have a 

 bit of natural kindness and family affection to fortify oneself 

 with, before one joins a life in which every deep and serious 

 feeling was excluded. The Cecil Smiths were very civil. 

 They hastened their dinner-party to catch me, but I was 



