,849-1851] The Aliens Yoitthy Age 127 



Fanny Allen to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



ST. MARY'S, March 13th [1850]. 



Perhaps you have now that most agreeable of all couples 

 Hensleigh and Fanny, so this weather may not be wasted. 

 I find that I have more of it than I can enjoy myself, unless 

 I had two pairs of legs. I have been reading and enjoying 

 Sydney Smith's Moral Philosophy, which Mrs Smith sent 

 me this winter, and I find it a delightful book. The system, 

 I care nothing about, that is to say whether it squares with 

 the generally received opinion on these matters, but the 

 book is exactly what I am glad it is Sydney Smith's con- 

 versational opinions on these subjects, and they are exactly 

 himself in those days when he gave these lectures. His 

 thoughts are thrown out almost carelessly, funny, gay, 

 serious, and witty, and so exactly himself that his voice and 

 manner go along with me as I read. . . . 



Jessie Sismondi was now 73, Emma Allen 70, and Fanny 

 nearly 69. The following letter to Elizabeth Wedgwood is 

 another evidence of the vitality and youthful spring so 

 marked in the Allen family. After speaking of the death 

 of Sir Robert Peel and the loss to the nation, Jessie Sismondi 

 continues (5th July, 1850): "So much prosperity and 

 happiness finished at one blow ! poor Lady Peel ! but I 

 believe I pity Sir R. more, such is my value of life. I 

 am very glad Emma has been enjoying hers so much 

 ever since she left us. She says she had more of what the 

 world calls pleasure in the last week of her stay in town 

 than in her whole life before, and it was not lost on her; 

 she has enjoyed like a four year old. I believe no lives had 

 ever less of the world's pleasures than we had, which has 

 perhaps been one of the causes of our youthy age. Fan 

 is gone on the water to-day with the Dashwoods, they 

 have a young officer with them, and Fan is the most en- 

 gaging belle they could give him, for which I feel proud 

 and like the Dashwoods the better for their good taste in 

 thinking so. . . ." 



But in spite of her youthful feelings Jessie had shown 

 symptoms of the heart disease which had carried off so 

 many of her family. She wrote a few weeks later : "Truly 



