38 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, m 



whose character he feared would not be mended by this 

 little exploit. He offered to tell Mr J. who she was but he 

 declined knowing. He wanted very much to punish his 

 persecutors, and Mr J. had some difficulty in persuading 

 him that could not be done in England, as he ought to have 

 had his passport. This anecdote will not help the respect 

 in which John Bull considers sovereign Princes at present. . . . 



Jessie Allen to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



DULWICH, July 31s* [1813]. 



Many boxes 1 have gone to Etruria since I received 

 your letter, my own Elizabeth, and in many have I promised 

 to put in my answer, and my thanks; but I have been 

 very dissipated and consequently very idle. I have found 

 out that taking one's pleasure, usually called idleness, is 

 the busiest thing in the world. After next Tuesday, when 

 we mean to exhibit in a grand breakfast, much against my 

 own inclination, we shall lay up in Dulwich quietly for the 

 remainder of the summer. . . . 



On Thursday I went to Kitty [Mackintoshes, to be 

 ready for her evening party, which did not turn out as 

 pleasant as might have been expected from the excellent 

 company assembled there; indeed I thought it very dull, 

 but publish not this in Gath, neither proclaim it in the 

 streets of Askalon, for behold la Baronne de Stael was 

 there, Lord Byron, the poet Rogers, wicked Ward, 2 his 

 enemy who reviewed him in the Quarterly, and whom he 

 hates most cordially, and divers others of inferior note. 

 This was the first of Mackintosh's Staeliennes evenings 

 and it was a complete failure. Mme de Stael came into 

 the room very much out of spirits, and as she was the 

 principal person, it of course threw a damp over the listeners ; 



1 The family often sent letters by the boxes of pottery going to 

 and fro between Etruria and the London office. 



2 William Ward, third Viscount Dudley. It was upon him that 

 Rogers made the epigram: 



" Ward has no heart, they say; but I deny it. 

 He has a heart. he gets his speeches by it." 



