5o A Century of Family Letters [CHAP. HI 



acceptable. She says : " You would have been pleased if 

 you had seen the ray of pleasure that Mme de StaeTs note 

 threw upon yesterday's gloomy evening I had the delight 

 of reading it to my father." I wish there was any chance 

 of her being in town this spring. She would then be 

 introduced to her Goddess and Mack would remind Mme 

 de Stae'l to say something to the clever Miss Caldwell 

 which would place Anne in heaven. I had the note from 

 Mack a week ago, but I did not like to send it imme- 

 diately on the account of Genl. Skerritt's being wounded. 

 I am rejoiced it arrived at such an a propos time as it seems 

 to have done. 



Baugh's affairs are, I am afraid, going on very ill, that 

 is to say there is very little chance of success. Everybody 

 seemed to be too sanguine at first. I wish they may have 

 fallen into the contrary extreme. Lady Holland will be as 

 much vexed as Baugh almost, at the failure, as it may 

 prevent Dr Allen's attending her abroad next winter. She 

 asked Kitty with great anxiety if Baugh meant to marry in 

 case of the Bill not passing and then asked a very strange 

 question, whether it was an engagement from affection ? 

 this to me sounds very impertinent. The Wanderer 1 is to 

 be out on Monday. It is the most interesting novel I 

 ever read. That Arch Jezebel Lady Holland has stood in 

 our way to-day again, in having the 5 vols. Mackintosh 

 sent it there before Kitty could lay hands on it. We have 

 not heard anything of Lord Byron's match which you 

 mention from Staffordshire. He called at M.'s yesterday. 

 You have heard that it was Mackintosh who wrote that 

 letter in his favour in the Morning Chronicle. 2 Lord Byron 

 knows from whence it came and is so thankful, he does not 

 know how sufficiently to express his thanks. This is a 

 secret, as 'tis called. . . . 



1 By Madame d'Arblay. 



2 Byron had published the impromptu lines, " Weep, daughter 

 of a Royal line," written on the Princess Charlotte's having wept 

 on the inability of the Whigs to form a Cabinet on Perceval's death. 

 The lines were the cause of vehement attacks in the Government 

 papers. 



