74 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, v 



In 1815 the John Wedgwoods were living at Exeter, 

 where were also Mrs Drewe and her family. Emma and 

 Fanny Allen spent part of their homeless years there with 

 their sisters, Caroline Drewe and Jane Wedgwood. Emma 

 Allen thus describes her sister's house (July 22, 1815): 

 ' Jenny is one of the sweetest creatures God ever made, 

 and I thank Him ten thousand times that I have you and 

 her for sisters. I am sure it would be worth going many 

 hundred miles for the sake of a reception from either of you. 

 The furniture in this house is so good; it abounds so with 

 flowers and there is such an air of elegance about it, that 

 you cannot feel that its lovely mistress is misplaced in it." 



Fanny Allen to her sister Mrs Josiah Wedgwood. 



BARING PLACE, EXETER, August 2nd, [1815]. 



MY DEAR BESSY, 



I congratulate you on having your boys with you, 

 on having seen Miss O'Neil and on John [Allen]'s having 

 another son, but I do not congratulate you on Buonaparte's 

 being in England, or the state of affairs in France, which 

 I think detestable. I hope Davoust will preserve the 

 army of the Loire, and defend France successfully against 

 the Allies. Caroline [Drewe] and I have made a compact 

 that we are not to talk politics, or I believe it would be 

 more just if I were to say that I am never to say a word 

 about politics either to her or before her, and this she says 

 is all for my good. I have not one on my side, therefore it 

 is as well to be silent. I hope I shall find you all stout 

 Whigs on our return, to recompense me for the pain I have 

 suffered to hear such atrocious sentiments expressed about 

 France as I have done since I have been in the sweet county 

 of Devonshire. I wish Joe would chaperon us this autumn 

 to Italy, by the way of Germany. I would rather not see 

 Paris in its present state. . . . 



Your letter to Emma [Allen] is just come in and it is 

 refreshing to me to hear a humane sentiment respecting 

 Buonaparte. John Wedgwood has a strong inclination to 

 go to Paris, and, if he meets with anyone who is going that 



