H4 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, ix 



Charlotte Wedgwood to her brother Henry Allen Wedgwood. 



MY DEAR HARRY, PARIS March 19 



We arrived here last Saturday, after being from 

 Wednesday morning on the road. We found a letter from 

 Madame Collos at the Barrier, directing us where to go, and 

 we found very pleasant lodgings at 1'Hotel du Mont Blanc, 

 rue de la Paix; it is a very gay situation. . . . Yesterday 

 we drank tea with Mme Collos, and after tea went to see 

 the scholars of the dancing-master who teaches the children 

 to dance. I was very much amused with little Louis, who 

 pressed me and the little girls very much to dance, and 

 when at last he prevailed on Fanny, he made her an elegant 

 bow and kissed her hand with as good a grace as Sir Charles 

 Grandison could, which had a very ridiculous effect, as the 

 little gentleman is but seven years old and very little for his 

 age; and when we got up to go to the dancing-school, he 

 took out Emma, gave her his arm, and led her off. Friday 20. 

 Yesterday was the grand procession of Longchamps, which 

 we made part of; it was the gayest sight I ever saw, the 

 day was beautiful and there were such crowds of people that 

 it appeared as if Paris must have emptied itself. They 

 were all dressed in the gayest colours, and some of the 

 equipages were most magnificent, particularly the Duke of 

 Wellington's, which was the finest of all. We got into the 

 line of carriages and were more than two hours before we 

 got home. Sismondi drank tea with us, he talked a great 

 deal ; he is not near so ugly as he has always been represented 

 to us. I should like to see more of him. We have a maid 

 named Aglae who gives us some amusement from being so 

 exceedingly French; she makes a good contrast with our 

 valet de place, who is the stupidest German that ever was 

 seen, and she makes heavy complaints of his stupidity; 

 when first he came, and she found that his name was Paul, 

 " Ah monsieur," she said, ' c'est dommage que je ne suis 

 pas Virginie." 



