206 [CHAP, xv 



CHAPTER XV 



18271830 



The Mackintoshes at Maer A bazaar at Newcastle Bessy on the 

 Drewe-PreVost affair The house in York Street sold The 

 John Wedgwoods abroad Edward Drewe's marriage The 

 Mackintoshes at Clapham Bessy's illness at Koehampton 

 Harriet Surtees at Chene Harry Wedgwood's engagement 

 A gay week at Woodhouse. 



FANNY and Emma found a large party at Maer on their 

 return from Geneva. The aunts Caroline Drewe and 

 Harriet Surtees were there, as well as the Mackintoshes. It 

 was soon after the death of Mr Surtees, and Emma wrote as 

 if before this visit she had scarcely seen her aunt Harriet, 

 whom she thought more like her mother than any of her other 

 aunts. The Mackintoshes had come for a stay of six months. 

 Book-shelves and writing-tables had been specially prepared 

 for Sir James to work at his History. Emma wrote, " Sir 

 James shook hands with me, to my great surprise. He is 

 very pleasant and talkative." Bessy described his bearing 

 the bitter disappointment of getting nothing in Canning's 

 Cabinet 1 with calmness and fortitude, and several times 

 mentioned with pleasure that no shade of disagreement 

 had ever interfered with her enjoyment of her sister Kitty's 

 society. Lady Mackintosh was attempting amongst other 

 things to reform Smithfield cattle market, and some very 

 good letters by her on this subject appeared in the 

 Times. 



1 Canning's Cabinet of 1827 was composed of Whigs and Tories, 

 and, according to Scarlett, Canning was surprised that Mackintosh 

 was not proposed as one of his colleagues by the Whigs. Mackintosh 

 was shortly afterwards made a Privy Councillor, but it seems that he 

 had not made a sufficient mark as a practical politician, or was re- 

 garded as too infirm in health to be fit for any important office. His 

 health had suffered permanently from the Indian climate. In the 

 Whig Government of November. 1830, he was made a Commissioner 

 of the Board of Control. 



