42 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, ni 



Sara came here on Friday to dinner, having spent a 

 day in George Street in her way, one of the few luckily 

 that Mackintosh was at home. She is to see Mme de Stael 

 either next Saturday or Sunday at Mackintosh's. He 

 gave her so kind a reception and was so agreeable as to 

 send her to us in high spirits. I wish her visit may turn 

 out well for her, but I think we were bold to ask her, yet if 

 she can see Mme de Stael once or twice she would put up 

 with much. 



Fanny [Allen] ought to have written to you. She has 

 been staying a fortnight lately at the seat of intellect, but 

 she has brought us home very little. Mackintosh does not 

 seem much better, and I am afraid will not be well enough 

 to cut a figure in Paliament this Session, or do anything 

 but chat with the old Dowagers. Lady Holland and 

 Mme de Stael have entered the lists together and divide the 

 prize, and terribly does he lose his precious time between 

 them. I wish the latter had remained longer with the 

 Crown Prince. 1 Fanny went to a party at her house but 

 heard more music than conversation, but Mme de Stael 

 talked to her, and seemed at last to know her, and said 

 she was very pretty. 



I have just been reading Anne Cald well's 2 play and am 

 delighted with it. It has infinitely surpassed my expecta- 

 tions. She is a person of extraordinary genius I think. 

 The poetry is really beautiful. I hardly ever read anything 

 that filled my mind with more poetic images; the scenery 

 is exquisite, and there is a warmth, a purity and delicacy 

 in the sentiment I have scarcely ever met with, and that is 

 very delightful. The songs are excessively pretty. I want 

 to read again Miss Baillie's 3 " Hope," which I thought the 

 prettiest of her compositions, yet, from memory, I doubt if 

 Anne's is not a more delightful thing. This would rank 

 Anne very high in genius, as Miss Baillie was ranked by 

 :,lackintosh, when in India, as the third greatest living 



1 Bernadotte became Crown Prince of Sweden in 1810. 



2 Afterwards Mrs Marsh, author of Two Old Men's Tales, etc. 



3 Joanna Baillie, who had then a great reputation, best known by 

 her Plays on the Passions. 



