Mary Elizabeth Wilson Sherwood

“ Countess Waldegrave, who had risen from the lowly position of the daughter of Braham, the singer, to being one of the first women in English society — a woman as famous in her day as Lady Cassell Holland was in hers — rendered herself completely up to Badeau's pencil; and the sketches of the Queen, the visit of General Grant to the Prince of Wales, all of which he witnessed, have become historical through his facile pen.
Lady Verney confided to General Badeau, as she did to me at her own house, her displeasure at the revelations of Mrs. Stowe in regard to Lord and Lady Byron. ”

“ In this my first visit to London I was struck with the intellectual tone of certain houses. Men of distinction, artists, and authors were invited everywhere and made much of. Literary and intellectual questions came into the gayest salons. Those agreeable men, the English clergy, seemed omnipresent, and London was a metropolis of science, letters, and the fine arts. Having been introduced by Mr. Motley, it was possible that we saw more that was polished and intellectual than we should have done otherwise ”

“ The only explanation which friends of Lady Byron could give me as to this discrepancy was that Lady Byron was not at all times perfectly sane; but Lady Verney believed differently, and was not at all sparing in her criticisms of Mrs. Stowe.
We came home in November, to begin again that home life which was not to be disturbed for many years; but the education and delight of this first visit were not to be measured by words.
There are three things which astonish an American beyond the power of expression on a first visit to Europe. ”

“ Lord Houghton was so very individual a man that it was impossible to call him a typical Englishman. He liked to gather oddities and geniuses around his table, and he was always particularly friendly to Americans. ”

“ Millionaires may paint their beautiful ceilings and hang the tapestries of Flemish looms on their walls, yet the most delicate intelligence, the most perfect taste, cannot give that last touch which Time so unconsciously adds ”

“ These differences of temperament are utterly beyond our control. Tennyson and Carlyle could never endure Americans, nor do I believe Disraeli was much more tolerant, although always most polished. But there were hearty friends of ours in London, enough to make a visit there most enjoyable ”

“ I remember Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, Lord Houghton, Sir John Bowring, Tom Taylor, the dramatist; Sir Harry and Lady Verney, Mr. Beresford (at Hampton Court) , and Mr. Holford as among our earliest friends. We had letters to Dean Stanley, to the Bishop of London, to the Bishop of Chester, and to the Bishop of Rochester, from our bishop Horatio Potter, of New York; and we had our own Mr. Motley and General Badeau, who never forgot us for a moment.
The presentations to the Queen were over for the season (it was late in June) ”