The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope, vol 1

The Letter-Bag of Lady
Elizabeth
by A. M. W. Stirling
(compiler)

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth
Spencer-Stanhope v. I., by A. M. W. Stirling (compiler) Copyright laws
are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for
your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other
Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope v. I.

Author: A. M. W. Stirling (compiler)
Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7253] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 31,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS
LADY SPENCER-STANHOPE ***

Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team

[Illustration: THE VISCOUNTESS ANSON]
THE LETTER-BAG OF LADY ELIZABETH
SPENCER-STANHOPE
COMPILED FROM THE CANNON HALL PAPERS, 1806-1873 BY
A. M. W. STIRLING
TWO VOLUMES: VOLUME ONE

"TON IS INDEED A CAMELEON WHOSE HUE CHANGES WITH
EVERY RAY OF LIGHT." ALMACK'S

TO CHARLES G. STIRLING THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED

PREFACE
The following papers, which extend over a space of nearly seventy
years during a most interesting period of our National History, may be
said to form a sequel and a conclusion to two previous publications,
Coke of Norfolk and his Friends, which appeared in 1906, and Annals
of a Yorkshire House, which appeared in 1911. They are, however,
more essentially a continuation of the latter, in which the Cannon Hall
muniments and anecdotes were brought down to the years 1805-6, from
which date the narrative is resumed in the present volume.
In that first series of Papers which was published in the Annals, the
bulk of the correspondence centred round the personality of Walter
Spencer- Stanhope, M.P., who lived from 1749 to 1821. In the present
series, the correspondence is principally addressed to or written by John
Spencer- Stanhope, his son, who lived from 1787 to 1873. Other letters,
doubtless, there were in plenty, to and from other members of the
family, but only those have survived which found their way back to the
old Yorkshire house whence so many of them had originally set forth
with their messages of love and home tidings, and which were there
preserved, eventually, by the grandmother of the present writer, Lady
Elizabeth, wife of John Stanhope and daughter of the celebrated 'Coke
of Norfolk.'
The following book, therefore, is appropriately termed the "Letter-bag"
of the lady to whom its existence is due, although her personal
contribution to its contents does not commence before the year 1822,
when she first became a member of the family circle of its
correspondents. In it, in brief, is represented the social existence of two
generations and the current gossip of over half-a-century, as first set
forth by their nimble pens in all the freshness of novelty. Thus it is an
ever-shifting scene to which we are introduced. We become one with
the daily life of a bygone century, with a family party absorbed in a
happy, busy existence. We mingle with the gay throng at the routs and
assemblies which they frequented. We meet the "very fine" beaux at
whom they mocked, and the "raging belles" whom they envied. Then

the scene changes, and we are out on the ocean with Cuthbert
Collingwood, in our ears rings a clash of arms long since hushed, a roar
of cannon which has been silent throughout the passing of a century,
while we gauge with a grim realisation the iron that entered into the
soul of a strong man battling for his country's gain. Then the black
curtain of death shrouds that scene, and we are back once more in the
gay world of ton, with its petty gossip and its petty aims.... Later, other
figures move across the boards; Wellington, as the ball-giver, the
gallant chevalier des dames; Napoleon, in his bonnet de nuit, a
mysterious, saturnine figure; his subordinates, who shared his greed
without the dignity of its magnitude; next, in strange contrast, Coke of
Norfolk, the peaceful English squire, seen thus for