"
The summer part of this winter Miss Beaufort reluctantly consented
should be sacrificed to ceremony, in the dust and heat of a great
city; and if the melancholy which daily increased upon Sir Robert
since the death of his wife had not rendered her averse to oppose his
wishes, she certainly would have made objections to the visit.
During the journey, she could not refrain from drawing a comparison
to Miss Dorothy between the dissipated insipidity of Lady Dundas's
way of life and the rationality as well as splendor of her late
lamented aunt's.
Lady Somerset's monthly assemblies were not the most elegant and
brilliant parties in town, but her weekly _conversaziones_
surpassed everything of the kind in the kingdom. On these nights her
ladyship's rooms used to be filled with the most eminent characters
which England could produce. There the young Mary Beaufort listened
to pious divines of every Christian persuasion. There she gathered
wisdom from real philosophers; and in the society of our best living
poets, amongst whom were those leaders of our classic song, Rogers
and William Southey, and the amiable Jerningham, cherished an
enthusiasm for all that is great and good. On these evenings Sir
Robert Somerset's house reminded the visitor of what he had read or
imagined of the school of Athens. He beheld not only sages, soldiers,
statesmen, and poets, but intelligent and amiable women.
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