collected.  Many very brilliant ladies of the first distinction were present.  The dancing commenced about ten, and the rooms soon filled.  The room which he had built for this purpose is large enough for five or six hundred persons.  It is most elegantly decorated, hung with a gold tissue, ornamented with twelve brilliant cut lustres, each containing twenty-four candles.  At one end there are two large arches; these were adorned with wreaths and bunches of artificial flowers upon the walls; in the alcoves were cornucopiae loaded with oranges, sweetmeats, and other trifles.  Coffee, tea, lemonade, orgeat, and so forth, were taken here by every person who chose to go for them.  There were covered seats all around the room for those who chose to dance.  In the other rooms, card tables, and a large faro table, were set; this is a new kind of game, which is much practiced here.  Many of the company who did not dance retired here to amuse themselves.  The whole style of the house and furniture is such as becomes the ambassador from one of the first monarchies in Europe.  He had twenty thousand guineas allowed him in the first instance to furnish his house, and an annual salary of ten thousand more.  He has agreeably blended the magnificence and splendor of France with the neatness and elegance of England.  Your cousin had unfortunately taken a cold a few days before, and was very unfit to go out.  She appeared so unwell that about one we retired without staying for supper, the sight of which only I regretted, as it was, in style, no doubt, superior to anything I have seen.  The Prince of Wales came about eleven o’clock.  Mrs. Fitzherbert was also present, but I could not distinguish her.  But who is this lady? methinks I hear you say.  She is a lady to whom, against the laws of the realm, the Prince of Wales is privately married, as is universally believed.  She appears with him in all public parties, and he avows his marriage wherever he dares.  They have been the topic of conversation in all companies for a long time, and it is now said that a young George may be expected in the course of the summer.  She was a widow of about thirty-two years of age, whom he a long time persecuted in order to get her upon his own terms; but finding he could not succeed, he quieted her conscience by matrimony, which, however valid in the eye of heaven, is set aside by the laws of the land, which forbids a prince of the blood to marry a subject.  As to dresses, I believe I must leave them to be described to your sister.  I am sorry I have nothing better to send you than a sash and a Vandyke ribbon.  The narrow is to put round the edge of a hat, or you may trim whatever you please with it.

HENRY ADAMS

(1838-)

The gifts of expression and literary taste which have always characterized the Adams family are most prominently represented by this historian.  He has also its great memory, power of acquisition, intellectual independence, and energy of nature.  The latter is tempered in him with inherited self-control, the moderation of judgment bred by wide historical knowledge, and a pervasive atmosphere of literary good-breeding which constantly substitutes allusive irony for crude statement, the rapier for the tomahawk.