Saturday, the 14th, and 'tis now exactly three
weeks since I began this letter. I know not what you will think of
this, but, indeed, I am almost worn out with the ceaseless
occupations of one sort and another that are crowded into every
day, and the impossibility of commanding one hour's quiet out of
the twenty-four....

I am afraid we shall not come to Ireland this summer, after all, my
dear H----. The Dublin manager and my father have not come to
terms, and I hear Miss Inverarity (a popular singer) is engaged
there, so that I conclude we shall not act there this season. This
is so great a disappointment to me that I cannot say anything
whatever about it. I have been acting Lady Teazle for Mr. Bartley
and my father's benefit. It seems to have pleased the public very
well. Without caring for it much myself, I find it light and
amusing work, and much easier for me than Lady Townley, because it
is a natural and that an entirely artificial character; the whole
tone and manners, too, of Sheridan's rustic belle are much more
within my scope than those of the woman of fashion of Sir John
Vanbrugh's play.

On Friday we had our first rehearsal of "Hernani," at Bridgewater
House, and I was greatly surprised with some of the acting, which,
allowing for a little want of technical experience, was, in Mr.
Craven's instance, really very good. He is the grandson of old Lady
Craven, the Margravine of Anspach, and enacts the hero of the
piece, which I think he will do very well. The whole play, I think,
will be fairly acted for an amateur performance. Lord and Lady
Francis have pressed my mother very much to go down for a little
while to Oatlands, the beautiful place close to Weybridge, which
belonged to the Duke of York, and of which they have taken a lease.
My mother has accepted their invitation, and looks forward with
great pleasure to revisiting her dear Weybridge. I know a good deal
more of that lovely neighborhood and all its wild haunts than the
present proprietors of Oatlands. Lady Francis is a famous
horsewoman, and told me by way of inducement to go there that we
would gallop all over the country together, which sounded very
pleasant....

I called on my aunt Siddons the other day, and was shocked to find
her looking wretchedly ill; she has n