re hospitable and agreeable than that of the
late Mr. John Murray, in Albemarle Street. His dinner parties were
brilliant, with all the poets and literary characters of the day, and
Mr. Murray himself was gentlemanly, full of information, and kept up the
conversation with spirit. He generously published the "Mechanism of the
Heavens" at his own risk, which, from its analytical character, could
only be read by mathematicians.

Besides those I have mentioned we had a numerous acquaintance who were
neither learned nor scientific; and at concerts at some of their houses
I enjoyed much hearing the great artists of the day, such as Pasta,
Malibran, Grisi, Rubini, &c., &c. We knew Lucien Buonaparte, who gave me
a copy of his poems, which were a failure.

I had become acquainted with Madame de Montalembert, who was an
Englishwoman, and was mother of the celebrated Comte; she was very
eccentric, and at that time was an Ultra-Protestant. One day she came to
ask me to go and drive in the Park with her, and afterwards dine at her
house, saying, "We shall all be in high dresses." So I accepted, and on
entering the drawing-room, found a bishop and several clergymen, Lady
Olivia Sparrow, and some other ladies, all in high black satin dresses
and white lace caps, precisely the dress I wore, and I thought it a
curious coincidence. The party was lively enough, and agreeable, but the
conversation was in a style I had never heard before--in fact, it
affected the phraseology of the Bible. We all went after dinner to a
sort of meeting at Exeter Hall, I quite forget for what purpose, but our
party was on a kind of raised platform. I mentioned this to a friend
afterwards, and the curious circumstance of our all being dressed alike.
"Do you not know," she said, "that dress is assumed as a distinctive
mark of the Evangelical party! So you were a wolf in sheep's clothing!"

I had been acquainted with the Miss Berrys at Raith, when visiting their
cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson. Mary, the eldest, was a handsome,
accomplished woman, who from her youth had lived in the most
distinguished society, both at home and abroad. She published a
"Comparative View of Social Life in France and England," which was well
received by the public. She was a Latin scholar, spoke and wrote French
fluently, yet with all these advantages, the consciousness that she
might have done something better, had female education been less
frivolous, gave her a characteristic mel