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[Illustration: THE VISCOUNTESS ANSON]
The following papers, which extend over a space of nearly seventy yearsduring a most interesting period of our National History, may be said toform a sequel and a conclusion to two previous publications, Coke ofNorfolk and his Friends, which appeared in 1906, and Annals of aYorkshire House, which appeared in 1911. They are, however, moreessentially a continuation of the latter, in which the Cannon Hallmuniments and anecdotes were brought down to the years 1805-6, from whichdate the narrative is resumed in the present volume.
In that first series of Papers which was published in the Annals, the bulkof the correspondence centred round the personality of Walter Spencer-Stanhope, M.P., who lived from 1749 to 1821. In the present series, thecorrespondence 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 onlythose have survived which found their way back to the old Yorkshire housewhence so many of them had originally set forth with their messages oflove and home tidings, and which were there preserved, eventually, by thegrandmother of the present writer, Lady Elizabeth, wife of John Stanhopeand daughter of the celebrated 'Coke of Norfolk.'
The following book, therefore, is appropriately termed the "Letter-bag" ofthe lady to whom its existence is due, although her personal contributionto its contents does not commence before the year 1822, when she firstbecame a member of the family circle of its correspondents. In it, inbrief, is represented the social existence of two generations and thecurrent gossip of over half-a-century, as first set forth by their nimblepens in all the freshness of novelty. Thus it is an ever-shifting scene towhich we are introduced. We become one with the daily life of a bygonecentury, with a family party absorbed in a happy, busy existence. Wemingle with the gay throng at the routs and assemblies which theyfrequented. We meet the "very fine" beaux at whom they mocked, and the"raging belles" whom they envied. Then the scene changes, and we are outon the ocean with Cuthbert Collingwood, in our ears rings a clash of armslong since hushed, a roar of cannon which has been silent throughout thepassing of a century, while we gauge with a grim realisation the iron thatentered 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 oncemore in the gay world of ton, with its petty gossip and its pettyaims…. Later, other figures move across the boards; Wellington, as theball-giver, the gallant chevalier des dames; Napoleon, in his bonnet denuit, a mysterious, saturnine figure; his subordinates, who shared hisgreed without the dignity of its magnitude; next, in strange contrast,Coke of Norfolk, the peaceful English squire, seen thus for the firsttime—not as a public character, a world-wide benefactor—but in theintimacy of his domestic life, as "Maje