America

To Lady Olivia Sparrow, August 1814

Your little Anecdotes of Emperors and he[r]oes [sic] were delectable. Yesterday I was able to receive Mr. Addington in my bed chamber who had a Volume of information of the same kind to pour out. But Wellington is his hero. Whose is he not? I had not heard till he told me, that the Duke had the magnanimity as soon as he landed – after five Years of labours and fatigues and difficulties unparalled [sic], after 'hair breadth 'Scapes in the imminent deadly breach'^*– to offer to embark instantly for America if Government wished it! Was it not noble?

To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 13 December [1815]

How have I run on. I never write long letters but to you. Indeed I seldom write at all to my real and beloved friends. My whole time almost goes to strangers. I think I have had no less than eight letters lately from North America where a good spirit of religion seems to prevail while and are as profligate and irreligious as Paris itself.