Letter from Frances Mary Blackett du Quaire, London, to Baroness Marie Blaze de Bury, 1854 : autograph manuscript signed with initials.

Expressing her longing to be in Paris with Madame Blaze de Bury; mentioning that she saw Lady (Elizabeth) Easthope and that she "made her promise to talk to Murray abt. yr. protegee's M.S.", although she has little expectation "of his doing anything", and adding "I am sure you didn't read the performance or you must have been struck as I am by its general 'unfitness for publication' at least in its present form"; writing that Mrs. (Harriet) Grote will ask Gustave de Beaumont to review "L'Autriche" and remarking that she had not realized that he was an intimate friend of hers, that she had asked the de Beaumonts to stay with them in London, but that they are not coming, and she therefore thinks it best "to get at him with the intervention of Toqueville"; noting that Toqueville has been in poor health; describing her enjoyment of the opera Rigoletto and singling out the performance of (Giorgio) Ronconi as particularly great; mentioning news of the war ("Dundas is ready to hang himself at being obliged to to comply with Ld. Aberdeen's order - to deal as gently with Russia as possible - he knew that the work at Odessa was done incompletely & feared the event wd. prove ... that Odessa ought to have been battered to pieces"); mentioning mutual friends and acquaintances and noting that Matthew Arnold is in London.