Letter from Priscilla Anne Fane, Countess of Westmorland, Vienna, to Madame Blaze de Bury, 1854 January 29 : autograph manuscript signed.

Acknowledging receipt of a letter and a copy of Madame de Bury's book (i.e. Memoirs of the Princess Palatine) bearing a dedication to the Countess of Westmorland; remarking that she would prefer to read Madame de Buy's book and forget about "the Eastern question", which she hates for keeping Julian (her husband) "perpetually employed in red tape business when I shd wish his pen to be very differently occupied"; writing that she is busy (with chaperoning her daughter) as it is carnival season and "all Vienne is dancing mad", although the Emperor "does not now dance out of sentiment for his future bride with whom he is desperately in love", it being "the wonder of old and young here to see him ... resisting Strauss's last new waltz's & the imploring looks of his (formerly) favorite partners."; commenting on the happy and carefree disposition of the Austrians; expressing her continued grief at the death of her neice, Sarah Esterhazy, and her regret at hearing that Lord Brougham is unwell; sending her regards to Meyerbeer, and saying that she has thought of writing to him, "but I know when he is engaged in rehearsals - he is lost to everthing else", and that she will write "when he has been safely delivered ... & tell him how his operas are done here."; mentioning that they have in Vienna "a tenor with a dividne voice" who has "so wonderfully improved under an Italian master that he is now the best Raoul I have heard since Duprez - & creates a perfect furore in that part."