Letter from Gertrude Valentine FitzPatrick, Thornhill, Scotland, to Madame Blaze de Bury, approximately 1859? September 15 : autograph manuscript signed.

Expressing her pleasure that Madame de Bury has ventured to address her as "Gertrude," thanking her for sending her some music, saying that she has been "very busy practicing the "Air de l'Ombre" (, as she longs to sing it as she heard Madame Miolan (i.e. Marie Caroline Miolan-Carvalho) perform it, although she notes there is "little time for real study of music in a country house, so I shall probably sing nothing as I wish, till I get home"; writing that she is enjoying her stay in Scotland, the company of their hostess (probably Charlotte Baird of Closeburn), whom she has known since childhood, and the "strengthening" qualities of "my native air (for I was born not far from this) ... which one requires after a London season, & particularly after that dreadful diptheria we had in the spring"; writing that they have been playing charades and enjoying the company of Lord Bushby who "has great talent in that line" and whom she describes as "an agreeable companion, & less narrow-minded than most men", regretting that Mr. (Alexander) Kinglake has not yet appeared asking Madame de Bury if she left him in London, saying that they will remain at Thornhill until the end of the month, when they will go to "a meeting at Perth", adding she has a "weakness for dancing, particularly reels", after which she will return home before going ("I hope with all my heart") to Paris in January; remarking that she has forwarded a letter from Madame de Bury to her mother (Augusta FitzPatrick) and noting that her mother does not find Ireland to be very congenial, "it is a sin for one of her superior mind & talent to be so banished"; writes of her fondness for Tennyson, notes that she is reading "his last work 'The Idylls of the King'", and finds "Elaine" to be "so thrilling, & exquisitely graceful", although "as in all romance the woman frankly tells out her love - & says 'I am mad - I love you - let me die' - in real life however deep a woman may love, she may never give it utterance - & sometimes she dies but more often lives on, a death in life!"; saying she is "very glad Mr. Lytton does not regret his marriage" as she would be sorry if he were unhappy, adding "a foreign marriage wd. not suit him I am convinced"; sending Mrs. Baird's love and asking if she has "see Lamartine talk & does he remember 'Marie Antoinette'?"