Letter from Jessey Mary de Lariss, Nice, to Madam Rose Blaze de Bury, 1844? March 24 : autograph manuscript signed.

Chiding Blaze de Bury for not writing or responding to her last letter; remarking that she has been enjoying her current season and that she has "been made a good deal of, & am thought more of here than I could be in larger places"; writing that (her sister) Henrietta has related to her some stories about "princess Mestscheski[?]" and asking for information about "Mme. Cazalot" ("Did her husband keep a menage as they sat here? She is an agreeable person & her daughter a nice pretty young thing, but they toadied Mme d'Istrie to a great degree & allow gentlemen to go to them after twelve o clock at night to smoke in their drawing room"); asking if Mme, d'Istrie is respectable, observing that "She is a very charming person, her manners are so sweet & gracious ... but she did go on in a funny way some times as did likewise her niece Madelle. de Champagny"; complaining that she has suffered from a cold caught while playing a game of "running at rings on horseback planned by the marquis de Ste. Croix et sa jolie femme" and giving an account of the event; discussing the various events and amusements she has been obliged to miss owing to her illness, mentioning Lady Lumley and discussing Duchess of Bedford and her daughter Lady Rachel Russell (later Lady Rachel Butler), who lived opposite them and who "took such a wonderful liking to us that never a day passed without our seeing", and confessing that though she found the Duchess to be "extremely kind & good natured" she found Lady Rachel to be a "silly & very much spoiled young lady of nearly eighteen who insisted on making me her confidante"; relating an anecdote told by a clergyman referring to the immodest design of a ball dress worn by Madame d'Istrie; saying that M. de la Mazeliere(?), "the cold satirical severe M: Alfred is over head & ears & shoulders I think in love with the most atrocious impudent coquette I ever saw in my life"; discussing further news and gossip of mutual acquaintances.