Transcribed from the 1904 Smith, Elder and Co. edition by JaneDuff and proofed ,

LETTERS
FROM ENGLAND

1846–1849

BY
ELIZABETH DAVIS BANCROFT
(Mrs. GEORGE BANCROFT)

WITHPORTRAITS AND VIEWS

SMITH, ELDER & CO.
LONDON : : : : : : : 1904

Copyright,1903, by Charles Scribner’s Sons, for Great Britain andthe
United States of America.

Printed bythe Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company
New York, U. S. A.

PREFACE

Elizabeth Davis Bancroft, thewriter of these letters, was the youngest child and only daughterof William and Rebecca Morton Davis, and was born at Plymouth,Mass., in October, 1803.  She often spoke in later times ofwhat a good preparation for her life abroad were the years shespent at Miss Cushing’s school at Hingham, and of hervisits to her uncles, Judge Davis and Mr. I. P. Davis ofBoston.  In 1825 she married Alexander Bliss, a brilliantyoung lawyer and a junior partner of Daniel Webster.  On hisdeath a few years later, her father having died, her mother andbrother formed a household with her and her two sons in WinthropPlace, Boston.  As a young girl in Plymouth she became agreat friend of the future Mrs. Emerson and later of Mr. Emersonand of Mr. and Mrs. Ripley, and through them was much interestedin Brook Farm.

In 1838 she married George Bancroft, the historian andstatesman, who was then Collector of the Port of Boston and awidower with three children.  They continued to live inWinthrop Place till 1845, when for one year Mr. Bancroft wasSecretary of the Navy in Polk’s cabinet.  While he wasin that position the Naval Academy at Annapolis was established;and he played an important part in the earlier stages of theMexican War.  In the fall of 1846 he became Minister toEngland.  It was then that the letters were written fromwhich these extracts have been taken.  A number of passagesnot of general interest have been omitted, without anyindications of such omission in the text, but in no case has anychange in a sentence been made.  Most of the letters are inthe form of a diary and were addressed to immediate relatives,and none of them were written for publication; but owing to thestanding of Mr. Bancroft as a man of letters, as well as hisofficial station, the writer saw London life under an unusualvariety of interesting aspects.

In 1849 Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft returned to this country, andMr. Bancroft occupied himself with his history until 1868, whenhe was for seven years Minister to Prussia and the GermanEmpire.  At the expiration of that time they took up theirresidence in Washington, where they lived during the remainder oftheir lives.

PORTRAITS AND VIEWS