The latter we all thought very
strikingly resembled in his appearance the poet Longfellow.
After lunch the whole party ascended to the picture-gallery, passing
on our way the grand staircase and hall, said to be the most
magnificent in Europe. The company now began to assemble and throng
the gallery, and very soon the vast room was crowded. Among the throng
I remember many presentations, but of course must have forgotten many
more. Archbishop Whateley was there, with Mrs. and Miss Whateley;
Macaulay, with two of his sisters; Milman, the poet and historian; the
Bishop of Oxford, Chevalier Bunsen and lady, and many more.
When all the company were together, Lord Shaftesbury read a very
short, kind, and considerate address in behalf of the ladies of
England, expressive of their cordial welcome.
This Stafford House meeting, in any view of it, is a most remarkable
fact. Kind and gratifying as its arrangements have been to me, I am
far from appropriating it to myself individually as a personal honor.
I rather regard it as the most public expression possible of the
feelings of the women of England on one of the most important
questions of our day, that of individual liberty considered in its
religious bearings.
On this occasion the Duchess of Sutherland presented Mrs. Stowe with a
superb gold bracelet, made in the form of a slave's shackle, bearing
the inscription: "We trust it is a memorial of a chain that is soon to
be broken.
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