Monday, December 25, 1826

1826

December

Monday 25

7

2 5/60

very fine frostyish  morning Fahrenheit   36° at 8 a.m.  /  39  – 12 3/4 p.m.

My bowels wrong again this morning two or three little hard lumps but never a black bad colour –

In my salon at 8 – Breakfast at 10 1/4 in 20 minutes.  before and after, wrote my 3 letters, and looked over my summaries and made a careful calculation of my probable expenses till after the midsummer, to know that I had ordered enough in, directed Messers to remit £400 to Messers Hammersley and Company –

At 11 1/2, sent off (having copied them all) my letters to ‘Messers Rawson, Bankers, Halifax, Yorkshire, Angleterre’ to ‘Mr. James Briggs, Wards End, Halifax, Yorkshire, Angleterre’, and to ‘Messers Hammersleys and Company, Bankers, Pall Mall, London, Angleterre’ –

Then at 12 or 1/4 before read my letter which came from Mariana (Lawton) about 11 – 3 pages and the ends and under the seal – Very small and close – Enclosing the one half of a ten pounds Bank of England note – I like not the account of herself – her pages are all I wish – More of them when I have more leisure – ’Tis 12 10/60 – I must finish dressing – I must go out –

I am very bilious this morning for the 1st time since I have been in Paris ! – We must have prayers this morning – I like not having all this to do on Christmas day – It must not be again – If we rejoice, we must have time to say our prayers first –

Just finished dressing and wrote the last 2 lines at 12 3/4 – Went to speak to my aunt a little, and then went out about 1 1/4 –

Called at Michel’s (the pastry cook’s), thence to rue du Marché St. Honoré, bought a French (i.e. long shaped) butter pot, and then at the fruiterers over the way.  Not choosing to give 0/80 for a cauliflower, bought a pound at 0/70) Brussels, which on seeing them at table, found would have been enough for twice – In returning along the rue St. Honoré, bought 10 at two-sols, flat sausages (8 would have been quite enough) and 2 little round Neufchatel cheeses, and brought all these things home under my shawl – Then went back to Michel’s and got wine, a glass of Madeira (at 0/50) for pudding sauce to which, said he, add a tablespoon-full of brandy (just give it a warm and shape-up in the sauce but don’t let it boil) and it will give it the taste of almonds and make it good – So it would, had McDonald managed it properly – But it was too thick – Too puddingy – Brought this home, talked a little while to my aunt , then (there being no choice of reading prayers, George and McDonald so busy! McDonald is to my mind a sad daudle).

At 2 55/60, went to Michel’s for the sugared plum cake I had chosen for Madame Galvani.  Put it under my shawl, went through the gardens, and got it safe to Madame Galvani – On opening it, found it not the glazed, but the plain cake we were to have ourselves – through a mistake about these cakes, I had a layer (3 1/4 lb. pounds ) plum cake at home – Madame Galvani chose this, for I would make her choose, as being the largest, and after sitting about an hour with her, returned and found her ‘Harlequin’ Ellen, or Hélène, her country woman, waiting to exchange the cakes – In returning, bought 2 small oranges at Gilbert’s at 0/25 each, having been asked 7, 8, 12 sols elsewhere for what would not have suited me better –

Got home at 4 1/2 – Sent off the cake – Then set out the dessert – Had George in, and told him how it was to be put on the table – Dawdling over all this to which I am so little inclined or accustomed took me an hour – Then changed my dress –

Mrs. Barlow and Jane arrived exactly at 6 – I went to them at 6 10/60 – Found them all sitting over a bad fire in darkness – the 8 candles (tallows) put in the candelabra not being lighted – I would have had wax, but thought it best not to alarm my aunt, who would have taken fright at the idea of the expense (I shall burn those I have for myself in my own salon) –

Waited till 6 50/60 – then summonsed to the soup – From the time of taking this away to bringing the plum-pudding was an hour – She would weary me to death – Impossible to have anyone to dinner – She has no judgment – Had done all the sausages, and all the Brussels sprouts, and thus filled the dishes to absolute vulgarity – The pudding so stiff I could scarce get the spoon into it – The sauce like a thin batter – The soup, ordered to be gravy-soup, looking like hare soup, thick, and anything but what it ought to be – The fire had been suffered to out in the stove, and Mrs. and Miss Barlow were shivering – The bottle of Champaigne after getting the porter’s pliers to untwist the wire, was perfectly dead – the bottle of Lafitte tolerable, merely tolerable –

The Dessert could not fail to be good – 32 roasted chestnuts, plum cake (on the top of which I had stuck the very pretty and excellent 5 branches of artificial sugar strawberries and raspberries on stalks with green leaves), stewed pears, 6 oranges, plate of Craesanne and St. Germain Pears, 1 pound raisins, 1/2 pound almonds in the shell, 3/4 pound bonbons, and 1 pound (all but 2 or 3 cakes) of abricots faigrés –

The dinner McDonald was so long about was merely soup, roast beef, sausages upon mashed potatoes, potatoes browned under the meat, and Brussels sprouts – Having waited so long, the cheese and cold butter were never put upon the table – We left the dining room at 9 25/60 –

Had tea at 10, and the plate came and macarons and cold bread and butter – Mrs. and Miss Barlow staid till 12, then went away in a fiacre I having sent George to order it – Jane is excessively childish, looking to Mamma as if before she knew whether to take a thing or not, and mamma is a dull companion for a Christmas party – Nor is she a thorough gentlewoman in her manners.  Somehow there was a something about her at table in her manner of helping or attending to my aunt I did not admire  On shewing Mrs. Barlow the teapot etc. etc. I had bought, she said thought my great pleasure was to spend my money – I would not have her given or thrown after me.  I have made this same observation before.  Since Mariana went, I neither respect nor in any way admire Mrs. Barlow. She is only fit for home, and there she would mope me to death –

On coming to my room at 12 1/4 put by all the fragments of the dessert into my store cupboard – Dawdling over 1 thing or other – Having eaten more than usual felt as if I could have a motion.  Did a very little then sat on the pot quarter in vain –

This Christmas day has neither been well nor happily spent – Mariana observed perhaps the next Christmas may be spent in different society – Would it may be better spent, and spent with her ! –

Just before getting into bed, found my cousin come –

WYAS Finding Numbers SH:7/ML/E/10/0035 and SH:7/ML/E/10/0036