London, January 18, 1858
These letters, though not very interesting, show the impression a completely new life made on a young girl, and how easily amused people were in those days. I associated in England mainly with those who were nearly double my age, yet I was perfectly happy. Lord Alfred Paget had taken me under his special care, and I was highly amused by his eccentricities. His clothes, even in the evening, were tattered and torn, such as certainly were never before seen at any court, but I was told he was l'enfant gâté, and the Queen did not mind anything he did. One afternoon he took Marie Lynar, who had a letter from her grandmother to the Duke of Sutherland, and me to Stafford House, where we found the whole family assembled at tea. Lord Alfred, without hardly greeting anybody, at once sat down on the floor before the fire. Nobody seemed to notice this, and he rolled backwards and forwards the whole time we were there, like an old sea-dog in the sun. I made a mental note that if ever again anybody taxed the English people with being stiff I would bring forward this example.
Paget, Lady Walburga. Embassies of Other Days And Further Recollections, Vol. I. George H. Doran Company, 1923.