Reminiscences of a Diplomatist's Wife
Hugh Mrs. Fraser
eBook
(, July 15, 2009)
This volume was published in 1913 and contains further reminiscences of a diplomatist's wife in many lands. From the book's Introduction: Since the following is a book of reminiscences, I think I am justified in opening it with one from a side of my life for which no place has been found either in this or the preceding volumes. Some years ago I was honored by an invitation to lecture before a certain distinguished Literary Society comprising among its members many old friends of my own. The pleasure I felt in being about to address these dear people on a subject rather close to their hearts caused me to forget the etiquette usually practised on such occasions. When the final notes of the over- ture died away, I skipped lightly up the steps to the stage; but a strong hand pulled me down, and the President's stern whisper sounded in my ear, " Hold on, hold on ! I must introduce you ! " Feeling very small, I shrank back among the palms and azaleas, while the kind President sounded my praises to the audience, in terms so far beyond my merits that when he drew me forth from my hiding place I was overcome with confusion. For a minute or two I could not find my voice, and I had something like an attack of stage-fright. But I had been introduced! It seems that this book must go through the same ceremony. It came back to me from the Publishers with the curt intimation, " Introduction required." What shall I say of it ? Only this, that it was asked for by the readers of its predecessors and that I hope they will be as kind to it as they were to them. Two years ago, with many tremors and hesitations, I sent the " Diplomatist's Wife in Many Lands " out into the world, trusting that its shortcomings would be forgiven for the sake of certain new and true things it had to tell. Its reception overwhelmed me. The generous appreciation of far greater writers than myself, and the delighted sympathies of readers were conveyed to me by every mail, till my hermitage in the Rockies became peopled by a host of kindred spirits, loving what I loved, enjoying what I enjoyed, and all asking for " more." If the " more " is somewhat less connected than the narrative in the former volumes, that is because many events and experi- ences in my life had to be omitted there for want of space. Such as they are, may the following pages give some pleasure to the readers who have crowned my other work with so much kind approval and heartened the writer's lonely way with so much encouragement. To that encouragement the present venture is due, and to their judgment I commit it, only begging that they will be "to its virtues very kind, to its faults a little blind." Mary Crawford Fraser WiNTHROP, August 24, 1912 Chapters: - From the Odescalchi to Buckingham Palace - In and Out of Bavaria - Sovereigns, Treaties, and Traditions - In Polish Prussia - Tyrants, Soldiers, and Sailors - Friends and Friendly Places - North of the Alps - Sunshine and Shadow in the Penisola - Ravello, Capri, and Ischia - Our Lady of the Rosary at Pompeii - Life at Villa Crawford - The Out-Trail - Purely Domestic - In a South American Capital - Spanish-American Ways and Traditions - " Battle, Murder, and Sudden Death ! ............................................................................... Other books by this author, who also published under the name of Mary Crawford: - A Maid of Japan - Letters from Japan, a Record of Modern Life in the Island Empire - Storied Italy - The Custom of the Country; tales of New Japan - The Stolen Emperor - Italian Yesterdays - Seven Years on the Pacific Slopes - The Shaking of the Sword; Tales of the Far East