Letter from Lady Sarah Lyttelton to her mother, Countess Spencer, [early October] 1813

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

162–164

text excerpt

We performed our plan of visiting the Comtesse Piper; but found it quite impossible to leave her after one day, and accordingly spent two whole ones in her great house. […] She received us with extreme kindness, and I am sure I would give a great deal to have staid a few weeks at Löfstad. The rest of the company there were her two sons, and the wife and belle-mère of the eldest, and the Duc de Pienne. […] The order of the house is altogether, I dare say, very French—everybody doing just what they liked: playing at billiards, singing, walking, going up to one’s own appartement if one chose, and working au grand métier de la Comtesse, who is making un meuble charmant, not unassisted by the Duc de P. But the passion of all the family is music; and to be sure it is the most delicious music. Great heaps of duets and trios by all the best Italian composers are laying about, and they are sung in the very truest Italian style by the Comtesse Axel Piper, her husband, and le Comte Charles, the youngest son. The two men have glorious voices, and none of them sing the least out of tune; and they begin quite as if they could not help it, in parts, accompanied by a guitar or a pianoforte, and go on thro’ the evening if one chuses, in the most delightful way. It was so extremely great a pleasure to me the first evening, it quite made me tremble to hear them; such a surprize as it was, too; when I had made up my mind to some horrid squalling, upon the Duc de P. saying that, “II faut absolument dénoncer à Miladi les musiciens qui se trouvent ici,” and leading the way with a French cadence into the music room. . . .[Editor’s note: The rest of this letter is lost.]

excerpt from 'Letter from Lady Sarah Lyttelton to her mother, Countess Spencer, [early October] 1813' pp. 162–164 (321 words)

1541430404121:

1541430404121