She had, as we have hinted travelled a good
deal in foreign countries; for a brother, to whom
she was much attached, had been sent upon various
missions of national importance to the continent,
and she had more than once embraced the opportunity
of accompanying him. This furnished a
great addition to the information which she could
supply, especially during the last war, when the
continent was for so many years hermetically scaled
against the English nation. But, besides, Mrs
Bethune Baliol visited different countries, not in the
modern fashion, when English travel in caravans
together, and see in France and Italy little besides
the same society which they might have enjoyed
at home. On the contrary, she mingled when
abroad with the natives of those countries she
visited, and enjoyed at once the advantage of their
society, and the pleasure of comparing it with that
of Britain.
In the course of her becoming habituated with
foreign manners, Mrs Bethune Baliol had, perhaps,
acquired some slight tincture of them herself.
Yet I was always persuaded, that the peculiar vivacity
of look and manner---the pointed and appropriate
action with which she accompanied what
she said---the use of the gold and gemmed _tabati
re_,
or rather I should say _bonbonnire_, (for she
took no snuff, and the little box contained only a
few pieces of candied angelica, or some such lady-like
sweetmeat,) were of real old-fashioned Scottish
growth, and such as might have graced the
tea-table of Susannah, Countess of Eglinton,* the
* Note D, Countess of Eglinton.
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