Anne Lister's diary for 29-30 April 1829

Introduction

On Wednesday 22 April 1829, Anne Lister arrived back in Paris. She had been absent for almost a year, attending to home concerns in England. Her Aunt Anne had remained in Paris at their rented apartment, No. 2, Place Neuve de la Madeleine, in the care of their Scottish maidservant, McDonald, and their groom, George Playforth.

Anne quickly resumed her former Parisian routine of supervising the little household, taking her aunt in the carriage for drives in the Bois de Boulogne, visiting her friends and, eventually, taking up her studies at the Jardin des Plantes. There was, however, an added dimension to her life in Paris this time around.

Whilst in England Anne had been to visit her friend, Sibbella Maclean, a well-connected woman of Scottish ancestry. Sibbella’s niece, Vere Hobart, was the grand-daughter of the third Earl of Buckinghamshire and second cousin to Lord Charles Stuart de Rothesay, the then British Ambassador in Paris. Vere had been invited over to Paris to attend a grand ball at the British Embassy and Anne agreed to chaperone her on the journey. This connection gave Anne an entrée into the high social circle surrounding the British Embassy in Paris. Although Anne’s ambitious nature could not help but be pleased and flattered by the attentions of this exclusive set of people, nevertheless it brought new pressures to bear on her, not least in the area of the niceties of social etiquette and suitable dress codes.

Selected passage

Anne’s great concern at this point is to appear suitably dressed for the high social occasion at the British Embassy. We see her buying bracelets, a hat, a silk cloak, and fussing about her hair. We are given a vivid description of the evening’s festivities including, in Anne’s honest fashion, her own feelings of mortification when she finds herself snubbed by her erstwhile travelling companion, Vere Hobart. The fact that she herself had rather snobbishly chosen to arrive at the ball in the company of the Count and Countess de Noé rather than in that of the undistinguished Mrs Barlow and her daughter does not seem to register with Anne.

Here, also, we see her set in motion her plan to stay with Mme de Rosny in order to become more proficient in the French language. Once there, however, she becomes infatuated with the roguish little countess, who attempts to involve Anne in her smuggling activities.

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