The Spanish Ambassador's ball: The Empress did not arrive till late, that is, till half past nine. After sitting a few moments [she] rose, and followed by her Grande Maitresse and Grand Maitre, she went thro' the assembly room, talking to everybody. How those high people contrive to find something appropriate to say to so many is my astonishment, and She seems to be quite gifted in this way. When she had talked to almost everyone she proceeded to the ball room. Then begun the waltzes. There were not many dancers, except the Court, but if they were not glittering Waltzes never did I see any. . . . The Imperial party retired at eleven, and then begun the fun of the natives, who danced more freely with their equals. (46)
To her sister-in-law, January 1820:
I dare say you imagine us very frisky people, eternally gadding abroad, but you are mistaken if you do, for on an average I think we are 4 or five Evenings out of the seven quietly at home, but when we do go, tis something to make a figure in a letter, for example, the English and French Ambassadors balls, which we have attended, both of which were uncommonly brilliant, gay, and agreeable. One country dance is always danced, and then Waltzes and quadrilles only.
And, finally her account of Carneval season 1825:
All the balls that are given in the course of the year are given during the Carnival, which begins the 1st January and ends Ash Wednesday. This year the Archbishop would not allow it to begin so soon, and it lasted not quite 5 weeks. While it lasts the young people almost dance themselves to death, and then the last thing is a Ridout [Redoute], where the cram and mob is suffocating, the dancing and music maddening. Twelve O'Clock strikes! It announces the arrival of Ash Wednesday! The music makes a sudden stop, the sudden pause and quiet which follows is awful-it lasts a moment, when the buzz which succeeds is worse than the honest ball music and noise. . . .I do not enter much into the gaietys of the Carnival. You must know that nothing would be easier than for us to go to a ball or two every night, but as our dancing days are over and our childrens dancing days are not come, the stupidity from want of interest is very great, and the expence of dressing very great likewise, added to which [my husband] William dislikes it, and in a wicked town like this I ought to be too happy that his home is his favorite ball room. . . . But my grand delight was the Opera. . . . I have been at 7 or 8 Operas this year and they are allowed to be the very best filled up opera's in Europe, as all the performers are excellent and 2 or three quite first rate. [Our daughter] Catharine begins to enjoy an Opera and a concert, so I take her to form her taste.
Reference.
Wilmot, Martha. Ed. by the Marchioness of Londonderry and H. M. Hyde. More letters from Martha Wilmot; impressions of Vienna, 1819-1829, relating her experiences in the brilliant cosmopolitan society of Vienna as the wife of the Rev. William Bradford, chaplain to the British embassy, during a period when Austria was the political and social centre of Europe, and including a journal of a tour in Italy and the Tyrol, and extracts from the diary of her elder daughter Catherine for 1829. London, Macmillan and co., limited, 1935.
