Note 1 — Chapter I

I heard from the late Lady Ritchie, Thackeray’s daughter, some little time before her death. She was kind enough to be interested in this book, but told me that she was a young girl when her father was at Homburg and had scarcely any recollection of those days. My father used often to observe that Thackeray was one of the most charming and amusing men he ever knew, and seemed surprised when I told him that I remembered so little of him at Homburg, saying that he was nearly always with us at the Kursaal or in the grounds of the Kurhaus and was exceedingly fond of me.