Lady Harriet Cavendish to her former governess, Selina Trimmer, 19 November 1803: 'I have only read 2 of Belsham's lives; Charles the second and James the second. Charles the first I feel pretty well acquainted with, from our old friend Clarendon. I do not mean to go on with Belsham till I have finished Madame de Sevigne's letters, one volume of which I have read. It is a great undertaking to read them through, but they are so very delightful, and I have so much time for reading here, that I do not find it at all too tedious. I do think her letters and her sentiments quite incomparable, and the endless variety of anecdote and wit, assure their never tiring or boring [...] In the evening we all read and oh! the pleasures of Ignorance. Madame de Sevigne's is to me more entertaining and to my shame I confess, much more [italics]new[end italics], than any novel I could read.'