regard to the lower classes, Madame Calderon always sees the picturesque
side of things which she describes vividly and colourfully.

It is to be regretted (particularly from a Mexican point of view) that
Fanny Inglis, or her editor, should have thought it expedient only to give
the first and last letters of the names of the more prominent persons of
whom she speaks, a system which makes it difficult for a reader of later
days to identify them, except in one or two cases. Many were the intimate
friends of the Calderons, but especially the Conde de la Cortina, a well-
known figure in society and in literary and scientific circles, the
Marques and Marquesa de Vivanco, and the "Guera Rodriguez," (the "Fair
Rodriguez"), a celebrated beauty of her time, who is said to have been
greatly admired by no less a person than Alexander von Humboldt himself!

Naturally enough, Madame Calderon was a competent judge of her own sex and
was alert to the good qualities as well as to the foibles of the ladies of
Mexico, whose excessive fondness for diamonds and, in some cases, too
showy dresses elicit her mild criticism.

Monastic life was one of the features of Mexico at that time. Most cities,
large and small, were full of churches, monasteries, and convents; and
Madame Calderon (who became a Catholic three years later) was not then
well acquainted with the ceremonies and liturgy of the Church, and
consequently falls into many errors on the subject; but when she describes
her visit to a convent and the ceremony of the veiling of a nun, she
writes some of her most picturesque and touching pages.

Madame Calderon does not stint her admiration for the great buildings of
the country, both civil and religious, though her descriptions betray only
too often the influence of the romantic age in which she lived.