My first thanks go to M. le Comte de Liederkerke-Beaufort for allowing me to read in the family archives in the Château de Vêves, near Dinant, in Belgium. While working there, I was greatly helped by Mme Rouard, and M. Frédéric Rouard. Beatrix de Blacas, descendant of Mme de Duras’s daughter Clara, kindly arranged for me to visit the Château of Ussé in the Loire, and provided me with a family picture of Lucie de la Tour du Pin.
In Bordeaux, I was able to visit Le Bouilh with the kind assistance of Charles Pelletier-Doisy and Guy de Feuilhade. I thank them both. Julien and Michelle Sapori took time to show me around Hautefontaine and provided me with information about the early life of the house.
The descendants from Lucie de la Tour du Pin’s English family, Isabel and Alec Cobbe, generously allowed me to see their family papers, as did Teresa Waugh, whose own work on her great-great-uncle, Archbishop Dillon, was invaluable. I thank them all very much.
For documents and papers, and in some cases permission to quote from them, I would like to thank the following institutions and their staffs: the Bibliothèque Nationale; the Service des Archives, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères; the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris; the Archives Nationales de France; the Bibliothèque Municipale de Bordeaux; the Bibliothèque Municipale d’Amiens; the Musée Carnavalet; the National Archives of Brussels; the British Library; the London Library; the National Archives at Kew; the Library of Congress; the New York Public Library; the manuscript division of Albany State Library; the Massachusetts Historical Society.
I am greatly indebted to Colin Jones and Anne Chisholm for reading the manuscript, to Philip Mansel for his kind help and advice, and to Elfrieda Pownall, with whom I talked over the idea for the book. The Wingate Foundation very generously gave me a scholarship, which allowed me to travel to the many places in which Lucie lived at some point in her long life. Without its support I should not have been able to explore them all.
And I should like to thank the companions of my many journeys: Christopher Balfour, David Bernstein, Anne Chisholm, Monnie Curzon, Virginia Duigan, the late Alfred Gellhorn, Miles Morland, and my son, Daniel Swift. The trips were made all the more pleasurable through their company.
Once again, I would like warmly to thank my editors, Jennifer Barth and Penelope Hoare, my agent, Clare Alexander, and Douglas Matthews, for his index.