Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope, as related by herself in conversations with her physician, vol. 2 (of 3)

LADY HESTER STANHOPE IN HER SALOON London, Henry Colburn, 1845
AS RELATED BY HERSELF IN CONVERSATIONS WITH HER PHYSICIAN; COMPRISING HER OPINIONS AND ANECDOTES OF SOME OF THE MOST REMARKABLE PERSONS OF HER TIME.
All such writings and discourses as touch no man will mend no man.—Tyers’s Rhapsody on Pope .
Second Edition. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II.
LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1846.
FREDERICK SHOBERL, JUNIOR, PRINTER TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT, 51, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET, LONDON.
CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
Lady Hester Stanhope’s descent—The Author’s first introduction to her—Her reasons for quitting England—Anecdotes of her childhood and womanhood—Her motives for going to live with Mr. Pitt—Mr. Pitt’s opinion of Tom Paine—Lady Hester noticed by George III.—Anecdote of Sir A. H.—Of Lord G.—Of Lord A.—Impertinent questioners—Anecdote of the Marquis —Mr. Pitt’s confidence in Lady Hester’s discretion—and in her devotion to him—His opinion of her cleverness, and of her military and diplomatic abilities—Her tirade against doctors—Her reflections on prudery—Anecdote of General Moore—Of the Duc de Blacas, &c.
It probably will be known to most readers that Lady Hester Stanhope was the daughter of Charles Earl of Stanhope by Hester, his first wife, sister to Mr. William Pitt, and daughter of the first Earl of Chatham. He had issue by this first wife three daughters—Hester, Griselda, and Lucy. The earl married a second wife, by whom he had three sons: the present earl; Charles, killed at Corunna; and James, who died at Caen Wood, the villa of his father-in-law, the Earl of Mansfield.
I became acquainted with Lady Hester Stanhope by accident. The chance that introduced me to her was as follows:—I was going to Oxford to take my degree; and, having missed the coach at the inn, I was obliged to hurry after it on foot, for the want of a hackney-coach, as far as Oxford-road turnpike, where I overtook it, and mounted the box in a violent perspiration. The day was bitterly cold, and, before night, I found myself attacked with a very severe catarrh. The merriment of a college life left me little time to pay attention to it; and, after about fifteen days, I returned with a troublesome cough, to London, where I took to my bed.