9th.—I had a letter from the Countess of Albany, dated Florence, 3rd April, in which she expresses her grief for the partiality expressed by our English travellers in favour of Bonaparte, and seems much alarmed for the safety of Italy from the ambition of Murat.
10th.—I find people who return from Italy speak with great contempt of Murat, except as far as personal courage is concerned, though they were at first much cajoled by him. In the evening I was at Lady Charleville’s, where some French children acted two vaudevilles—“Le Mariage dans une Rose,” and “Blaise et Babet.” I came away soon after the beginning of the second; in the first was a Captain Duval, who boasts of having beaten the English. Some of the songs were pretty, but there was not a little “mauvais ton” in them.
11th.—Dr. Baird called and said the Morning Chronicle[[47]] announced the intended marriage of Miss M. Elphinstone and the Duke of Devonshire. I dined at Lord Aylesbury’s.
12th.—The marriage was contradicted in the same paper.[[48]] In the morning I went with Lady Rolle and Lady Morton to the Society of Arts, where are exhibited drawings, and specimens under them, which, I understood, those who wish to exhibit them are obliged to make in presence of the committee, that no deception may be practised. The room is adorned by paintings of Barry, which show learning and imagination, but very bad colouring. I thought the drawings in general very uninteresting. In the rooms below were models and inventions, many of which have no doubt great merit.
We afterwards went to see Mr. Rehberg’s and other drawings in Pall-mall, and from thence to the British Gallery, where is now exhibiting a fine collection of Flemish paintings, lent to the Institution by their different proprietors. Nothing can be more characteristic of the speculating genius of this country than these exhibitions: money does everything here. It is true that it is a good way to procure assistance for the charity, but still there is an oddity in it which must strike every one who has lived out of England, that the public should pay for an exhibition of pictures belonging to Princes and noblemen. I dined at Lord Rolle’s, and in the evening went to Mrs. Montague Burgoyne’s.
16th.—Went to Chiswick to visit Lady Macartney: a beautiful thorn in bloom in her grounds, and the country in general looking very lovely. She said the Duke of Devonshire had made great improvements at his place here.
17th.—I was in the evening at Lady Charleville’s assembly, where great news of Murat’s expulsion from Naples was reported, but without sufficient foundation.
18th.—In the morning I called on the Countess de Narbonne, who is just returned from Paris, and gives very favourable accounts of the state of the people’s mind.
20th.—I met Princess Charlotte driving round the Park in an open carriage with Lady Ilchester, one of the Misses Coates, and Colonel Addenbroke. I dined at Lady Ashbrook’s.
21st.—Dined at Prince Castelcicala’s. The official despatches from Vienna prove that Murat’s efforts to cut his way through the Austrian corps, commanded by Bianchi, have proved ineffectual, though many men were lost on both sides. Prince Castelcicala has in his hands the original interesting letters of Bonaparte to Murat, which were pretended to be false, after being mentioned by Lord Castlereagh in the House.