12th.—I called in the morning at Lady Louisa Macdonald’s, Mr. Keate’s, and on the Ladies Bruce. Everybody talks of this marriage, and K. told me the Queen and Prince Regent, when they wrote to order Princess Charlotte to Cranbourne and Brighton, said she would meet with an agreeable surprise. It is now supposed they will prolong their stay at Brighton till after the 18th, and it is supposed the young man will be sent for. People say he has only 200l. a year, which they calculate is just enough to buy him two coats and a dozen of shirts. I dined at Mr. Hallam’s, where I met Mr. Ward, Mr. H. Fane, and Mr. W. J. Rose. The first is counted one of our first wits; has not been long returned from Italy. He is certainly very clever and entertaining, but odd, and rash in his judgments.[[60]] Mr. H. Fane appears pedantic, but well informed.
13th.—I dined at Lady Downshire’s. The Duke of Sussex and his son, Captain d’Este, &c. &c., dined there. No mention was made of Princess Charlotte’s marriage. It is said that the Dukes of Bedford and Devonshire have received nothing from their tenants for the last year.
14th.—I dined at Prince Castelcicala’s. General Count Nugent, commander of the Austrian army in Italy, has married the orphan daughter of the late Marquis Carleto at Naples, whose mother was one of the daughters of Prince Xavier of Saxony.
17th.—Dined at Sir Archibald Macdonald’s. Duchess-Dowager of Leeds and Lady Catherine Osborne, Mr. Osborne Markham, Mr. Jekyll, and Archdeacon Pott there. Sir Robert Wilson, Mr. Hutchinson, and Mr. Bruce, who travelled with Lady Hester Stanhope in the desert, were accused of high treason in France for effecting the escape of Lavalette.[[61]]
18th.—Called on Miss Fielding, Lady Mary Parker, and Miss Mercer Elphinstone. The latter said she had received only one letter from Princess Charlotte since her stay at Brighton, and no mention in it of the marriage.
23rd.—I had letters from Lady Mary Hill, and Mr. Hallam mentioned a paragraph in the Morning Chronicle of a Prince Leopold of saxe-coburg being married at Vienna, but it proves to be a Prince Ferdinand.
February 6th.—I had a letter from a friend, who mentions Princess Charlotte as desiring to contradict the reports relative to her marriage. It appears that there is some obstacle which she cannot surmount, as she wishes to consult the papers respecting her engagement with the Prince of Orange. Probably in this instance, as in that, her father and his Ministers wish her to live abroad.
8th.—Went to town. Princess Castelcicala and the Ladies Hill called. It seems Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg asked for the command of the troops in Hanover. I dined at Lady Downshire’s.
22nd.—I called on the Misses [ ]. Mr. D. said he had just seen Lord Liverpool, and that he and Lord Castlereagh were to accompany the Prince of Saxe-Coburg to Brighton to-morrow. Afterwards called on Mrs. R. Keate and Lady Neave. Mr. Lyttleton had been there, and said the Princess Charlotte would not marry the Prince of Saxe-Coburg, as he would take her to Hanover.
26th.—Princess Charlotte goes with the Queen to-day to Brighton. At Windsor they consider the marriage as certain.