UNCERTAIN STATE OF THE KING’S HEALTH.
Kew, Friday, Oct. 17.—Our return to Windsor is postponed till to-morrow. The king is not well; he has not been quite well some time, yet nothing I hope alarming, though there is an uncertainty as to his complaint not very satisfactory; so precious, too, is his health.
Oct. 18.—The king was this morning better. My royal mistress told me Sir George Baker[294] was to settle whether we returned to Windsor to-day or to-morrow.
Sunday, Oct. 19.—The Windsor journey is again postponed, and the king is but very indifferent. Heaven preserve him! there is something unspeakably alarming in his smallest indisposition. I am very much with the queen, who, I see, is very uneasy, but she talks not of it.
We are to stay here some time longer, and so unprepared were we for more than a day or two, that our distresses are prodigious, even for clothes to wear; and as to books, there are not three amongst us; and for company only Mr. de Luc and Miss Planta; and so, in mere desperation for employment, I have just begun a tragedy.[295] We are now in so spiritless a situation that my mind would bend to nothing less sad, even in fiction. But I am very glad something of this kind has occurred to me; it may while away the tediousness of this unsettled, unoccupied, unpleasant period.
Oct. 20.—The king was taken very ill in the night, and we have all been cruelly frightened—but it went off, and, thank heaven! he is now better.
I had all my morning devoted to receiving inquiring visits. Lady Effingham, Sir George Howard, Lady Frances Howard, all came from Stoke to obtain news of the king; his least illness spreads in a moment. Lady Frances Douglas came also. She is wife of the Archibald Douglas who caused the famous Hamilton trial in the House of Peers, for his claim to the Douglas name.[296] She is fat, and dunch, and heavy, and ugly; otherwise, they say, agreeable enough. Mr. Turbulent has been sent for, and he enlivens the scene somewhat. He is now all he should be, and so altered! scarce a flight left.
Oct. 21.—The good and excellent king is again better, and we expect to remove to Windsor in a day or two.