LADY HAMILTON
Her extreme beauty attracted the notice of Romney, the painter, in London, who had her to sit as a model. Mr. Greville[280] took her into keeping, and, finding she was tiresome, got rid of her by sending her to Sr. Wm. to put her upon the Opera. Sr. Wm. was old and loving, and, after living a short time with him, she persuaded him into marrying her, which he did; and by so doing cut Mr. Greville out of the inheritance he had long expected.
Sunday, 28th April.—Wednesday 24th, dined with Ly. B.; only Ld. H. and myself; went to the play afterwards. On Thursday, 25th, we had all the Anti-Jacobin wits to dinner, Ld. Hobart for the first time; he is facetious and convivial. I liked him very much. Canning made a good joke upon Borino’s comparing Mr. Adderley to an ostrich, and enumerating the characteristics of that very foolish bird, which did very well at first, but grew tiresome. It is the fault of that set to wear a joke threadbare. We had Frere, the first time since his appointment to Canning’s place.[281] Since favoritism is à l’ordre du jour, I am rather glad he is a sharer, tho’ I think he cannot make a good man of business. He is distrait and poetical, and in lieu of writing a dispatch may be tempted to pen a sonnet. Saturday, Marsh came. Ld. H. dined at the Royal Academy, and I dined at L. House, Ld. L. being very kind and cordial. In ye evening went to ye Dss. of L. On Sunday we had a large party here, Lds. B., M., L. G., Amherst, Adderley, etc., etc., and Bannister,[282] who was very comical and burlesque. It being the eve of Mimi’s marriage, I slept at Ly. Bessborough’s, that I might be ready in time for the wedding. I invited my party to supper; the four gallants, the Dss. of Devonshire came, and the Duke of Bedford. The change in former is painful to see; scarcely has she a vestige of those charms that once attracted all hearts. Her figure is corpulent, her complexion coarse, one eye gone, and her neck immense. How frail is the tenure of beauty! Alas! too true, too trite a saying. The next morning I went to the wedding; all parties behaved with propriety. Ly. Pembroke[283] deemed it incumbent on her to hatch up a whimper during the ceremony, but as it was evidently a homage to her idol—decorum—it was received as such, and affected none. The excellent Dss. felt the awful moment of separation. The event took place in Harley Street, and afterwards the married pair set off to Moneyhill. The whole of the Dss.’s family came here, dined, and slept. Ld. Henry was one of their party; they all went to-day.
30th April.—Marsh made a proposal to Ly. Lucy, which she accepted, but the Dss. rejected, on the score of there not being a competency. In refusing him they know not the excellence they lose. He is in himself a treasure, and his popularity will ensure him high preferment; he is at the moment wretched, and goes to-morrow in consequence of the unpleasantness of the circumstance.
MADAME DE COIGNY
Adderley came and sat with me some time; Ld. G. L. has a nonsensical joke of his being smitten, mais je n’en crois rien. The old compère[284] is quite reconciled to me; he has called twice to see me. Nobody dined here but Mr. Morris, Mrs. Wyndham; and Mde. de Coigny came in the evening.
Mde. de Coigny is remarkably witty; there are many of her bons mots on record. This evening talking of Ly. Pembroke’s having still beauty, she denied it by saying, ‘Apparemment Milord aime les traditions.’ When young she was the rage in Paris; her voice is horrible, worse even than Ly. Malmesbury’s. She said, ‘Je n’ai qu’une voix contre moi, et c’est la mienne,’ an assertion not quite true, as a wit seldom has a friend; at least, they sacrifice any for a repartee. She lost a very intimate friend’s love by a sarcastic joke. The Duchesse de Richelieu was a young, pretty woman, with red hair, and her friend. At a petit souper it was remarked that ye Duchesse was almost the only woman in Paris who had not been accused at least of a galanterie, ‘C’est vrai, mais comme Samson elle trouve ses forces dans ses cheveux.’
Mrs. Fitzherbert has never forgiven the opinion Mde. de C. entertains of a conspicuous part of her person—an opinion she declared in her reply to a person who observed that Mrs. F.’s neck was uncovered ‘et qu’elle avait besoin d’un fichu.’ ‘D’un fichu! Point du tout, c’est une culotte qu’il faudra.’
LORD THANET’S TRIAL
2nd May.—Yesterday little Marsh left us, with a heavy, aching heart. Many visitors in the morning; my mother, Ly. Lucy, etc. to dinner. Adderley, Ly. L. slept. The D. of Bedford and Ld. Thanet called in their way back from St. Anne’s, where they had been to consult with Mr. Fox upon the propriety of the measure suggested by Erskine. The measure was that Ld. Thanet should write a letter to the Attorney-General, declaring upon his honour that he was innocent of the charge against him, etc., etc. Mr. Fox disapproved of that scheme, as it seemed like begging mercy. The evidence was so contradictory that even Kenyon, who is bitter against them, acknowledged in his summing the difficulty of ascertaining exactly the truth. There is no doubt whatever that Ld. T.’s activity was merely defensive, nor is there any more that Sheridan’s evidence got him found guilty. When questioned by Law,[285] S., instead of answering immediately, paused, and then replied satisfactorily to the interrogation, but this silence of several minutes previous to replying sufficed in the minds of the jury, and it is allowed on all hands that their verdict proceeded from their conviction that Sheridan was wavering between falsehood and truth, and that the first triumphed. This was confirmed by Law, in a solemn, impressive manner, repeating, ‘You will recollect, Mr. Sheridan, that you are upon your oath.’ The sentence is to be given to-morrow, and fine and imprisonment is expected, but to what amount and extent depends upon their notion of punishing a peer for example sake. Ld. H. and ye D. of Bedford are to be in court at eight, to give bail, in case the sentence is deferred till next term. Fergusson they talk of dis-barring. Those who were really the stimulators of the enterprise were Sheridan himself and Dennis O’Brien. It is even a doubt whether Fergusson was apprised of the scheme. S. was adroit enough to persuade him to suppress in his defence the truth of a circumstance, that, as it appeared in the charge, made against him. Just before the scuffle F. leaned across the table to whisper to O’Connor; the truth of the whisper was an endeavour to deliver unseen a note from S. to O’Connor, the words of which were as follows: ‘As soon as sentence is passed, leap over the bar, run to the right, and we will manage the rest.’ Had this been stated F. might have escaped, but he was persuaded it would have been unhandsome to invoke an unsuspected person; for so little was S. supposed to have assisted, that in court he received thanks from the Judges for having exerted himself to quell the disturbance. S., since he gained such credit as a witness in the State trials (Horne Tooke’s) by his wit and repartee, can never give a direct answer, and is always more occupied how to gain applause by his reply than how to serve those in favour of whom he is called.