A truce seemed now to have been concluded between Lady Hester and ourselves, by a suspension of hostilities, but it was only to mature a fresh attack. Abdallah Pasha had been busied for some months in making a European garden in the environs of Acre, as a place of recreation for himself and his harým, and Lady Hester had given him many useful instructions in the laying of it out, and had from time to time sent her Italian servant, Paolo Perini, to lend a helping hand. The following day, therefore, was spent in writing a letter about the building of a pavilion, which was dictated in French, and then translated into Arabic by her Arabian secretary, Khalyl Mansôor, who, being a shopkeeper at Sayda, was sent for whenever there were Arabic letters to write. Much amusement arose about the construction of a phrase, in which pillars of the Ionic order were named. Mansôor hinted that the word Ionique had a signification in Arabic which rendered it impossible to use it. I had made a drawing of the five orders of architecture, and what was to be written was an explanation of their differences, so that a full hour was spent in getting over the difficulty.[42] Then a letter was written to Abd el Rahmàn Berber, a Turkish merchant, with a remittance of five hundred dollars, due for interest on money lent; and, as he was about setting off on his pilgrimage to Mecca, the remittance was accompanied with a supply of medicines and small stores for his journey, such as tea, chocolate, syrups, &c.
February 4.—This day was passed in writing letters of advice and bills of exchange on London, and a letter to the Emir Hyder, of Shumbalàn; also in arranging Miss W.’s papers. In addressing the bills of exchange to the house of Messrs. Coutts and Co., Lady Hester’s recollections were carried back to that opulent banker’s times. “One day,” said she, “on calling on Mr. Coutts, the old man happened to be very gay, and, on my entering his room, he addressed me thus:—‘I consider myself one of the most enviable of men: let me see—I have had the visit of one, two, three, four, five, six, and you make the seventh, of the handsomest women in London.’ The Miss Gubbinses had just been there—they went out as I entered; they were beautiful, doctor! On another occasion, old Coutts put his hands on each side of my face, and kissed me on the forehead, with an exclamation of ‘Good God! how like my old friend, your grandfather! You must forgive an old man, if he can’t refrain from almost embracing you—it is the exact sound of his voice. Ah!’ he continued, ‘I think I see him now, seated in that chair; and, after I had been explaining my views in politics, or on anything else, cutting them all up at once by something that was indisputable.’ That is, doctor, just as if a person had been going on explaining their views respecting a child, and another should say, ‘that’s all useless—the child is dead.’ My grandfather dived into futurity, as I do. Mr. Pitt, too, would often tell me how much I was like Lord Chatham, my grandfather. Sometimes, when I was speaking, he would exclaim, ‘Good God! if I were to shut my eyes, I should think it was my father! and, how odd! I heard him say almost those very words forty years ago.’ My grandfather, doctor,” said Lady Hester, going on, “had gray eyes like mine, and yet, by candlelight, from the expression that was in them, one would have thought them black. When he was angry, or speaking very much in earnest, nobody could look him in the face. His memory on things even of a common nature, and his observations, were striking. On passing a place where he had been ten years before, he would observe, that there used to be a tree, or a stone, or a something, that was gone, and on inquiry it always proved to be so; yet he travelled always with four horses, at a great rate.”
February 5.—The whole day was taken up in making a drawing to explain the nature of a forcing-pump, or engine, for watering the shrubs and flowers in Abdallah Pasha’s garden.
February 6.—From one in the afternoon until ten at night, not excepting the time we were at dinner, Lady Hester Stanhope talked of the Damascus affair, endeavouring to prove to me that my refusal would endanger my life, and embroil the government of Damascus with Mr. Farren, the new consul-general, who was expected from England; showing that, in her situation, where her consideration among the natives depended entirely on opinion, Mrs. ——’s opposition to her will, if not effectually put down, would be subversive of all her authority, and make it be supposed she was not the great personage she was held to be; inasmuch as, among Eastern nations, in all clans, communities, and separate governments, there was, and ought to be, but one will, which was that of the head. I admitted all this to be true; but told her, there seemed to be no other way of settling the affair than by our withdrawing at once to Europe. She gave me to understand we might certainly go if we liked, but that we should find it more difficult than I suspected. This was no idle threat of hers, and I knew it; for not a peasant would dare to let out his camels, mules, or asses, to one who was known to have incurred her displeasure; and to send to Sayda to hire them was equally impossible, seeing that no one would go willingly on such an errand; or, if he did, her influence extended far enough to frighten camel-drivers and muleteers from their engagement. The close of the conversation was a separation far from amicable; so that on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of February, I did not see her.
February 11, 1831.—My horse was sent over, and I remained from noon until my dinner-time. All was gentleness and urbanity. The conversation turned on Mr. Pitt, her father, and her brothers; on Tom Paine, Mr. Way, Mrs. Nash, and others. She seemed to be disposed to resort to her customary tactics, which were to make attacks at intervals, and then to wait a day or two, to see if they had taken effect. I will relate some of her anecdotes.
“Mr. Pitt loved ardently Lord A*******’s daughter,”[43] said Lady Hester Stanhope; “she was the only woman I could have wished him to marry. I had never seen her; and, as she frequented Beckenham church, I went on a visit to Mr. Grote’s, the banker, to get a sight of her. I went to church with Mr. Long’s brother, dean of somewhere, I forget now, a monstrous handsome man. As soon as we appeared in the pew, she knew who I was, and her whole body became of one deep red. A paleness followed; she drooped her head, put her hand to her face, and bent over her book, as if praying. When the service was over, I considered that the meeting with her was not a scene fit for the church-porch, but I was resolved to have a close look at her. As we approached her, she pretended to be talking in an animated manner with some of her party, but her attention was evidently turned towards me. When we saluted, I saw she was beautiful—very beautiful, doctor.
“Next day rat-tat-tat came a carriage and four to Mr. Grote’s door. ‘My dear Mr. Grote, we have long been neighbours, but I don’t know how it is, we have not seen so much of each other as we ought to have done.’ This was Lord A. and the mother. The young lady was more collected by this time, and the conversation went on very well. On the following day, Mr. Grote and I called at Lord A.’s; but, the porter not having received his instructions, we were rudely sent away. The carriage had hardly got twenty yards, when out came my lord, and a whole posse of them, with a thousand apologies for the blunders of servants; and we returned, and went in. She had been walking out, drawing, or something; and when she pushed up her bonnet, and turned her hair aside, oh, doctor, what a forehead was there!
“Poor Mr. Pitt almost broke his heart when he gave her up. But he considered that she was not a woman to be left at will when business might require it, and he sacrificed his feelings to his sense of public duty. Yet Mr. Pitt was a man just made for domestic life, who would have enjoyed retirement, digging his own garden, and doing it cleverly too. But it was God’s will it should be otherwise. I never saw her afterwards but once, when she was Lady B**************. Oh dear! how she was changed! I remember, it was at Lady Chatham’s. When I first knew her, she had a mouth no bigger than an eye. Well! on entering the room at Lady Chatham’s where she was, some years after her marriage, I recognized her no more than if I had never seen her. She saw it, and began speaking of persons with whom I was acquainted. This made me think the more who she could be; when, observing my embarrassment, she said, ‘I see, Lady Hester, you have forgotten me.’ Well, doctor, her mouth was grown quite large and ugly, and I have observed that it does, as people grow older;—I don’t know why: but look at mine, and you’ll see just the same thing.
“‘There were also other reasons,’ Mr. Pitt would say; ‘there is her mother, such a chatterer!—and then the family intrigues. I can’t keep them out of my house; and, for my king’s and country’s sake, I must remain a single man.’”[44]
Lady Hester said it was fine fun to see these match-making mothers bring their daughters down to Walmer to try to get Mr. P. into a scrape, and the extraordinary distance at which he contrived to keep them. Sometimes, if they approached him, or wanted to plant their daughters too near him, it was the fire was too warm, or the air from the window, or some excuse for removing his chair to a distance from them.