“Mr. Pitt’s consideration for age was very marked. He had, exclusive of Walmer, a house in the village, for the reception of those whom the castle could not hold. If a respectable commoner, advanced in years, and a young duke arrived at the same time, and there happened to be but one room vacant in the Castle, he would be sure to assign it to the senior; for it is better (he would say) that these young lords should walk home on a rainy night, than old men: they can bear it more easily.
“Mr. Pitt was accustomed to say that he always conceived more favourably of that man’s understanding who talked agreeable nonsense, than of his who talked sensibly only; for the latter might come from books and study, while the former could only be the natural fruit of imagination.
“Mr. Pitt was never inattentive to what was passing around him, though he often thought proper to appear so. On one occasion, Sir Ed. K. took him to the Ashford ball to show him off to the yeomen and their wives. Though sitting in the room in all his senatorial seriousness, he contrived to observe everything; and nobody” (Lady Hester said) “could give a more lively account of a ball than he. He told who was rather fond of a certain captain; how Mrs. K. was dressed; how Miss Jones, Miss Johnson, or Miss Anybody, danced; and had all the minutiæ of the night as if he had been no more than an idle looker-on.
“He was not fond of the applause of a mob. One day, in going down to Weymouth, he was recognized in some town, and, whilst the carriage stopped to change horses, a vast number of people gathered round us: they insisted on dragging the carriage, and would do so for some time, all he could say. Oh, doctor! what a fright I was in!
“Mr. Pitt bore with ceremony as a thing necessary. On some occasions, I was obliged to pinch his arm to make him not appear uncivil to people: ‘There’s a baronet,’ I would say; or, ‘that’s Mr. So-and-so.’
“I never saw Mr. Pitt shed tears but twice. I never heard him speak of his sister Har-yet” (so Lady Hester pronounced it) “but once. One day his niece, Harriet Elliott, dined with us, and, after she was gone, Mr. Pitt said, ‘Well, I am glad Harriet fell to my brother’s lot, and you to mine, for I never should have agreed with her.’—‘But,’ observed I, ‘she is a good girl, and handsome.’—‘She ought to be so,’ said Mr. Pitt, ‘for her mother was so.’”
Lady Hester said, that those who asserted that Mr. Pitt wanted to put the Bourbons on the throne, and that they followed his principles, lied; and, if she had been in parliament, she would have told them so. “I once heard a great person,” added she, “in conversation with him on the subject, and Mr. Pitt’s reply was, ‘Whenever I can make peace,[6] whether with a consul, or with whosoever it is at the head of the French government, provided I can have any dependance on him, I will do it.’ Mr. Pitt had a sovereign contempt for the Bourbons, and the only merit that he allowed to any one of them was to him who was afterwards Charles X., whose gentlemanly manners and mild demeanour he could not be otherwise than pleased with. Mr. Pitt never would consent to their going to court, because it would have been a recognition of Louis XVIII.
“Latterly, Mr. Pitt used to suffer a great deal from the cold in the House of Commons; for he complained that the wind cut through his silk stockings. I remember, one day, I had on a large tippet and muff of very fine fur: the tippet covered my shoulders, and came down in a point behind. ‘What is this, Hester?’ said Mr. Pitt; ‘something Siberian? Can’t you command some of your slaves—for you must recollect, Griselda, Hester has slaves without number, who implicitly obey her orders’ (this was addressed to Griselda and Mr. Tickell, who were present)—‘can’t you command some of your slaves to introduce the fashion of wearing muffs and tippets into the House of Commons? I could then put my feet on the muff, and throw the tippet over my knees and round my legs.’
“When we were at Walmer, it is incredible what a deal I got through in the day. Mr. Pitt was pleased to have somebody who would take trouble off his hands. Every week he had to review the volunteers, and would ride home in such showers of rain—I have been so drenched, that, as I stood, my boots made two spouting fountains above my knees. Then there was dinner; and, if I happened to be alone, when I went to the drawing-room, I had to give the secret word for spies, to see the sergeant of the guard, and then the gentlemen would come in from the dining-room. But, if they were late, oh, how sleepy I got, and would have given the world to go to bed!
“One day, Lord Chatham had to review the artillery, and he kept them under arms from daylight until three o’clock. Bradford went to him several times to know if he was ready. ‘I shall come in about half an hour,’ was the constant reply; until, at last, seeing no chance of his appearance, I agreed with the aide-de-camps to go off together and settle matters as well as we could: so, getting Lord Chatham’s leave, off we went. Colonel Ford, the commanding-officer, was a cross man; and that day he had enough to make him so. But I managed it all very well: I told him that pressing business detained Lord C.; that he had commissioned us to apologize; and that I should have pleasure in saying the men looked admirably: then I added that Mr. Pitt hoped to see him in the course of a few days at the Castle, and so on. The colonel looked dreadfully out of temper, however, and Bradford and I rode back at a furious rate. It was one of those dark, wet days that are so peculiar to England. A day or two after, the colonel and some of the officers were invited to Walmer, and I behaved very civilly to them; so that Lord Chatham’s laziness was forgotten.