Monday, 9th July.—At a ¼ p. 11 I went with Mamma and the Duchess of Sutherland, Feodore, Lady Barham, Lord Conyngham, Lord Albemarle, Miss Pitt, Lady Flora, Späth, Lord Fingall, Miss Spring Rice, and Miss Davys, Lady Harriet Clive and Mr. Murray to a Review in Hyde Park, of which I subjoin an account. I could have cried almost not to have ridden and been in my right place as I ought; but Lord Melbourne and Lord Hill thought it more prudent on account of the great crowd that I should not this time do so,[540] which however now they all see I might have done, and Lord Anglesey (who had the command of the day, looked so handsome, and did it beautifully and gracefully) regretted much I did not ride. I drove down the lines. All the Foreign Princes and Ambassadors were there, and the various uniforms looked very pretty. The troops never looked handsomer or did better; and I heard their praises from all the Foreigners and particularly from Soult. There was an immense crowd and all so friendly and kind to me....
Wednesday, 11th July.—Spoke of Soult, and that Uncle Ernest said that the Duc de Nemours told him that Soult was in excellent humour here, in better humour than he had ever seen him. Lord Melbourne seemed pleased. He said he was not at all surprised at the manner in which the English received Soult; as they were always curious to see distinguished foreigners. During the War, at the Peace of Amiens when Marshal Orison[541] came over, they took the horses out of his carriage and dragged him through the streets; “and that was in the midst of war,” he continued. “Many people were rather annoyed at that; but that was from mere curiosity.” I spoke of Feodore, and asked him if he saw any likeness between us; he said, “I see the likeness, though not perhaps very strong.” I spoke of her children and of Charles (her eldest) being her favourite, as he was so much the fondest of her. Lord Melbourne said smiling that one must not judge according to that, and to the manner in which children showed their love; “Children are great dissemblers; remember how Lear was deceived by that. They learn to be the greatest hypocrites,” he said.
Thursday, 12th July.—Lord Melbourne said that they were going to have a Cabinet upon what O’Connell and Sir Robert Peel declared in the House of Commons, the day before yesterday, upon the Irish Tithes. They proposed that the sum left from the sum which was voted in 1833 for the distressed Clergy, should be employed to pay the arrears of Tithes due. I asked Lord Melbourne if he thought this a good plan; he said it would have the effect of quieting the people, but that it was “rather a lavish way of bestowing the Public Money.” In general, Lord Melbourne said, when any sum of the kind is voted for a certain class of people, many miss it who ought to get it, and many get it who ought not to get anything.
Friday, 13th July.—Lord Melbourne said Ellice had told him that they cheered Soult amazingly when he went to Eton (that day), and Ellice told him he must ask for a Holiday, which he did, upon which the Boys cheered him much more; he shook hands with some of the Boys, and then they all wished to shake hands with him, so he shook hands with the whole school....
Tuesday, 17th July.—He (Ld. M.) said that the Sutherlands had a large family; and asked if the last was a boy or girl, at which I laughed very much, as I said he ought to know; he said boys were much more expensive than girls; there was only the girl’s dress that could be expensive and perhaps Masters; but nothing to what boys’ going to school cost. I said that younger sons were always so poor, and that girls married; he said certainly that was so, and even if girls did not marry they wanted less money. I said Feodore at one time liked having boys much better than girls, but she did not now, as she thought that boys got into more difficulties and scrapes than girls. “Men certainly get into more scrapes than girls,” said Lord Melbourne; “but there is risk in both.” We spoke of other things; and he said Lord Ebrington had come to him and spoken to him about its being reported that I had so many French things, and that the lace of the Servants’ coats came from France; which I said I knew nothing about, and I assured him I had quantities of English things, but must sometimes have French things. He said he knew quite well it was so, and that it was impossible not to have French things, if one wished to be well dressed. That it was not so much the material, but the make which we English could not do; he said they never could make a cap or a bonnet; and that the English women dressed so ill....
Monday, 24th July.—We spoke of Sir Edmund Lyons,[542] who writes such long despatches; and who Lord Melbourne has never seen before; he was a Naval Officer and never employed before in the Diplomatic Service. He was the Captain who took out Otho. I then went over to the Closet, where the Prince Royal of Bavaria was introduced by Lord Palmerston and Baron Cetto. Having neither attendants nor uniform, he came in morning attire. He is not quite good-looking, but nearly so,—slim, not very tall, but very gentlemanlike and agreeable and lively. I made him sit down, and he was completely à son aise and consequently put me at ease. I showed Lord Melbourne Hayter’s sketch for his great picture of the Coronation; which Lord Melbourne liked very much, and which was very generally admired; Lord Melbourne looked at it for some time observing upon each part; he said that Hayter would never get it as good in the large picture as he had got it here. I then said to Lord Melbourne that I thought the Coronation made him ill, and all the worry of it; he said he thought he would have been ill without it; “It wasn’t the Coronation,” he said, “it was all these Peerages; but I think that’s subsiding a little now.” I asked if Lord Derby expected being made a Duke; Lord Melbourne replied, “No, I don’t think he did; I told him at once that could not be, and that generally satisfies people.” Lord Derby has a very good claim for it, Lord Melbourne said, for the following reasons:—George III. declared he never would make any Dukes, and wished to reserve that Title only for the Royal Family; and he only made 2, Lord Melbourne thinks—the Duke of Northumberland and the Duke of Montagu[543]; Mr. Fox told the late Lord Derby that if he could ever make the King waive his objections, he should be made a Duke; and this, Lord Melbourne said, certainly was a strong pledge for a Whig Government; but Lord Grey passed him over (Ld. M. doesn’t know why) and made the Duke of Sutherland and the Duke of Cleveland; and Lord Derby said in his letter to Lord Melbourne, “he did not see why the names of Vane (D. of Cleveland), Grenville (Duke of Buckingham), and Grosvenor (Ld. Westminster), should be preferred before him.”[544] He did not mention Gower, Lord Melbourne thinks from civility, but that he feels the same respecting him. I asked what Duke he wished to be; Lord Melbourne said he supposed Duke of Derby, which was formerly a Royal title, having belonged to the Dukes of Lancaster; he takes his title from Derby, a Hundred of Lancashire—not from the Co. of Derby. He thinks, Lord Melbourne continued, that he has a right to be Duke of Hamilton, through his mother, Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, who was daughter to James, 6th Duke of Hamilton, and a very handsome person; I asked who she married afterwards; Lord Melbourne replied, “It was a very awkward business; she married nobody; she had a great attachment for the Duke of Dorset” (father to the late), “Lord Derby parted from her, but would not divorce her, in order that she might not marry the Duke of Dorset.” “The Duke of Dorset,” Lord Melbourne continued, “was a very handsome and agreeable man; with a great deal of gallantry....” I asked Lord Melbourne what sort of person Charles Sheridan was; he said an agreeable lively young man; but rather wild. We then spoke for a long time about all the Sheridans. C. Sheridan was in the Admiralty and rose to get £300 a year; but they fancied, he said, that he was in bad health, and made him give it up. There are three sons, Brinsley, Frank (who is with Lord Normanby), and Charles; “They are, like all the Sheridans, clever but careless, and have no application,” he said. They plagued Lord Melbourne constantly to give Charles a place; and Lord Melbourne offered him a Clerkship in the Audit Office; but he would not have that, and said it was less than he had had. George Anson[545] told Lord Melbourne it would be quite nonsense to give it to him, as he would never come, and there would be a complaint of him the first month. Lord Melbourne said that a person who leaves the situation he has, must not expect to be put in again in the same place he had. This is a £100 a year, “which is better than nothing.” I observed that a person who does not wish to submit to that cannot be very anxious to do much, in which Lord Melbourne agreed. This Charles Sheridan lives a good deal with the Chesterfields, and positively has nothing.[546] Lord Melbourne said, “I know they’ll get ruined, and we shall have to provide for them.” “They all have £60 a year.” There is one Charles Sheridan, an excessively ugly man, who is Uncle to all these people; he is Brinsley Sheridan’s son by his 2nd wife; his 1st wife was a professional singer, a Miss Linley, whom Lord Melbourne remembers when he was a boy; she died in 1794; she was excessively handsome[547]; “The women” (Lady Seymour) “are very like her; some of them,” he said. Spoke of young Brinsley Sheridan running away with his wife; of Lady Seymour, who, Lord Melbourne said, “is the most posée of them all.” “She says those odd things,” Lord Melbourne continued, “as if they were quite natural.” They (the Seymours) are always teazing Lord Melbourne about Titles, and are so vexed at their boy’s having no title; and they never will call him anything else but the Baby[548]; I said that was foolish; “Very foolish; and I’ve told them so,” replied Lord Melbourne, “but I can’t convince them.” The Sheridan[549] who wrote the Dictionary was Great-Grandfather to all these; his Wife was a very clever woman, Lord Melbourne said, and wrote some very good books; “they have been a very distinguished family for a long time,” he added.
Tuesday, 25th July.—At a ¼ to 4 I rode out with Lady Portman, Lord Uxbridge, Lord Lilford, Lord Portman, Col. Buckley, Col. Cavendish, and Miss Quentin, &c., and came home at 6. I rode dear Tartar who went most beautifully; it was a delightful ride; we rode to Acton, and round by East Acton home. We never rode harder. We cantered almost the whole way going out, but coming home we galloped at least for 3 miles without once pulling up. We came home through the Park and in at the front entrance of the Palace. It was a charming ride. At 7 we dined. Besides we 13 (Lady Charlemont, Lord Headfort, Lady Caroline Barrington, and Wm. Cowper replacing Lord Byron, Lady Tavistock, Mrs. Campbell, and Sir H. Seton), Lord Conyngham dined here. I sat between Lord Conyngham and Lord Headfort. At a ¼ p. 8 I went to the Opera with Mamma, dear Feo, Lady Charlemont, Lady Caroline, Miss Cavendish, Lord Conyngham, Lord Headfort, Mr. Cowper, Col. Buckley, Col. Cavendish, and Lady Flora. It was I Puritani, and Lablache and Grisi were singing their Duo when we came in. Unfortunately poor Grisi was taken ill, quite at the end of the 1st act, and was unable consequently to sing her fine Scene in the 2nd act. Fanny Elsler danced the Chachucha (at my desire) between the 2nd and 3rd acts.
Wednesday, 26th July.—Lord Melbourne said, “Lord Duncannon tells me he thinks that marriage of Lord Shelburne’s[550] is quite off.” Lord Melbourne said that somebody said to him (Ld. Shelburne) how handsome Miss Elphinstone was; upon which he replied, “I don’t think so; but beauty is not the thing to look to in a Wife.” Now this may have been repeated to her, Lord Melbourne says, and of course could not please her; and the young lady may have said, Lord Melbourne continued, “Why, you don’t seem to show that fondness for me you ought to have, and therefore I think we’d better break it off altogether.” Lady Kerry,[551] he said, had told Lord Duncannon that she believed it was all off; I observed, Why then had Lord Lansdowne announced it to me, if it was not quite settled?—Lord Melbourne said, “The same thing happened to Lord Duncannon that happened to you”; Lord Lansdowne announced it to him—said it gave him great pleasure—that it was very nearly settled but they did not wish to speak of it for the present; “and two hours afterwards he got a letter from Lansdowne, saying it was not at all settled,” and that he should not mention it.[552] Lord Melbourne then asked if I had got the letter he sent me, from the Duchess of Sutherland to him, saying her sister Lady Burlington[553] gladly accepted the situation of Lady of the Bedchamber; and Lord Melbourne said, “That may now be considered as settled”; and that Lady Lansdowne had best be spoken to about it all; which I begged him to be kind enough to do, which he said he would. I told Lord Melbourne that Conyngham had told me that he heard from Frederic Byng, that Lord Essex[554] was so excessively pleased at my having called up Lady Essex (Miss Stephens, the Singer that was, and married about 2 or 3 months ago to Lord Essex) at the Ball, and having spoken to her; this touched Lord Melbourne; we both agreed she was a very nice person.[555] Wrote my journal. At a ¼ to 8 I went into the Throne room with my Ladies and Gentlemen, Feo and Mamma, where I found the Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Sussex, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Augusta and George. After waiting a little while we went into the green drawing-room, which looked very handsome lit up, and was full of people all in uniform. I subjoin an account of all the arrangements and all the people. After remaining for about five minutes in that room, talking to several people, amongst others to good Lord Melbourne, we went in to dinner, which was served in the Gallery, and looked, I must say, most brilliant and beautiful. We sat down 103, and might have been more. The display of plate at one end of the room was really very handsome. I sat between Uncle Sussex and Prince Esterhazy. The music was in a small Orchestra in the Saloon, and sounded extremely well. Uncle Sussex seemed in very good spirits, and Esterhazy in high force, and full of fun, and talking so loud. I drank a glass of stein-wein with Lord Melbourne who sat a good way down on my left between the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Holland. After dinner we went into the Yellow drawing-room. Princesse Schwartzenberg looked very pretty but tired; and Mme. Zavadowsky beautiful, and so sweet and placid. About 20 m. after we ladies came in, the gentlemen joined us. I spoke to almost everybody; Lord Grey looked well[556]; the Duke of Wellington ill but cheerful and in good spirits. I spoke for some time also with Lord Melbourne, who thought the Gallery looked very handsome, and that the whole “did very well”; “I don’t see how it could do better,” he said. He admired the large diadem I had on. At about 11 came some people who (as the Gallery was full of dinner &c.) were obliged to come through the Closet, and of whom I annex a List. Lady Clanricarde I did not think looked very well; Lady Ashley, Lady Fanny, Lady Wilhelmina, and Lady Mary Grimston looked extremely pretty. Strauss played delightfully the whole evening in the Saloon. After staying a little while in the Saloon, we went and sat down in the further drawing-room, next to the dining-room. I sat on a sofa between Princesse Schwartzenberg and Mme. Stroganoff[557]; Lord Melbourne sitting next Mme. Stroganoff, and in a little while Esterhazy near him, and Furstenberg (who talked amazingly to Lord Melbourne, and made us laugh a good deal) behind him. The Duchess of Sutherland and the Duchess of Northumberland sat near Princess Schwartzenberg, and a good many of the other Ambassadors and Ambassadresses were seated near them. The Duchess of Cambridge and Mamma were opposite to us; and all the others in different parts of the room. Several gentlemen, foreigners, came up behind the sofa to speak to me. We talked and laughed a good deal together. I stayed up till a ¼ to 1. It was a successful evening....
Wednesday, 1st August.—I asked Lord Melbourne if he saw any likeness in me to the Duke of Gloucester; he said none whatever; for that when formerly they wished to make me angry, they always said I was like him. I asked if Lord Melbourne remembered the Duke’s father; he said he did; that he was a very good man, but also very dull and tiresome. His two brothers were Edward, Duke of York, who died long before Lord Melbourne was born, and Henry, the Duke of Cumberland. “The Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Cumberland always remained Whigs,” Lord Melbourne said, “and never could understand the King’s (George III.) change; they said the Whigs brought their Family to this country; they went with the King but could not understand it.” Lord Melbourne said, “Whenever George IV. took offence at the church, he used to say, ‘By God, my Uncle the Duke of Cumberland was right when he told me, The people you must be apprehensive of, are those black-legged gentlemen.’” I said to Lord Melbourne that Princess Sophia Matilda told me that George III. had four illnesses. Lord Melbourne said they were not all declared illnesses. The 1st, he said, was in 1788; the 2nd in 1800, then in 1804, which was not exactly allowed to be so; and the last in ’10, when he never got well again; it is said, Lord Melbourne told me, that he had been ill in the early part of his reign; as early as 63 or 4, but no one knows exactly; he had a very bad fever then. I observed that the Cheltenham Waters, it was said, brought it on the first time. Lord Melbourne said, so it was said, but that he did very odd things when he first went down there.... He used to give, Lord Melbourne said, all the orders before his being ill with perfect composure. Whenever he was going to be ill, the King heard—Lord Melbourne continued—perpetually ringing in his ears, one of Handel’s oratorios; and was constantly thinking of Octavius[558] who died, “of whom he (the King) said, ‘Heaven will be no Heaven to me if my Octavius isn’t there.’” But his “master delusion,” as Lord Melbourne expressed it, was thinking that he was married to Lady Pembroke (Lady Elizabeth Spencer that was, and Mother to the late Lord Pembroke, and who only died 7 or 8 years ago), with whom he had been very much in love in his young days, and very near marrying. I told Lord Melbourne I remembered going to see her when she was ninety, and she was very handsome even then. Lord Melbourne then told me how very near George III. was marrying Lady Sarah Lennox,[559] sister to the late Duke of Richmond, who was excessively handsome. Lord Melbourne said he was only prevented from marrying her “by her levity.” This was quite early in his reign. He told Lady Susan Strangways, Lord Ilchester’s Aunt, “Don’t you think I ought to marry a Subject? I think I ought; and that must be your friend” (meaning Lady Sarah Lennox); “and you may tell her so from me.” “Then,” Lord Melbourne continued, “she” (Lady Sarah) “committed every sort of folly; she entered into a flirtation with the Marquis of Lothian, rode out with him after a masquerade quite early in the morning; this was represented to the King, and détournée’d His Majesty a little,” said Lord Melbourne laughing. Nothing could equal the beauty of the Women at that time, said Lord Melbourne, from all the accounts he heard, the Duchess of Argyll and Lady Coventry, sisters,[560] &c....
Sunday, 5th August.—Spoke of Lord Alfred’s[561] having gone to see his father’s leg, which is buried at Waterloo, and of 100 old women having come to see him get into his carriage when they heard whose son he was. We spoke of all this; of Sir H. Vivian’s suffering much now, Lord Melbourne said, in consequence of a severe blow he got at Waterloo “by a spent grape shot.” Lord Melbourne went over to Brussels almost immediately after the battle of Waterloo, to see Sir Frederic Ponsonby[562] who was dreadfully wounded, stabbed through and through; Lord Melbourne said, though he lived for 20 years afterwards, he certainly died in consequence of these wounds. I asked Lord Melbourne if he didn’t think Johnson’s Poetry very hard; he said he did, and that Garrick said, “Hang it, it’s as hard as Greek.” His Prose he admires, though he said pedantry was to be observed throughout it; and Lord Melbourne thinks what he said superior to what he wrote. In spite of all that pedantry, Lord Melbourne said, “a deep feeling and a great knowledge of human nature” pervaded all he said and wrote....