The spirit of unrest which pervaded the country had even penetrated to Yorkshire. The weavers there were rioting, and so threatening was their behaviour that about this date Mr Frederick Wentworth actually sent to offer them a bribe of £20 not to burn down Wentworth Castle. The North was deemed unsafe, and, abandoning all thoughts of visiting it, Mrs Stanhope, whose former home in Grosvenor Square had been sold, decided to settle in Langham Place. She therefore took a large house in that locality, which was entered by great gates and stood in the midst of a fine garden, and there her family swiftly resumed the old routine of their London life. Despite the mourning for the late King, Mrs Stanhope wrote: "Mrs Malcolm who called yesterday tells me there is a great deal of quiet society & that if you get into a set, you may be engaged every night." While Marianne regaled her brother with her usual "quiz."
I am not in love with the dinnerings in the neighbourhood, we met 14 people yesterday at Lord Ashtown's, none of whom I trust I shall ever see again.
I must tell you the derivation of the word dinnering. The lady of a new-made baronet in Dorsetshire informed us that her husband was put under a regiment & ordered the tippet bath to cure him of the effect of London "dinnerings."
I am afraid you did not hear of our meeting with a lady who had once
nearly taken a house in Yorkshire "in a remote part, near West
Riding"—which she certainly took for a town.
[Illustration: THE MARCHIONESS CONYNGHAM From a miniature by P. Singry (about 1825-30) in the Wallace Collection.]
In June that year the arrival of the Queen brought public excitement to a climax. On the day when she was to land, greatly to the relief of the authorities who dreaded a riot, there was an unusually heavy storm. The Heavens themselves seemed in league against the unhappy woman. It poured on her first arrival in England, it poured on her return from her long exile, it was destined to pour during her last sad exit from the scene of so many humiliations. John Stanhope, who had last seen Caroline as she wrathfully turned her back upon his friend, Mr Maxwell, at Naples, was anxious to witness her reception in England as Queen. On June 6th his diary records:—
It rained heavily, and between the wet and the unexpected arrival of the Queen, London was in a state of indescribable confusion.
Lord —— had been sent down to negociate with her. He was commissioned to offer her £50,000 a year on condition of her remaining abroad and not bearing the title of Queen. These conditions she rejected, and abandoning herself entirely to the advice of Alderman Wood, did not attempt to keep the negociation open, but embarked on board the Leopold packet with Lady Anne Hamilton, Alderman Wood and her suite. Sir Neil Campbell drove me a little way on the Kent Road, the whole was lined with people, but we soon got tired of waiting—to receive the Queen in the midst of the violent storm and returned home.
The Queen arrived between six and seven. A mob was immediately assembled round Alderman Wood's house, in which she has taken up her abode, and forced people to pull off their hats as they passed the house. The Queen made her appearance on the Balcony.
The Ministers brought a green bag down to the House containing the
charges against the Queen.