I had for some time found it difficult to keep up the respectful manner necessary to be observed to Sovereigns, but here, at the thought of our respective parents obstinately haggling over the same bit of jewellery, with a jeweller who was in great terror of offending either, we both threw etiquette to the winds and laughed outright.
She asked me after Lord Chesterfield, and inquired how he bore the death of his wife. She asked after the Arthur Stanhopes. I told her the story of my recent imprisonment. She inquired whether the Queen [Charlotte] appeared much older; and also asked the number of our family, when she laughed yet more heartily at my saying that I could not tell how many girls there were without counting. She said to me, "You see I know more about your family than you do!" She at length told me she was much obliged to me for the trouble of bringing her letters and curtsied me out.
After this interview Stanhope saw the Palace which, he says, "is a splendid building, and on its summit appears a magnificent new crown that does not fail to remind the spectator of the recent acquisition of the Royal title."
He was shown the apartments of the King, which he found handsome and well- furnished, "but amongst the decorations, parrots, plants and musical clocks made a conspicuous figure, as well as no little clamour for the attendant setting all the clocks in motion as he passed, a singular concert was produced, which was increased by the screaming of parrots, paroquets and macaws.
"I afterwards went through the gardens of the ménagerie, where there is, amongst other creatures, a large collection of monkeys; then to the farms where there are some cattle, but a most singular assemblage of monsters, such as sheep with five legs, etc., etc.; rather an odd taste in farming, to which pursuit the King professes to be much attached! In some of the fields I saw Kangaroos, which were originally a present from our King, and have bred and become numerous."
He then saw the King's carriages, "one built by Hatchard in England which cost a thousand pounds"; also, in contrast, the humble little garden chair in which her Majesty usually drove out, "And, I assure you," the attendant added confidentially, "she fills it well!"
He finally visited Beau Sejour, where he says:—
I was not a little surprised, on entering a salon in a building opposite to the Palace, to find myself in the midst of an assembly of Knights in robes of their respective orders. I involuntarily started back at being thus transported, as it were, into the days of chivalry, but as soon as my first surprise had passed away and allowed time for a little reflection, I observed that my Knights were made of wood and intended to show off the habiliments of the different orders.
I afterwards went to a little island where there was a chapel built upon some rock-work. I was conducted by my guide into a cell which had been formed underneath it, and I saw the figure of a monk seated near a table on which was a skull and an hour-glass. Upon my entering, he turned his head round suddenly to look at me, but though the deception has been very well contrived. I was not long in discovering that this also was a fictitious monk.
Another anecdote relating to Continental Royalties of that day did John
Stanhope send to regale his family. During his travels he met Sir Francis
d'Ivernois, who, he explains, was a native of Geneva brought up to the
French bar. Having made himself of considerable use to the English
Government by exposing the arts and deception employed by the French
Government, he became a great authority on finance, and was rewarded by an
English pension and a knighthood. Stanhope recounts the following
adventure which once befell d'Ivernois:—