“Yesterday the Queen and all the Royal Family dined at Claremont,[47] and I dined with the Duke (of Newcastle) and Sir Robert (Walpole), etc. The Prince of Wales came to us as soon as his, and our, dinner was over, and drank a bumper of rack-punch to the Queen’s health, which you may be sure I devotedly pledged, and he was going on with another, but her Majesty sent us word that she was going to walk in the garden, so that broke up the company. We walked till candle-light, being entertained with very fine French horns, then returned to the great hall, and everybody agreed never was anything finer lit.
“Her Majesty and Princess Caroline, Lady Charlotte Roussie and Mr. Schütz played their quadrille. In the next room the Prince had the fiddles and danced, and he did me the honour to ask me if I could dance a country-dance. I told him ‘yes’; and if there had been a partner for me, I should have made one in that glorious company—the Prince with the Duchess of Newcastle, the Duke of Newcastle with Princess Anne, the Duke of Grafton with Princess Amelia, Sir Robert Walpole with Lady Catherine Pelham, who is with child—so they danced but two dances. The Queen came from her cards to see that sight, and before she said it, I thought he (Sir Robert Walpole) moved surprisingly genteelly, and his dancing really became him, which I should not have believed if I had not seen, and, if you please, you may suspend your belief until you see the same. Lord Lifford danced with Lady Fanny Manners; when they came to an easy dance my dear duke took her from my lord, and I must confess it became him better than the man I wish to be my friend, Sir Robert, which you will easily believe. Mr. Henry Pelham[48] danced with Lady Albemarle, Lord James Cavendish with Lady Middleton, and Mr. Lumley with Betty Spence.
“I paid my court sometimes to the carders, and sometimes to the dancers. The Queen told Lord Lifford that he had not drunk enough to make him gay, ‘and there is honest Mr. Wentworth has not drunk enough’. I told her I had drunk her Majesty’s health; ‘And my children’s too, I hope?’ I answered ‘Yes’. But she told me there was one health I had forgot, which was the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle’s, who had entertained us so well. I told her I had been down among the coachmen to see they had obeyed my orders to keep themselves sober, and I had had them all by the hand, and could witness for them that they were so, and it would not have been decent for me to examine them about it without I had kept myself sober, but now that grand duty was over, I was at leisure to obey her Majesty’s commands. There stood at the farther end of the room a table with bottles of wine for the dancers to drink, and I went and filled a bumper of burgundy and drank the duke’s and duchess’s health to Mr. Lumley, and told him I did it by her Majesty’s command, and then I went to the dancers, and he to the Queen, and told her I had done so. When I came to her again she told me she was glad I had obeyed her commands, and I thanked Mr. Lumley for the justice he had done me in telling it to the Queen, which drew this compliment from him, that he should always be ready to do me justice, or any service in his power. I beg my son may have no occasion to grieve that I have now and again taken a glass too much, for in my cups I shall call upon Mr. Lumley to remember me, and ’tis through these merry companions, or through rich friends that services are done for people.
“The Queen and the Prince have invited themselves to the Duke of Grafton’s hunting seat, which lies near Richmond, Saturday. He fended off for a great while, saying his house was not fit to receive them, and ’twas so old he was afraid ’twould fall upon their heads. But his Royal Highness, who is very quick at good inventions, told him he would bring tents and pitch them in his garden, so his Grace’s excuse did not come off; the thing must be Saturday.
“I have sent you enclosed a copy of my letter I wrote to Lord Pomfret, which will explain to you how I am made secretary to the Queen,[49] and before dinner, under pretence to know if I had taken her Majesty’s sense aright, her Royal Highness (the Princess Royal) being by when I received the orders, I desired leave to show it her. She smiled and said: ‘By all means let me see it’. She kept it till she had dined, read it to the Queen, her brothers and sisters, and then sent for me from the gentlemen ushers’ table, and gave it to me, again thanked me, and said it was very well writ, and she saw too that I could dine at that table without being drunk at free cost.”
“Kensington, September 2nd, 1729.
“Yesterday when the Queen was just got into her chaise there came a messenger who brought her a packet of letters from the King with the good news that his Majesty was very well. He had left him at the play this day se’nnight. It also said the guards of Hanover were not to march, for all differences were accommodated between the King and the King of Prussia, so that I hope now the match will go forward[50] and that we shall soon have the King here. The Queen opened the letter and read it as she went along; the Princess [Anne] and the Duke [of Cumberland] were riding on before, and neither saw nor heard anything of this. Therefore I scoured away from the Queen to tell them the good news, and then I rode back and told the Queen what I had done, and that I had pleasure to be the messenger of good news. She and they thanked me and commended what I had done. I have sent you a copy of the orders I have been given to-day that you may see we go in for a continual round of pleasure.”
“Kensington, September 16th, 1729.
“There was one Mr. W(entworth) who had a very agreeable present from the Queen. As he went over with her in the ferry boat Saturday s’ennight she gave a purse to Princess Anne, and bade her give it to Mr. W(entworth). Then she told him she wished him good luck, and in order that she might bring it to him, she had given him silver and gold, a sixpence, a shilling, and a half-guinea. He took the purse, and gave her Majesty a great many thanks. ‘What,’ said she, ‘will you not look into’t?’ His answer was: ‘Whatever comes from your Majesty is agreeable to him;’ though if he had not felt in the purse some paper, he could not have taken the royal jest with so good a grace. There was a bank bill in’t, which raised such a contention between him and his wife that in a manner he had better never have had it. He was willing to give her half, but the good wife called in worthy Madam Percade to her assistance, and she determined to give a third to her.
“All this was told the Queen the next day, and caused a great laugh, but put poor Mr. W(entworth) upon the thought of soliciting the great Lord L(ifford) for a sum of £15 he had forgotten to pay him in the South Sea. When the chase was over the Prince clapped Mr. W(entworth) on the back and wished him joy of his present, and told him now he would never be without money in his pocket. He replied if his Highness had not told him so publicly of it, it might have been so, but now his creditors would tease every farthing from him.”