H.R.H. The Duc de Nemoursfrom a portrait by Eugene Lami
H.R.H. The Duc de Nemoursfrom a portrait by Eugene Lami
Lady Cork[585]is 92, a very strange old woman; Lord M. knows her; she was clever, a great favourite of George III. and Queen Charlotte. She was a Miss Monckton, sister to Lord Galway, he said. Lord M. said in returning Dr. Hook’s sermon (which I sent him to read) when he came in, that it was eager, but nothing very particular, and able. Lady Holland seems “very fond of Senfft,” Lord M. observed; “she would settle that Embassy too, as she does every thing else,” he said laughing. Lord M. said, in speaking of Taylor’s pamphlet,[586]“There is no force in it; it isn’t pointed.” Taylor is very fond of writing, he says, and fancies he writes well. Spoke of Lady C. Bury’s book.[587]Lord M. says thesethings make less impression than people fancy; they “make a day’s noise; but nobody minds them much.” Spoke of Lady Anne Hamilton,[588]who attended Queen Caroline at her Trial; Lady Charlotte Lindsay gave evidence. “Lord Egremont said,” continued Lord M., “‘As for Guilford,[589]he twaddled like a waiting maid when he gave evidence; but his Sister lied like a man,’” which made us both laugh very much. Spoke of Kenney,[590]who is Author (Lord M. told me) ofLove, Law, and Physic, andRaising the Wind, and is at Holland House. Spoke of my knowing Rogers and Moore; having seen Scott and Southey. Lord M. rather admires Southey’s works, and thinks hisLife of Nelsonvery pretty. Spoke of hisLife of Cowper. Spoke of a new book lying on the table, sent to me by Granville Penn,[591]which Lord M. looked at and said he thought might be curious; it is theLife of Sir William Penn, Admiral in Cromwell’s time, and who, with Venables, took Jamaica. Spoke of Mrs. Hutchinson’sMemoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, which Lord M. thinks very curious; spoke of her violence; spoke of Clarendon’s book which Lord M. said “is a fine book.” I observed there were few books on theParliamentary side; he replied few at the time, but a good many since. He mentioned one by Brodie, a Scotchman; Bishop Burnet’s Memoirs of his own time, during Charles II.’s reign; and he said, “There is a book which I think would amuse Your Majesty, and would be of use to you, and which isn’t long, which is Guizot’s account of the Revolution.” It’s only in 2 vols., and is a summary of whole thing, he said.
Lord M. said Lady Holland was a great friend of Pozzo’s, and that his first acquaintance with Pozzo was at Holland House. I asked if she knew Sebastiani; he said she did, but didn’t like him much, except from his connection with Napoleon “whom she adored.” She never knew Napoleon, Lord Melbourne added, but saw him at Paris at the Peace of Amiens. She used to send him things she knew he liked, said Lord M.; when he was at St. Helena she sent himgâteauxand chocolate, &c. “She was half on his side,” Lord M. continued, “if not more.” Spoke of Lady E. Wortley’s[592]admiration for Napoleon. Soult was no friend of Napoleon, Lord M. said; none of them, he continued, were to be compared to Napoleon himself; the two best after Napoleon, Lord M. said, were Dessaix who was killed at Marengo, and Kleber who was murdered in Egypt.
I asked Lord M. what Lord Gower, whom he mentioned to me before, was; that Lord Gower, he said, was the Duke of Sutherland’s grandfather; he was “Lord Privy Seal” when the King sentfor him.[593]“He did not think himself equal to it” (being Prime Minister); “he was a man who took great part in politics.” Lord M. also told me that he believes the present Lord Bute to be the great-grandson of the Minister of George III. “George III. found the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt, and everything was going on very well, when he was advised to change; he couldn’t bear Mr. Pitt; who was afterwards Lord Chatham; and he took Lord Bute in his place; and then followed all that unpopularity.” I asked if these letters of George III. showed great confidence in Lord North; Lord M. said “they show a great liking for him, more than a great confidence.” That the King never seemed to think him strong enough; Lord North, all along, Lord M. continued, was pursuing a Policy contrary to what he himself approved, but which he was urged to by the King: and Lord North remonstrated very much with the King. The difference, Lord M. observed before, between George IV. and his father, was, that the former (which Knighton’s Memoirs show, Lord M. said) always required somebody to lean upon, whereas the latter always wished to act for himself, and only yielded, but said at the same time he disliked doing it. He never would have yielded on the Catholic Question, Lord M. continued, nor would the Duke of York; the late King was for it; but George IV. did it very unwillingly. George III. was deeply hurt at the loss of the American provinces, which I observed was no wonder; I said I thought it washisfault. Lord M. said most likely it was;but that it was impossible any longer to keep up the great Colonial Policy, namely that they should exclusively trade with England and make nothing for themselves; even Lord Chatham, Lord M. said, who all along advocated their cause, “said they shouldn’t drive one hob-nail for themselves.” The Separation was easily done, they had nothing to do but to declare it. Lord M. continued that the first settlers were composed of people who left England in discontent,—of dissenters &c., and consequently no loyal people could spring from them. Spoke of the people whom William III. ennobled, which I’ve no time to enumerate. He told a most absurd anecdote of a very fat little porter at Lansdowne House. “He is a leading man in all the Parish Debates,” said Lord M.; “and somebody told Albemarle, ‘He speaks very well; to tell you the truth he speaks very like my lord.’”
END OF VOL. I
Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
FOOTNOTES
[1]In later years the volumes of the Queen’s Journals were of larger size, but they were always simply bound in half calf or half morocco.
[2]They were ultimately paid by the Queen immediately after her accession.
[3]Kensington Palace.
[4]The Journal was written in pencil and inked over afterwards.
[5]Edward, first Earl of Powis (1754–1839), was the eldest son of the great Lord Clive; his eldest son, afterwards second Earl, married Lucy, daughter of the third Duke of Montrose; his second son, Robert Clive, M.P., married Harriet, younger daughter of the fifth Earl of Plymouth: these are the ladies referred to in the text. The barony of Windsor, which had fallen into abeyance, was afterwards terminated in favour of Lady Harriet Clive.
[6]Lady Catherine Jenkinson, elder daughter of the third Earl of Liverpool, was married later to Colonel Francis Vernon Harcourt, son of the Archbishop of York and Equerry to the Duchess of Kent.
[7]Sir Richard Bulkeley, tenth Baronet, M.P. for Anglesey, afterwards Lord Lieutenant of Carnarvonshire. He had just married Maria Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Stanley-Massy-Stanley.
[8]Lady Williams, wife of Sir John Williams of Bodelwyddan, first Baronet.
[9]Daughter of Sir John Conroy, Comptroller to the Duchess of Kent.
[10]Louise Lehzen became Governess to Princess Victoria in 1824. In 1827 George IV. created her a Hanoverian Baroness. When in 1830 the Duchess of Northumberland was made the Princess’ Governess, her “faithful Lehzen” remained on as Lady in Waiting. She stayed at Court till 1842, when she returned to Germany.
[11]Sir John Williams, afterwards Sir John Williams-Hay, second Baronet, of Bodelwyddan.
[12]Robert, Earl Grosvenor (1767–1845), had in 1831 been created Marquess of Westminster; he had married Eleanor, only daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Wilton. Richard, Lord Grosvenor, their eldest son, married Elizabeth Mary, daughter of the first Duke of Sutherland; Thomas, the second son, inherited, under a special remainder, his grandfather’s Earldom of Wilton, and married Mary Margaret, daughter of Edward, twelfth Earl of Derby.
[13]Wife of Sir Philip Grey Egerton, and daughter of George John Legh, of High Legh, Cheshire.
[14]Robert, third son of Lord Westminster, at this time M.P. for Chester and afterwards for Middlesex, was created in 1857 Lord Ebury.
[15]Elinor, afterwards Duchess of Northumberland.
[16]Gilbert le Grosvenator, nephew of Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester.
[17]Joan (temp.Henry VI.), only daughter and heiress of John Eton of Eton (now Eaton), married Raufe le Grosvenor, Lord of Hulme.
[18]Sir Thomas Grosvenor, third Baronet, M.P. for Chester, married Mary, only daughter and heiress of Alexander Davis, of Ebury, Middlesex. She died in 1730.
[19]William Spencer, sixth Duke of Devonshire. His mother was Georgiana, famous for her beauty and its influence over George IV. and Lord Grey. The sixth Duke inherited from his mother his Whig proclivities. He was a patron of arts and letters. Devonshire House under his bachelor rule was a centre of hospitality. That the Duke never married, notwithstanding his admiration of the fair sex, gave rise to much speculation and gossip.
[20]William, Lord Cavendish, grandson of George Augustus Henry, first Earl of Burlington, and great-grandson of the fourth Duke of Devonshire. In 1858 he became the seventh Duke, and died in 1891. He married in 1829 Blanche Georgiana, daughter of the sixth Earl of Carlisle. He was beloved and respected by all who were privileged to know him. In the spheres of education and science his quiet activities were not unremarked. He was an admirable landlord and a most efficient man of affairs. For his careful education of his eldest son, the Marquess of Hartington, the nation owes him a large debt of gratitude.
[21]Thomas, seventh Earl of Newburgh, married 1817 Margaret, daughter of the Marquess of Ailsa. Died 1833.
[22]Rt. Hon. William S. S. Lascelles, M.P., third son of the second Earl of Harewood, married Caroline Georgiana, eldest daughter of the sixth Earl of Carlisle.
[23]James Archibald (1776–1845), first Lord Wharncliffe, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John, first Earl of Erne.
[24]George William, Lord Morpeth, afterwards seventh Earl of Carlisle, a prominent but comparatively undistinguished member of every Whig Administration from 1835 to 1864.
[25]Sister of Lord Cavendish (afterwards seventh Duke of Devonshire) referred to above. She became the wife of F. J. Howard, M.P. for Youghal.
[26]Sir Augustus Clifford, formerly Usher of the Black Rod, married Elizabeth Frances, sister of the fourth Marquess Townshend.
[27]Afterwards wife of Charles William Grenfell, M.P.
[28]Henry Manners, third Lord Waterpark.
[29]John, sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury (1791–1852).
[30]Lord Liverpool’s second daughter, married, first, to Lord Milton, secondly to George Savile Foljambe, of Osberton, Notts.
[31]Louisa, third daughter of Lord Liverpool, married John Cotes of Woodcote, Salop.
[32]Francis, first Lord Churchill, third son of George, fourth Duke of Marlborough.
[33]Montagu, fifth Earl of Abingdon, married Emily, sister of the third Viscount Gage.
[34]Sir John Conroy.
[35]Thomas Gaisford, Dean of Christ Church, 1831–1855.
[36]Philip Nicholas Shuttleworth, afterwards (1840–1842) Bishop of Chichester.
[37]George, Viscount Cantelupe (1814–1850), died in the lifetime of his father, the fifth Earl de la Warr.
[38]Jacob, afterwards fourth Earl of Radnor (1815–1889).
[39]John Henry, afterwards third Marquess of Ely (1814–1857). His wife was in after-years Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, and perhaps the most widely known of her ladies.
[40]Probably Henry Edward Hall Gage (1814–1875), eldest son of the fourth Viscount Gage, in whose lifetime he died.
[41]Charles Canning (1812–1862), afterwards Viscount Canning and Governor-General of India.
[42]Lord Thomas Clinton (1813–1882), third son of Henry, fourth Duke of Newcastle, K.G.
[43]Mr. Granville Leveson-Gower, afterwards second Earl Granville (1815–1891), well known as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Mr. Gladstone’s Administration.
[44]George Henry, afterwards second Earl of Falmouth (1811–1852).
[45]Princess Sophia (1777–1848) was a daughter of George III., and younger sister of Princess Augusta Sophia (1768–1840). See p. 200.
[46]The Very Rev. George Davys, the Princess’s instructor, at this time Dean of Chester, subsequently Bishop of Peterborough.
[47]Richard Westall (1765–1836), an R.A. since 1794 and painter of many historical pictures.
[48]John Bernard Sale (1779–1856), organist of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, and afterwards of the Chapel Royal.
[49]The Duchess of Gloucester. See p. 65.
[50]An attached attendant, to whose memory, after her death, the Queen erected a tablet in St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields. She was dresser to Princess Charlotte.
[51]Thomas Steward, teacher of writing and arithmetic.
[52]M. Grandineau, teacher of French.
[53]Mr. (afterwards Sir) George Hayter (1792–1871), a ceremonial painter of some merit. He was the official limner of two Royal heiresses—i.e.Princess Charlotte and Princess Victoria. He was designated, somewhat equivocally, Painter in Ordinary to the Queen.
[54]William Farren (1786–1861), an actor of distinction himself, and a member of a histrionic family of unusual merit.
[55]Mary, fourth daughter of George III., who married her cousin William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester. She died in 1867. The Queen looked upon her “as a sort of grandmother,” and described her as full of kindness, amiability, and unselfishness.
[56]Seepost, p. 104.
[57]Charlotte Florentia, daughter of Edward, first Earl of Powis, and wife of Hugh, third Duke of Northumberland, K.G., Governess to the Princess.
[58]Daughter of the eleventh Duke of Somerset, afterwards wife of William Blount, of Orleton, Herefordshire.
[59]The Princess’s dancing-mistress.
[60]William Howley (1766–1848), Bishop of London 1813–28, Primate 1828–48. In the opinion of Lord Grey and the Whigs “a poor, miserable creature,” but in reality a worthy, conscientious prelate.
[61]Lord Brougham.
[62]Seeante, p. 53.
[63]Bernard Edward, twelfth Duke of Norfolk (1765–1842). He was given the Garter in 1834—the only K.G. of the Roman faith. He subsequently became a Protestant.
[64]Edward Adolphus, eleventh Duke of Somerset (1775–1855). A personage of no importance.
[65]George, fifth and last Duke of Gordon. A soldier. He fought in Ireland (1798) and at Walcheren (1809). A friend of the Prince Regent and a hard liver, but a high-minded, honourable man. Three of his sisters married the Dukes of Richmond, Manchester, and Bedford. The fourth married the Marquis Cornwallis. These achievements were due to the talents of the old Duchess of Gordon, a Scottish lady of strong character and accent.
[66]John Henry, fifth Duke of Rutland, K.G. (1778–1857), chiefly remarkable as the father of “Henry Sidney,” one of Disraeli’s well-known sketches of contemporary potentates.
[67]Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland in her own right (1765–1839), married George Granville, Viscount Trentham, afterwards second Marquess of Stafford. He was created Duke of Sutherland in January 1833. She was habitually called the “Duchess-Countess” in the family, and is still so called.
[68]William Harry, third Earl of Darlington and first Duke of Cleveland, K.G. Seepost, p. 98.
[69]Seeante, p. 49.
[70]Charles, second Earl Grey, Prime Minister. Lady Grey was Mary Elizabeth, daughter of the first Lord Ponsonby of Imskilly.
[71]Rowland, first Viscount Hill, Commander-in-Chief from 1828 to 1842—an office upon which he left no mark.
[72]Georgiana, second daughter of George, sixth Earl of Carlisle, wife of the Rt. Hon. George James Welbore, first Lord Dover.
[73]Henry, Earl of Uxbridge, afterwards second Marquess of Anglesey, a cavalier of spirit, and possessed of all the dashing qualities of the Paget family.
[74]William Charles, fourth Earl of Albemarle, Master of the Horse. A few days after her accession the Queen sent for him and said, “My Lord, you will immediately provide for me six chargers to review my troops.”
[75]William Pitt, first Earl Amherst, quite inconspicuous as Ambassador to China 1816–17, and Governor-General of India 1823–28.
[76]Mary Anne, wife of Sir Edward Cust, afterwards Master of the Ceremonies to Queen Victoria.
[77]General Sir George Anson, G.C.B., Equerry to the Duchess of Kent, afterwards Groom of the Bedchamber to Prince Albert.
[78]General Sir Frederick Wetherall served on the staff of the Duke of Kent, and was subsequently his equerry and one of the executors of his will.
[79]William Wyon, chief engraver at the Mint, afterwards R.A.
[80]Marie Taglioni (1809–84). Until the invasion of Europe by Russian ballet, Taglioni’s name was the most famous in the annals of classical operatic dancing.
[81]He was President from 1830 to 1850. By his contemporaries he was as much esteemed as Lawrence. America, however, has not yet discovered him.
[82]Henry Howard, appointed Professor of Painting to the Academy in 1833.
[83]Sir William Beechey, R.A. Formerly Portrait Painter to Queen Charlotte, and finely represented at Windsor by a series of charming portraits of Royal children.
[84]Now in the “Corridor” at Windsor Castle.
[85]Sir Charles Eastlake (P.R.A., 1850–65). He was appointed by Sir R. Peel secretary to the Fine Arts Commission, and later still Director of the National Gallery. A typical and meritorious P.R.A.
[86]Sir Edwin Landseer (1802–73). The most popular of British painters.
[87]Sir Augustus Wall Callcott (1779–1844). A chorister of Westminster Abbey; subsequently a painter. Elected R.A. 1810, and knighted 1837.
[88]Henry William Pickersgill, R.A. (1782–75), a fashionable portrait painter, patronised by famous men and women; he exhibited at the Academy for over sixty years. He is now quite forgotten.
[89]William Hilton, R.A., (1786–1839). His work was refined, but, owing to the pigment he used, has practically vanished.
[90]The Duke, who was the eldest son of King Louis Philippe, was born at Palermo in 1810, and in July 1842 was thrown from his phaeton near the Porte Maillot in Paris, and died on the spot. His youth and popularity, his love of art and literature, and his professional efficiency as a soldier might, had he lived, have served to give the events of 1848 a different turn. He was, however, a Bourbon.
[91]Wife of Leopold, King of the Belgians.
[92]The veteran Prince Talleyrand (1754–1838), once Bishop of Autun, Republican, Bonapartist, Legitimist, and cynic; everything by turns and everything remarkablylong. See p. 331, and Vol. II. p. 61.
[93]The Duchesse de Dino (Princesse de Sagan), niece of Prince Talleyrand. Her own memoirs have preserved her memory.
[94]Henry, third Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863). A typical and most eminent Whig. He twice refused to be Prime Minister, but held office in every Whig Administration from 1830 to 1858. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Ministry of “All the Talents.” He was a fine judge of art. No statesman of his time was more universally trusted.
[95]George Granville succeeded his father, the first Duke of Sutherland (seeante, p. 68, n.), in July 1833. His wife, Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana, third daughter of the sixth Earl of Carlisle, was the first Mistress of the Robes selected by Queen Victoria.
[96]Charles Augustus (1776–1859), fifth Earl of Tankerville, married Corisande, daughter of Antoine, Duc de Gramont: she possessed great charm of manner and a fine turn of wit. She had many attached friends of both sexes. See Vol. II. p. 221.
[97]William Philip (1772–1838), second Earl of Sefton, married Maria Margaret, daughter of William, sixth Lord Craven.
[98]Seeante, p. 49.
[99]Thomas William (1795–1854), second Viscount Anson, had been created in 1831 Earl of Lichfield. He married Louisa Catherine, daughter of Nathaniel Philips, of Slebech Hall, co. Pembroke.
[100]First Earl Granville, youngest son of first Marquess of Stafford (1773–1846), Ambassador to St. Petersburg 1804, and afterwards for many years at Paris. He married the daughter of the fifth Duke of Devonshire.
[101]Lord Palmerston, born 1781, died Prime Minister 1865. Lord Palmerston was now fifty-two years old. In years to come, this child of thirteen was destined to overthrow him, when at the height of his popularity, to receive him again as her Prime Minister, and to turn to him in the great crisis of her life twenty-eight years after their first meeting.
[102]Seeante, p. 54.
[103]John William, Lord Duncannon. A Whig placeman. As Earl of Bessborough (1846) he became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and died in office in 1847.
[104]Hugh, Lord Ebrington, afterwards second Earl Fortescue. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1839–41.
[105]Sylvain Van de Weyer (1802–74), Belgian Minister at the Court of St. James’s, a trusted friend of King Leopold and of Queen Victoria. He had been a prominent leader of the Revolution in Belgium, 1830, and a protagonist of the separation of Belgium and Holland. His wit and charming personality gave him a prominent place in London society. He married the daughter of Joshua Bates, senior partner in Barings.
[106]Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1799–1869), the Rupert of debate, at this time Secretary for the Colonies, afterwards (as Earl of Derby) three times Prime Minister. Mrs. Stanley was Emma Caroline, daughter of Edward, first Lord Skelmersdale.
[107]Mr. Ellice (1781–1863), born at Montreal, M.P. for Coventry and Secretary at War. He had been a very successful Government Whip; nick-named “Bear” Ellice from his connection with the Hudson Bay Company. He married a sister of Earl Grey.
[108]James Abercromby (1776–1858), son of the gallant Sir Ralph Abercromby, who died in the moment of victory at Alexandria in 1801. At this time M.P. for Edinburgh. Became Speaker of the House of Commons in 1835, and was created Lord Dunfermline four years later.
[109]The Baroness Späth, Lady-in-Waiting to the Duchess of Kent.
[110]General Sir Robert Gardiner was Principal Equerry to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg at his marriage with Princess Charlotte. In later life he was Governor and Commander-in-Chief at Gibraltar.
[111]William George Maton, M.D., Physician Extraordinary to the Duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria.
[112]George (1819–1904), afterwards Duke of Cambridge and Commander-in-Chief. He was two months older than the Princess, so that he was now fourteen years old.
[113]Arabella, wife of the fourth Earl, a Lady-in-waiting to Queen Adelaide. She was a Miss Mackworth Praed.
[114]Daughters of the eleventh Earl of Pembroke. Lady Emma afterwards married the third Viscount de Vesci, and Lady Georgiana the fourth Marquess of Lansdowne.