DIARIES OF A LADY OF QUALITY FROM 1797 TO 1844.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 852, 14 September 1864, Page 6

DIARIES OF A LADY OF QUALITY FROM 1797 TO 1844.

(From the Times.)

The " Lady of Quality," whose " Diaries" Mr Hay ward lias compiled in this volume, was the late Miss Frances Williams Wy?m, a daughter of that patrician house which durhg nearly three generations made the nama of Grenville famous in EDgland. Her life wa^ spent among her relations, and, as. she made it her constant practice to note down all that she heard and saw at Stowe, Wynnstay, and in London society, hc-r reminiscences brings v? in contact with much that is worthy of being recorded in the world of politics, fashion, and letters iv the first 40 years of the present century. She has much t.o tell us abcnlT George 111., the Regent, Queen Caroline, and William IV. She takes us behind the scenes at the Tuileries, and shows us Napoleon at St. Helena, she gives U3 many a pleasant anecdote about the contemporaries of JJogrrs and Siddons ; and her literary range extends widely from hints as to the aufchor.-hip of " Junius" to criticisms on Miss O'Neil iuui Macready. Her book, accordingly, will add something to the stores of the historical student, and in any eisa will delight those readers who take pleasure in dweiliGg on the life and gossip of the best society.

The first reminiscence Miss Wynn seems to have notedfdawn is not devoid of general interest, although it certainly cont.alicts the opinion of almost every contemporary. She thus describes Pitt, in 1797: -

" I was disappointed in that turned up nose snd in that countenance in which it was impos ■ sible to find any indication of rain:!, and in that perKon which was so deficient in dignity th it he had hardly the air of a gentleman. After this first disappointment my every faculty stemed to me to be ab-orbed in listening. If not tr.rnes, I fully expected the uictums of wisdom each time thar. he opened his mouth. From what I then heard and saw I should say that mouth was made for eating; as to speaking, there was vary little, and that little was totally uninteresting to me, and I beiieve would hava bsen fo to everybody. I was certainly not capable of a very accurate judgmenfc.but I was as certainly in a mood very much to overate instead of underrating what fell from the great wan, and to be quite "sure that what I did not understand must be mighty fine."

This sketch of Fox at a later neriod is probably much more true to the original:—

• "At a later period in the year, 1805, I found myself for nearly a week *t Stowe with. Mr Pox; but. as there were above 50 others in the house, with the Priuce Regent at their head, the whoie thing was a formal crowd, and I cou!d only paz; at the countenance of one whom I should most have liked to hear talk. Certainly ia the ruixed society he hardly ever wa-i heard to speak, but occasionally with some one individual who saw him entering into an animated whispered conversation, and it was carious to watch the sudden illumination of a countenance which when silent, had, to my fancy, a heav3', sullen look. How far- it migbt even then have been altered by malady I cannot judge, but I know that the next ti<ne I beheld Mr Fox, n')t Bix months after, at Lord Melville's trial, I thought I never had seen the ravages of illness so stronely marked in any human countenance. All its animation hai disappeared, the leadea eyes were almost lost under the heavy eyebrow; even that appeared to partake in the extraordinary change which all the coloring seemed to have undergone; the palid, or rather livid hue of the complexion deepened the sable line of the dark brow, and the whole countenance assumed a lethargic expression."

Miss VTynn, as might have been expected, abstains from tracing the characteristics of liar own kinsmen, the three Grenvilles, but she thus describes one of their intimates, Windham, as he appeared in " the social hour" : — " In my recollection no person appears to have possessed the power of making conversation delightful as mv has Mr Win ham. His peculiar charm stems to me to have been that sort of gay openness which I should call the very reverse of what tbe French term morgue. To all this must be agreeable, and it is peculiarly delightful to a yenn? person who is conscious of her owii inferiority to the person who condescends to put her perfectly at ease." This volume contains a number of particulars respecting George 111. and his famiiy, some of which, we think, have not beea made public The following anec3"te sadly illustrates the character of his mental malady:—

"A. few days after Sir Henry was walking with him on the terrace; hs began talking of tke Lutheran religion, of its superiority to that of the Church of Kugland, and en'.'ecl with growicg so vehement that he re illy ranted forth i'ta praises, wltlrufc mentioning that which Sir Henry believes to have been the real :mofciye of this preference- ths left-handed marriages allowed. He was very anxious to see whether traces of this delusion would appear agauij aud

went to the Duke or York to ask for information as to the tenets, practices, <Sc, of the Lutheran faith. 'I'j c Duke said, ' Watch him iv Passion Week; if he fancies himself a Lutheran you will see an extraordinary degree of inortifk ation and mourning,' &c. When Sir Henry returned to the assembled physicians he wrote down the substance of this conversation, and, without communicating it to anybody, requested them present to seal the paper and keep it in a chest where thennotes and other papers of importance are kept, under locks of which each had a separate key. When the Monday in Passion Week arrived, and Sir Hes.ry had nearly forgotten this conversation, he went into the Kii'g's dre«sing-room while he was at Ms toilet, and f-mud his attendants, in amazement at hi* having called for and put on Wack stockings, black waistcoat and breeches, and a gray coat with biack buttons." Mias Wynu seems to have entertained the chavitaUe theory that Qvnen Caroline's errors may have been attributable to insanity : - "The idea of the unsoundness of mind of the unfortunate Caroline is strongly confirmed by the following circumstances, related to me by Lord Hedesdalein May, 1828 I—Having bsen invited to dine with the Duchess of Brunswick at Blackbeath. lie and Lady Redesdale, coding at the time specified, found themselves there long before the rest of the company. They passed half an hour en tiers with the' Duchess, who, having known him from his earliest youth, began talking very confidentially and imprudently of the misconduct of her daughter, end ing with saying, ' »*nt her excuse is that, poor thing1, she i"s not right here.' ... He to;d me also, and I forget how he knew it tj be true, that, when the Princess was at Baden, and the Grand Duke mads a parlie de chasse for her, she apoeared on horseback with a half pampkiu on her head. Upon the Grand Duke's expressing astonishment, and recommending a coiffeur rather less extraordinary, she only replied thai, the weather was hot, and nothing kept the head so cool and comfortable as a pumpkin " We were not aware that William IV". had ever contemplated taking the style which it seems he did from the following anecdote; and, certainly, when we remember the evnnts which occurred soon after his accession to the throne, the prophecy respecting Henry IX. might have been quoted as near verification by Tories of the schcol of Eldon and Wetherall : — " The King had expressed a strong preference for his second name of Henry, which he liked much better than that of William. The day after the death of George IV. Miss Helen Lloyd met the Kins at the house of Lady Sophia Sydney; she asked him familiarly whether he was to be proclaimed as King William or King Henry ' Helen Lloyd,' he replied, 'that question has been discussed in the Privy Council, and it has been decided in favor of Kin? William.' He aided, 'that the deoHon had been mainl? in fluenced by the idea of an old prophecy, of which he had never heard before, nor had he any evidence that it had ever been ma-!e. The drift of the prophecy was that, as H-mry VIII. hid pulled down monk* an-i cells, Henry IX. would pull down bishops and bfclls."' We loyally say, Honi soil qiti mal y pense. in transsribiiig this scene from Miss Wynn's pages :— " On Tuesday, at half-past 2 a.m., the King died, and in a very short time the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Coayngbam, the Chamberlain, set out to announce the event to their young Sovereign. They readied Kensington Palace at about 5 ; they knocked, they rung, they thumped for a considerable time before they could rouse the porter at the gates; they were again kept waiting in the Courtyard, then turned into one of the lower rooms, where they seemed forgotten by everybody. They rang the bell, desired that the attendant of the Princess Victoria might be sent to inform her Royal Highness that they requested an audience of importance ; after another delay, and another ringing to inquire the cause, the attendant was summoned, who stated that the Princess was in such a sweat sleep she could not venture to disturb her. Then they said, ' we are come to the Queen on business ot-State, and even her sleep mustgiv-s way to that.' It did ; anrl to prove that she did not ke?p them waiting, in a few minutes she came into the room in a loose white night gown and shawl, her nightcap thrown off, and her hair falling upon her shoulders, her feet in slippers, tears in her eyes, but perfectly collected and dignified." Of Napoleon aud his illustrious antagonist she tells us some details that are interesting. It is new to us that the ere v which accompanied the captive Caesar to St. Helena was sa disaffected that he seems to have thought they might have connived had he attempted escaping. The folio ving is an extract from a letter of an officer of Marines on board the Northumberland : —

"I believe the object of the guard is to prevent communication'with-ths crew. Nap'o'eon told the admiral that he did not douht he could gst many to join him if he tried; and, indeed, they are a set of as mutinous rascals as I ever heard of, though I don't think they would assist him to e'eape." What 1 am eroing to state mu-t. for the credis of the country, be a secret; they mutinied, and refused to gst anchor up at .Portsmouth ; the /.rtillery compiny, the 53rd, and ourselves were under arms foi three hour3—that is to say, till we had sailed. We doubt very much, the truth of the following :— " Napoteon always spoke in the handsomest manner of his great rival the Duke of Wellington, and did not, like almost all of the officers who fousrht under his banner, attribute their defeat at Waterloo to chance, to a mistake, &c."

We believe thi* story is not far from correct; there is little doubt that on the nipjat of the 15th of June, 1815, the Dnke, ia the events that had actually happened, allowed that Napoleon hnd gained one march on bitn, though lie remained perfectly confident a* to the issue :— " The Dake saii he was as far surprised as a man can be who knows he is to expect attack; he knew fiat Napoleon would march towards Bru-sels; that JBluchey was coming to his relief; ho had a frontier of many hundred miles to defend.; he could not p :s----sibly foresee on what point the attack wou'd be first made, and certainly the spped of tha advance of Nnpoleon exceeded whathe could have expected or believed possible." It appears like a mockery of history that to tills hour it is a disputed question at what place Blucher and Wellington met upon the evening of the day of Waterloo. The common account, commemorated by Mae'-ise on a gorgeous fresco in the House of Lords, describes La Belle Alliance as the spot; the Duke, in a letter to Colonel Mudford, declared that the meeting was at Genappe; and that he seems to have afterwards fixed upon an inn ealldd La Maison Rouge and to have mentioned it to Mr Gleisr - "ft is stated on the highest authority that the Duke reached his head-quarters at Waterloo about 10 o'clock at nieht. It is "impossible, therefore, that he could have gone as far as Genapps. Yet, as he passed through Genappe when falling back from Qaatre Bras, and mentions it in his despatch of the 19th, it is curious that he should have confounded it with Maison Rouge, which he afterwards specified as the r«al place of mepting to the best and most trusted of his biographers, the Chaplain General." As is we.l known, there is also a controversy respecting the number of eagles captured from the French array on the d-iy.of Waterloo. M Thiers insists one only was taken, but the following extract from Major Percy's journal—the officer who brought the eagles to London, together with t.H<» upws of the victory—recorded for the first vine in these Diaries, should set the question at reft for ever:— " Game up from Dover in a chaise and four, with three eagles out of the window. They were too long to be shut in it. Went first to the Prince Aegonfc (oefore he came borne) at Mis? Boehm's in' St. James's square. Prince much affected. All London thrown into agitationpeople quitting balls and assemblies as the news was couveyfid of the wounds or death of relatives. Many ladies fainted. There was a rumor, before the news came, of a great battle, and retreat, and evm defeat. People were much depressed; therefore the reaction was immense.' _ This volume contains some provoking hints that the secret of the authorship of Junius was known to some of the Grenville family. It seems presumptuous to review the judgments of two such masters of ge eral evidence as Lord Mara-ilny and Lord Campbell; but we cannot help thinking that evan yet the Franciscan theory may be overthrown in favor of some one eon • nected with ths Greuville'. We do not know it it has beon remarked how thoroughly Jumus, not on'y i.-ihis principles, but cen in hisi liltea and dislikes, was identified with George Grenville and Temple; for instance, Ms estimate ot

Lord Chatham depends entirely on the varying relations of that statesman with, the brotherhood of Stowe; and his violent abuse of the Grafton Administration arose apparently in some degree from the circumstance that it made the breech between Pitt and Grenville more impassable. We suspect that the secret even yet may be found arnosg the archives of Stowe; but we do not believe, with Miss Wynn, that Temple himself could have been Junius: —

'I The Duke of Buckingham said that, examining some dapers of our grandfather (George Grenville), he found a letter which entirely clearer! the matter; that he had immediately written this to Lord Grenville, and had offered to exchange his secret information for that which he had always understood was in my uncle's possession. No answer was returned, and the Duke said that, as it was evident that Lord Grenville did not wish for any communication on the subject, he thought it more delicate towards him not to make it to any one as long as he lived. Four years have now elapsed since the death of Lord Grenville, and nothing is mode known on the subject of Junius The Duke said that Junius was not any one of the persons to whom the letters had been ascribed ; that from the situation in which he found the paper in question he had every reason to believe that his father had never read it. . ...

The impression left upon the mind of my sister by this conversation was that Lord Temple was the man." • Like many fine ladies of that generation, Miss Wynn was very fond of the theatre, and her criticisms on its principal celebrities are often not devoid of interest. The following, if correct, is certainly curious :— "Mr Greathead told me he was struck with a great difference in Mrs Siddon's manner of reading the witches scene after the appearance of Guy Mannering. He ssdd it was quite clear to him that Meg Merrillies had explained to Mrs Si idons Shakespeare's idea of the witches. This he told me upon my observing with delight upon their totally altered appearance in Dnzry-lane Theatre, which I ascribed to the same cause." _ A love of ghost stories and diablerie, of which there are many details in this volume, was one of Miss Wynn'--'characteristics; and we are happy to a'ld that, beginnina in faith, she ended in a sensible scpticism. The following i 3 her mature verson of the celebrated legend of the Tyrone GliO3t, which we doubt not, has often made young ladies thrill with nervous horror :— " A discussion on tales of mystery producel a letter from cne of ths Beresford family, containing an account of the real circumstances of the story. The lady of the velvet bracelet, when about to be married for the second time, really had a dream warning her oi: the uahnppines3 likely to result from the contemplated union. It was well known to the family of the intended bride that she had been subject to a disorder which had left a deep sear on her wrist—long before the visitation of the burning spirit; and she had covered this scar with a velvet bracelet most carefully ever since it had been formed.'" Miss Wynri died in 1857, having outlived, we regret to say, the palmy splendour of the House of Grenville. Her book, without any pretence to genius, is a sensible and we I-written resume of the observations of a patrician lady who lived much in ih.s grand monde, and as such we commend it to our readers.