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 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 
 
 \V 
 
 AS RELATED BY HERSELF 
 
 IN CONVERSATIONS WITH HER 
 PHYSICIAN ; 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 HER OPINIONS AND ANECDOTES OF 
 
 SOME OF THE MOST EEMARKABLE PERSONS 
 
 OF HEE TIME. 
 
 All such writings and discourses as touch no man will mend no 
 man. — Tyers's Rhapsody on Pope. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 LONDON: 
 HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, 
 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 
 1845.
 
 FREDERICK SHOBERL, JUNIOR, 
 
 PRINTER TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT, 
 
 51, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET, LONDON.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE SECOND VOLUME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Lady Hester Stanhope's descent^Dr. M.'s first introduction 
 to her — Her reasons for quitting England — Anecdotes of her 
 childhood and womanhood — Her motives for going to live with 
 Mr. Pitt — ]VIr. Pitt's opmion of Tom Paine — Lady Hester no- 
 ticed by George HI.— Anecdote of Sir A. H. — Of Lord G.— Of 
 Lord A. — Impertinent questioners — Anecdote of the Mar- 
 quis * * * — IVIr, Pitt's confidence in Lady Hester's discretion 
 — and in her devotion to him — His opinion of her cleverness, 
 and of her military and diplomatic abilities — Her tirade against 
 doctors — Her reflections on prudery — Anecdote of General 
 Moore — Of the Due de Blacas, &c 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Sir Nathaniel Wraxall's Memoirs — The three duchesses — 
 Anecdote of Mr. Rice — How Prime IMinisters are employed on 
 first taking ofiice — The Grenville make — P of W
 
 IV CONTENTS. 
 
 at Stowe — ]VIr. Pitt and Mr. Sheridan — Duke of H 
 
 — IVIr. Pitt's disinterestedness exemplified — His life wasted in 
 
 the service of his country — Mr. Rose — Mr. Long — Mr. 
 
 — Grounds at Walmer laid out by Lady Hester — Mr. Pitt's de- 
 portment in retirement — His physiognomy — How he got into 
 debt — Lord Carrington ; why made a peer — Extent of Mr. 
 Dundas's influence over Mr. Pitt — Mr. Pitt averse to cere- 
 mony — Mr. Pitt and his sister Harriet — His dislike to 
 the Bourbons — Lady Hester's activity at Walmer — Lord 
 Chatham's indolence — Mr. Pitt's opinion of Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley ... .... 49 
 
 CHAPTER HL 
 
 Duchess of Gontaut — Due de Berry — Anecdotes of Lord H. 
 — Sir Gore Ouseley — Prince of Wales — The other princes — 
 The Queen's severity — Men and women of George the Third's 
 time — The Herveys — Lady Liverpool's high breeding — Lady 
 Hester's declining health ..... 83 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Conscription in Syria — Liviolability of consular houses — 
 Panic and flight of the people of Sayda — Protection afforded 
 by Lady Hester — Story of a boy — Mustafa the barber — 
 Cruelty to mothers of Conscripts — Conscription in the villages 
 
 — Lady Hester's dream — Lihabitants of Sayda mulcted — 
 Lady Hester's opinion of negresses — Severity necessary in 
 Turkey — Case of Monsieur Danna — Captain Y. — Mustafa 
 Pasha's cruelty . . . . . . • 1 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Rainy season — Lady Hester's despondency — Her Turkish 
 costume — Turkish servants — Terror inspired by Lady Hester
 
 CONTENTS. V 
 
 in her servants — Visit of Messieurs Poujolat andBoutes — 
 Lady Hester's inability to entertain strangers — Her dejected 
 spirits and bad health . . . . . 139 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Delphic priestess — Abdallah Pasha's ingratitude — 
 His cowardice — Lady Hester's spies — Her emaciation — 
 History of General Loustaunau . . . . 171 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 Lady Hester like the first Lord Chatham — Her recollec- 
 tions of Chevening — Her definition of insults — Her deliberate 
 
 affronts — Her war-like propensities — Earl C Marquis of 
 
 Abercorn — Logmagi — Osman Chaoosh — Letter from Colonel 
 Campbell — George the Third's flattering complunent to Lady 
 Hester — Her Majesty Queen Victoria — Lord M. — Prophecy 
 of a welly — Lady Hester's poignant affliction — Her intracta- 
 bility — Her noble and disinterested benevolence . 203 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 
 Lady Hester's system of astrology — Sympathies and an- 
 tipathies — People's nijems or stars — Mesmerism explained — 
 Lord Suffolk — Lady Hester's own star — Letter to the Queen 
 — Letter to Mr. Speaker Abercrombie — Messieurs Beck and 
 Moore — Letter to Colonel Campbell — The ides of March — 
 Lady Hester's reflections on the Queen's conduct to her — Letter 
 to Sir Edward Sugden — "Wliat peers are — Junius's Letters — 
 Spies employed by the first Lord Chatham — Mi-. Pitt's opi- 
 nion of the Duke of Wellington — Lady Hester's letter to his 
 Grace, &c. 249
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Lady Hester in an alcove in her garden — Lucky days ob- 
 served by her — Consuls' rights — Mischief caused by Sir F. B.'s 
 neglect in answering Lady Hester's letters — Rashes common 
 in Syria — Visit of an unknown Englishman — Story of Hanah 
 Messaad — Lady Hester's love of truth — Report of her death 
 — JMichael Tutungi — Visit from the Chevalier Guys — His 
 reception at Dayr el Mkhallas — Punishment of the shepherd, 
 Caasem — Holyday of the Korban Byram — Fatoom's accouche- 
 ment — Lady Hester's aversion to consular interference — 
 Evenings at Joon — Old Pierre — Saady . . 305 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Visit of Mr. Vesey Forster and Mr. Knox — Lady S. N.'s 
 pension and Mr. H. — Lady Hester undeservedly censured by 
 English travellers, for declining their visits — Mr. Anson and 
 Mr. Strangways — INIr. B. and INIr. C. — Captain Pechell — 
 Captain Yorke — Colonel Howard Vyse — Lord B. . 347 
 
 Additional Notes . . . . . . 381
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Lady Hester Stanhope's descent — Dr. M.'s first introduction 
 to her — Her reasons for quitting England — Anecdotes of her 
 childhood and womanhood — Her motives for going to live with 
 Mr. Pitt — Mr. Pitt's opinion of Tom Paine — Lady Hester no- 
 ticed by George HI.— Anecdote of Sir A. H.— Of Lord G.— Of 
 Lord A, — Impertinent questioners — Anecdote of the Mar- 
 quis * * * — ISL". Pitt's confidence in Lady Hester's discretion 
 — and in her devotion to him — His opinion of her cleverness, 
 and of her military and diplomatic abilities — Her tirade against 
 doctors — Her reflections on prudery — Anecdote of General 
 Moore — Of the Due de Blacas, &c. 
 
 VOL. II. B

 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 It probably will be known to most readers that 
 Lady Hester Stanhope was the daughter of Charles 
 Earl of Stanhope by Hester, his first wife, sister to 
 Mr. William Pitt, and daughter of the first Earl of 
 Chatham. He had issue by this first wife three 
 daughters — Hester, Griselda, and Lucy. The earl 
 married a second wife, by whom he had three sons : 
 the present earl ; Charles, killed at Corunna ; and 
 James, who died at Caen Wood, the villa of his 
 father-in-law, the Earl of Mansfield. 
 
 I became acquainted with Lady Hester Stanhope 
 by accident. The chance that introduced me to 
 her was as follows : — I was going to Oxford to 
 take my degree ; and, having missed the coach 
 
 B 2
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 at the inn, I was obliged to hurry after it on foot, 
 for the want of a hackney-coach, as far as Oxford- 
 road turnpike, where I overtook it, and mounted the 
 box in a violent perspiration. The day was bitterly 
 cold, and, before night, I found myself attacked with 
 a very severe catarrh. The merriment of a college 
 life left me little time to pay attention to it ; and, 
 after about fifteen days, I returned, with a trouble- 
 some cough, to London, where I took to my 
 bed. 
 
 Mr. H. Cline, jun., (the son of the celebrated sur- 
 geon) being my friend, and hearing of my indis- 
 position, came to inquire after my health very fre- 
 quently. One day, sitting by my bedside, he asked 
 me if I should like to go abroad. I told him it had 
 been the earliest wish of my life. He said. Lady 
 Hester Stanhope (the niece of Mr. Pitt) had applied 
 to his father for a doctor, and that, if I liked, he 
 would propose me, giving me to understand from his 
 father that, although the salary would be small, I 
 should, if my services proved agreeable to Lady 
 Hester, be ultimately provided for. I thanked him, and 
 said, that to travel with such a distinguished woman 
 would please me exceedingly. The following day he 
 intimated that his father had already spoken about me,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 5 
 
 aud that her ladyship woukl see me. About four days 
 after, I was introduced to her, and she closed with 
 nie immediately, inviting me to dine with her that 
 evening. Afterwards, I saw her several times, and 
 subsequently joined her at Portsmouth, whence, after 
 waiting a fortnight, we sailed in the Jason, the 
 Hon. Captain King, for Gibraltar. 
 
 The reasons which Lady Hester assigned for 
 leaving England were grounded chiefly on the narrow- 
 ness of her income. Mr. Pitt's written request, on his 
 death-bed, that she might have £1500 a year, had 
 been complied with only in part, owing to the ill 
 office of certain persons at that time in the privy- 
 council, and she got clear, after deductions for the 
 property-tax were made, no more than £1200. At 
 first, after Mr. Pitt's death, she established herself in 
 Montague Square, with her tAvo brothers, and she there 
 continued to see much company, " But," she would 
 say, " a poor gentlewoman, doctor, is the worst thing 
 in the world. Not being able to keep a carriage, how 
 was I to go out ? If 1 used a hackney-coach, some 
 spiteful person would be sure to mention it : — ' Who 
 do you think I saw yesterday in a hackney-coach i 
 I wonder where she could be driving alone, down 
 those narrow streets V If I walked with a footman
 
 b MEMOIRS OF 
 
 behind me, there are so many women of the town now 
 who flaunt about with a smart footman, that 1 ran 
 the hazard of being taken for one of them ; and, if I 
 went alone, either there would be some good-natured 
 friend who would hint that Lady Hester did not walk 
 out alone for nothing ; or else I should be met in the 
 street by some gentleman of my acquaintance, who 
 would say, ' God bless me, Lady Hester ! where are 
 you going alone ? — do let me accompany you i' and 
 then it would be said, ' Did you see Lady Hester 
 crossing Hanover Square with such a one ? He 
 looked monstrous foolish : I wonder where they had 
 been/ So that, from one thing to another, I was 
 obliged to stop at home entirely : and this it was 
 that hurt my health so much, until Lord Temple, 
 at last, remarked it. For he said to me one day, 
 ' How comes it that a person like you, who used to 
 be always on horseback, never rides out ?' — ' Because 
 I have no horse.' — ' Oh ! if that is all, you shall 
 have one to-morrow.' — ' Thank you, my lord ; but, 
 if I have a horse, I must have two ; and, if I have 
 two, I must have a groom ; and, as I do not choose 
 to borrow, if you please, we will say no more about 
 it.' — ' Oh ! but I will send my horses, and come and 
 ride out with you every day.' However, I told him
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 7 
 
 no : for how could a man who goes to the House every 
 day, and attends committees in a morning, be able to 
 be riding every day with me ? And I know what it 
 is to lend and borrow horses and carriages. When 
 I used to desire my carriage to go and fetch any 
 friend, my coachman was sure to say, ' My lady, the 
 horses want shoeing ;"* or the footman would come in 
 with a long face, ' My lady, John would like to go 
 and see his sister to-day, if you please :'' there was 
 always some excuse. All this considered, I made up 
 my mind to remain at home." 
 
 For some time did Lady Hester remain in Mon- 
 tague Square ; but her brother and General Moore, 
 having fallen at the battle of Corunna, I believe she 
 grew entirely disgusted with London ; and, breaking 
 up her little establishment, she went down into Wales, 
 and resided in a small cottage at Builth, somewhere 
 near Brecon, in a room not more than a dozen feet 
 square. Here she amused herself in curing the poor, in 
 her dairy, and in other rustic occupations : until, not 
 
 findiner herself so far removed from her English ac- 
 es o 
 
 quaintances but what they were always coming across 
 her and breaking-in upon her solitude, she resolved on 
 ,going abroad, up the Mediterranean. 
 
 Arrived at Gibraltar, she was lodged at the go-
 
 8 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 vernor's, in the convent, where she remained some 
 time ; and then embarked for Malta in the Cerberus, 
 Captain Whitby, who afterwards distinguished himself 
 in Captain Hoste"'s victory up the Adriatic. At Malta, 
 she lived, at first, in Mr. Fernandez's house : after- 
 wards, General Oakes offered Lady Hester the palace 
 of St. Antonio, where we resided during the remainder 
 of her stay. 
 
 We departed for Zante in the month of June or 
 July, 1810. From Zante, we passed over to Patrass, 
 where she bade adieu to English comforts for the rest of 
 our pilgrimage. Traversing Greece, we visited Constan- 
 tinople, and, from Constantinople, sailed for Egypt. 
 At Rhodes we were shipwrecked, and I there lost my 
 journals, among wliich were many curious anecdotes 
 that would have thrown much light on her ladyship''s 
 life. I shall relate what I have since gathered without 
 observing any order, but always, as far as I could re- 
 collect, using her very expressions ; and, in many 
 instances, there will be found whole conversations, 
 where her manner would be recognised by those who 
 were acquainted with it. I shall sometimes preface 
 them with observations of my own. 
 
 Speaking of her sisters. Lady Hester would say : 
 " My sister Lucy was prettier than I was, and
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 9 
 
 Griselda more clever ; but I had, from childhood, a 
 cheerfulness and sense of feeling that always made me 
 a favourite with my father." She exemplified this by 
 an anecdote of the second Lady Stanhope, her step- 
 motlier, referring to the time when her father, in one 
 of his republican fits, put down his carriages and 
 horses. 
 
 " Poor Lady Stanhope," she said, " was quite un- 
 happy about it : but, when the whole family was 
 looking glum and sulky, I thought of a way to set all 
 right again. I got myself a pair of stilts, and out I 
 stumped down a dirty lane, where my father, who was 
 always spying about through his glass, could see me. 
 So, when I came home, he said to me, ' Why, little 
 girl, what have you been about ? Where was it I saw 
 you going upon a pair of — the devil knows what l — eh, 
 girl V — ' Oh ! papa, I thought, as you had laid down your 
 horses, I would take a walk through the mud on stilts ; 
 for you know, papa, I don't mind mud or anything — 
 "'tis poor Lady Stanhope who feels these things ; for 
 she has always been accustomed to her carriage, and 
 her health is not very good.' — ' What's that you say, 
 little girl,' said my father, turning his eyes away from 
 me ; and, after a pause, ' Well, little girl, what would 
 you say if I bought a carriage again for Lady Stan- 
 
 B 5
 
 10 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 hope V — ' Why, papa, I would say it was very kind 
 of you,' — 'Well, well,' he observed, 'we will see; 
 but, damn it ! no armorial bearings."' So, some time 
 afterwards, down came a new carriage and new horses 
 from London ; and thus, by a little innocent frolic, 
 1 made all parties happy again."' 
 
 Lady Hester continued, " Lucy's disposition was 
 sweet, and her temper excellent : she was like a 
 Madonna. Griselda was otherwise, and always for 
 making her authority felt. But I, even when I was 
 only a girl, obtained and exercised, I can't tell how, 
 a sort of command over them. They never came to 
 me, when I was in my room, without sending first 
 to know whether I would see them. 
 
 "Mr. Pitt never liked Griselda; and, when he 
 found she was jealous of me, he disliked her still more. 
 
 ' In accordance with his republican principles, Lord Stan- 
 hope caused his armorial bearings to be defaced from his plate, 
 carriages, &c. Nothing was spared but the iron gate before 
 the entrance to the house. Even the tapestry given to the 
 great Lord Stanhope by the king of Spain, with which one 
 of the rooms in Cheveniug was ornamented, he caused to be 
 taken down and put into a corner, calling it all damned aris- 
 tocratical. lie likewise sold all the Spanish plate, which 
 Lady Hester said weighed (if r recollect rightly) six hundred 
 weight.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 11 
 
 She Stood no better in the opinion of my father 
 who bore with Lucy — ah ! just in this way — he 
 would say to her, to get rid of her, ' Now papa is 
 going to study, so you may go to your room :'' then, 
 when the door was shut, he would turn to me, ' Now, 
 we must talk a little philosophy ;' and then, with his 
 two legs stuck upon the sides of the grate, he would 
 begin — ' Well, well,' he would cry, after I had talked 
 a little, ' that is not bad reasoning, but the basis is 
 bad; 
 
 " My father always checked any propensity to finery 
 in dress. If any of us happened to look better than 
 usual in a particular hat or frock, he was sure to 
 have it put away the next day, and to have something- 
 coarse substituted in its place. 
 
 •' When I was young, I was always the first to pro- 
 mote my sisters' enjoyments. Whether in dancing, 
 or in riding on horseback, or at a feast, or in any- 
 thing that was to make them happy, I always had 
 something to do or propose that increased their plea- 
 sure. In like manner, afterwards, in guiding them in 
 politics, in giving them advice for their conduct in 
 private life, in forwarding them in the world, I was 
 a means of much good to them. It was always Hester, 
 and Hester, and Hester ; in short, I appeared to be
 
 ] 2 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the favourite of them all ; and yet now, see how they 
 treat me ! 
 
 " I was always, as I am now, full of activity, from 
 my infancy. At two years old, I made a little hat. 
 You know there was a kind of straw hat with the 
 crown taken out, and in its stead a piece of satin was 
 put in, all puifed up. Well ! I made myself a hat 
 like that ; and it was thought such a thing for a 
 child of two years old to do, that my grandpapa had 
 a little paper box made for it, and had it ticketed 
 with the day of the month and my age. 
 
 " Just before the French revolution broke out, the 
 ambassador from Paris to the English Court was the 
 Comte d'Adhemar. That nobleman had some influence 
 on my fate as far as regarded my wish to go abroad, 
 which, however, I was not able to gratify until many 
 years afterwards. I was but seven or eight years old 
 when I saw him ; and, when he came by invitation to pay 
 a visit to my papa at Chevening, there was such a fuss 
 with the fine footmen with feathers in their hats, and 
 the count's bows and French manners, and I know 
 not what, that, a short time afterwards, when I was 
 sent to Hastings with the governess and my sisters, 
 nothing would satisfy me but I must go and see what 
 sort of a place France was. So I got into a boat one
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 13 
 
 day unobserved, that was floating close to the beach, 
 let loose the rope myself, and off" I went. Yes, doctor, 
 I literally pushed a boat off", and meant to go, as I 
 thought, to France. Did you ever hear of such a 
 mad scheme ? 
 
 " But I was tired of all those around me, who, to all 
 my questions, invariably answered, ' My dear, that is 
 not proper for you to know, — or, you must not talk 
 about such things, until you get older ; and the like. So 
 I held my tongue, but I made up for it, by treasuring up 
 everything I heard and saw. Isn't it extraordinary 
 that I should have such a memory ? I can recall 
 everv circumstance that ever occurred to me durinsr 
 my life — everything worth retaining, that I wished to 
 remember. I could tell what people said, how they 
 sat, the colour of their hair, of their eyes, and all about 
 them, at any time for the last forty years and more. 
 At Hastings, for example, I can tell the name of the 
 two smugglers, Tate and Everett, who attended at 
 the bathing-machine, and the name of the apothecary. 
 Dr. Satterly, although I have never heard a word 
 about those persons from that day to this. 
 
 How well I recollect what I was made to suffer 
 when I was young ! and that's the reason why I have 
 sworn eternal warfare against Swiss and French o-over-
 
 14 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 nesses. Nature forms us in a certain manner, both 
 inwardly and outwardly, and it is in vain to attempt 
 to alter it. One governess at Ohevening had our 
 backs pinched in by boards, that were drawn tight 
 with all the force the maid could use ; and as for me, 
 they would have squeezed me to the size of a puny 
 miss — a thing impossible ! My instep, by nature so 
 hio-h, that a little kitten could walk under the sole of 
 my foot, they used to bend down in order to flatten it, 
 although that is one of the things that shows my high 
 breeding. 
 
 " Nature, doctor, makes us one way, and man is 
 always trying to fashion us another. Why, there was 
 Mahon, when he was eight or nine years old, that 
 never could be tauo-ht to understand how two and two 
 make four. If he was asked, he would say, four and 
 four make three, or ten, or something : he was 
 shown with money, and with beans, and in every pos- 
 sible way, but all to no purpose. The fact was, that 
 that particular faculty was not yet developed : but 
 now, there is no better calculator anywhere. The 
 most difficult sums he will do on his fingers ; and he 
 is besides a very great mathematician. There was a 
 son of Lord Darnley's, a little boy, who was only big 
 enough to lie under the table, or play on the sofa,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 15 
 
 and yet he could make calculations with I don't know 
 how many figures — things that they have to do in the 
 Treasury. Now, if that boy had gone on in the same 
 way, he would by this time have been Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer. But 1 hear nothing of him, and I 
 don't know what has become of him ; so I suppose he 
 has not turned out anything extraordinary. 
 
 " But nature was entirely out of the question with us : 
 we were left to the governesses. Lady Stanhope got 
 up at ten o'clock, went out, and then returned to be 
 dressed, if in London, by the hair-dresser ; and there 
 were only two in London, both of them Frenchmen, 
 who could dress her. Then she went out to dinner, and 
 from dinner to the Opera, and from the Opera to par- 
 ties, seldom returning until just before daylight. 
 Lord Stanhope was engaged in his philosophical pur- 
 suits : and thus we children saw neither the one nor 
 the other. Lucy used to say, that if she had met her 
 mother-in-law in the streets, she should not have 
 known her. Why, my father once followed to our own 
 door in London a woman who happened to drop her 
 glove, which he picked up. It was our governess ; 
 but, as he had never seen her in the house, he did not 
 know her in the street. 
 
 " He slept with twelve blankets on his bed, with no
 
 16 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 nightcap, and his window open : how you would have 
 laughed had you seen him ! He used to get out of 
 bed, and put on a thin dressing-gown, with a pair of 
 silk breeches that he had worn overnight, with slip- 
 pers, and no stockings : and then he would sit in a 
 part of the room which had no carpet, and take his 
 tea with a bit of brown bread. 
 
 " He married two wives ; the first a Pitt, the second 
 a Grenville ; so that I am in two ways related to the 
 Grenvilles. 
 
 " Sir Sydney Smith said of me, after he had known 
 me fifteen years, and when my looks were much 
 changed by illness, ' When I see you now, I recall 
 to my recollection what you were when you first came 
 out. You entered the room in your pale shirt, ex- 
 citing our admiration by your magnificent and majestic 
 figure. The roses and lilies were blended in your face, 
 and the ineflfable smiles of your countenance diffused 
 happiness around you.' " 
 
 When mentioning this, her ladyship added : 
 " Doctor, at twenty my complexion was like alabaster ; 
 and, at five paces' distance, the sharpest eye could not 
 discover my pearl necklace from my skin : my lips 
 were of such a beautiful carnation, that, without 
 vanity, I can assure you very few women had the like.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 17 
 
 A dark blue shade under the eyes, and the blue veins 
 that were observable through the transparent skin, 
 heightened the brilliancy of my features. Nor were 
 the roses wanting in my cheeks ; and to all this was 
 added a permanency in my looks that fatigue of no 
 sort could impair." 
 
 I am now writing when disappointments and sick- 
 ness have undermined her health, and when she has 
 reached her 54th year. Her complexion had now 
 assumed a yellow tint, but her hands were still ex- 
 ceedingly fair, and she had the very common though 
 pardonable fault of often contriving to show them. 
 There were moments when her countenance had still 
 something very beautiful about it. Her mouth mani- 
 fested an extraordinary degree of sweetness, and her 
 eyes much mildness. 
 
 She never would have her likeness taken, when in 
 the bloom of her beauty, and it is not probable it can 
 be ever done now. There is a sort of resemblance 
 between her and Mr. Pitt, (if I may judge from his 
 portraits.) She has told me also, that she was like 
 the late Duchess of Cumberland. Her head, seen in 
 front, presented a perfect oval, of which the eyes 
 would cover a line drawn through the centre. Her 
 eyebrows were arched and fine, I mean slender ; her
 
 18 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 eyes blue, approaching to gray ; her nose somewhat 
 large, and the distance from her mouth to the chin 
 rather too long. Her cheeks had a remarkably fine 
 contour, as they rounded off towards the neck ; so that 
 Mr. Brummell, as has been related, once said to her 
 in a party, " For God"'s sake, do take off those ear- 
 rings, and let us see what is beneath them." Her 
 figure was tall (I think not far from six feet), rather 
 largely proportioned, and was once very plump, as 1 
 have heard her say. Her mien was majestic ; her 
 address eminently graceful ; in her conversation, when 
 she pleased, she was enchanting ; when she meant it, 
 dignified ; at all times eloquent. She was excellent 
 at miraickry, and upon all ranks of life. She had more 
 wit and repartee, perhaps, than falls to the lot of most 
 women. Her knowledge of human nature was most 
 profound, and she could turn that knowledge to 
 account to its utmost extent, and in the minutest 
 trifles. She was courageous, morally and physically 
 so ; undaunted, and proud as Lucifer. 
 
 She never read in any book more than a few pages, 
 and there were few works that she praised when she 
 looked them over. History she despised, considering 
 it all a farce : because, she said, she had seen so many 
 histories of her time, which she found to be lies from
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 19 
 
 beginning to end, that she could not believe in one. 
 She had a great facility of expression, and, on some 
 occasions, introduced old proverbs with wonderful ap- 
 positeness. Conversation never flagged in her com- 
 pany. But to return to Lady Hester's own account 
 of herself. 
 
 " I can recollect, when I was ten or twelve years old, 
 going to Hastings's trial. My garter somehow came 
 off, and was picked up by Lord Grey, then a young 
 man. At this hour, as if it were before me in a pic- 
 ture, I can see his handsome but very pale face, his 
 broad forehead ; his corbeau coat, with cut-steel but- 
 tons ; his white satin waistcoat and breeches, and the 
 buckles in his shoes. He saw from whom the garter 
 fell, but, observing my confusion, did not wish to in- 
 crease it, and, with infinite delicacy, gave the garter 
 to the person who sat there to serve tea and coffee. 
 
 " The first person I ever danced with was Sir 
 Gilbert Heathcote. 
 
 " When I was young, I was never what you call 
 handsome, but brilliant. My teeth were brilliant, my 
 complexion brilliant, my language — ah ! there it was 
 — something striking and original, that caught every 
 body's attention. I remember, when I was living with 
 Mr. Pitt, that, one morning after a party, he said to
 
 20 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 me, ' Really, Hester, Lord Hertford,"* (the father of 
 the late lord, and a man of high pretensions for his 
 courtly manners) ' paid you so many compliments 
 about your looks last night, that you might well be 
 proud of them.'' — ' Not at all,' answered I : 'he is de- 
 ceived, if he thinks I am handsome, for I know I am 
 not. If you were to take every feature in my face, 
 and put them, one by one, on the table, there is not a 
 single one would bear examination. The only thing 
 is that, put together and lighted up, they look well 
 enough. It is homogeneous ugliness, and nothing more.' 
 
 " Mr. Pitt used to say to me, ' Hester, what sort 
 of a being are you I We shall see, some day, wings 
 spring out of your shoulders ; for there are moments 
 when you hardly seem to walk the earth.' There 
 was a man who had known me well for fifteen years, 
 and he told me, one day, that he had tried a long 
 time to make me out, but he did not know whether I 
 was a devil or an angel. There have been men who 
 have been intimate with me, and to whom, in point of 
 passion, I was no more than that milk-jug" (pointing 
 to one on the table) ; " and there have been others who 
 would go through fire for me. But all this depends 
 on the star of a person. 
 
 " Mr. Pitt declared that it was impossible for him
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 21 
 
 to say whether I was most happy in the vortex of 
 pleasure, in absolute solitude, or in the midst of poli- 
 tics ; for he had seen me in all three ; and, with all 
 his penetration, he did not know where I seemed most 
 at home. Bouverie used to say to me, when I lived 
 at Chevening, ' I know you like this kind of life ; it 
 seems to suit you.' And so it did : but why did 1 
 quit home ? Because of my brothers and sisters, and 
 for my father's sake. I foresaw that my sisters would 
 be reduced to poverty if I did not assist them ; and, 
 though people said to me, ' Let their husbands get on 
 by themselves ; they are capable of making their own 
 way,' I saw they could not, and I set about providing 
 for them. As for my father, he thought that, in join- 
 ing those democrats, he always kept aloof from treason. 
 But he did not know how many desperate characters 
 
 there were, who, like , for example, only waited 
 
 for a revolution, and were always plotting mischief. 
 I thought, therefore, it was better to be where I should 
 have Mr. Pitt by my side to help me, should he get 
 into great difficulty. Why, they almost took Joyce 
 out of bed in my father's house ; and when my father 
 went to town, there were those who watched him ; 
 and the mob attacked his house, so that he was 
 obliged to make his escape by the leads, and slip out the
 
 22 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 back way. Joyce was getting up in the morning, and 
 was just blowing his nose, as people do the moment 
 before they come down to breakfast, when a single 
 knock came to the door, and in bolted two ofiBcers 
 with a warrant, and took him off without even my 
 father's knowledge. Then, were not Lord Thanet, 
 Ferguson, and some more of them thrown into gaol ? 
 and I said, ' If my father has not a prop somewhere, 
 he will share the same fate f and this was one of the 
 reasons why I went to live with Mr. Pitt. Mr. Pitt 
 used to say that Tom Paine was quite in the right ; 
 but then he would add, ' What am I to do ? If the 
 country is overrun with all these men, full of vice and 
 folly, I cannot exterminate them. It would be very 
 well, to be sure, if every body had sense enough to 
 act as they ought ; but, as things are, if I were to en- 
 courage Tom Paiue's opinions, we should have a bloody 
 revolution ; and, after all, matters would return pretty 
 much as they were.' But I always asked, ' What 
 do these men want ? They will destroy what we 
 have got, without giving us any thing else in its 
 place. Let them give us something good, before they 
 rob us of what they have. As for systems of equality, 
 every body is not a Tom Paine. Tom Paine was 
 a clever man, and not one of your hugger-mugger
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 23 
 
 people, who Lave one day one set of ideas, and ano- 
 ther set the next, and never know what they mean.'' 
 
 " I am an aristocrat, and I make a boast of it. We 
 shall see what will come of people's conundrums 
 about equality. I hate a pack of dirty Jacobins, that 
 only want to get people out of a good place to get into 
 it themselves. Home Tooke always liked me, with 
 all my aristocratical principles, because he said he 
 knew what I meant. 
 
 " No, doctor, Bouverie was right : I liked the country. 
 At the back of the inn, on Sevenoaks common, stood 
 a house, which, for a residence for myself, I should 
 prefer to any one I have ever yet seen. It was a per- 
 fectly elegant, light, and commodious building, with 
 an oval drawing-room, and two boudoirs in the cor- 
 ners, with a window to each on the conservatory. 
 When I visited there, it was inhabited by three old 
 maids, one of whom was my friend. What good ale 
 and nice luncheons I have had there many a time ! 
 What good cheese, what excellent apples and pears, 
 and what rounds of boiled beef!" 
 
 The next day these personal recollections were re- 
 newed. 
 
 " I remember, when Colonel Shadwell commanded 
 the district, that, one day, in a pelting shower of rain,
 
 24 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 he was riding up Madamscourt Hill, as I was crossing 
 at the bottom, going home towards Chevening with 
 my handsome groom, Tom, a boy who was the natural 
 son of a baronet. I saw Colonel ShadwelFs o^room's 
 horse about a couple of hundred yards from me, and, 
 struck with its beauty, I turned up the hill, resolving 
 to pass them, and get a look at it. I accordingly 
 quickened my pace, and, in going by, gave a good look 
 at the horse, then at the groom, then at the master, 
 who was on a sorry nag. The colonel eyed me as I 
 passed ; and I, taking advantage of a low part in the 
 hedge, put my horse to it, leaped over, and disap- 
 peared in an instant. The colonel found out who I 
 was, and afterwards made such a fuss at the mess 
 about my equestrian powers, that nothing could be 
 like it. I was the toast there every day. 
 
 " Nobody ever saw much of me until Lord Rom- 
 ney's review. I was obliged to play a trick on my 
 father to get there. I pretended, the day before, that 
 I wanted to pay a visit to the Miss Crumps" (or some 
 such name), " and then went from their house to 
 Lord Romney's. Though all the gentry of Kent were 
 there, my father never knew, or was supposed not to 
 have known, that I had been there. The king took 
 great notice of me. I dined with him — that is, what
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 25 
 
 was called dining with him, but at an adjoining table. 
 Lord and Lady Romney served the king and queen, 
 and gentlemen waited on us. Upton changed my 
 plate, and he did it very well. Doctor, dining with 
 royalty, as Lord Melbourne does now, was not so 
 common formerly. I never dined with the king but 
 twice^once at Lord Romney's at an adjoining table, 
 and once afterwards at his own table. Oh ! what wry 
 faces there were among some of the courtiers ! Mr. 
 Pitt was very much pleased at the reception I met 
 with. The king took great notice of me, and, 1 be- 
 lieve, always after liked me personally. Whenever I 
 was talking to the dukes, he was sure to come towards 
 us. ' Where is she V he would cry ; ' where is she ? 
 I hear them laugh, and where they are laughing I 
 must go too.** Then, as he came nearer, he would 
 observe, ' If you have anything to finish I won't 
 come yet — I'll come in a quarter of an hour.' When 
 he was going away from Lord Romney's, he wanted 
 to put me bodkin between himself and the queen ; 
 and when the queen had got into the carriage, he said 
 to her, ' My dear. Lady Hester is going to ride bodkin 
 with us : I am going to take her away from Demo- 
 cracy Hall.' But the old queen observed, in rather a 
 prim manner, that I ' had not got my maid with me, 
 VOL. n. C
 
 26 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and that it would be iuconvenient for me to go at such 
 a short notice :' so I remained. 
 
 " It was at that review that I was talking to some 
 officers, and something led to my saying, ' I can't bear 
 men who are governed by their wives, as Sir A. H*** 
 is ; a woman of sense, even if she did govern her 
 husband, would not let it be seen : it is odious, in my 
 opinion."' And I went on in this strain, whilst poor 
 Sir A. himself, whom I did not know, but had only 
 heard spoken of, was standing by all the time. I saw 
 a dreadful consternation in the bystanders, but I went 
 on. At last some one — taking commiseration on 
 him, I suppose — said, ' Lady Hester, will you allow 
 me to introduce Sir A. H*** to you, who is desirous 
 of making your acquaintance."" Sir A. very politely 
 thanked me for the advice I had given him ; and I 
 answered something about the regard my brother had 
 for him, and there the matter ended. 
 
 " When first I went to live with Mr. Pitt, one day 
 he and I were taking a walk in the park, when we 
 
 were met by Lord G., having Lady and Lady 
 
 , two old demireps, under his arm. Mr. Pitt 
 
 and I passed them, and Mr. Pitt pulled off his hat. 
 Lord G. turned his head away, without acknowledging 
 his bow. The fact was, he thought Mr. Pitt was
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 27 
 
 escorting some mistress he had got. ' Well,*' said I, 
 ' there goes Falstaff with the merry wives of Windsor.'' 
 ' Yes,' rejoined Mr. Pitt, ' and I think, whatever he 
 may take you to be, he need not be so prim, with 
 those two painted and patched ladies under his 
 arm,' 
 
 " The same thing happened with Lord A. ; and, 
 when Mr. Pitt soon after came into office. Lord A. 
 called on Mr. Pitt, who, being busy, sent him to me. 
 Lord A. began with a vast variety of compliments 
 about ancient attachments, and his recollection, Avhen 
 a boy, of having played with me. So I cut him short, 
 by telling him his memory then must have sadly failed 
 him the other day, when he passed me and Mr. Pitt in 
 
 his curricle with Lady . After many, ' Really, 
 
 I supposed,' and ' Upon my honours' — ' Sense of 
 
 propriety on account of Lady , and not knowing 
 
 who I was' — I laughed heartily at him, and he went 
 away. When he was gone, Mr. Pitt came to me, and 
 said, ' I don't often ask questions about your visitors, 
 but I should really like to know what excuse Lord A. 
 could ofi'er for his primosity ' to us, when he was 
 riding with such a Jezebel as Lady .' 
 
 ^ A friend has suggested that primosity is not in Johnson's 
 Dictionary. It was however a word of frequent recun-ence in 
 
 C 2
 
 28 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " Yet it might have been very natural for Mr. Pitt 
 to do so. How many people used to come and 
 ask me impertinent questions, in order to get out 
 his state secrets : but I very soon set them down. 
 ' What, you are come to give me a lesson of im- 
 pertinence,' I used to say, laughing in their faces. 
 One day, one of them, of rather a first-rate class, besan 
 with — ' Now, my dear Lady Hester, you know our 
 long friendship, and the esteem I have for you — now 
 do just tell me, who is to go out ambassador to 
 Russia r So I was resolved to try him ; and, with a 
 very serious air, I said, ' Why, if I had to choose, 
 there are only three persons whom I think fit for the 
 situation — Mr. Tom Grenville, Lord Malmesbury, and 
 I forget who was the third : but you know,' I added, 
 ' Lord Malmesbury's health will not allow him to go to 
 so cold a climate, and Mr., the other, is something 
 and something, so that he is out of the question.' 
 Next morning, doctor, there appeared in ' The Oracle' 
 — a paper, observe, that Mr. Pitt never read — ' We un- 
 
 Lady Hester's vocabulary ; and it scarcely, I think, need be 
 
 said, that it means prudery : 
 
 " What is prudery ? 'Tis a beldam, 
 
 Seen with wit and beauty seldom." 
 
 Pope.
 
 Lady HESTER STANHOPE. 29 
 
 derstaud that Lord M, and Mr. T. Gr. are selected as 
 the two persons best qualified for the embassy to 
 Russia ; but, owing to his lordship's ill health, the 
 choice will most likely fall on Mr. T. Gr." 
 
 " I was highly amused the following days, to hear 
 the congratulations that were paid to Mr. Grenville. 
 But, when the real choice came to be known, which 
 was neither one nor the other, oh ! how black the in- 
 quisitive friend of mine looked ; and what reproaches 
 he made me for having, as he called it, deceived him. 
 But I did not deceive him : I only told him what was 
 true, that if I had the choice I would choose such and 
 such persons. 
 
 " There are, necessarily, hundreds of reasons for 
 ministers' actions, that people in general know nothing 
 
 about. When the Marquis was sent to India, 
 
 it was on condition that he did not take 
 
 with him : for Mr. Pitt said, ' It is all very well if 
 
 he chooses to go alone, but he shan't take 
 
 with him. For — who knows ? — she may be, all the 
 time, carrying on intrigues with the French govern- 
 ment, and that would not suit my purpose.' 
 
 " There might be some apparent levity in my 
 manner, both as regarded affairs of the cabinet and 
 my own ; but I always knew what I was doing.
 
 S'') MEMOIRS OF 
 
 When Mr. Pitt was reproached for allowing me such 
 unreserved liberty of action in state matters, and in 
 affairs where his friends advised him to question me 
 on the motives of my conduct, he always answered — 
 ' I let her do as she pleases ; for if she were resolved 
 to cheat the devil she could do it.' And so I could, 
 doctor ; and that is the reason why thick-headed 
 people, who could never dive into the motives of what 
 I did, have often misinterpreted my conduct, when it 
 has proceeded from the purest intentions. And, in the 
 same way, when some persons said to Lady Suffolk, 
 ' Look at Lady Hester, talking and riding with 
 Bouverie and the Prince's friends ; she must mind 
 what she is about"" — Lady Suffolk remarked, ' There is 
 nothing to fear in that quarter ; she never will let any 
 body do a bit more than she intends : what she does 
 is with connoissance de cause.'' And she was right : 
 nobody could ever accuse me of folly. Even those 
 actions which might seem folly to a common observer, 
 were wisdom. Everything with me, through life, 
 has been premeditatedly done. 
 
 " Mr. Pitt paid me the greatest compliment I ever 
 received from any living being. He was speaking of 
 C******, and lamenting ho was so false, and so little 
 to be trusted ; and I said, ' But perhaps he is only
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 31 
 
 SO in appearance, and is sacrificing ostensibly his own 
 opinions, in order to support your reputation.'' — ' I 
 have lived,' replied Mr. Pitt, ' twenty-five years in the 
 midst of men of all sorts, and I never yet found but 
 one human being capable of such a sacrifice.' — ' Who 
 can that be V said I. ' Is it the Duke of Richmond 'i 
 Is it such a one V and I named two others, when he 
 interrupted me — ' No — it is yow.' 
 
 " I was not insensible to praise from such a man ; 
 and when, before Home Tooke and some other clever 
 people, he told me I was fit to sit between Augustus 
 and Maecenas, I suppose I must believe it. And he 
 did not think so lightly of my lectures as you do ; for 
 one day he said to me, ' We are going to establish a 
 new hospital, and you, Hester, are to have the ma- 
 nagement of it. It is to be a hospital for the diseases 
 of the mind ; for nobody knows so well as you how to 
 cure them.'' I should never have done if I were to 
 repeat the many attestations of his good opinion of 
 me. But it was no merit of mine if I deserved it : 
 I was born so. There was a man one day at table 
 with Mr. Pitt, an old friend of his — Canning told me 
 the story — who, speaking of rae, observed that he sup- 
 posed I should soon marr}^, and, after some conversa- 
 tion on the subject, concluded by saying, ' I suppose
 
 S2 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 she waits till she can get a man as clever as herself/ 
 ' Then,"" answered Mr, Pitt, ' she will never marry 
 at all." 
 
 " In like manner, in the troublesome times of his 
 political career, Mr. Pitt would say, ' I have plenty of 
 good diplomatists, but they are none of them military 
 men ; and I have plenty of good officers, but not one 
 of them is worth sixpence in the cabinet. If you 
 were a man, Hester, I would send you on the Conti- 
 tinent with 60,000 men, and give you carte blanche ; 
 and I am sure that not one of my plans would fail, 
 and not one soldier would go with his shoes un- 
 blacked ; meaning, that my attention would embrace 
 every duty that belongs to a general and a corporal — 
 and so it would, doctor." 
 
 After musing a little while. Lady Hester Stanhope 
 went on. " Did you ever read the life of General Moore 
 that I have seen advertised, written by his brother l 
 I wonder which brother it was. If it was the surgeon, 
 he was hard-headed, with great knowledge of men, but 
 dry, and with nothing pleasing about him. His wife 
 was a charming woman, brought up by some great 
 person, and with very good manners. 
 
 " As for tutors, and doctors, and such people, if, 
 now-a-days, mylords and myladics walk arm-in-arai
 
 LADY HESTf:R STANHOPE. 33 
 
 with them, they did not do so in my time. I recol- 
 lect an old dowager, to whom I used sometimes to be 
 taken to spend the morning. She was left with a 
 large jointure, and a fine house for the time being, 
 and used to invite the boys and the girls of my age, I 
 mean the age I was then, with their tutors and gover- 
 nesses, to come and see her. ' How do you do. Dr. 
 Mackenzie 1 Lord John, I see, is all the better for 
 his medicine. The duchess is happy in having found 
 a man of such excellent talents, which are almost too 
 great to be confined to the sphere of one family.' — 
 ' Such is the nature of our compact, my Lady, nor 
 could I on any account violate the regulations which 
 so o-ood a family has imposed upon me." — ' It's very 
 cold. Dr. Mackenzie : I think I increased my 
 rheumatic pains at the Opera on Saturday night.' — 
 ' Did you ever try Dover's Powders, my lady f 
 He does not, you see, tell her to use Dover's 
 Powders ; he only says, did you ever try them i 
 ' Lord John — Lord John, you must take care, and 
 not eat too much of that strawberry preserve."* 
 
 " ' How do you do, Mr. K. ? — how do you do. Lord 
 Henry I I hope the Marchioness is well ? She looked 
 divinely last night. Did you see her when she was 
 dressed, Mr. K. V — ' You will pardon me, my lady,' 
 
 c 5
 
 34 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 answers the tutor, ' I did indeed see her ; but it would 
 be presumptuous in me to speak of such matters. I 
 happened to take her a map/ (mind, doctor, he does 
 not say a map of what) ' and, certainly, I did cast my 
 eyes on her dress, which was, no doubt, in the best 
 taste, as everything the Marchioness does is.' Ob- 
 serve, here is no mention of her looks or person. 
 Doctors and tutors never presumed formerly to talk 
 about the complexion, and skin, and beauty, of those 
 in whose families they lived or found practice. Why, 
 haven't I told you, over and over again, how Dr. W — 
 lost his practice from having said that a patient of his, 
 who died, was one of the most beautiful corpses he had 
 ever seen, and that he had stood contemplating her for a 
 quarter of an hour. She was a person of rank, and it 
 ruined him. Even his son, who was a doctor too, 
 and had nothing to do with it, never could get on 
 afterwards. 
 
 " Then would come in some young lady with her 
 governess, and then another; and the old dowager 
 would take us all off to some show, and make the 
 person who exhibited it stare again with the number 
 of young nobility she brought with her. From the 
 exhibition, that was some monster, or some giant, or 
 some something, she would take us to eat ices, and
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 35 
 
 then we were all sent home, with the tutors and 
 governesses in a stew, lest we should be too late for a 
 master, or for a God knows what. 
 
 " I have known many apothecaries cleverer than 
 doctors themselves. There was Chilvers, and Hewson, 
 and half-a-dozen names that I forget : and there was 
 an apothecary at Bath that Mr. Pitt thought more of 
 
 than of his physician. Why, I have seen Sir H 
 
 obliged to give way to an apothecary in a very high 
 family. ' We will just call him in, and see what he 
 says :' and, the moment he had written his prescrip- 
 tion and was gone out of the house, the family would 
 consult the apothecary, who perhaps knew twice as 
 much of the constitution of the patient. ' You know, 
 my lord, it is not the liver that is affected, whatever 
 
 Sir H pretends to think ; it is the spleen. For 
 
 did not we try the very same medicine that he has 
 prescribed for above a week ? and it did your lordship 
 no good. You may just as well, and better, throw his 
 draught away f and sure enough it was done. Sir 
 Richard Jebb the same. 
 
 " Do you think," continued she, " that the first 
 physician in London is on terms of intimacy with the 
 mylords he prescribes for ? He prescribes, takes his 
 guinea, and is off: or, if he is asked to sit down a
 
 36 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 little, it is only to pick his brains about whether 
 somebody is likely to live or not. But I am not, and 
 never was, so mean : I always liked people should 
 know their relative situations. Ah ! Dr. Turton, or 
 some such man as that, would be perhaps asked now 
 and then' to dinner, or to take a walk round the 
 "rrounds. A doctor's business is to examine the 
 grandes affaires, talk to the nurse, and see that his 
 blister has been well dressed, and not to talk politics, 
 say such a woman is handsome, and chatter about 
 what does not concern him ," 
 
 Whilst Lady Hester was going on with her stric- 
 tures on the poor doctors, a favourite theme with her, 
 I produced from the back of a cupboard a miniature 
 print of General Moore which had been lying at Abra, 
 neglected for some years. She took it from my hand, 
 and lookinff at it a little time, she observed that it 
 was an excellent likeness of what he was when he 
 became a weather-beaten soldier : " Before that," said 
 she, " those cheeks were filled out and ruddy, like Mr. 
 Close's at Malta." 
 
 After a pause. Lady Hester Stanhope continued : 
 " Poor Charles ! My brother Charles one day was 
 disputing with James about his handsome Colonel, 
 and James, on his side, was talking of somebody's
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOrE. 37 
 
 \e(r being handsome, saying he was right, for it had 
 been modelled, and nobody's could be equal to it; 
 when Charles turned to me, and asked with great 
 earnestness if I did not think General Moore was the 
 better made man of the two, I answered, ' He is 
 certainly very handsome."' — ' Oh ! but,' said Charles, 
 ' Hester, if you were only to see him when he is 
 bathing, his body is as perfect as his face,' I never 
 even smiled, although inwardly I could not help 
 smilino- at his naivete. 
 
 " I consider it a mark of vulgarity and of the asso- 
 ciation of bad ideas in people's minds when they make 
 a handle of such equivoques in an ill-natured way, as 
 you recollect Mr. T. did when he was at Alexandria. 
 People of good breeding do not even smile, when, per- 
 haps, low persons would suppose they might show a 
 great deal of affected primosity. Only imagine the 
 Due de Blacas to be announced ; — what would my old 
 servant, poor William Wiggins, have done ? He would 
 never have got out the word." Here Lady Hester set 
 up laughing most heartily, and then she laughed, and 
 lauijhed arain. I think I never saw anvthinw make 
 her relax from her composure so much. 
 
 " As for what people in England say or have said 
 about me, T don't care that for them," (snapping her
 
 38 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 fingers) ; " and whatever vulgar-minded people say or 
 think of me has no more effect than if they were to 
 spit at the sun. It only falls on their own nose, and 
 all the harm they do is to themselves. They may 
 spit at a marble wall as they may at me, but it will 
 not hang. They are like the flies upon an artillery- 
 horse's tail — there they ride, and ride, and buz about, 
 and then there comes a great explosion ; bom ! and off 
 they fly. I hate affectation of all kinds. I never could 
 bear those ridiculous women who cannot step over a 
 straw without expecting the man who is walking with 
 them to offer his hand. I always said to the men, 
 when they offered me their hand, ' No, no ; I have 
 got legs of my own, don't trouble yourselves."" Nobody 
 pays so little attention to what are called punctilios as 
 I do ; but if any one piques me on my rank, and what 
 is due to me, that's another thing : I can then show 
 thera who I am." 
 
 October 16. — These conversations filled up the 
 mornino^s and evenings until the 16th of October, 
 when I went to Mar Elias for a day. Whilst 
 there a peasant arrived with an ass-load of musk 
 grapes and mukseysy grapes that Lady Hester had 
 sent. An ass-load in those happy countries is but 
 a proof of the abundance that reigns there. A bushel-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 39 
 
 basket of oranges or lemons, a bunch of fifty or sixty 
 bananas, ten or twelve melons, at a time, were pre- 
 sents of frequent occurrence. 
 
 October 18. — I returned to Joon, and employed 
 myself busily in fitting up tlie cottage intended for our 
 dwelling. The nearer the time approached for bringing 
 my family close to her premises, the more Lady Hester 
 seemed to re2;ret having: consented to the arrangement. 
 Petty jealousies, inconsistent with a great mind, were 
 always tormenting her. Of this a remarkable and some- 
 what ludicrous instance occurred during the latter part 
 of the month of September. Most persons are probably 
 aware that Mahometans have a religious horror of 
 bells, and, in countries under their domination, have 
 never allowed of their introduction even into Chris- 
 tian churches. It is not uncommon, by way of con- 
 tempt, to designate Europe as the land of bells. 
 This pious abhorrence penetrates the arcana of private 
 life ; and, in a Turkish house, no such thing as a bell 
 for calling the servants is ever to be seen. A clap of 
 the hands, repeated three times, is the usual sum- 
 mons ; and, as the doors are seldom shut, the sound 
 can be easily heard throughout every part of the 
 dwellino". 
 
 Lady Hester, however, retained her European
 
 40 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 habits in this one particular ; and perhaps there never 
 existed a more vehement or constant bell-rinijer. The 
 bells hung for her use were of great size ; so that the 
 words Gerass el Syt, or my lady's bell, echoing from 
 one mouth to another when she rang, made the most 
 indolent start on their legs ; until, at last, as nobody 
 but herself in the whole territory possessed house-bells, 
 the peasantry and menials imagined that the use of 
 them was some special privilege granted to her by the 
 sublime Porte on account of her exalted rank, and she 
 probably found it to her advantage not to disturb this 
 very convenient supposition. 
 
 On taking up our residence at Mar Elias, there 
 were two bells put by in a closet, which were replaced 
 for the use of my family, with bell-ropes to the saloon 
 and dining-room, none of us ever suspecting that they 
 could, by any human ingenuity, be considered other- 
 wise than as most necessary appendages to a room : 
 but we calculated without our host. This assumption of 
 the dignity of bells was held to be an act of kesa 
 majestas, and the report of our proceedings was car- 
 ried from one person to another, until, at last, it 
 reached Lady Hester's ears, endorsed with much 
 wonder on the part of her maids how a doctor's wife 
 could presume to set herself on an equality with a
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 41 
 
 melehy (queen). Lady Hester, however, saw the 
 absurdity of aftecting any claim to distinction in such 
 a matter, and, therefore, vexed and mortified al- 
 though it appears she was, she never said a word to 
 me on the subject. But, one morning in September, 
 when we were all assembled at breakfast, on pulling 
 the bell-rope no sound responded, and, examining into 
 the cause, we discovered that the strings had been cut 
 by a knife, and the bells forcibly wrenched from their 
 places. Much conjecture was formed as to who could 
 have done all this mischief The maids were ques- 
 tioned ; the porter, the milkman, the errand-boy, the 
 man-servant, every body, in short, in and about the 
 place, but nobody knew anything of the matter. Un- 
 derstanding Arabic, I soon found there was some mys- 
 tery in the business ; and answers, more and more 
 evasive, from the porter, the harder he was pressed, 
 led to a presumption, amounting almost to a certainty, 
 that her ladyship's grand emissary, Osman Chaoosh, 
 had arrived late at night, armed with pincers, hammer, 
 etcetera, and, before daylight, had carried oft" the bells 
 to Lady Hester's residence. I concealed my con- 
 jecture from my family, wishing to cause no fresh 
 source of irritation ; and, having occasion to write 
 that day to Lady Hester, I merely added, as a post-
 
 42 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 script, " The two bells have been stolen during the 
 night, and I can find no certain clue to the thief. 
 For, although I have discovered that Osman el 
 Chaoosh has been here secretly, I cannot think it 
 likely that any one of your servants would presume to 
 do such a thing without your orders ; nor can I be- 
 lieve that your ladyship would instruct any one to do 
 that clandestinely which a message from yourself to 
 me would have efi'ected so easily." 
 
 When I saw Lady Hester a day or two afterwards, 
 she never alluded to the bells, nor did I ; and nothing 
 was ever mentioned about them for two or three months, 
 until, one day, she, being in a good humour, said, 
 " Doctor, it was I who ordered Osman to take away 
 the bells. The people in this country must never 
 suppose there is any one connected with my esta- 
 blishment who puts himself on an equality with 
 me, no matter in what. The Turks know of only one 
 Pasha in a district ; the person next to him is a no- 
 body in his presence, not daring even to sit down or 
 to speak, unless told to do so. If I had let those 
 bells hang much longer, the sound of my own would 
 not have been attended to. As it is, half of my ser- 
 vants have become disobedient from seeing how my 
 will is disputed by you and your family, who have
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 43 
 
 always a hundred reasons for not doing what I wish 
 to be done ; and, as I said in my letter to Eugenia, 
 I can't submit to render an account of mv actions ; 
 for, if I was not called upon to do so by Mr. Pitt, I 
 am sure I shan't by other people ; so let us say no 
 more about it." Of course, I complied with her 
 whims ; or rather, I should say, admitted the good 
 sense of her observations : for I knew very well she 
 never did anjiihing without a kind or substantial 
 motive. So, after that, the exclamation of Gerass el 
 Syt recovered its magical effect. 
 
 October 23. — I escorted my family to their 
 new residence, which was called the Tamarisk Pa- 
 vilion, from a tamarisk tree that grew from the terrace. 
 They were all delighted with it, and happiness seemed 
 restored to its inmates, 
 
 October 25. — The very day on which my 
 family came up, Lady Hester took to her bed from 
 illness, and never quitted it until March of the fol- 
 lowing year. She had now laboured under pulmonary 
 catarrh for six or seven years, which, subsiding in the 
 summer months, returned every winter, with increased 
 violence, and at this time presented some very for- 
 midable symptoms. 
 
 November 9. — About six o'clock, just as I had
 
 44 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 dined, a servant came to say that her ladj^ship wished 
 to see me. On going into her bed-room, wliich, as 
 usual, was but faintly lighted, I ran my head against 
 a long packthread, which crossed from the wall, 
 where it was tied, to her bed, and was held in her 
 hand. " Take care, doctor," said she ; " these stupid 
 beasts can't understand what I want : but you must 
 help me. I want to pull out a tooth. I have tied a 
 string to it and to the wall : and you, with a stick or 
 something, must give it a good blow, so as to jerk my 
 tooth out." 
 
 Knowing her disposition, I said, " Very well, and 
 that I would do as she wished. But, if you like," 
 added I, "to have it extracted secundum artem, I fancy 
 I can do it for you."—" Oh ! doctor, have you nerve 
 enough ? and, besides, I don't )'ke those crooked in- 
 struments : but, however, go and get them." I had 
 seen in the medicine-chest a dentisfs instrument, and, 
 returning with it, I performed the operation ; with 
 the result of which she was so much pleased, that she 
 insisted upon having another tooth out. The relief 
 was so instantaneous, that the second tooth was no 
 sooner o-one than she commenced talking as usual. 
 
 The couoh with which Ladv Hester had been so 
 long indisposed occasionally assumed symptoms of
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 45 
 
 water in the chest. Sudden starts from a lying 
 posture, with, a sense of suftbcation, which, for a 
 moment, as she described it, was like the oripe of 
 a hand across her throat, made me very uneasy about 
 her. Her strong propensity to bleeding, to which she 
 had resorted four or five times a year for the last 
 twenty years, had brought on a state of complete 
 emaciation, and what little blood was left in her 
 body seemed to have no circulation in the extremities, 
 where her veins, on a deadly white skin, showed them- 
 selves tumefied and knotty. 
 
 It was difficult to reason with her on medical sub- 
 jects, especially in her own case. She had peculiar 
 systems, drawn from the doctrine of people's stars. 
 She designated her own cough as an asthma, and had, 
 for some time, doctored herself much in her own way. 
 Such is the balmy state of the air in Syria, that, had 
 she trusted to its efficacy alone, and lived with habits of 
 life like other people, nothing serious was to be 
 dreaded from her illness. But she never breathed 
 the external air, except what she got by opening 
 the windows, and took no exercise but for about 
 ten minutes or a quarter of an hour daily, when, 
 on quitting her bed-room to go to the saloon, she made 
 two or three turns in the garden to see her flowers
 
 46 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and shrubs, Avhich seemed to be the greatest enjoy- 
 ment she had. ^ 
 
 She prescribed almost entirely for herself, and only 
 left me the duties of an apothecary ; or, if she adopted 
 any of my suggestions, it was never at the moment, 
 but always some days afterwards, when it seemed to 
 her that she was acting, not on my advice, but on the 
 suggestions of her own judgment. She was accus- 
 tomed to say, if any doubts were expressed of the 
 propriety of what she was going to do, "I suppose I 
 am grown a fool in my old age. When princes and 
 statesmen have relied on my judgment, I am not 
 going to give it up at this time of life." 
 
 But it was not for herself alone that she thus ob- 
 stinately prescribed ; she insisted also upon doing the 
 same for everybody else, morally as well as medically. 
 One of the prominent features in her character was the 
 inclination she had to give advice to all persons indis- 
 criminately about their conduct, their interests, and 
 their complaints : and, in this latter respect, she pre- 
 scribed for everybody. I was not exempt, and I 
 dreaded her knowing anything about the most trifling 
 indisposition that affected me. Greatly addicted to 
 empiricism, she would propose the most strange reme- 
 dies ; and, fond of the use of medicine herself, she
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 47 
 
 would be out of humour if others showed an aversion 
 to it. There was no surer way of securing her good 
 graces than to put one's self under her management 
 for some feigned complaint, and then to attribute the 
 cure to her skill. Hundreds of knaves have got pre- 
 sents out of her in this way. For they had but to 
 say that, during their illness, they had lost an em- 
 ployment, or spent their ready money, no matter 
 what — they were sure to be remunerated tenfold above 
 their pretended losses. Let it however be said to 
 her honour, that, among the number she succoured in 
 real sickness, many owned, with gratitude, the good 
 she had done : and no surer proof of this can be given 
 than the universal sorrow that pervaded half the popu- 
 lation of Say da, when, in the course of this her illness, 
 she was reported to be past recovery. 
 
 It was in compliance with this foible of hers that, 
 when 1 returned to Dar Joon, after being laid up with 
 a bad leg, she would insist on my wearing a laced 
 cloth boot, which she ordered to be made, unknown to 
 me ; on my washing the oedematous leg in wine with 
 laurel leaves steeped in it ; and on sitting always, 
 when with her, with my leg resting on a cushion 
 placed on a stool. Her tyranny in sncli matters was 
 very irksome j for it was clothed in terms of so much
 
 48 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 
 
 feelinjj and recrard, and of such commiseration for 
 one"'s overrated suflFerings, that, to escape the accusation 
 of ingratitude and bad breeding, it was impossible to 
 avoid entire acquiescence in every one of her kind 
 commands. 
 
 She was ever complaining that she could get no- 
 thing to eat, nothing to support a great frame like 
 hers : yet she seldom remained one half hour, from 
 sunrise to sunset, or from sunset to sunrise (except 
 during sleep), without taking nourishment of some 
 kind. I never knew any human being who took food 
 so frequently : but, from that very frequency, it 
 might be doubted whether she had a relish for any- 
 thing. And may not this, in some measure, account 
 for her frequent ill-humour ? for nothing sours people's 
 temper more than an overloaded stomach, and nothing 
 promotes cheerfulness more than a light one.
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Sir Natlianiel Wraxall's Memoirs — The three duchesses — 
 Anecdote of Mr. Rice — How Prime Ministers are employed on 
 
 first taking office — The Grenville make — P of W 
 
 at Stowe — ]Mr. Pitt and Mr. Sheridan — Duke of H 
 
 — Mr. Pitt's disinterestedness exemplified — His life wasted in 
 
 the service of his country — Mr, Rose — Mr. Long — Mr. 
 
 — Grounds at Walraer laid out by Lady Hester — Mr. Pitt's de- 
 portment in retirement — His physiognomy — How he got into 
 debt — Lord Carrington; why made a peer — Extent of Mr. 
 Dundas's influence over Mr. Pitt — Mr. Pitt averse to cere- 
 mony — Mr. Pitt and his sister Harriett — His dislike to the 
 Bourbons — Lady Hester's activity at Walmer — Lord Chat- 
 ham's indolence — Mr. Pitt's opinion of Sir Arthur ^^^ellesley. 
 
 VOL. II. D
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 51 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 On leaving Marseilles, in 1837, I ordered Sir 
 Nathaniel Wraxall's Memoirs to be sent after me 
 to Syria, thinking that, as relating to Mr. Pitt's 
 times, and to people and politics with whom and in 
 which both he and she had mixed so largely, these 
 memoirs could not fail to amuse her. I received them 
 soon after my arrival at Joon, and many rainy days 
 were passed in reading them. They served to beguile 
 the melancholy hours of her sickness, and recalled the 
 agreeable recollections of her more splendid, if not 
 more happy hours. She would say on such occasions, 
 " Doctor, read a little of your book to me." This 
 was always her expression, when I had brought any 
 publication to her : and, ordering a pipe, lying at her 
 length in bed, and smoking whilst I read, she would 
 make her comments as I went on. 
 
 D 2
 
 52 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " Let me hear about the duchesses," she would say. 
 After a page or two she interrupted me, " See what 
 the Duchess of Rutland and the Duchess of Gordon 
 were: look at the difference, I acknowledge it pro- 
 ceeds all from temperament, just as your dull dispo- 
 sition does, which to me is as bad as a heavy weight 
 or a nightmare, I never knew, among the whole of 
 my acquaintance in England, any one like you but 
 Mr. Polhill of Crofton ■"' (or some such place) : " he 
 was always mopish, just as you are. I remember too 
 what a heavy, dull business the Duchess of R^'s parties 
 were — the rooms so stuffed with people that one could 
 not move, and all so heavy — a great deal of high 
 breeding and hon ton ; but there was, somehow, no- 
 thing to enliven you. Now and then some incident 
 would turn up to break the spell. One evening, I 
 recollect very well, everybody was suffering with the 
 heat : there we were, with nothing but heads to be 
 seen like bottles in a basket, I got out of the room, 
 upon the landing-place. There I found Lady Sefton, 
 Lady Heathcote, and some of your high-flyers, and 
 somebody was saying to me, ' Lady Hester something,' 
 when, half way up the staircase, the Duke of Cumber- 
 land was trying to make his way. He cried out, 
 ' Where's Lady Hester? where's my aide-de-camp?
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 53 
 
 Come and help me ; for I am so blind I can't get on 
 
 alone. Why, this is h — 1 and d n V — ' Here I 
 
 am, sir.' — ' Give me your hand, there's a good little 
 soul. Do help me into this h — 1 ; for it's quite as 
 hot.' Then came Bradford ; and, whilst he was 
 speaking to me, and complaining of the intolerable 
 heat and crush, out roared the Duke of Cumberland, 
 ' Where is she gone to V — and up went his glass, peep- 
 inc: about to the right and left — ' where is she "one 
 to V There was some life in him, doctor. 
 
 " Now, at the Duchess of Gordon's there were 
 people of the same fashion, and the crowd was just as 
 great ; but then she was so lively, and everybody was 
 so animated, and seemed to know so well what they 
 were about — quite another thing. 
 
 " As for the Duchess of D.'s, there they were — all 
 that set — all yawning, and wanting the evening to be 
 spent, that they might be getting to the business they 
 were after." 
 
 It may be mentioned that Lady Hester was always 
 very severe on the Duchess of D. and her friends, 
 whenever her name or theirs was mentioned. She 
 said she was full of affected sensibility, but that there 
 was always a great deal of wickedness about her eyes. 
 
 The mention of the Duchess of Rutland's name
 
 54 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 also led to an amusing anecdote. Lady Hester was 
 speaking of the grand fete given by the duchess when 
 her son came of ao-e. The arrano-ements were entrusted 
 to a person named Rice, and to some great confec- 
 tioner. Mr. Rice had been maitre d'hotel^ or in some 
 such capacity, in Mr, Pitt's family. 
 
 " Rice told me," said Lady Hester, " that when he 
 and the other man were preparing for ih.Q fete, he never 
 lay down for ten nights, but got what sleep he could 
 in an arm-chair. The duchess gave him three hun- 
 dred guineas. One day she looked at him over her 
 shoulder ; and when one of the beaux about her said, 
 ' What are you looking after, duchess ? You have 
 forgotten something in the drawing-room V — ' No, no,'' 
 said she, pointing to Rice, ' I was only thinking that 
 those eyes are too good for a kitchen.' And then one 
 talked of the eyes and the eyes, and another of the 
 eyes and the eyes, until poor Rice quite blushed. He 
 had very pretty eyes, doctor." 
 
 But the anecdote I was going to relate was this. 
 Most simple persons, like myself, imagine that prime 
 ministers of such a country as England, when pro- 
 moted to so elevated a station, are only moved by the 
 noble ambition of their country's good, and, from the 
 first moment to the last, are ever pondering on the
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 55 
 
 important measures that may best promote it. No 
 such thing. Let us hear what Lady Hester Stanhope 
 herself had to say on this subject. 
 
 "The Yery first thing Mr. Pitt did," said she, 
 " after coming into office the second time, was to pro- 
 vide for Mr. Rice. We were just got to Downing 
 Street, and everything was in disorder. I was in the 
 drawing-room : Mr. Pitt, I beheve, had dined out. 
 When he came home, ' Hester,' said he, ' we must 
 think of our dear, good friend Rice. I have desired 
 the list to be brought to me to-morrow morning, and 
 we will see what suits him.' — ' I think we had better 
 see now,' I replied. ' Oh, no ! it is too late now.' — ■ 
 ' Not at all,' I rejoined ; and I rang the bell, and de- 
 sired the servant to go to the Treasury, and bring me 
 the list. 
 
 " On examining it, I found three places for which 
 he was eligible. I then sent for Rice, ' Rice,' said 
 I, ' here are three places to be filled up. One is a 
 place in the Treasury, where you may fag on, and, by 
 the time you are forty-five or fifty, you may be 
 master of twenty or twenty-five thousand pounds. 
 There is another will bring you into contact with poor 
 younger sons of nobility : you will be invited out, 
 get tickets for the Opera, and may make yourself a
 
 56 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 fine gentleman. The third is in the Customs : there 
 you must fag a great deal, but you will make a great 
 deal of money. It is a searcher's place.' 
 
 " Rice, after considering awhile, said — ' As for the 
 Treasury, that will not suit me, my lady ; for I must 
 go on plodding to the end of my life. The second 
 place your ladyship mentioned will throw me out of 
 my sphere : I am not fit for fine folks ; and, if you 
 please, I had rather take the third,' So, the very 
 next morning, I got all his papers signed by every- 
 body except Mr. Long, and they made some excuses 
 that he was not cotne, or was gone, or something ; but 
 I would hear of no delay, and desired them to find him. 
 
 " Rice went on swimmingly, doctor, for a long time, 
 and made one morning a seizure that brought for his 
 share ^£'500. But I had given him some very long 
 instructions, and he was not like you, for he listened 
 to my advice. Sometimes, when I was teaching him 
 how he was to act, he would say, ' My lady, I believe 
 that is enough for this time : I don't think my poor 
 head will contain more ; but I'll come again.' I told 
 him he was to learn the specific gravity of bodies, that 
 when they told him (for example) it was pepper, he 
 might know by the volume that it was not gunpowder 
 or cochineal.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 57 
 
 " When the Grenville administration wanted to 
 introduce new regulations into the Customs, and 
 diminish their profits, I wrote such a petition tor 
 them, that Lord Grenville read it over and over, and 
 cried out — ' There is only one person could write this, 
 and we must give up the point.' He sent the Duke 
 of Buckingham to me to find out if it was I, and tlie 
 duke said, to smooth the matter — ' Lady Hester, you 
 know, if you want any favour, you have only to ask 
 for it.' — ' Indeed,' said I, ' I shall ask no favour of 
 you hroad-hottomed gentry ; what I want I shall take 
 by force.' — ' Now, Hester,' cried the duke, ' you are 
 too bad ; you are almost indelicate.' 
 
 " Oh, I made a man laugh so once when speaking 
 of an officer, who, I said, would not do for a hussar, 
 as he wanted a little more of the Grenville make 
 about him." 
 
 After a pause, as if reflecting, Lady Hester re- 
 sumed — " Is there nothing in the book about the 
 G********s o-ettino; the Prince down to Stowe i 
 They received him with extraordinary magnificence, 
 and the most noble treatment possible : they fan- 
 cied they were going to do wonders. But I said to 
 them — ' Do you think all this makes the impression 
 you wish in the Prince's breast? You suppose, no 
 
 D 5
 
 58 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 doubt, that you gratify him highly with such a splen- 
 did reception: you are much mistaken. From this 
 time forward, he will be jealous of you, and will hate 
 you as long as he thinks you can rival him.' The 
 event proved how justly I knew his character. 
 
 " There they were, shut up : and when they told me 
 they had got their conditions in black and white, I 
 told them how it would be. I said he would take 
 them in ; for what was a paper to a man like him ? 
 I wrote them such a letter, doctor, that they all 
 thought it was Mr. Pitt's — Mr. Pitt's best style, too 
 — until I swore he never knew a word about it. They 
 fancied they had got all the loaves and fishes. One 
 was to be prime minister, one first lord of the admi- 
 ralty, and so on : but their ambition destroyed 
 them. What have they been since Mr. Pitt's death? 
 Nothing at all. Who ever hears now of the Duke of 
 
 I turned over the pages, and next read Wraxall's 
 account of Mr. Sheridan, which Lady Hester said was 
 veiy much to the purpose. " Mr. Pitt," she added, 
 " always thought well of him, and never disliked my 
 talking with him. Oh ! how Sheridan used to make 
 
 ' This of course refers to the late duke.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 59 
 
 me laugh, when he pretended to marry Mr. Pitt to 
 different women !" 
 
 I came to the passage where Sir Nathaniel finds 
 fault with Mr. Pitt's having refused Sheridan's gene- 
 rous offer of co-operating with him in suppressing the 
 mutiny at the Nore. " Why," interrupted Lady 
 Hester, " what could Mr. Pitt do ? He was afraid, 
 doctor ; he did not know how sincere such people 
 might be in their offers : they might be only coming 
 oyer to his side to get the secrets of the cabinet, and 
 then turn king's evidence. It required a great deal 
 of caution to know how to deal with such clever 
 men." 
 
 Where Sir Nathaniel relates the history of the Bur- 
 rell family, she spoke highly of all the daughters, but 
 especially of Mrs. Bennett, and considered that the 
 author was wrong in saying that all but Mrs. Bennett 
 were not handsome. 
 
 Of the D. of H, she observed, that he never lived 
 
 with the duchess. He was in love with Lady , 
 
 and used to disguise himself as a one-legged soldier 
 — as a beggar — assuming a hundred masquerades, 
 sleeping in outhouses, tfec. He would have married 
 her, but he could not, for he had got one wife already. 
 That was the woman F. M**** married. Oh, doctor,
 
 6"() MEMOIRS OF 
 
 there was a man !" (meaning the Duke of H ) 
 
 " perfect from top to toe, with not a single flaw in his 
 person." 
 
 Lady Hester was so delighted with Sir NathanieFs 
 Memoirs that she said, more than once, " How I 
 wish I had known that man ! I would have made 
 him a duke. What an excellent judgment he has, 
 and how well he knew everybody. But how was I to 
 find out all those people, when the stupid and inte- 
 rested set that surrounded Mr. Pitt kept them all in 
 the background V 
 
 November 11. — This evening I remained with 
 Lady Hester about three hours. She was better, but 
 complained of great pain in the left hypochondrium, 
 and could not lie easy on either side, or on her back. 
 Yet, notwithstanding her ailments, talking was neces- 
 sary for her, and from the incidental mention of 
 Mr. Pitfs name, she went on about him for some 
 time. 
 
 " Nobody ever knew or estimated Mr. Pitfs cha- 
 racter rightly. His views were abused and con- 
 founded with the narrow projects of men who never 
 could comprehend them ; his fidelity to his master 
 was never understood. Never was there such a dis- 
 interested man j he invariably refused every bribe,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 61 
 
 and declined every present that was offered to him. 
 Those who came to him from abroad he left to rot in 
 the Custom House ; and some of his servants, after 
 quitting his service, knowing he never inquired about 
 them any more, went and claimed things of this sort : 
 for Mr. Pitt would read the letter, and think no 
 more about it. I could name those, who have pictures 
 hanging in their rooms — pictures by Flemish masters 
 of great value — procured in this way. 
 
 " Mr. Pitt used to say of Lord Oarrington, when he 
 saw him unable to eat his dinner in comfort, because he 
 had a letter to write to his steward about some estate 
 or another — ' voilii Vembarras de richesses :*' but when 
 he heard of some generous action done by a wealthy 
 man — ' There''s the pleasure of being rich,'' he would 
 cry. He did not pretend to despise wealth, but he 
 was not a slave to it, as will be seen by the following 
 anecdotes : — 
 
 " At one time a person was empow^ered by his city 
 friends to settle on him ^£^10,000 a year, in order to 
 render him independent of the favour of the king, 
 and of everybody, upon condition (as they expressed 
 it) that he would stand forth to save his country. 
 The offer was made through me, and I said I would 
 deliver the message, but was afraid the answer would
 
 62 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 not be such as they wished. Mr. Pitt in fact refused 
 it, saying he was much flattered by their approval of 
 his conduct, but that he could accept nothing of the 
 sort. 
 
 " Yet these people," added Lady Hester, " were not, 
 as you might at first suppose, disinterested in their offer : 
 I judged them to be otherwise. For if it had been to 
 the man, and not to some hopes of gain they had by 
 him, would they not, after his death, have searched 
 out those he esteemed as angels, and have honoured 
 his memory by enriching those he loved so much? 
 (alluding to herself and brothers.) But no — they 
 thought, if Mr. Pitt retired from public affairs, the 
 country and its commerce would go to ruin, and they, 
 as great city men, would be the losers ; whereas, by a 
 few thousand pounds given away handsomely, if they 
 got him to take an active part in the government, 
 they would in turn put vast riches into their own 
 purses, and make a handsome profit out of their 
 patriotism." She added, " There are no pubhc phi- 
 lanthropists in the city. 
 
 " I recollect once a hackney-coach drawing up to 
 the door, out of which got four men : doctor, they 
 had a gold box with them as big as that" (and she held 
 her hands nearly a foot apart to show the size of it),
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 63 
 
 " containing ^100,000 in bank-notes. They had found 
 out the time when he was alone, and made him an 
 offer of it. It was all interest that guided them, but 
 they pretended it was patriotism : — rich merchants, 
 who were to get a pretty penny by the job. He 
 very politely thanked them, and returned the present. 
 
 " I was once in the city at an Irish linen ware- 
 house — very rich people, but such a nasty place — so 
 dark ! You know those narrow streets. They offered 
 to buy Hollwood for him, pay his debts, and make him 
 independent of the king, if he would contrive to take 
 office ; for he was out at the time. I mentioned it to 
 him, as I thought it my duty to do so ; but he would 
 not listen to any such proposal. 
 
 " When I think of the ingratitude of the English 
 nation to Mr. Pitt, for all his personal sacrifices and 
 disinterestedness, for his life wasted in the service of 
 his country !" Here Lady Hester's emotions got the 
 better of her, and she burst into tears : she sobbed as 
 she spoke. " People little knew what he had to do. 
 Up at eight in the morning, with people enough to see 
 for a week, obliged to talk all the time he was at 
 breakfast, and receiving first one, then another, until 
 four o'clock ; then eating a mutton-chop, hurrying off 
 to the House, and there badgered and compelled to
 
 64 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 speak and waste his lungs until two or three in the 
 moniing ! — who could stand it l After this, heated as 
 he was, and having eaten nothing, in a manner of 
 speaking, all day, he would sup with Dundas, Hus- 
 kisson. Rose, Mr. Long, and such persons, and then 
 go to bed to get three or four hours' sleep, and to 
 renew the same thing the next day, and the next, and 
 the next. 
 
 " Poor old Rose ! he had a good heart. I am 
 afraid he took it ill that I did not write to him. 
 Mr. Long used to slide in and slide out, and slide here 
 and slide there — nobody knew when he went or when 
 he came — so quiet." 
 
 I here interrupted Lady Hester. " It was a lament- 
 able end, that of Mr. ," said L " So much the 
 
 better," answered Lady Hester. I thought she had 
 not heard me well. " It was a lamentable end, that 
 
 of Mr. ," I repeated with a louder tone. " So 
 
 much the better," said she again ; " it could not be too 
 
 bad for him. He died in bodily torment, and C 
 
 had the torment of a bad conscience for his falsehoods, 
 
 and W lived in mental torment. They all three 
 
 deserved it." 
 
 Lady Hester resumed. " When Mr. Pitt was at 
 Walmer, he recovered his health prodigiously. He
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 65 
 
 used to go to a farm near Walmer, where hay and 
 corn were kept for the horses. He had a room fitted 
 up there with a table and two or three chairs, where 
 be used to write sometimes, and a tidy woman to 
 dress him somethino; to eat. Oh ! what slices of 
 bread and butter I have seen him eat there, and 
 hunches of bread and cheese big enough for a plough- 
 man. He used to say that, whenever he could retire 
 from public life, he would have a good English woman 
 cook. Sometimes, after a grand dinner, he would say, 
 ' I want something — I am hungry."' And when I 
 remarked, ' Well, but you are just got up from dinner,"* 
 he would add, ' Yes ; but I looked round the table, 
 and there was nothing I could eat — all the dishes 
 were so made up, and so unnatural.' Ah, doctor ! 
 in town, during the sitting of parliament, what a life 
 was his ! Eoused from his sleep (for he was a good 
 sleeper) with a despatch from Lord Melville ; — then 
 down to Windsor; then, if he had half an hour to 
 spare, trying to swallow something : — Mr. Adams 
 with a paper, Mr. Long with another ; then jSIr. Rose : 
 then, with a little bottle of cordial confection in his 
 pocket, off to the House until three or four in the 
 morning ; then home to a hot supper for two or 
 three hours more, to talk over what was to be done
 
 66 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 next day : — and wine, and wine ! — Scarcely up next 
 morning, when tat-tat-tat — twenty or thirty people 
 one after another, and the horses walking before the 
 door from two till sunset, waiting for him. It was 
 enough to kill a man — it was murder !"" 
 
 Lady Hester reverted to Walmer, and went on, 
 after musing a little, thus — " I remember once what an 
 improvement I made at Walmer, which arose from a 
 conversation with some friends, in which Mr. Pitt 
 agreed with them that Walmer was not certainly a 
 beautiful residence, but that it only wanted trees to 
 make it so. I was present, but did not seem to hear 
 what was passing. 
 
 " Mr. Pitt soon after went to town. Mindful of 
 what he had let drop, I immediately resolved to set 
 about executing the improvements which he seemed 
 to imply as wanting. I got (I know not how) all the 
 regiments that were in quarters at Dover, and em- 
 ployed them in levelling, fetching turf, transplanting 
 shrubs, flowers, &c. As I possess, in some degree, the 
 art of ingratiating myself where I want to do it, I 
 would ffo out of an evenino- amono- the workmen, and 
 say to one, ' You are a Warwickshire man, I know 
 by your face' (although I had known it by his brogue). 
 ' How much I esteem Lord Warwick ; he is my best
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 67 
 
 friend. — Were you in Holland, my good fellow?' to 
 another. ' Yes, my lady, in the Blues."' — ' A fine 
 regiment ; there is not a better soldier in the army 
 than colonel so-and-so."" — ' He was ray colonel, my 
 lady."* Thus a few civil words, and occasionally a 
 present, made the work go on rapidly, and it was 
 finished before Mr. Pitfs return. 
 
 " When Mr. Pitt came down, he dismounted from his 
 horse, and, ascending the staircase, saw through a 
 window, which commanded a view of the grounds, the 
 improvements that had been made. ' Dear me, Hester, 
 why this is a miracle ! I know "'tis you, so do not deny 
 it : well, I declare, it is quite admirable ; I could 
 not have done it half so well myself."' And, though it 
 was just dinner-time, he would go out, and examine 
 it all over, and then was so profuse in his praises ! — 
 which were the more delightful, because they applauded 
 the correctness of my taste. Above all, he was charmed 
 that I had not fallen into an error (which most persons 
 would have done) of making what is called an English 
 garden, but rather had kept to the old manner of 
 avenues, alleys, and the like, as being more adapted to 
 an ancient castle. Such was the amiable politeness of 
 Mr. Pitt. 
 
 " When Mr. Pitt retired from office, and sold
 
 68 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Holhvood, his favourite child, he laid down his car- 
 riages and horses, diminished his equipage, and paid 
 off as many debts as he could. Yet, notwithstanding 
 this complete revolution, his noble manners, his agree- 
 able condescending air, never forsook him for a 
 moment. To see him at table with vulgar sea cap- 
 tains, and ignorant militia colonels, with two or three 
 servants in attendance — he, who had been accustomed 
 to a servant behind each chair, to all that was great 
 and distinguished in Europe — one might have sup- 
 posed disgust would have worked some change in 
 him. But in either case it was the same — always the 
 admiration of all around him. He was ever careful 
 to cheer the modest and diffident ; but if some forward 
 young fellow exhibited any pertness, by a short 
 speech, or by asking some puzzling question, he would 
 give him such a set down that he could not get over it 
 all the evening." 
 
 In answer to a question I put, " By whom and how 
 ministers effected their purposes in the city," she told 
 me that they got hold of one of the great squads, as 
 Lloyd's, the Angersteins, the Merchant Tailors, and 
 so on ; and by means of one body set the rest to 
 work. 
 
 Lady Hester was saying of herself that she was
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 69 
 
 very fit for a diplomatic character. " Nobody can ever 
 observe in me any changes in'^my countenance ; and 
 when I am sitting still under a tree, nobody that 
 passes and sees me, I will venture to say, would ever 
 suppose what was in me, or say thafs a person of 
 talent. Mr. Pitt's face was somewhat the same. In 
 regarding him, I should have said that he had a sort 
 of slovenly or negligent look : and the same when he 
 was in a passion. His passion did not show itself by 
 knitting his brows or pouting his mouth, nor were his 
 words very sharp : but his eyes lighted up in a manner 
 quite surprising. It was something that seemed to 
 dart from within his head, and you might see sparks 
 coming from them. At another time, his eyes had no 
 colour at all. 
 
 " That Mr. Pitt o;ot into debt is no wonder. How 
 could a man, so circumstanced, find time to look into 
 his affairs ? And of course there were many things I 
 could not attend to, whatever disposition I might have 
 had to do so. The bills that were given in by the 
 cook, by the valet, and such people, I looked over. 
 Merely the post-chaises and four were enough to run 
 away with a moderate income. Every now and then 
 I fixed on some glaring overcharge, and made some 
 inquiry about it, just to put a check upon them ; and
 
 70 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 on such occasions I would say, ' Take care that does 
 not happen again."* But, what with great dinners, 
 and one thing and another, it was impossible to do 
 any good. As for your talking about English ser- 
 vants being more honest than those of other countries, 
 I don''t know what to say about it. 
 
 " Where Wraxall, in his book, insinuates that 
 Mr. Pitt gave Mr. Smith a title, and made him Lord 
 Oarrington, merely to discharge a debt for money 
 supplied in his emergencies, he is wrong, doctor. Mr. 
 Pitt once borrowed a sum of money of six persons, 
 but Lord Oarrington was not of the number, and the 
 title bestowed on him was for quite another reason : 
 it was to recompense the zeal he had shewn in raising 
 a volunteer corps at his own expense at Nottingham, 
 and in furnishing government with a sufficient sum to 
 raise another. Mr. Pitt had also found Mr. Smith a 
 useful man in affording him information about bankers' 
 business, which he often stood in need of, and in 
 making dinner-parties, to enable Mr. Pitt to get rid 
 of troublesome people, whom he otherwise would have 
 been obliged to entertain at his own table. But Mr. 
 Pitt never knew what I heard after his death, by 
 mere accident, that the principal part of the loan, 
 which Mr. S. presented to government in his own
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 71 
 
 name, was in reality the gift of an old miser at Not- 
 tingham ; who, being unaBlo or unwilling to go to 
 town to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer in person, 
 and to be put to the trouble of addressing the crown, 
 got Mr. S., who was an active man, to do it for him. 
 It suited Mr. Pitt very well, in making Lord Carring- 
 ton governor of Deal castle, to have somebody near at 
 hand, who could take off the bore, and the expense 
 too, of entertaining people from London." 
 
 " Sir Nathaniel Wraxall speaks of Mr. Pitt''s sup- 
 posed inclination for one of the Duke of Richmond's 
 daughters, and goes on to say that he showed one of 
 them great attention." Lady Hester Stanhope inter- 
 rupted me at that passage, and said, " So he did 
 to all." 
 
 She denied that Mr. Dundas had any direct 
 influence over Mr. Pitt, as Wraxall avers. Her words 
 were, " Because Mr. Dundas was a man of sense, and 
 Mr. Pitt approved of his ideas on many subjects, 
 it does not follow, therefore, that he was influ- 
 enced by him." With the exception of Mr. Dundas, 
 
 Lord and another that she named, " all the 
 
 rest," said Lady Hester, " were a rabble — a rabble. 
 It was necessary to have some one at their head to 
 lead them, or else they were always going out of
 
 72 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the right road, just as, you know, a mule with a good 
 star must go before a caravan of mules, to show them 
 the way. Look at a flight of geese in the air : there 
 must always be one to head them, or else they would 
 not know in what direction to fly, 
 
 " Mr. Pitfs consideration for age was very marked. 
 He had, exclusive of Walmer, a house in the village, 
 for the reception of those whom the castle could not 
 hold. If a respectable commoner, advanced in years, 
 and a young duke arrived at the same time, and there 
 happened to be but one room vacant in the Castle, he 
 would be sure to assign it to the senior ; fur it is 
 better (he would say) that these young Lords should 
 walk home on a rainy night, than old men : they can 
 bear it more easily. 
 
 " Mr. Pitt was accustomed to say that he always 
 conceived more favourably of that man's understand- 
 ing who talked agreeable nonsense, than of his who 
 talked sensibly only ; for the latter might come from 
 books and study, while the former could only be the 
 natural fruit of imagination. 
 
 " Mr. Pitt was never inattentive to what was pass- 
 ing around him, though he often thought proper to 
 appear so. On one occasion, Sir Ed. K. took him to 
 the Ashford ball to show him ofi" to the yeomen and
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 73 
 
 tlieir wives. Though sitting in the room in all his 
 senatorial seriousness, he (Contrived to observe every- 
 thing ; and nobody" (Lady Hester said) "could give a 
 more lively account of a ball than he. He told who 
 was rather fond of a certain captain ; how Mrs. K. 
 was dressed ; how Miss Jones, Miss Johnson, or Miss 
 Anybody, danced ; and had all the minutiae of the 
 night as if he had been no more than an idle looker-on. 
 
 " He was not fond of the applause of a mob. One 
 day, in going down to Weymouth, he was recognised 
 in some town, and, whilst the carriage stopped to 
 change horses, a vast number of people gathered 
 round us : they insisted on dragging the carriage, 
 and would do so for some time, all he could say. 
 Oh, doctor ! what a fright I was in ! 
 
 " Mr. Pitt bore with ceremony as a thing necessary. 
 On some occasions, I was obliged to pinch his arm to 
 make him not appear uncivil to people : ' There's a 
 baronet,' I would say ; or, ' that's Mr. So-and-so.' 
 
 " I never saw Mr. Pitt shed tears but twice. I 
 never heard him speak of his sister Har-yet " (so Lady 
 Hester pronounced it) " but once. One day his niece, 
 Harriet Elliott, dined with us, and, after she was 
 gone, Mr. Pitt said, ' Well, I am glad Harriet fell 
 to my brother's lot, and you to mine, for I never 
 
 VOL. n. E
 
 74 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 sliould have agreed with her.' — ' But," observed 1, 
 ' she is a good girl, and handsome."' — ' She ought to 
 be so,"* said Mr. Pitt, ' for her mother was so."* " 
 
 Lady Hester said, that those who asserted that Mr. 
 Pitt wanted to put the Bourbons on the throne, and 
 that they followed his principles, lied ; and, if she 
 had been in parliament, she would have told them so. 
 " I once heard a great person,"" added she, " in con- 
 versation with him on the subject, and Mr. Pitfs 
 reply was, ' Whenever I can make peace, whether 
 with a consul, or with whosoever it is at the head of 
 the French government, provided I can have any de- 
 pendence on him, I will do it."* Mr. Pitt had a 
 sovereign contempt for the Bourbons, and the only 
 merit that he allowed to any one of them was to him 
 Avho was afterwards Charles X., whose gentlemanly 
 manners and mild demeanour he could not be other- 
 wise than pleased with. Mr. Pitt never would con- 
 sent to their going to court, because it would have 
 been a recognition of Louis XVIIL 
 
 " Latterly, Mr. Pitt used to suffer a great deal 
 from the cold in the House of Commons ; for he com- 
 plained that the wind cut through his silk stockings. 
 I remember, one day, I had on a large tippet and muff 
 of very fine fur : the tippet covered my shoulders, and
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 75 
 
 came down in a point behind. ' What is this, Hester T 
 said Mr. Pitt ; ' something Siberian ? Can't you com- 
 mand some of your slaves — for you must recollect, 
 Griselda, Hester has slaves without number, who im- 
 plicitly obey her orders' (this was addressed to Gri- 
 selda and Mr. Tickell, who were present) — ' can't you 
 command some of your slaves to introduce the fashion 
 of weariug muffs and tippets into the House of Com- 
 mons ? I could then put my feet on the muff, and 
 throw the tippet over my knees and round my legs.' 
 
 " When we were at Walmer, it is incredible what 
 a deal I got through in the day. Mr. Pitt was 
 pleased to have somebody who would take trouble off 
 his hands. Every week he had to review the volun- 
 teers, and would ride home in such showers of rain — I 
 have been so drenched, that, as I stood, my boots 
 made two spouting fountains above my knees. Then 
 there was dinner ; and, if I happened to be alone, 
 when I went to the drawing-room, I had to give the 
 secret word for spies, to see the sergeant of the guard, 
 and then the {gentlemen would come in from the 
 dining-room. But, if they were late, oh, how sleepy 
 I got, and would have given the world to go to bed ! 
 
 " One day, Lord Chatham had to review the artil- 
 lery, and he kept them under arms from daylight 
 
 e2
 
 76 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 until three o" clock. Bradford went to him several 
 times to know if he was ready. ' I shall come in ahout 
 lialf an hour,' was the constant reply ; until, at last, 
 seeing no chance of his appearance, I agreed with the 
 aide-de-camps to go off together and settle matters as 
 well as we could : so, getting Lord Chatham's leave, 
 off we went. Colonel Ford, the commanding-officer, 
 was a cross man ; and that day he had enough to 
 make him so. But I managed it all very well : I 
 told him that pressing business detained Lord C. ; 
 that he had commissioned us to apologize ; and that I 
 should have pleasure in saying the men looked admi- 
 rably : then I added that Mr. Pitt hoped to see him 
 in the course of a few days at the Castle, and so on. 
 The colonel looked dreadfully out of temper, however, 
 and Bradford and I rode back at a furious rate. It 
 was one of those dark, wet days that are so peculiar 
 to England. A day or two after, the colonel and 
 some of the officers were invited to Walmer, and I 
 behaved very civilly to them ; so that Lord Chatham's 
 laziness was forgotten. 
 
 " Lord Chatham never travelled without a mistress. 
 He was a man of no merit, but of great sdad (luck). 
 He used to keep people waiting and waiting whilst he 
 was talking and breakfasting with her. He would
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 77 
 
 keep his aiJe-de-caraps till two or three in the morn- 
 ing. How often would the servant come in, and .say 
 supper was ready, and he would answer, ' Ah ! well, 
 in half an hour.' Then the servant would say, ' Sup- 
 per is on the table j' and then it would be, ' Ah ! well, 
 in a quarter of an hour.' An aide-de-camp would 
 come in with a paper to sign, and perhaps Lord Chat- 
 ham would say — ' Oh, dear ! that's too long : I can't 
 possibly look at it now : you must bring it to-morrow.' 
 The aide-de-camp would present it next day, and he 
 would cry, ' Good God ! how can you think of bring- 
 ino- it now ? don't you know there's a review to-day f 
 Then, the day after, he was going to Woolwich. 
 ' Well, never mind,' he would say ; ' have you got a 
 short one ! — well, bring that.' 
 
 " Doctor, I once changed the dress of a whole regi- 
 ment — the Berkshire militia. Somebody asked me, 
 before a great many officers, what I thought of them, 
 and I said they looked like so many tinned harlequins. 
 One day, soon after, I was riding through Walmer 
 village, when who should pop out upon me but the 
 colonel, dressed in entirely new regimentals, with 
 different facino;s, and more like a reg-iment of the line. 
 ' Pray, pardon me. Lady Hester ' — so I stopped, as 
 he addressed me — ' pray, pardon me,' said the colonel,
 
 78 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ' but I wish to know if you approve of our new uni- 
 form.'' Of course I made him turn about, till I in- 
 spected him round and round — pointed with my whip, 
 as I sat on horseback, first here and then there — told 
 him the waist was too short, and wanted half a button 
 more— the collar was a little too high — and so on ; 
 and, in a short time, the whole regiment turned out 
 with new clothes. The Duke of York was very gene- 
 rous, and not at all stingy in useful things. 
 
 " I recollect once at Ramsgate, five of the Blues, 
 half drunk, not knowing who I was, walked after me, 
 and pursued me to my door. They had the imperti- 
 nence to follow me up -stairs, and one of them took 
 hold of my gown. The maid came out, frightened 
 out of her senses ; but, just at the moment, with my 
 arm I gave the foremost of them such a push, that I 
 sent him rolling over the others down stairs, with 
 their swords rattling against the balusters. Next 
 day, he appeared with a black patch as big as a 
 saucer over his face ; and, when I went out, there 
 were the glasses looking at me, and the footmen 
 pointing me out — quite a sensation !" 
 
 During these conversations respecting Mr. Pitt's 
 times, Sir NathanieFs Memoirs were generally in my 
 hand, and when there was a pause I resumed my
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 79 
 
 reading. In giving Sir Walter Farquhar's private 
 conversation respecting Mr. Pit^s death, the author 
 says — " Mr. Pitt mounted the staircase with alacrity." 
 Here Lady Hester stopped me, with the exclamation 
 of — " What a falsehood, doctor ! Just hear how it 
 was. You know, when the carriage came to the door, 
 he was announced, and I went out to the top of the 
 stairs to receive him. The first thing I heard was a 
 voice so changed, that I said to myself, ' It is all over 
 with him.' He was supported by the arms of two 
 people, and had a stick, or two sticks, in his hands, 
 and as he came up, panting for breath — ugh ! ugh ! — 
 I retreated little by little, not to put him to the pain 
 of making a bow to me, or of speaking : — so much for 
 his alacrity ! 
 
 " After Mr, Pitt's death, I could not cry for a 
 whole month and more. I never shed a tear, until 
 one day Lord Melville came to see me ; and the sight 
 of his eyebrows turned grey, and his changed face, 
 made me burst into tears. I felt much better for it 
 after it was over. 
 
 " Mr. Pitt's bust was taken after his death by an 
 Italian, named, I think, Tomino — an obscure artist, 
 whom I had rummaged out. This man had offered 
 me at one time a bust worth a hundred guineas, and
 
 80 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 prayed me to accept it, in order, as he said, to make 
 his name known : I refused it, but recollected him 
 afterwards. The bust turned out a very indiJSerent 
 resemblance : so, with my own hand, I corrected the 
 defects, and it eventually proved a strong likeness. 
 The D. of C. happening to call when the artist was at 
 work in my room, was so pleased, that he ordered one 
 of a hundred guineas for himself, and another to be 
 sent to Windsor. There was one by this Tomino 
 put into the Exhibition. 
 
 " A fine picture in Mr. Pitt's possession represented 
 Diogenes with a lantern searching by day for an honest 
 man. A person cut out a part of the blank canvas, 
 and put in Mr. Pitt''s portrait. 
 
 " Wlien Mr. Pitt was going to Bath, previous to his 
 last illness, I told him I insisted on his taking my 
 eider-down quilt with him. ' You will go about,"" 
 said I, ' much more comfortably ; and, instead of 
 being too hot one day under a thick counterpane, and 
 the next day shivering under a thin one, you will 
 have an equable warmth, always leaving one blanket 
 with this quilt.' Charles and James were present, 
 and could not help ridiculing the idea of a man's car- 
 rying about with him such a bundling, effeminate 
 thing. ' Why,' interrupted I, ' it is much more con-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 81 
 
 venient than you all imagine : big as it looks, you may 
 put it into a pocket-handkerchief.' — 'I can''t believe 
 that,' cried Charles and James. ' Do you doubt my 
 word ? ' said I, in a passion : ' nobody shall doubt it 
 with impunity : ' and my face assumed that picture 
 of anger, which you can't deny, doctor, is in me pretty 
 formidable ; so I desired the quilt to be brought. 
 ' Why, my dear Lady Hester,' said Mr. Pitt, ' I am 
 sure the boys do not mean to say you tell falsehoods : 
 they suppose you said it would go into a handkerchief 
 merely as 2hfa(^on de parlery 
 
 Lady" Hester, when she told me this story, here 
 interrupted herself — " And upon my word, doctor, if 
 you had seen the footman bringing it over his shoulder, 
 himself almost covered up by it, you would have 
 thought indeed it was only a,fa^on de parlery 
 
 She continued. " I turned myself to James. ' Now, 
 sir, take and tie it up directly in this pocket-hand- 
 kerchief. There ! does it, or does it not go into it V 
 
 " This," concluded Lady Hester, " was the only 
 quarrel I ever had with Charles and James. James 
 often used to look very black, but he never said any- 
 thing. 
 
 " When Mr. Pitt was going to Bath, in his last ill- 
 ness, he told me he had just seen Arthur Wellesley. 
 
 E 5
 
 82 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 
 
 He spoke of him with the greatest commendation, and 
 said the more he saw of him the more he admired 
 him. ' Yes,' he added, ' the more I hear of his ex- 
 ploits in India, the more I admire the modesty with 
 which he receives the praises he merits from them. 
 He is the only man I ever saw that was not vain of 
 what he had done, and had so much reason to be so.' 
 
 " This eulogium," Lady Hester said, " Mr. Pitt 
 pronounced in his fine mellow tone of voice, and this 
 was the last speech I heard him make in that voice ; 
 for, on his return from Bath, it was cracked for 
 ever." Then she observed, " My own opinion of the 
 duke is, that he is a blunt soldier, who pleases women 
 because he is gallant and has some remains of beauty : 
 but," she added, "he has none of the dignity of courts 
 about him."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Duchess of Gontaut — Due de Berry — Anecdotes of Lord H. 
 — Sir Gore Ouseley — Prince of Wales — The other princes — 
 The Queen's severity — Men and women of George the Third's 
 time — The Herveys — Lady Liverpool's high breeding — Lady 
 Hester's decliaing health.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 85 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " One of Mr. Pitt's last conversations, whilst on his 
 death-bed, was about Charles and James. Mr. Pitt 
 had called me in, and told me, in a low, feeble voice — 
 ' You must not talk to me to-day on any business : 
 when I get down to Lord Camden's, and am better, it 
 will be time enough then.' He seemed to know he 
 was dying, but only said this to console me. ' But 
 now, my dear Hester,' he continued, ' I wish to say 
 a few words about James and Charles. As for Charles, 
 he is such an excellent young man that one cannot 
 wish him to be otherwise than he is ; and Moore is 
 such a perfect officer, that he will give him every in- 
 formation in his profession that he can possibly re- 
 quire. The only apprehension I have is on the score 
 of women, who will perhaps think differently of him 
 from what he thinks of himself. But with James the
 
 86 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 case is otherwise. He is a young man you must keep 
 under ; else you will always see him trying to be a 
 joli gar^on. For Charles's steadiness, I do not fear ; 
 but the little one will one day or other fall into the 
 hands of men who will gain him over and unsettle his 
 political principles. You can guide him, and, so long 
 as he is under your care, he is safe : ' and," added 
 Lady Hester, " Mr. Pitt was right, doctor ; for the 
 moment I quitted England he fell into the snares of 
 Lord B. and his party, and instead of being in 
 Mr. Canning's place, which he might have been, he 
 became nothing." 
 
 Lady Hester went on. " When Charles and James 
 left Chevening, ^ Mr. Pitt said to Mahon (the present 
 Earl Stanhope), ' You know that, when your father 
 dies, you will be heir to a large property — whether 
 dG'lSjOOO a-year or ■£'25,000 it does not much signify. 
 
 ^ Lady Hester, soon after she went to live with Mr. Pitt, 
 was anxious that her three half-brothers should be removed 
 from their father's roof, to be under her own guidance : fearing 
 that the line of politics which Earl Stanhope then followed 
 might be injurious to their future welfare and prospects. To 
 this end, Mr. Rice, a trusty person, of whom mention is inci- 
 dentally made elsewhere, brought them furtively to town in a 
 post-chaise, and they afterwards remained under Mr. Pitt's pro- 
 tection until his death.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 87 
 
 Now, as far as a house goes and having a table where 
 your brothers may dine, I have got that to offer. But 
 young men in the army have a number of wants, for 
 their equipment, regimentals, &c., and for all this I 
 have not the means. You, therefore, Mahon, must 
 do that for them ; and, if you have not money, you 
 can always let their bills be charged to you with 
 interest, as is very common among noblemen until 
 they come to their fortune. You ought to raise a 
 sura of money for them, and see to their wants a little : 
 your two brothers should not be left to starve.** 
 
 " Mahon said he would. Charles one day told me 
 that, as a poor captain of the army, the baggage 
 warehouse and his tailor were rather shy of trusting 
 him ; and if Mahon would only go and say to them-^ 
 ' Do you let my brothers have what they want, and I 
 will be answerable for them f then I could get on. 
 Mahon did that too ; and, in reliance on this arrange- 
 ment, they had clothes and other things, considering 
 him as responsible for them. After Mr. Pitt's death, 
 several tradesmen applied for their bills. 
 
 So, recollecting an old peer, who had been one of 
 Mr. Pitt's particular friends, I sent off James to him 
 to his country-seat with a letter, relating the whole
 
 88 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 business : this person immediately gave James a draft 
 for <£'2,000, with which he returned, and paid his own 
 and Charles's debts. 
 
 " Well, it was agreed between Charles, James, and 
 me, that whoever had the first windfall should pay the 
 d£'2,000. Charles died : James was not rich enough 
 at any time to do it ; and it fell to my lot to pay it, 
 since I have been in this country. And that was the 
 reason of my selling the Burton Pynsent reversion, 
 which, you know, I did in 1820 or thereabouts ; and 
 when Mr. Murray found fault with me for my 
 extravagance, and said he would have no hand in the 
 business, neither he nor anybody else knew then why 
 I sold it. 
 
 " When Coutts wrote me word that my brother 
 James had been very good to me in having given me 
 0^1,000, he did not know that the civility was not so 
 disinterested as he imagined. James might think he 
 did a great deal for me : but, let me ask you — did I 
 not make a pretty great sacrifice for Lord Mahon and 
 him ? I sold a pretty round sum out of the American 
 funds, and James took possession of about five hun- 
 dred pounds** worth of plate of mine, and of my 
 jewels, and of Tippoo Saib's gold powder-flask, worth 
 oP200, and of the cardinal of York's present, which,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 89 
 
 to some pei'sons who wanted a relic of the Stuarts, 
 was invaluable. Then there was a portfolio, full of 
 fine engravinijs of INIorohen and others, that the Duke 
 of Buckino;ham bouoht of him : so that there was at 
 least as much as he sent me. 
 
 " If I had not been thwarted and opposed by them 
 all, as I have been, and obliged to raise money from 
 time to time to get on, I should have been a very rich 
 woman. There was the money I sold out of the 
 American funds ; then there was the Burton Pynsent 
 money, .£'7,000; my father's legacy, i?10,000 ; the 
 (I did not distinctly hear what) legacy, d£? 1,000 :" and 
 thus her ladyship reckoned up on her fingers an 
 amount of =^40,000. 
 
 " Is it not very odd that General Gr. and Lord G. 
 could not leave me a few thousand pounds out of their 
 vast fortunes when they died i They knew that I was 
 in debt, and that a few thousands would have set me 
 up ; and yet in their wills, not to speak of their life- 
 time, they never gave me a single sixpence, but left 
 their money to people already in the enjoyment of 
 incomes far exceeding their wants, and very little 
 more nearly related to them than I am. Well, all 
 their injustice does not put me out of spirits. The 
 time will soon come when I shall want none of their
 
 90 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 assistance, if I ^et the other property that ought to 
 come to me. Oh ! how vexed Lady Chatham always 
 was, when Lady Louisa V. used to point at me, and 
 say — ' There she is — that's my heir.' Lady L. was 
 deformed, and never thought of marrying ; but 
 Lord Gr. did marry her ^nevertheless, and she had a 
 child that died. 
 
 " Then there is the reversion of my grandfather''s 
 pension of ^^4,000 a-year, secured for four lives by 
 the patent, the first Lord Chatham one, the late 
 Lord Chatham the next, and I, of course, the 
 third." » 
 
 ' Whether Lady Hester Stanhope was justified in enter- 
 taining expectations of the G. property and title, I am unable 
 to say ; but having by me a cojjy of the grant to the first Lord 
 Chatham, it is inserted here as conclusive against her ladyship, 
 as far as regards the pension. The circumstances were these : — 
 the day following his (then ]\Ir. Pitt's) resignation of office, a 
 pension of <£3,000 a-year was settled on himself and two other 
 lives, and at the same time a title was conferred on his lady 
 and her issue. He resigned office Oct. 9th, 1761, and the next 
 published Gazette announced all these transactions. The 
 notification ran thus : — That a warrant be prepared for 
 granting to the Lady Hester Pitt, his wife, a Barony of Great 
 Britain, by the name, style, and title of Baroness Chatham, to 
 her heirs male, and also to confer upon the said William Pitt 
 an annuity of £3,000 sterling during his own life, that of
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 91 
 
 Nov. 14th. — I saw that Lady Hester grew weaker 
 every day, and I felt alarmed about her. Still, when- 
 ever I had to write to the person she, about this time, 
 most honoured with her confidence, Mons. Gruys, the 
 French consul at Beyrout, she would not allow me to 
 make any further allusion to her illness than to state 
 simply that she was confined to her bed-room with a 
 cold. "I see you are afraid about me," she said, 
 " but I have recovered from worse illnesses than this 
 by God's help and the strength of my constitution." 
 
 My wife sent to her to say that she or my daughter 
 would, with pleasure, come and keep her company, or 
 
 Lady Hester Pitt, and her son, John Pitt. Shortly after his 
 death, May 11th, 1778, His Majesty sent a message to the 
 Commons thus : — " George R. — His Majesty having considered 
 the address of this house, that he will be graciously pleased to 
 confer some signal and lasting mark of his royal favour on the 
 family of the late William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and being 
 desirous to comply as speedily as possible with the request of 
 his faithful Commons, has given directions for granting to the 
 present Earl of Chatham, and to the heirs of the body of the 
 late William Pitt, to whom the Earldom of Chatham may 
 descend, an annuity of £4,000 per annum, payable out of the 
 Civil List revenue ; but his Majesty not having it in his power 
 to extend the effects of the said grant beyond the term of his 
 own life, recommends it to the house to consider of a proper 
 method of extending, securing, and annexing the same to the
 
 92 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 sit up with her : this she refused. I then offered 
 Miss Longchamp's services : but Ladj Hester's pride 
 would not allow her to expose to a stranger the 
 meagreness of her chamber, so utterly unlike a 
 European apartment. It was indeed an afflicting 
 sight to behold her wrapped up in old blankets, her 
 room lighted by yellow beeswax candles in brass 
 candlesticks, drinking her tea out of a broken-spouted 
 blue teapot and a cracked white cup and saucer, 
 taking her draughts out of an old cup, with a short 
 wooden deal bench by her bedside for a table, and in a 
 room not so well furnished as a servant's bed-room in 
 England. 
 
 Earldom of Chatham in such a manner as shall be thought 
 
 most effectual to the benefit of the family of the said William 
 
 Pitt, Earl of Chatham. 
 
 Signed "G. R." 
 
 On May 20th, in the House of Commons, Iklr. Townsend 
 moved in a committee on the king's message — " That the sum 
 of £4,000 be granted to his Majesty out of the Aggregate 
 Fund, to commence from 5th July, 1778, and be settled in the 
 most beneficial manner upon the present Ear.l of Chatham and 
 the heirs of the body of the late William Pitt, to whom the 
 Earldom of Chatham shall descend." The resolution was 
 agreed to without opposition, and a bill was ordered to be 
 brought in thereon, which passed the Commons without 
 debate.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 93 
 
 The general state of wretchedness in which she 
 lived had even struck Mr. Dundas, a gentleman who, 
 on returning overland from India, staid some days 
 with her : and, as Lady Hester observed, when she 
 told me the story, " He did not know all, as you do." 
 I believe he almost shed tears. "When I see you. 
 Lady Hester," said he, "with a set of fellows for 
 servants who do nothing, and when I look at the 
 room in which you pass your hours, I can hardly 
 believe it is you. I was much affected at first, but 
 now I am more reconciled. You are a being flue- 
 tuating between heaven and earth, and belonging to 
 neither ; and perhaps it is better things should be as 
 they are." Lady Hester added, " He has visited me 
 two or three times. He is a sensible Scotchman, and 
 I like him as well as anybody I have seen for some 
 years." 
 
 November 15. — It was night, when a messenger 
 arrived from Beyrout, and brought a small parcel 
 containing a superbly bound book presented to her 
 ladyship by the Oriental Translation Fund Society. 
 It was accompanied by a complimentary letter from 
 the president, Sir Gore Ouseley. The book was 
 " The History of the Temple of Jerusalem, translated 
 hy the Bet. J. Reynolds.'''' After admiring it, and
 
 94 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 turning over the leaves, she said to me, " Look it 
 over, and see what it is about," and then began to 
 talk of Sir Gore. " I recollect, doctor," said she, " so 
 well the night he was introduced to me : it was at 
 Mr. Matooks"'s (?) supper. 
 
 " You may imagine the numbers and numbers 
 of people I met in society, whilst I lived with Mr. 
 Pitt, almost all of whom were dying to make my 
 acquaintance, and of whom I necessarily could know 
 little or nothing. Indeed, to the greater part of those 
 who were introduced to me, if they saw me afterwards, 
 when they bowed I might return the salutation, smile 
 a little, and pass on, for I had not time to do more : 
 — a person"'s life would not be long enough. Well, I 
 recollect it was at a party where Charles X. was pre- 
 sent — I think it was at Lord Harrington's — that some- 
 body said to me, ' Mr. wants to know you so 
 
 much ! Why won't you let him be introduced to 
 you V — ' Because I don't like people, whose face is all 
 oily, like a soap-ball,' answered I. Now, doctor, 
 upon my word, I no more knew he had made his for- 
 tune by oil, than I do what was the colour of the 
 paper in your saloon at Nice ; and when his friend 
 said, ' You are too bad, Lady Hester,' I did not un- 
 derstand what he meant. However, they told me
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 95 
 
 there would be all the royalties there, and so I con- 
 sented. 
 
 " I have had an instinct all my life that never de- 
 ceived me, about people who were thorough-bred or 
 not ; I knew them at once. Why was it, when Mr. 
 ********n came into a room, and took a long sweep 
 with his hat, and made a stoop, and I said : ' One 
 would think he was looking under the bed for the 
 great business ,-' and all the people laughed, and when 
 at last Mr. Pitt said, ' Hester, you are too bad, you 
 should not be personal,' I declared ' I did not know 
 what he meant V Then he explained to me that the man 
 was a broken-down doctor, a fact which, I honestly as- 
 sured him, I never heard of before. But my quickness in 
 detecting people's old habits is so great, that I hit upon 
 a thing without having the least previous intimation. 
 
 " As I passed the card-table that evening where 
 the Comte d'Artois was playing, he put down his 
 cards to talk to me a little, so polite, so well-bred — 
 poor man ! And there were the other three old 
 dowagers, who were playing with him, abusing him in 
 English, which he understood very well, because he 
 had stopped the game. After he resumed, I was 
 leaning over the back of a chair facing him, reflecting 
 in one of my thoughtful moments on the uncertainty
 
 96 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of human greatness in the picture I had then before 
 me, when I gave one of those deep sighs, which you 
 have heard me do sometimes, something between a 
 sigh and a grunt, and so startled the French King, 
 that he Hterally threw down his cards to stare at me. 
 I remained perfectly motionless, pretending not to 
 observe his action ; and, as he still continued to gaze 
 at me, some of the lookers-on construed it into a sort 
 of admiration on his part. This enraged Lady P., 
 and her rage was increased when, at every knock at 
 the door, I turned my head to see who was coming, 
 and he turned his head too. For I was expecting the 
 royalties, and so was he ; but she did not know this, 
 and she took it into her head that the Prince and I 
 had some understanding between us. 
 
 " I never thought any more of the matter ; but, in 
 the course of the evening, somebody brought Lady P. 
 to me, and introduced her. ' I have longed,' said 
 Lady P. ' for some time to make your acquaintance : 
 I don't know how it is that we have never met. It 
 would give me great pleasure if I sometimes saw you 
 at my parties, and so on.' The next day I had a 
 visit from Lady P., and the day after that came her 
 card, and then an invitation ; and, day after day, 
 there was nothing but Lady P. So, at last, not
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 97 
 
 knowing what it meant, I said to an acquaintance, 
 ' What is the reason that Lady P. is always coming 
 after me V — ' What ! don't you know V she replied. 
 ' The King of France is in love with you V And this 
 is the art, doctor, of all those mistresses. They watch 
 and observe if their lovers are pleased with any young- 
 person, and then invite her home, as a lure to keep 
 alive the old attraction." 
 
 Here Lady Hester paused, and, after a moment, 
 added : " How many of those French people did I see 
 at that time, especially at Lord H.'s ! There was the 
 Duchess of Gontaut, who was obliged to turn washer- 
 woman ; and even to the last, when she was best off, 
 was obliged to go out to parties in a hackney-coach. 
 Why, the Due de Berry himself lodged over a green- 
 grocer's in a little street leadino- out of Montao-ue 
 Square, and all the view he had was to lean out of his 
 window, and look at the greengrocer's stall. I have 
 seen him manv a time there, when he used to kiss his 
 hand to me as I passed. The Duchess of Gontaut after- 
 wards brought up the Duke of Bordeaux. That was a 
 woman quite admirable ; so full of resources, so cheer- 
 ful, she kept up the spirits of all the emigrants : and 
 then she was so well dressed. She did not mind Goino- 
 in a hackney-coach to dine with the Duke of Portland. 
 
 VOL. II. F
 
 D8 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " Lord H********** scraped up a reputation which 
 lie never deserved," continued Lady Hester, as her 
 reflections led her from one person to another. " In- 
 sincere, greedy of place, and always pretending to be 
 careless about it, he and my lady lived in a hugger- 
 mugger sort of a way, half poverty half splendour, 
 having soldiers for house servants, and my lady dining 
 at two with the children (saying my lord dined out), 
 and being waited on by a sergeant's daughter. How 
 often have I seen a scraggy bit of mutton sent up for 
 luncheon, with some potatoes in their skins, before 
 royalty ! The princes would say to me, ' Very bad. 
 Lady Hester, very bad ; but there ! he has a large 
 family — he is right to be saving,' And then Lady 
 
 waddle in her gait (for she once had a paralytic 
 stroke), with a wig all curls, and, at the top of it, a 
 great bunch of peacock's feathers. Then her dress, 
 all bugles, and badly put on — horrid, doctor, horrid ! 
 and why should they have lived in such a large 
 house, half furnished, with the girls sleeping all together 
 in large attics, with a broken looking-glass, and coming 
 down into their mother's room to dress themselves? 
 
 " But to go back to Sir Gore Ouseley : it was at 
 Mr. M.'s supper, when getting up from the card-table,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 99 
 
 and advancing towards me, he made a diplomatic bow, 
 accompanied witli aome complimentary speech. That 
 was the old school, very different from the fizgig 
 people now-a-days. Just before, the Prince had been 
 standing in the middle of the room, talkino- to some 
 one I did not know, first pulling up the flap of his 
 coat to show his figure, then seizing the person he 
 spoke to by the waistcoat, then laughing, then pre- 
 tending to whisper ; and this he continued for nearly 
 an hour. ' What can the Prince be talking about V 
 said some one next to me. ' He does not know him- 
 self,' said I. Soon after, the person who had been talk- 
 ing to the Prince approached the sofa, when the my- 
 lord, who was sitting next to me, observed, ' We 
 have been looking at the Prince and you ; what in the 
 world was he talking about V — ' He don't know 
 himself,' answered his friend, ' and I'm sure I don't 
 know.' — ' That's just what Lady Hester said,' rejoined 
 the first speaker. ' I have been wishing to make my 
 bow to Lady Hester all the evening,' said the friend, 
 who then sat down by me." 
 
 Lady Hester went on : " What a mean fellow the 
 Prince was, doctor ! I believe he never showed a 
 spark of good feeling to any human being. How 
 often has he put men of small incomes to great incon- 
 
 f2
 
 1 00 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 vcnience, by his telling them he would dine with 
 them, and bring ten or a dozen of his friends with 
 him to drink the poor deviFs champagne, who hardly 
 knew how to raise the wind, or to get trust for it ! I 
 recollect one who told me the Prince served him in 
 this way, just at the time when he was in want of 
 money, and that he did not know how to provide the 
 dinner for him, when luckily a Sir Harry Feather- 
 stone, or a Sir Gilbert Heathcote, or some such rich 
 man, bought his curricle and horses, and put a little 
 ready money into his pocket. ' I entertained him as 
 well as I could,'' said he, ' and a few days after, when 
 1 was at Carlton House, and the Prince was dressing 
 between four great mirrors, looking at himself in one 
 and then in another, putting on a patch of hair and 
 arranging his cravat, he began saying that he was 
 desirous of showing me his thanks for my civility to 
 him. So he pulled down a bandbox from a shelf, and 
 seemed as if he was going to draw something of value 
 out of it. I thought to myself it might be some point- 
 lace, perhaps, of which, after using a little for my 
 court -dress, I might sell the remainder for five or six 
 liundred guineas : or perhaps, thought I, as there is 
 no ceremony between us, he is going to give me some 
 bank-notes. Conceive my astonishment, when he
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. lOi 
 
 opened the bandbox, and pulled out a wig, which 1 
 even believe he had worn. ' There,' said he, ' as you 
 are getting bald, is a very superior wig, made by — 1 
 forget the man's name, but it was not Sugden.' The 
 man could hardly contain himself, and was almost 
 tempted to leave it in the hall as he went out. Did 
 you ever hear of such meanness ? Everybody who 
 had to do with him was afraid of him. He was sure 
 to get a horse, or a vis-a-vis, or a something, wherevec 
 he went, and never pay for them. He was a man 
 without a heart, who had not one good quality about 
 him. Doctor," cried Lady Hester, " I have been 
 intimate with those who spent their time with him 
 from morning to night, and they have told me that it 
 was impossible for any person who knew him to think 
 well of him.^ 
 
 ^ Audi alteram partem is a maxim that holds good where- 
 ever accusations are levelled against individuals, illustrious or 
 mean. Lady Hester may have maligned the Prince from per- 
 sonal pique or from some other cause ; and, whilst she placed 
 his foibles and failings in a conspicuous point of view, may 
 have studiously concealed other good qualities which he pos- 
 sessed. Sir Walter Scott, who read men's characters if any 
 body could, thought very differently of him ; and, unless we 
 suppose that Sir Walter had motives of his own for eulogizing 
 him, we must place his testimony in the balance against Lady
 
 102 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " Look at his unfeeling conduct in deserting poor 
 Sheridan ! Why, they were going to take the bed 
 from under him whilst he was dying ; and there was 
 Mrs. Sheridan pushing the bailiffs out of the room. 
 That amiable woman, too, I believe, died of grief at 
 the misery to which she was reduced. The Prince 
 had not one good quality. How many fell victims to 
 him ! Not so much those who were most intimate 
 with him — for they swallowed the poison and took 
 the antidote — they knew him well : but those were 
 the greatest sufferers who imitated his vices, who were 
 poisoned by the contagion, without knowing what a 
 detestable person he was. How many saw their 
 prospects blasted by him for ever !" 
 
 Lady Hester continued : " Oh ! when I think that 
 I have heard a sultan" (meaning George IV.) "listen 
 to a woman singing Hie diddle diddle, the cat and the 
 
 Hester's spite. In a letter, he describes George IV. as — " A 
 sovereign whose gentle and generous disposition, and singular 
 manners, and captivating conversation, rendered him as much 
 the darling of private society, as his heart felt interest in the 
 general welfare of the country : and the constant and steady 
 course of mse measures, by which he raised his reign to such a 
 state of triumphal prosperity, made him justly delighted in by 
 his subjects." — Letter from Sir W. Scott, p. 65, vol. ii., 
 Mem. of Sir Wm. Knighton, Bart. — Paris edit.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 103 
 
 fiddle^ the cow jumped over the moon, and cry, ' Brava ! 
 charming !'' — Good God ! doctor, what would the 
 Turks say to such a thing, if they knew it ? 
 
 " There was Lord D., an old debauchee, who had lost 
 the use of his lower extremities by a paralytic stroke 
 — the way, by the by, in which all such men seem to 
 finish ; nay, I believe that men much addicted to 
 sensuality even impair their intellects too — one day 
 met me on the esplanade, and, in his usual way, began 
 talking some very insipid stuff about his dining with 
 the Prince, and the like ; when James, who overheard 
 the conversation, made an impromptu, which exactly 
 described one of the Priuce''s dinners ; and, though I 
 don't recollect it word for word, it was something to 
 this effect : — 
 
 ' With the Prince I dine to-day : 
 
 We shall have prodigious fun. 
 I a beastly thing shall say, 
 
 And he'll end it with a pun.' 
 
 " I remember the Prince''s saying to Lord Peter- 
 sham, ' What can be the reason that Lady Hester, 
 who likes all my brothers, does not like me V Lord P. 
 told me this, and I replied — ' If he asks me, I will 
 have an answer ready for him, and that is, ' When 
 he behaves like them I shall like him, and not be- 
 
 F 4
 
 104 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 fore.' I loved all the princes but him. Tliey were 
 not philosophers, but they were so hearty in their 
 talking, in their eating, in all they did. They would 
 eat like ploughmen, and their handsome teeth would" 
 (here she imitated the mastication of food, to show me 
 how) " at a pretty rate. 
 
 " The Prince is a despicable character. He was 
 anxious enouo-h to know me whilst Mr. Pitt was 
 alive ; but the very first day of my going to court, 
 after Mr. Pitfs death, he cut me, turning his back on 
 me whilst I was talkino; to the Duke of Richmond. 
 
 " As for the princesses, there was some excuse for 
 their conduct. I do not mean as regards myself — 
 for they were always polite to me — but as to what 
 people found fault with them for. The old queen 
 treated them with such severity, shutting them up in 
 a sort of a prison — at least, the Princess Sophia — 
 that I rather pitied than blamed them. 
 
 " But look at the princes : what a family was there ! 
 never getting more than four hours' sleep, and always 
 so healthy and well-looking. But men generally are 
 not now-a-days as they were in my time. I do not 
 mean a Jack M. and those of his description, hand- 
 some, but of no conversation : they are, however, 
 pleasant to look at. But where will you see men like
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 105 
 
 Lord Eivers, like the Duke of Dorset I Wlicre will 
 you find such pure honour as was in the Duke of 
 Richmond and Lord Winchelsea i The men of the 
 present generation are good for nothing — they have 
 no spirit in them. 
 
 " And as for women, show me such women of 
 fashion as Lady Salisbury, the Duchess of Rutland, 
 Lady Stafford, and " (three or four more were named, 
 but they have slipped my memory). " However, doctor, 
 I never knew more than four fashionable women, who 
 could do the honours of their house, assign to every- 
 body what w'as due to his rank, enter a room and 
 speak to everybody, and preserve their dignity and 
 self-possession at all times : it is a very difficult thing 
 to acquire. One was the old Duchess of Rutland, the 
 others the Marchioness of Stafford, Lady Liverpool, 
 and the Dowager Countess of Mansfield : — all the 
 rest of the bon ton were bosh " (in Turkish, good for 
 nothing). " The Countess of Liverpool was a Hervey ; 
 and men used to say, the world was divided into men, 
 women, and Hervey s — for that they were unlike every 
 other human being. I have seen Lady Liverpool 
 come into a room full of people ; and she would bow 
 to this one, speak to that one, and, when you thought 
 she must tread on the toes of a third, turn round like 
 
 F 5
 
 106 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 a tetotum, and utter a few words so amiable, that 
 everybody Avas charmed with her. As for the Duchess 
 of D*********, it was all a ' fu, fu, fuh,' and ' What 
 shall I do ? — Oh, dear me ! I am quite in a fright V 
 — and so much affectation, that it could not be called 
 high breeding ; although she knew very well how to lay 
 her traps for some young man, whom she wanted to in- 
 veigle into her parties, and all that. Then there were 
 some, with highly polished manners, who would pass 
 along like oil over water, smooth and swimming about. 
 But good breeding is very charming, doctor, isn't 
 
 itr 
 
 " The last time I saw Lady Liverpool was at 
 Lord MuWave's. The dinner was waitinar : Mr. Pitt 
 and I had got there ; but Lord Liverpool, being long 
 in dressing, was still behind. Everybody was looking 
 at the door or the window : at last his carriajje was 
 seen, and dinner was ordered. If you had been pre- 
 sent when Lady Liverpool entered the room, and had 
 marked the grace with which, whilst we were stand- 
 ing, she slipped in and out among the guests, like an 
 eel, when she turned her back turning her head round, 
 speaking to this person and to that, and all with such 
 seasonable courtesies and compliments, it was really 
 wonderful. But Lady Liverpool was a Hervey, and
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 1 07 
 
 the Herveys, as I told you before, were a third part of 
 the creation. 
 
 " Oh, Lord ! when I think of some people, who 
 fancy that abruptness is the best way of approaching 
 you — how horrid it is ! I recollect one man, a sen- 
 sible man, too, who came into the room with — ' Lady 
 Hester, I understand you are a very good judge of a 
 leg ; you shall look at mine : see, there are muscles ! 
 They say it is an Irish cliairman"'s ; but isn't it the 
 true antique V Another would enter, and begin — 
 ' What a horrid bonnet Lady So-and-so wears ; I have 
 just seen her, and I never shall get over it/ A third 
 would cry, on seeing you — ' Do you know Lord Such a 
 one is o^iven over ? He has tumbled down from a terrible 
 height, and is so hurt !'' — ' Good God ! what's the 
 matter ? ' — ' Why, don't you know ? He has tumbled 
 from his government.' And then they fancy that 
 wit. 
 
 " Such conversations as we hear in people's houses 
 are, in my mind, no conversations at all. A man 
 who says, 'Oh! it's Sunday; you have been to 
 church, I suppose?' — or, 'You have not been to 
 church, I see ; ' or another, who says, ' You are in 
 mourning, are you not ? What, is the poor Lord So- 
 and-so dead at last ? ' — and is replied to by, ' No, I
 
 108 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 am not in mourning ; wjiat makes you think so ? la 
 it that you don't hke black f— all this is perfect non- 
 sense, in my mind. I recollect once being at a party 
 with the Duchess of Rutland, and a man of some note 
 in the world stopped me just as we entered the room. 
 ' Lady Hester,' said he, ' I am anxious to assure you 
 of my entire devotion to Mr. Pitt.' So far he got on 
 well. ' I had always — hem — if you — hem — I do as- 
 sure you. Lady Hester, I have the sincerest regard — 
 — hem — Gr — d d — n me, Lady Hester, there is not 
 a man for whom — hem — I esteem him beyond mea- 
 sure, and, G — d d — n me — hem — if I were asked — 
 }^em — I do assure you, Lady Hester — hem :' and here 
 the poor man, who could not put two ideas together, 
 comino- to a stand-still, the Duchess of Rutland, to 
 relieve his embarrassment, helped him out by saying, 
 ' Lady Hester is perfectly convinced of your sincere 
 attachment to Mr. Pitfs interests.' He had a beau- 
 tiful amber-cane, doctor, worth a hundred guineas, 
 that he had sent for from Russia." 
 
 November 16. — Lady Hester Stanhope's features 
 had a very pallid and almost a ghastly look. The fits 
 of oppression on her lungs grew more frequent, when, 
 from a lying posture, she would start suddenly up in 
 bed and gasp for breath. As she had not been be-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 109 
 
 yond the precincts of her house for some years, I sug- 
 gested the increased necessity of her getting a Httle fresh 
 air, by going into her garden at least every day. She 
 said, ' I will do as you desire, and if you will ride my 
 ass a few times to break her in, and make her gentle, 
 I will try and ride about in the garden : but, as for 
 going outside my own gates, it is impossible. The 
 people would beset me so — you have no idea. They 
 conceal themselves behind hedges, in holes in the 
 rocks, and, whichever way I turn, out comes some one 
 with a complaint or a petition, begging, kissing my 
 feet, and God knows what : I can''t do it. I can ride 
 about my garden and see to my plants and flowers. 
 But you must break her in well for me ; for, if she 
 were to start at a bird or a serpent, I am so weak I 
 should tumble off." 
 
 November 18. — I had taken some physic without con- 
 sulting her, upon which she launched out into a tirade 
 against English doctors. Impoverishment of the blood 
 is a very favourite theme among people who are well 
 oft", and who shut their eyes to the robust health of 
 many a labourer, whose whole sustenance amounts not 
 to the ofials of their table. So she began — " What 
 folly you have been guilty of in impoverishing your 
 blood ! Look at a stupid Englishman, who takes a
 
 110 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 
 
 dose of salts, rides a trotting horse to get an appetite, 
 eats his dinner, takes a cordial draught to make him 
 agreeable, goes to liis party, and then goes to bed : — 
 for worlds, I would not be such a man*'s wife ! 
 Where is he to get a constitution ? But the fault is 
 not all their own — part is you doctors : you give the 
 same remedies for everybody. If I look at the mouth- 
 piece of my pipe," (Lady Hester was smoking at the 
 time) " I know it is amber ; and, when I know it is 
 amber, I know how to clean it. But, if I did not 
 know that, I might attempt to clean it in some way 
 that would spoil it : so it is with you doctors. Not 
 half of you can distinguish between people''s nijems 
 [stars], and what you do often does more harm than 
 good. The constitution you take in hand you do not 
 well examine ; and then how can you apply proper re- 
 medies for it ?" 
 
 i
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Conscription in Syria — Inviolability of consular houses — 
 Panic and flight of the people of Sayda — Protection afforded 
 by Lady Hester — Story of a boy — Mustafa the barber — 
 Cruelty to mothers of Conscripts — Conscription in the villages 
 — Lady Hester's dream — Inhabitants of Sayda mulcted — 
 Lady Hester's opinion of negresses — Severity necessary in 
 Turkey — Army of Monsieur Danna — Captain Y. — Mustafa 
 Pasha's cruelty.
 
 I 
 
 (
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 113 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 November 18, 1837. — The conscription for Ibra- 
 him Pasha's army, called the %izam or regular troops, 
 was going on at this time, and created much distress 
 in the towns and villafres. Forced levies were un- 
 known previous to the conquests of that ambitious 
 prince ; as it was customary for the pashas to keep 
 in their pay mercenary troops, composed chiefly of 
 Albanians, a nation that for some centuries had sent 
 its hordes into different parts of the Turkish empire, 
 under the guidance of enterprising chieftains, to seek 
 military service. There were also Bosnians, Curds, 
 and some Mograbyns or Moors. These, with the 
 Janissaries or standing militia, had exempted 
 the inhabitants in general from enlistment ; and, al- 
 though the martial and turbulent disposition of the
 
 114 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Mahometans had frequently manifested itself in their 
 provincial insurrections, and in the petty contentions 
 between neighbouring chieftains, yet a man always 
 went to the camp from choice and from the hopes of 
 booty, and quitted it when tired of the service. But 
 Ibrahim Pasha, among the innovations which he found 
 it necessary or politic to introduce for the furtherance 
 of his father's views, saw that his whole dependence 
 must be on the adoption of a conscription, after the 
 manner of France and other European states. He 
 had already drained Egypt, in this manner, of all her 
 able-bodied youths ; and, to supply the constant waste 
 of men carried off by war and disease, he had, since his 
 first taking possession of Syria, made an annual levy 
 after harvest-time. 
 
 At first, the idle, vagabond, thievish, and ardent 
 part of the population supplied the numbers he re- 
 quired ; and, as fast as they could be collected, they 
 were shipped off" to Egypt ; where, marched to the 
 Hedjaz and to distant wars, the major portion of them 
 left their bones, whilst some gained rank and lucrative 
 situations, and a few returned to tell the story of 
 their exploits. For with Ibrahim there was no de- 
 fined term of service ; once a soldier, every man con- 
 tinued so until death or desertion broke the chain.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 115 
 
 In the same way the Egyptian conscripts were sent 
 into Syria : so that no sympathy, in either case, existed 
 between the troops and the people amongst whom 
 they were quartered, which acted as a direct check 
 upon the spirit of insurrection. 
 
 So far, everything had gone on peaceably, and the 
 quiet portion of the inhabitants rejoiced in seeing their 
 neighbourhood cleared of such troublesome rabble. 
 But latterly the conscription had begun to fall on the 
 families of shopkeepers, tradesmen, small farmers, and 
 the like : and it will be seen that, of all the changes 
 introduced by Ibrahim Pasha into the government of 
 the country, the conscription became the most odious. 
 
 The first intimation people had of the levies this 
 year was one evening, when, as the inhabitants 
 of Sayda were coming out of their mosques, gangs of 
 soldiers suddenly appeared at the doors, and laid 
 hands on all the young men. At the same moment, 
 similar measures had been taken at the coflee-houses, 
 and nothing was to be seen but young fellows dragged 
 through the streets, or running off in all directions to 
 secrete themselves in some friend's house, stable, 
 vault, or the like. The city gates Avere closed, and 
 there was no outlet for the fugitives : but Sayda, al- 
 though walled in, has many houses with windows look-
 
 116 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ing on the fields ; and from these, during the night, 
 some let themselves down and escaped to the gardens, 
 or villages, or to Mount Lebanon. The next day the 
 city wore the appearance of a deserted place : the 
 shops were closed, and consternation reigned in every 
 face. The panic became general. 
 
 It is customary in Turkish towns to consider con- 
 sular residences as inviolable ; a point on which, from 
 apprehension of tumults and for personal safety, the 
 consuls have ever been very tenacious. France pos- 
 sesses, from a long date, a khan or factory-house in 
 Sayda, wherein the subjects of that nation reside. It 
 is a square building with one gateway, containing a 
 spacious quadrangle, surrounded by vaulted ware- 
 houses, and, over these, commodious habitations with 
 a handsome corridor in front. It may be compared 
 to a quadrangle of a college at the Universities. To 
 this khan many of the young men fled, being ad- 
 mitted out of compassion, and in some cases for a 
 consideration of a more tangible nature. 
 
 The number of conscripts for Sayda, as was made 
 known afterwards, had been rated at one hundred and 
 eighty. When the first press was over, the govern- 
 ment found the quota had not yet been half supplied : 
 but the secret of the deficiency was kept, and it was
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 117 
 
 given out that no more would be wanted. A smiling 
 face was assumed by the commandant and his staff, 
 and every expression of sympathy was in their mouths, 
 to demonstrate the cessation of all farther oppressive 
 measures. By calming the people's fears in this way, 
 information was obtained as to those concealed in the 
 French khan, and scouts were sent about the country 
 to 2;et tidin2;s of the fugitives. 
 
 In the mean time, the caverns and excavations, 
 once the beautiful sepulchres of the ancient Sidonians, 
 in which the environs ofSayda abound, were converted 
 into hiding-places, all well known to the peasantry 
 and gardeners : but no soul was found capable of be- 
 traying the fugitives. Some were concealed by the 
 Christian peasants in cellars, although the punishment 
 of detection was a terrible bastinadoing. At the end 
 of about a fortnight, when everything seemed calm 
 asrain, all of a sudden the fathers of those who were 
 known to be in the French khan were seized in their 
 dwellings and shops, and brought before the motsellem 
 or mayor. They were told that their sons' hiding- 
 places were known, and that means would be resorted 
 to for forcing them to come out, if they, the fathers, 
 did not immediately use their paternal authority to 
 compel them. Anxious to save their children, they
 
 118 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 strenuously denied any knowledge of their places of 
 concealment. Then it was that the terrible work of 
 bastinadoing began. From the windows of the east 
 side of the khan was visible the open court in the front of 
 the motsellem''s gate, where, according to the Eastern 
 custom, he often sat to administer justice or injustice, 
 as the case might be, and through those windows the 
 sons might behold their aged fathers, writhing with 
 agony under that cruel punishment, until pain and 
 anguish extorted the appeal of, " Come forth, for 
 mercy's sake ! and save a father's life." Some yielded 
 to the call, and some thought only of their own 
 safety. 
 
 As happens always in all Turkish matters, much 
 bribery arose from this state of tribulation. No- 
 body in these countries is inaccessible to a bribe. 
 Many were the men in office who received douceurs 
 of vast sums to favour the exemption or escape of 
 individuals. Substitutes could hardly be got, even at 
 the enormous premium of 10,000 piasters each, or 
 ^100 sterling ; such a dread had the natives of being 
 expatriated and subjected to military discipline ; for 
 in Ibrahim Pasha's army the drill is indeed a terrible 
 ordeal. There, inadvertency, slowness of apprehen- 
 , sion, or obstinacy, is not punished by a reprimand,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 119 
 
 a day's imprisonment, or double drill ; but the poor 
 recruit is, at the moment, thrown on the ground, 
 and lacerated without mercy by the corbash. 
 
 Among the fugitives, there were two young men, the 
 sons of a respectable shopkeeper, who, during twenty 
 years, had been employed, more or less, by Lady 
 Hester : these two fled for refuge to Joon. No 
 notice was taken of the circumstance by the govern- 
 ment, and, after remaining about six weeks under her 
 protection, they returned to Sayda, where they remained 
 unmolested. Her ladyship's servants also enjoyed 
 an exemption from the press ; and, had she chosen to 
 avail herself of the dilemma in which these unfor- 
 tunate young men were placed, she might easily have 
 ensured their servitude without pay, by the mere 
 threat of turning them adrift : in which case they would 
 have been compelled to remain upon any conditions 
 she might have thought proper to propose. 
 
 An old Turk presented himself, one day, at my 
 gate with his son, a boy about fourteen years of age, 
 and, with earnest entreaties, begged me to take the 
 son as my servant, no matter in what capacity, and 
 for nothing. I asked him how he could be appre- 
 hensive for a stripling, too young to carry a musket ; 
 but he told me that his a2;e was no safeiruard. " Alas !
 
 120 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 said he, " these unprincipled Egyptians will lay hold 
 of him ; for there are other kinds of service hesides 
 carrvino- a g-un : you do not know them as well as 
 we do." I was very unwillingly obliged to refuse the 
 man's request ; for how could a stranger violate the 
 laws of a country in which he resided, any more than 
 he could harbour a deserter in France, for example, 
 where he would be brought to justice for so doing ? 
 But some of the agents of European powers do not 
 scruple, in these parts, to enrich themselves by afford- 
 ing protection to Turkish deserters, contrary to the 
 edicts of a sovereign prince, and then set up, as an 
 excuse, the want of civilization in Mahometan countries. 
 A woman, the widow of Shaykh Omar ed dyn, 
 came also on a donkey to beg Lady Hester's inter- 
 cession with the commandant for one of her sons, a 
 lad, who had been pressed m the streets. Lady 
 Hester sent out word to her that she could not mix 
 herself up in the business, and desired me to give her 
 500 piasters — I suppose to help her to buy him off. 
 This son. Lady Hester told me, was a beautiful boy, 
 and that she once had him in her house, but could 
 not keep him — he was too handsome ! * * * A pretty 
 picture this of the morals of the Syrian Turks, and 
 yet a true one !
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. ]21 
 
 November 20. — After a succession of sunny days, 
 finer and warmer than an English summer, the wind 
 got up at the change of the moon, and it blew a o-ale. 
 The effect of gloomy weather in climates naturally so 
 genial as that of Syria is perhaps more impressive 
 than in one like that of England, where clouds and 
 fogs are so common. I was therefore in a fit humour 
 to listen to the melancholy stories of her ladyship's 
 secretary, Mr. Michael Abella, who had been absent 
 a day or two to see his father and mother at Sayda. 
 He told me that the press for recruits continued with 
 unabated severity, and that the military commandant 
 and motsellem were resorting to measures, which, I 
 thank God, are unknown in England ! From im- 
 prisoning and bastinadoing fathers, with a view to 
 make them produce their children, a measure which 
 had already induced several families to abandon their 
 homes, they now proceeded to bastinado the neigh- 
 bours and acquaintances of the fugitives, in order to 
 wring from them the secret of their hiding-places. 
 
 The reader is already in some degree familiar with 
 the name of Mustafa, the barber, well-known in Savda 
 for his skill in shaving, phlebotomizing, and curing- 
 sores and wounds. He had four or five sons, and he 
 had taken his donkey and ridden up to Joon to beg 
 
 VOL. II. G
 
 122 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of Lady Hester Stanhope to admit one or two of 
 them into her household, in order to save them from 
 the conscription. In the interim, two others had 
 taken refuge in the French khan, and one had fled to 
 Tyr ; but the father said he expected hourly to be 
 seized and put to the torture, if some means were not 
 afforded him for protecting his children. " A letter 
 from the Syt mylady to the commandant," added 
 Mustafa, "would be sufficient to save my two boys 
 who are in the French khan, and it is so easy for her 
 to write it." Lady Hester, being ill, could not see 
 Mustafa, and I went to her and stated his suppli- 
 cation. She considered the matter over, and, as 
 Mustafa was rather a favourite, she said at first — " I 
 think I will write to the commandant ; for poor Mus- 
 tafa will go crazy if his children are taken away from 
 him. 1 have only lo say that I wish the commandant 
 to hahsheesW'' (make a present of) "these boys to me, 
 and I know he will do it." Then, reflecting a little 
 while, she altered her mind. " No, doctor," says she, 
 " it will not do : I must not do anything in the face 
 of the laws of the country ; and, besides, I shall 
 have all the fathers and mothers in Sayda up here. 
 Go, tell him so." I did, and Mustafa returned verv 
 much dispirited to Sayda. 
 
 I
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 123 
 
 He had scarcely j^ot back to liis shop, when, as he 
 had anticipated, he was summoned before the mot- 
 sellem, and questioned about his children. With 
 an assumed air of cheerfulness and submission, he 
 answered that they were within call, and, if necessary, 
 he would fetch them immediately. The motsellem, 
 by way of precaution, was about to send a guard of a 
 couple of soldiers, to see that no trick was played 
 him ; but Mustafa, laughing, exclaimed — " Oh ! don"'t 
 be afraid of me : I shan''t run off. That mau " (point- 
 ing to a small merchant of his acquaintance standing 
 by) — "that man will be bail for my appearance." 
 The man nodded his head, and said — " There is no 
 fear of Maalem Mustafa : I will be responsible for 
 him." 
 
 Mustafa went towards his house, and, as soon as he 
 was out of sight, looking round to make sure that he 
 was not followed, he hurried to one of the outlets of 
 the town, entered a lane between the gardens, and, 
 mounting again on his own donkey, which he had 
 left with a friend in case of such an emergency, rode 
 oft". Not appearing within the expected time, search 
 was made for him, and, when he was not to be found, 
 the man, who so incautiously vouched for his re- 
 appearance, was seized, bastinadoed, and thrown into 
 
 G 2
 
 124 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 gaol. Musta a, in the mean time, had taken the road 
 to Joon, not to Lady Hester's residence, but to Dayr 
 el Mkhallas, the monastery, where he had a good 
 friend in the abbot, and was immediately sheltered in 
 a comfortable cell. Nor did he, when he heard what 
 cruelties had been inflicted on his bail, move one inch 
 from his retreat, but there remained for about six 
 weeks, until, by negociations with the commandant, 
 and by the sacrifice of a good round sum, he was in- 
 formed that his children were safe, and that he might 
 return unmolested. 
 
 The secretary told me that, in some cases, mothers 
 were suspended by the hair of their head, and 
 whipped, to make them confess where their children 
 were concealed. Surely such horrors are enough to 
 make men hold these sanguinaiy tyrants in abhor- 
 rence, who, whatever their pretended advances towards 
 civilization mav be, never suffer it to soften the bar- 
 barity of their natures. Of civilization, they have 
 borrowed conscription, custom-houses, quarantines, 
 ardent spirit and wine- drinking, prostitution, shop 
 licensing, high taxation, and some other of our 
 doubtful marks of superiority ; but whatever is really 
 excellent in an advanced state of society they have 
 forgotten to inquire about. The secretaiy added that,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 125 
 
 when down at Say da, he had seen a lad, nursed in 
 the lap of luxury, the only child of respectable parents, 
 at drill on the parade outside of the town, with two 
 soldiers who never quitted him. The drilling was 
 enforced by cuts of the korbash. So long as the 
 recruits remain in Sayda, their parents are allowed to 
 supply them with a meal and other little comforts ; 
 but, when transported to Egypt, and perhaps to the 
 Hedjaz, they are exposed to hardships unknown to 
 European troops. Their pay is fifteen piasters (Ss. 2d. 
 Enijlish) a month. 
 
 After the expiration of two or three weeks, the 
 shaykhs or head-men of the villages in Mount Lebanon, 
 received orders to levy their contingent of recruits, 
 and pretty much the same scenes were acted over 
 again. From the village of Joon eight conscripts 
 were required ; for, although the population might be 
 five hundred persons, there were but few Mahometan 
 families. No sooner had the estafette, who brought the 
 order, alighted at the Shaykh's door, than the mussul- 
 man peasants to a man seemed to guess what its 
 contents were, and every one who thought himself 
 liable to serve made off to the forests. Among the 
 lads put down on the roll were two, the brothers of 
 Fatoom and Saada, Lady Hester's maids. The girls
 
 126 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 fell on their knees, kissed her feet, the hem of her 
 robe, and prayed her, for God's sake, to save them. 
 Lady Hester returned the same answer she had done 
 to Mustafa, the barber, and to the other applicants, 
 that she could not act contrary to the laws of the 
 country, and that they must take their chance. 
 
 Three or four days had elapsed, when, quitting my 
 house in the morning to go to Lady Hester's, I found 
 that all her people were full of an extraordinary 
 dream she had had. She had seen in her vision a 
 man with a white beard, who had conducted her 
 among the ravines of Mount Lebanon to a place, 
 where, in a cavern, lay two youths apparently in a 
 trance, and had told her to lead them away to her 
 residence. She attempted to raise them, and at the 
 same moment the earth opened and she awoke. As 
 soon as I saw Lady Hester she recounted to me her 
 dream to the same effect, but with many more par- 
 ticulars. Being in the habit of hearing strange things 
 of this kind from her, I thought nothing of it, 
 although I well knew there was somethino; intended 
 by it, as she never spoke without a motive. 
 
 Next morning I saw, as I passed the porter'^ lodge, 
 two peasant lads sitting in it, and, as soon as I got to 
 Lady Hester's room, she asked me if I had observed
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 127 
 
 them. — " Isu''t it wonderful, doctor,'" said Lady Hester, 
 " that I should have had exactly the same dream two 
 nights following, and the second time so strongly 
 impressed on my mind, that I was sure some of it 
 would turn out true: and so it has. For this very 
 morning, long before daylight, I had Logmagi called, 
 and, describing to him the way he was to go in the 
 mountain until he should come to a wild spot which I 
 painted to him, I sent him off; and, sure enough, he 
 found those two lads you saw, concealed, not in a 
 cavern, but in a tree, just where I had directed him 
 to go. 
 
 " They are two runaway conscripts, and, although 
 I know nothing of them, yet I seem to feel that God 
 directed me to bring them here. Poor lads ! did you 
 observe whether they looked pale ? They must be in 
 want of nourishment ; for the search that is going on 
 everywhere after deserters is very hot. Logmagi 
 himself had no very pleasant duty to perform ; for, if 
 they had mistaken him for a man in search of them, 
 one asainst two in the heart of the mountain ran 
 some risk of his life. You know, one deserter the 
 other day wounded three soldiers who attempted to 
 take him, and another killed two out of five, 
 and, although taken, was not punished by the
 
 I 28 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Pasha, who exchanged willingly an athletic gladiator, 
 who had proved his fighting propensities, for two 
 cowards." 
 
 These lads, whom Lady Hester pretended not to 
 know, were the two brothers of Fatoom and Saada. 
 They were put into a room in an inner enclosure, 
 where they had comfortable quarters assigned them, 
 and were kept for two months hid from observation ; by 
 which means they escaped the conscription of that year. 
 At the end of their term, they were one day turned 
 out, told they might go home in safety, and warned 
 that, if ever they made their appearance near the 
 house, they would be flogged. Such were Lady 
 Hester's eccentric ways : and just as they were 
 wasting their breath in protestations of gratitude, 
 they were frightened out of their senses. No doubt, 
 the reason was that, as, from their long stay in the 
 premises, they were more or less acquainted with 
 every locality, it might be that they had formed 
 plans to carry off stolen goods, which Lady Hester 
 thus had the foresio-ht to frustrate. She never told 
 me that her dream was an invention, but I believe 
 that it was. 
 
 In addition to the loss of a sou, or a husband, or a 
 brother, which the dozen families of Joon (for there
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 129 
 
 were no more) had to complain of, these same f'amiUes 
 were taxed at the rate of one, two, or three hundred 
 piasters each, in order to furnish the equipment of the 
 soldiers draughted from among them. For, under 
 the pretext of sending off each recruit with a good 
 kit and with a little money in his pocket, a benevo- 
 lence tax was invented, the greatest part of which, 
 after the parings of the collectors, went to the Pasha's 
 treasury, and the half-naked recruit was left to take 
 his chance. Oh ! that a European soldier could 
 see what these men are compelled to live on — how 
 they sleep — how they are flogged — and how they 
 are left to die ! — And yet suicide is unknown among 
 them. 
 
 The bastinado in Sayda was succeeded by mulcts. 
 An order was published by the Pasha, that those 
 whose sons had concealed themselves, or did not 
 appear by a certain day, should be taxed collectively 
 1,'^00 purses, a sum more than enough to pay for 
 substitutes. An appeal was made to Ibrahim Pasha 
 to lessen the fine, but the result never came to my 
 knowledge. 
 
 November 19. — I had taken to my house to read 
 the book that Sir Gore Ouseley had sent Lady Hester 
 Stanhope, and I related to her the anecdote of the old 
 
 g5
 
 130 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 woman and the copper dish.^ This threw a gleam of 
 satisfaction over her countenance. " Ah !*" said she, 
 and she made a sigh of pleasurable feeling, " these are 
 the people I like ; that's my sort : but the people 
 now-a-days, who call themselves gentlemen, and don't 
 know how to blow their nose ! — when the first peer 
 of the realm will go about bragging what a trick he 
 has played some poor woman whom he has seduced ! 
 Cursed be the hour that ever the name of gentleman 
 came into the language ! I have seen hedgers and 
 ditchers at my father's, who talked twice as good 
 sense as half the fine gentlemen now-a-days — a pack 
 of fellows, that do little else than eat, drink, and 
 sleep. Can one exist with such persons as these? 
 or is it to be supposed that God can tolerate such bru- 
 talities V 
 
 I sat by, as I was accustomed to do, on such occasions, 
 mute ; knowinir that a word uttered at that moment 
 would only increase the storm, instead of appeasing it. 
 She went on : " And whilst you sit like a block of 
 wood, with no more sensibility than that wall, here 
 am I, a poor dying creature" (and then she wept 
 
 ' See the History of the Temple of Jerusalem, translated 
 from the Arabic by the Rev. Mr. Reynolds, p. 403.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 131 
 
 SO that it was piteous to hear her), half killed by 
 these nasty black beasts. Last night, instead of 
 coming refreshed out of my bath, soothed by a gentle 
 perspiration, I was drier than ever, with my mouth 
 parched, my skin parched, and feebler than I was 
 yesterday. But they will all suffer for it ; not here, 
 perhaps, but in the other world : for God will not see 
 a poor miserable creature trampled under foot as I 
 have been. Why do you not speak to them as Log- 
 magi does I Look, how they respect him, and call 
 him so civil and so well behaved — and for what ? 
 because he cries out to them in a voice of thunder, 
 ' You kelbt/, you kdahby, you wretch, bring me a lighted 
 coal for my pipe i' and you must speak to them so, 
 or they will never mind you." 
 
 As she grew a little calm, I expressed my regret 
 to see her so annoyed and tormented by her ser- 
 vants. The conversation then turned on blacks : and 
 I asked — " Are they then never susceptible of feeling : 
 can kind treatment never work on their sensibility V 
 — " Doctor," answered Lady Hester, " they have 
 neither one nor the other : it is a bit of black skin, 
 which the people of the country say you must work 
 on with the korbash, and with nothing else. I recollect 
 an aga, who told me that he had a black slave, who,
 
 132 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Avhen he first bought her, one day got hold of his po- 
 niard, and seemed as if she was going to stab him with 
 it. He started up, seized his sabre, and gave her a cut 
 or two ; then, with a switch, beat her pretty hand- 
 somely. From that day she became fond of him, 
 faitliful, and so attached, that, when he wanted to 
 sell her, she would not be sold, but always contrived 
 that the contract should be broken by her swear- 
 ins; she would kill herself, throw herself over the 
 terrace, or something, that made the buyer refuse to 
 take her. 
 
 " I recollect another story. There were five Eu- 
 ropean travellers coming down the banks of the Nile 
 on horseback, when they saw an aga, who was sitting 
 in the open air, lay hold of a black woman by the hair 
 of her head, throw her down, and flog her most un- 
 mercifully with the korbash. One of the party was a 
 German count, or something, who, being what you call 
 a humane man, said he must interfere ; but the others 
 told him he had better not. However, he did ; and 
 what was the consequence ? Why, the woman imme- 
 diately jumped up, called him an impudent rascal, 
 slapped his face with her slipper, hooted him, and fol- 
 lowed the party until she fairly frightened them by 
 her violence.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 133 
 
 " No, doctor, they do not like mild people. They 
 always say they want no old hens, but Sh jigger''^ (I be- 
 lieve her ladyship meant some ferocious animal) " for 
 their master. As for what you say, that the common 
 people of this country stand in respect of nobody, I 
 can tell you that they do. You should have seen the 
 Shaykh Beshyr, how they respected him. When I 
 was at his palace, I recollect, one day, one of his secre- 
 taries brought in a bag of money. ' Is it all here ? ' 
 said the Shaykh, with a terrible cross, frowning face. 
 ' It is, your felicity,"' said the man. ' Very well,"* said 
 the Shaykh, still with the same fierce countenance ; 
 and I asked him what he put on such a severe look 
 for to a very pleasing-looking man. ' Why,' an- 
 swered he, ' if I did not, I should be robbed past ima- 
 gination. If I said to him, I am much obliged to 
 you, sir ; you have given yourself a great deal of 
 trouble on my account, and the like compliments, he 
 would go away and chuckle in his own mind to think 
 his peculations were not suspected ; but now he will go, 
 and say to himself, I will bet an adli some one has 
 told the Shaykh of the five hundred piasters that were 
 left for me at my house : I must send directly, and 
 desire they may be returned — or, He knows about 
 the tobacco that was brought me by the peasant : I
 
 134 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 had better get rid of it ; and so on. Their peculations 
 are past all bounds, and they must be kept under with 
 a rod of iron."" 
 
 " There was Danna, the poor old Frenchman, who 
 lost his trunk, with all his doubloons in it : do you 
 think he would ever have found them, if the Emir 
 Beshyr had not sent Hamaady to that village about a 
 league off — what do you call it ? — where the robbery 
 was committed 1 He assembled all the peasants, men 
 and women, and he told them — ' Now, my friends, 
 Monsieur Danna does not want anybody to be pu- 
 nished, if he can help it ; therefore, you have only to 
 produce the money, and nothing farther will be said : 
 for the money was lost here, and some of you must 
 know where it is.' To see what protestations of inno- 
 cence there were, what asseverations ! and the women 
 more than the men. So Hamaady, finding that talk- 
 ins: was of no use, heated his red-hot irons and his 
 copper skull caps, and produced his instruments of 
 torture ; and, seeing the women were more vociferous 
 than the men, he selected one on whom strong suspi- 
 cions had fallen, and drove a spike under her finger- 
 nails. At the first thrust, she screamed out — ' Let 
 me off ! let me ofi" ! and I will acknowledge all/ She 
 then immediately confessed — would you believe it,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 185 
 
 doctor ? — that the curate''s son had robbed Danna, aud 
 she had shared the money with him. 
 
 " Now, tell me, was it best that the old Frenchman 
 should die of starvation, or that the rascally thief of a 
 woman, who had induced the curate's son to commit the 
 robbery, should be punished, as a warning to others ? 
 If such severe punishments were not used among them, 
 we should not sleep safe in our beds. How well is it 
 known that they have with pickaxes opened a roof, 
 and thrown in lighted straw, to suffocate people, that 
 they might rob in security. 
 
 " I recollect once, when Captain Y. was here, I was 
 showing him the garden ; and, seeing some lettuces 
 which were badly planted, he said to me, ' That^s not 
 the way to plant lettuces : they should be so and so."" 
 — ' Yes,' I replied, ' I have told the gardener so a 
 hundred times, and he will never listen to me.' — ' Oh ! 
 oh !' said he, ' won't he ? Let me bring a boatswain's 
 mate to him, and I'll soon see whether he will or not.' 
 — ' You are very good,' was my answer ; ' but then I 
 should lose your company for half a day, and I had 
 rather have no lettuces than do that,' 
 
 " When I first came to this country, you know 
 perfectly well that I never behaved otherwise than 
 with the greatest kindness to servants. You ask me
 
 136 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 why I don't now try gentle measures with them, re- 
 warding the good, and merely dismissing the idle and 
 vicious. My reply is, I did so for years, until I found 
 they abused my forbearance in the grossest manner. 
 Do you think it would frighten the rest, were I to 
 turn away one or two ? No such thing. Why, upon 
 one occasion, four of ihem, after they had received 
 their v/ages, and had each got a present of new shawls, 
 new girdles, and new kombazes, all went off together, 
 clothes, wages and all, in the night. It is by degrees 
 I am become what I am ; and, only after repeated 
 trials and proofs of the inefficiency of everything but 
 severity, that I am grown so indifferent, that I do 
 nothing: but scold and abuse them. 
 
 " But you talk of cruelty : it is such men as 
 Mustafa Pasha, who was one of those who besieged 
 Acre, when Abdallah Pasha was firmanlee'''' (pro- 
 scribed), " that you should call cruel ; he was in- 
 deed a sanguinary tyrant. Doctor, he made a noise 
 sometimes like the low growl of a tiger, and his 
 people knew then that blood must flow. It was his 
 custom, when the fit was on him, to send for some 
 poor wretch from prison, and kill him with his own 
 hand. He would then grow calm, smoke his pipe, 
 and seem for a time quieted. But he was a shrewd
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 137 
 
 man, and a clever pasha. He wrote with his own 
 hands (which pashas never do, except on particular 
 occasions) a letter to the Shaykh Beshyr, desiring him 
 to pay marked attention to me. The Shaykh was 
 highly flattered with the distinction shown him."
 
 I 
 
 i
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Rainy season — Lady Hester's despondencj^ — Her Turkish 
 costume — Turkish servants — Terror inspired by Lady Hester 
 in her servants — Visit of Messieurs Poujolat andBoutes — 
 Lady Hester's inability to entertain strangers — Her dejected 
 spirits and bad health.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 141 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 November 24. — Still rain, rain ! The courtyards 
 were deep in mud and puddles, and the men walking 
 about in wooden clogs, such as are worn in breweries. 
 The flat roof's, which cover the houses in most parts 
 of Syria, are made of a cement of mortar and fine gravel, 
 in appearance like an asphaltum causeway. In the hot 
 months fissures show themselves, and it rarely hap- 
 pens, when winter comes on, that, during the first 
 heavy rains, the wet does not filter through. Lady 
 Hester, therefore, had to suffer, as well as all the 
 house, from this annoyance, hardly bearable when a 
 person is in health, but extremely distressing and 
 even dangerous to a sick one. For some days past 
 pans had been standing on the bed-room floor to catch 
 the droppings, and it continued to rain on. The 
 sloppy communications from door to door, where
 
 142 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 every door opens into a courtyard, gave likewise a 
 damp to the apartments only supportable in a climate 
 as mild as that of Syria. Snow had covered the 
 upper chain of Mount Lebanon in great abundance, and 
 the wind blew furiously. Everybody was out of humour, 
 and many of the servants were labouring under bad 
 coughs and colds : but the women, notwithstanding, 
 always went about the house barefoot. It was a wonder 
 to see how, with coughs that might be heard from 
 one courtyard to another, they constantly went so, 
 and yet got well ; and a servant, if sent to the village, 
 was sure to leave his shoes at the porter's lodge, and, 
 drawing his sherwdls or trousers up above his knees, 
 to set off as light as a deer through the pelting storm, 
 careless of wet, if he could but cover his head. 
 
 I saw Lady Hester about two in the day. She was 
 in low spirits, lying in her bed with the window and 
 door open from a sense of suffocation which had just 
 before seized her. 
 
 " Would you believe it," said she, as I entered, 
 " those beasts would leave me to die here before they 
 came to my assistance ! and, if I happen to fall asleep, 
 there is not one would cover my shoulders to prevent 
 my taking cold." 
 
 Poor lady ! thought I, the contrast between your
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 143 
 
 early days and your present sufferings is almost 
 enough to break your heart. So I abused the maids 
 handsomely ; and then, being satisfied with the 
 warmth of my expressions, and having vented her 
 own anger, she began to talk composedly. 
 
 I remained until near dinner-time, and, after dinner, 
 went to her affain. She observed that the nights were 
 dreadfully long, and that she should be obliged to me if 
 I would read to her. Her stock of books, and mine too, 
 was very small, and, after naming a few, w^hich did 
 not please her, I recollected she had asked me once if 
 I had by me a heathen mythology, and she imme- 
 diately fixed on that. So, writing on a slip of paper 
 to my daughter to send me hers, Lady Hester said, 
 " First let me order a pipe for you :" for this was gene- 
 rally the preliminary to all business or conversation. 
 Every sitting was opened with a pipe, and generally 
 terminated with one, as her ladyship would say, " But, 
 before you go, doctor, you must smoke one pipe more.'"* 
 When the book came, she desired me to turn to the 
 part about Jupiter Ammon, and it will be seen farther 
 on why she did so. After a page or two, she began 
 to talk of the coming of the Mehedah, and the con- 
 versation was prolonged far into the night. She after- 
 wards ordered tea — for I now drank tea with her
 
 144 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 almost eveiy evening — and I then returned to mj 
 house, covered in my thick capote, which, in the short 
 distance of a few hundred yards, could hardly save 
 me from being wet through. 
 
 November 25. — The annual fast of the Mahometans, 
 called Ramazan, had begun on the preceding day. 
 It is customary for persons of rank to make presents 
 of clothes and other things to their dependants, during 
 the lunar month that the Ramazan lasts, in order 
 that they may appear dressed up in finery on the first 
 day of the succeeding new moon, at the holyday of the 
 Byram, which succeeds it, as Easter-day does Lent 
 among Christians. Lady Hester, who never was 
 behindhand in beneficence, made it a rule to clothe all 
 her Mahometan servants anew at this season, as she did 
 all her Christian ones on New Year's Day or at Easter. 
 New capotes, pelisses, sherwals, shirts, shifts, turbans, 
 gowns, &c., were always bought previous to the time ; 
 and, the best being given to the most deserving, the worst 
 to the least so, with none at all to the lazy and worth- 
 less, some sort of activity was observable in their ser- 
 vice previous to the expected time. But, the objects 
 they coveted once in their possession, they soon re- 
 lapsed into their customary sloth. 
 
 Some of these articles of dress were lying on the
 
 LADY HKSTER STANHOPE. 145 
 
 floor, Lady Hester having had them brought for her 
 to look at. She said to me, " You must take home 
 one of those abahs to show to your family." An 
 abah is either a long cloak or a woollen frock-coat, 
 sometimes brocaded in a triangle of gold thread (the 
 base going from shoulder to shoulder, and the apex 
 pointing at the waist), on a marone-coloured ground, 
 as this was, and presenting a very brilliant appear- 
 ance. " You must tell them," continued she, " that 
 once I had all my servants clothed in such abahs as 
 that : but they played me such tricks, I have 
 given it up. Some sold them ; and, on one occasion, 
 four of them marched off within twenty-four hours 
 after I had dressed them from head to foot, and I 
 never saw them again : isn't it abominable ? At the 
 time that I dressed them so well, and rode out myself 
 with my bornoos, crimson and gold, the gold lace being 
 everywhere where silk tape is generally put, I did not 
 owe a shilling in the world. 
 
 " Once," she continued, " when riding my beautiful 
 Arabian mare Asfoor, near a place called Gezyn, in 
 that crimson bornoos, with a richlv-embroidered dress 
 under it, and on my crimson velvet saddle, I hap- 
 pened to approach an encampment of the Pasha's 
 troops. Several henut el haiccC (street ladies), " who 
 VOL. II. H
 
 146 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 were livinjr with the soldiers, ran across a field to come 
 up with me, thinkiu<^ I was some young bey or bin- 
 bashi. Every time, just as they got near, I quickened 
 my horse"'s pace, that they might not see I was a 
 woman : at last, two fairly came and seized my 
 knees, to make me turn and look at them. But what 
 was their confusion (for such women are not so har- 
 dened as in Europe) when they saw I had no beard 
 or mustachios, and was one of their own sex l''" 
 
 Lady Hester related this droll adventure to me 
 more than once, to show, I believe, what a distin- 
 guished and real Turkish appearance she made on 
 horseback, which was perfectly true : but to return 
 to the servants, 
 
 A Turk for work is little better than a brute ani- 
 mal : he moves about nimbly, when roused by voci- 
 feration and threats, and squats down like a dog 
 the moment he is left to himself. England pro- 
 duces no type of the Syrian serving-man. He sets 
 about his work as a task tliat is given to him, 
 and, when it is over, sits down immediately to smoke 
 his pipe and to gossip, or seeks a snug place near at 
 hand, and goes to sleep. You call him, and set him 
 to do something else, and the same practice follows. 
 The next day you expect he will, of his own accord, re-
 
 LADY HE«TER STANHOPE. 147 
 
 commence what was shown him on the preceding one ; 
 but no such thing : you have to tell him over again, 
 and so every day. He is a thief from habit, and a 
 liar of the most brazen stamp, as no shame is ever 
 attached to detection. In plausible language, pro- 
 testations of honesty and fidelity, he has no superior ; 
 and, if beaten or reviled, he will smother his choler, 
 nay, kiss the hand that has chastised him, but waits 
 a fit opportunity for vengeance, and carefully weighs 
 kicks against coppers. He is generally so sei'vile as 
 to make you bear with his worthlessness, even though 
 you despise him ; and, when your anger appears to 
 threaten him with the loss of his place and is at the 
 highest, he smooths it down with an extraordinary 
 day''s activity, making you hope that a reformation 
 has taken place in him : but it is all delusion. And 
 think not that you, a Christian, can raise your hand 
 a2:ainst the meanest servant, if a Mahometan : when 
 you would have him beaten, you must employ another 
 Mahometan to do it, who will, however, lay on to 
 your heart's content. 
 
 What has been said above applies to the menials of 
 towns and cities. Of another class of servants taken 
 from the villages. Lady Hester used to say, " I have 
 tried the Syrian fellahs'^ (peasants) " for twenty years 
 
 h2
 
 148 MEiMOIRS OF 
 
 as servants, and I ought to know pretty well wli.it 
 they are fit for. It is my opinion that, for hard 
 work, lifting heavy things, going with mules and asses, 
 for foot messengers across the country, and for such busi- 
 ness, you may make something of them, but for nothing 
 else. The women are idle, and prone to thieving ; 
 and it is impossible to teach them any European 
 usaoes." 
 
 One day, in walking through the back yard, I ob- 
 served two stakes, about six feet high and sharply 
 pointed, stuck deep and firmly into the ground, which 
 had before escaped my notice. I inquired what they 
 were for, but got no satisfactory answer, the dairy- 
 man, to whom I addressed myself, using the reply so 
 common throughout the East, 3Ja are/ (I don't know) ; 
 for no people in the world have so quick a scent of the 
 dano-er of being brought into trouble by professing to 
 know what is inquired about as the Orientals. A Jew, 
 in a street in Turkey, and a Christian likewise, is sure 
 to answer the most simple question by an " I don't 
 know" — " I have not heard" — " I have not seen ;" for 
 he fears what that question may lead to, and that, if 
 he knows a little, a bastinadoing may be resorted to 
 to make him know more : so I afterwards asked 
 Lady Hester. " Oh !" replied she, " Til tell you
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 149 
 
 how those stakes came there : I had forgotten all 
 about them. One day, at the time they were rob- 
 bing me right and left, I ordered the carpenter to 
 make two stakes, such as people are impaled upon, 
 and to erect them in the back yard. I spoke not to 
 any one why or wherefore I had given the order ; 
 but if you had seen the fright that pervaded the house, 
 and for weeks how well the maids behaved, you would 
 then have known, as I do, that it is only by such 
 terrible means that these abominable jades can be kept 
 under. From that time to this it appears the stakes 
 have remained ; for, as I never go into that yard, I 
 had forgotten them : but since they are there still, 
 there let them be." 
 
 Thus Lady Hester was dying in a struggle to cure 
 her men and maids of theft, lying, and carelessness, 
 whilst they ended the month with the same in- 
 difference to honesty, truth, and cleanliness, as they 
 began it. 
 
 Each one was a s^'cophant to those who had autho- 
 rity over him ; each one distrusted his comrade. 
 Lady Hester might say with truth, " If I did not act 
 so, they would cut your throat and mine :" but why 
 did she keep such wretches about her? Why not 
 turn them away, and procure European servants ? Or
 
 150 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 why continue to live in such a wild mountain, and 
 not make her dwelling-place in or near a city, where 
 consular protection was at hand? The first three 
 questions I have endeavoured to answer already ; 
 and, as for the last, respecting consular protection, he 
 that had dared to suggest such an expedient of safety 
 to her would have rued the observation. To name a 
 consul in that sense to her was to name what was 
 most odious ; and the epithets that were generally 
 coupled with their names were such as I have too 
 much respect for that useful body of magistrates to 
 put down in writing. 
 
 Saturday, November 25. — As I was returning from 
 the village about four in the afternoon, on ascending 
 the side of the hill on which Lady Hester's house 
 stands, I met four persons mounted on mules, and 
 conjectured them, by their boots, which were black, 
 and reached up to the calf of the leg, not to be of the 
 country ; for in Syria either red or yellow boots are 
 always worn. They had on Morea capotes, and their 
 dress was that of the more northern provinces of 
 Turkey. In passing them, I said, " Good evening !" 
 in Arabic, but, on receiving no answer from tlie two 
 nearest to me, I looked hard at them, and immediately 
 saw they were Europeans.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 151 
 
 On alighting at my own door, I asked the servant 
 if he had seen anybody »o by, and his reply was, 
 that three or four Turkish soldiers had passed, I 
 then inquired of one of Lady Hester"'s muleteers, who 
 was unloading some provisions he had brought from 
 Sayda, if lie knew who the four men were whom I 
 had seen ; and he answered that, at the foot of the 
 hill, they had inquired of him the road to Joon, and 
 that they were JMilordi travelling ; Milordi being the 
 term applied to every European who travels in the 
 Levant with a man-servant, and has money to spend, 
 
 I went in to Lady Hester a few minutes afterwards, 
 and told her that some travellers, as I thought, to get 
 a nearer view of her house than could be had from the 
 high road, had made a round, and had just ridden 
 past tli«^ door. About a quarter of an hour after- 
 wards, the maid brought in a message from the porter 
 to say that two Franks, just arrived at the village 
 of Joon, had sent their servant with a note, and the 
 porter wi.-?lied to know whether the note was to be 
 taken in. For Lady Hester had been so tormented 
 with begging letters, petitions, stories of distress, &e., 
 that it was become a general rule for him never to 
 receive any written paper, until he had first sent in to 
 say who had brought it, and from whom it came ; and
 
 152 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 then she would decide whether it was to be refused or 
 not. The note, accordingly, was fetched. 
 
 Lady Hester read it to herself, and then the fol- 
 lowing conversation took place, which will explain 
 some of the reasons why she did not always receive 
 strangers who presented themselves at her gate. 
 " Yes, doctor," said she, " you were right : they 
 are two travellers, who have been to Palmyra and 
 about, and want to come and talk to me concerning 
 the Arabs and the desert. Should you like to go to 
 Joon, and tell them I can't see them, because I have 
 been confined to my room for several days from a bad 
 cold?" I answered, "Certainly; I would go with 
 the greatest pleasure." She then rang the bell, and 
 desired the servant to order my horse. She continued, 
 " One of the names, I think, is a man of a great 
 family." — " What is it V I asked. She took up the 
 note again. " Boo, poo, bon — no — Boo — jo — lais — 
 Beaujolais, I think it is. No, Pou — jo — lat ; it is 
 Poujolat." — " Then," interrupted I, " I guess who 
 they are : there was a Monsieur Poujolat, who came 
 into the Levant six or seven years ago, to make re- 
 searches respecting the crusades : I saw him at 
 Cyprus ; he and Monsieur Michaud were together. 
 Thev were considered men of talent, and I believe were
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 153 
 
 contributors to some Paris newspaper durin<T Charles 
 the Tenth's time. They had pubhshed ah*eady some 
 volumes of their travels before I left Europe, and the 
 greatest part of the ground was travelled over, as I 
 surmise, in the saloons of their consuls, during the 
 long evenings when they were shut in by the plague 
 of 1831 and 1832 ; for they speak of many places 
 where they could hardly have gone. But this is not 
 unusual," T added, " with some writers ; for Monsieur 
 Chabo^eau, a French doctor at Damascus, told me, in 
 1813, when I was staying in his house, that Monsieur 
 de Volney never went to Palmyra, although he leads 
 one to suppose he had been there ; for, owing to a 
 great fall of snow just at the period when he pro- 
 jected that journey, he was compelled to relinquish 
 the attempt. Monsieur Chabo^eau, an octogenarian, 
 had known him, and entertained him as his guest in 
 his house ; and he answered me, when I reiterated the 
 question, that Volney never saw Palmyra." 
 
 " Oh ! if they have written about the crusades," 
 said Lady Hester, paying no attention to what I said 
 about Volney, " tell them that all the crusaders are 
 not dead, but that some of them are asleep only ; 
 asleep in the same arms and the same dress they wore 
 on the field of battle, and will awake at the first re- 
 
 h5
 
 154! MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Mirrection. Mind you say the first resurrection ; for 
 I suppose you know there are to be two, one a partial 
 one, and the last a general one.' 
 
 " But there, doctor, I must not detain you. Now, 
 just listen to what you have got to do. ISIohammed 
 shall take to them two bottles of red wine, and two 
 bottles of vino d'oro" (ding, ding). "• Zezefoon, tell 
 Mohammed to set out four bottles of wine, two of 
 each sort ; of my wine — you understand — and he is to 
 
 ' It was by such speeches as these that Lady Hester some- 
 times left an impression on her hearers that she was insane. 
 The reader must judge for himself. There are, however, 
 strong reasons for believing that there was a profound and 
 deeply-planned method in all her actions, and those who said 
 she was unsound in her intellects would have had great difficulty 
 in proving it before a competent tribunal. The vast combina- 
 tions of her mind, when it was possible to get a glimpse of 
 them, filled one with surprise, and set at naught all previous 
 conjecture or conception ; whilst separate and particular con- 
 versations and reasonings wore the stamp of great oddity and 
 sometimes of insanity. Let Mr. Dundas, Lord Hardwicke, 
 Mr. Way, Lord St. Asaph, Count Delaborde, Count Yowiski, 
 if still alive, Count de la Porte, Dr. Mills, M. Lamartine, 
 Count Marcellus, and a hundred others who have conversed 
 with her, say what was the impression she left on their minds ; 
 and not till then let persons who have never held intercourse 
 with her of late years pronounce her mad.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 155 
 
 put tlieni in a basket, and be ready to go with the 
 doctor to Joon." Then, addressing herself again to me, 
 " You must say to them that I am very sorry I can't 
 see them, but that I am not very well, and tliat 1 
 beg their acceptance of a little wine, which, perhaps, 
 they might not find where they sleep to-night. Say 
 to them, I should be very much pleased to talk over 
 their journey to Palmyra with them ; and add that 
 the respect I bear to all the French makes me always 
 happy to meet with one of their nation. Say that the 
 wine is not so good as I could wish it to be, but that, 
 since Ibrahim Pasha and his soldiers have been in 
 the country, they have drunk up all the good, and it 
 is now very difficult to procure any. If they talk 
 about Ibrahim Pasha, say that I admire his courage, 
 but cannot respect him ; that I am a faithful subject 
 of the Sultan, and shall always be so, and that I do 
 not like servants that rise against their masters ; for 
 whether Cromwells, or Buonapartes, or people in these 
 countries, it never succeeds. If they allude to the 
 horrors of the recruiting service, and to the nazam 
 troops, tell them that I never interfere in matters like 
 that ; but that, when heads were to be saved, and the 
 wounded and houseless to be succoured, as after the 
 siege of Acre, then I was not afraid of Ibrahim Pasha,
 
 lo6 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 or any of them. Well, I think that's all." Then- 
 musing a little while, she added, " I ought, perhaps, 
 to ask them to pass the night here ; but, if I did, it 
 would be all confusion : no dinner ready for them — 
 and, before it could be, it would be midnight, for I 
 must have a sheep killed : besides, it would be set- 
 ting a bad example. There would be others then 
 coming just at nightfall to get a supper and be oif in 
 the morning, as has happened more than once already. 
 So now go, doctor, and" (din, ding) " Fatoom ! who 
 is that woman that lodges strangers sometimes at 
 J6on ?"— " Werdy, Sytty, the midwife."—" Ah ! so ; 
 very well. Tell them, doctor, that they had better 
 not think of going to Sayda to-night, as the gates 
 will be shut ; and that they will be nowhere better 
 oft' for sleeping in all the village than at Werdy, the 
 midwife's ; for she has good beds and clean counter- 
 panes : so now go." 
 
 I half rose to go, still hanging back, as knowing 
 her ladyship would, as usual, have much more to say. 
 " Oh ! by the bye," she resumed, " if they inquire 
 about me, and ask any questions, you may say that 
 sometimes I am a great talker when subjects please 
 me, and sometime^ say very little if they do not. I 
 am a character : what I do, or intend to do, nobody
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. L57 
 
 knows beforehand ; and, when done, people don''t always 
 know why, until the proper time, and then it comes 
 out." Here she paused a little, and then re- 
 sumed. " I dare say they came here to have some- 
 thing to put in their book, so mind you tell them 
 about the crusaders ; for it is true, doctor. You recol- 
 lect I told you the story, and how these sleeping 
 crusaders had been seen by several persons ; and I 
 don't suppose those persons would lie more than other 
 people J why should they V — " Why should they 
 indeed?" I answered. " They were martyrs," re- 
 sumed her ladyship, " and those who sleep are not 
 only of the Christians who fought, but of the Saracens 
 also ; men, that is, who felt from their souls the jus- 
 tice of the cause they fought for. As for yourself, if 
 you don't believe it, you may add you know nothing 
 about it ; for you are lately come into the country, 
 and all these are things which are become known to 
 me during my long residence here." 
 
 At last I went, mounted my horse, and rode out 
 of the gate, Mohammed following with the basket 
 of wine. But, instead of having to go to the village, 
 I found the strangers waiting on their mules about 
 two or three hundred yards from the porter's lodge. 
 My horse, taken from his feed, for it was near sunset.
 
 158 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 and seeing tlie mules, jumped and pranced so that I 
 was obliged to dismount before I could approach them. 
 I delivered Lady Hester's message to them, and in 
 answer they expressed, in polite terms, their regret at 
 not seeing her, and their still greater regret that the 
 reason was from her ill state of health. Unlike what 
 some Englishmen have done on similar occasions, they 
 uttered not the slightest murmur about her want 
 of hospitality, nor the least doubt of the veracity of 
 the excuse ; but as soon as they found that they 
 should not be admitted, they cut short all further 
 conversation ; lamenting, as night was fast approach- 
 ing, that they could not stop, and that they were 
 under the necessity of bending their way some- 
 where as fast as possible to get a night's lodging. I 
 pointed to the village, recommended them to go there, 
 and repeated Werdy, the midwife's name, two or three 
 times, as a cottage where they would be comfortably 
 lodged. But, yielding to the advice of their servant, 
 who, as is the case with all travellers ignorant of the 
 language in a strange country, seemed to lead his 
 masters pretty much where he liked, they were 
 induced to set off for Sayda, where they could not 
 arrive in less than three hours, instead of passing the 
 night at Joon, where they would have been housed in
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 159 
 
 ten minutes. So, presenting them with the wine, and 
 having informed them of the name of the French con- 
 sular agent at Sayda, where they would do well to 
 demand a lodging, I wished them good night, and 
 took my leave. They mounted their mules, and 
 descended the bank by the narrow path that led under 
 the hill to the Sayda road ; when, as I was going 
 back to the house, I heard one of the gentlemen call- 
 ing out to me, " But the empty bottles V Now the 
 interview had been conducted, on my part, with all 
 the etiquette I was master of, and on theirs, up to the 
 moment of saying good night, with the politeness so 
 natural to the French nation. But the exclamation, 
 '' What's to be done with the empty bottles ? You 
 gave us the wine, but did you give us the bottles 
 too r' sounded so comic, and in the vicinity of that 
 residence too, where it was customary to give in a 
 princely way, that the speaker fell a degree in the 
 scale of my estimation on the score of breeding, how 
 much soever he might be commended for his exacti- 
 tude and probity. 
 
 I returned to Lady Hester. During my short 
 absence, one of her maids had informed her that the 
 Franks, although they had made a show of going to 
 Joon when first they passed the gate, had in fact only
 
 160 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 retired into the valley between the two hills, where 
 they had unpacked their saddle-bags and shifted 
 themselves, in order to make a decent appearance 
 before her. This increased her regret at the trouble 
 they had so uselessly put themselves to. The rain 
 came on soon after, and their unpleasant situation was 
 the subject of conversation for a good half hour. The 
 name of the other gentleman who accompanied Mon- 
 sieur Poujolat was Boutes. 
 
 Much has been said of Lady Hester Stanhope''s 
 rudeness to her countrymen and others in refusing 
 them admittance when at her door, and probably 
 Messrs. Poujolat and Boutes might have complained 
 at Say da of her inhospitable conduct. But it is 
 scarcely necessary for me to say that her real motives 
 for actinor as she did were not from a dislike to see 
 people, since nobody enjoyed half-a-day"'s conversation 
 w^ith a stranger more than she did. A few days after, 
 
 December 2. — I had taken a long ride in the morn- 
 ing, and had seen a frigate under her studding sails, 
 running towards Sayda. The arrival of a ship of 
 war was always an event to set the house in commo- 
 tion ; for it was very well known that, if her colours 
 were English or French, the chances were ten to one 
 that either the captain, or some of the officers, would
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 161 
 
 come up to Joon. Accordingly, on returning home at 
 about 4 o'clock, I told Lady Hester Stanliope of it : 
 but she was not well, had passed the night badl}'-, and 
 all she said was, — " Well, if they come, I shall not 
 see any of them." Now, it is not improbable, if any 
 of the officers had presented themselves, and had been 
 told that her ladyship was unable to receive them, 
 owing to the state of her health, that they would have 
 gone away discontented, and disposed to attribute her 
 refusal to any other cause than the real one : but let 
 any one, who reads what follows, say if she was in a 
 fit state to hold conversation with strangers. 
 
 Her health was still very far from good, and this 
 day was a day of sorrow. Her maids had been 
 sulky and impertinent, and her forlorn and deserted 
 situation came so forcibly across her mind, that she 
 raised up her hands to heaven, and wept. '' Oh ! " 
 said she, " if these horrid servants would but do as 
 they are told, I could get on by myself, and should 
 not want anybody to help me : but they are like 
 jibbing horses, and the only good horse in the team 
 is worked to death. Were I well, I would not care 
 for a thousand of them ; 1 should know how to ma- 
 nage them : but, sick as I am, hardly able to raise 
 my hand to ring the bell, if anything were to happen to
 
 162 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 me, I might die, and nobody would come to my 
 assistance." 
 
 I offered, as I had done almost daily, to have my 
 bed removed to the room next to hers, and to sleep 
 there, in order to be at hand if she should want my 
 assistance : but she would not admit of it ; and I 
 could only use my best efforts to soothe her, which 
 was no easy matter. I remained six hours with her, 
 sitting the whole time in a constrained posture, that I 
 might catch her words, so low was her voice. And I 
 could not move without sensibly annoying her, as she 
 was sure to construe it into a wish to be gone, or a 
 disregard of her situation, and to say she was neg- 
 lected by everybody. 
 
 It is incredible how Lady Hester Stanhope used to 
 torment herself about trifles. People, who never hap- 
 pened to meet with a person of her peculiar character, 
 would be amazed at the precision with which she set 
 about everything she undertook. The most trivial 
 and fuo-itive affairs were transacted with quite as 
 much pains and exactitude as she brought to bear 
 upon the most important plans. This was, in fact, 
 the character of her mind, exhibiting itself throughout 
 her entire conduct. I have known her lose nearly a 
 whole day in scolding about a nosegay of roses whicli
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 163 
 
 she wished to send to the Pasha's wife. For the pur- 
 pose of sending nosegays safely to distant places, she 
 had invented a sort of canister. In the bottom part 
 was placed a tumbler full of water, in which the flower- 
 stalks were kept moist ; and the nosegay Avas thus 
 carried to any distance, suspended to the mules' 
 saddle, or in a man's hand. The servants, who could 
 not understand why such importance was attached to 
 a few flowers, were remiss in keeping the canisters 
 clean, nor would the gardener arrange the flowers as 
 Lady Hester wished. For a matter like this she 
 would storm and cry, and appeal to me if it was not a 
 shame she should be so treated. 
 
 December 3. — To-day, a servant, who was ill, had 
 become the object of her immediate anxiety. " As 
 for myself," cried she, " I care not how ragged, how 
 neglected I am ; but I am in a fever if I think a poor 
 creature is in want of such comforts as his illness may 
 require. Such is my disposition ; and I dread every 
 moment of the day lest his necessities should not be 
 attended to. Who is to see his room warmed, to take 
 care he has proper drinks, to give him his medicine ? 
 I know nobody will do it, unless I see to it myself." 
 I assured her he should have every attention possible. 
 
 It was in vain to expect any sentiment or feeling
 
 164 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 from servants and slaves, who had no prospect before 
 them but one constant round of forced work, against 
 their habits and inclinations. Althouo:h Lady Hester 
 Stanhope had adopted almost all the customs of the 
 East, she still retained many of her own : and to con- 
 demn the slaves to learn the usages of Franks was 
 like oblio-ino; an Enjjlish housemaid to fall into those 
 of the Turks. Thus, the airing of linen, ironing, 
 baking loaves of bread instead of flat cakes, cleaning 
 knives, brightening pots, pans, and kettles, mending 
 holes in clothes, and other domestic cleanly usages, 
 were points of contention which were constantly fought 
 over and over again for twenty years, with no better 
 success at the last than at the first. 
 
 Her conversation turned one day on Sir G. H. 
 " What can be the reason V said she, '•' I am now 
 always thinking of Sir G. H. Seven years ago, when 
 you were here, you spoke about him, and I thought 
 no more of him than merely to make some remarks at 
 *he moment ; but now I have dreamed of him two 
 or three times, and I am sure something is going to 
 happen to him, either very good or very bad. I have 
 been thinking; how well he would do for master of the 
 horse to the Queen, and I have a good way of giving 
 a hint of it through the Buckleys : for I always said
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 1 6'o 
 
 that, next to Lord Chatham, uobody ever had such 
 handsome equipages as Sir G. : nobody's horses and 
 carriages were so neatly picked out as theirs. Sir G. 
 is a man, doctor, from what you tell me, that would 
 have just suited Mr. Pitt. That polished and quiet 
 manner which Sir G. has was what Mr. Pitt found so 
 agreeable in Mr. Long. It is very odd — Mr. Pitt 
 always would dress for dinner, even if we were alone. 
 One day, I said to him, ' You are tired, and there is 
 no one but ourselves ; why need you dress V He re- 
 plied, ' Why, I don't know, Hester ; but if one omits 
 to do it to-day, we neglect it to-morrow, and so on, 
 until one grows a pig.' " 
 
 December 7, 1837. — Poor Lady Hester's appear- 
 ance to-day would have been a piteous sight for her 
 friends in Enaland. I saw her about noon : she was 
 pale, very ill, and her natural good spirits quite gone. 
 " Doctor," said she, in a faint voice, " I am very 
 poorly to-day, and I was still worse in the night. I 
 was within that" (holding up her finger) " of death's 
 door, and I find nothing now will relieve me. A little 
 while ago, I could depend on something or other, 
 when seized with these spasmodic attacks ; but now 
 everything fails. How am I to get better, when I 
 can't have a moment's repose from morning till night i
 
 166 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 When I was ill on former occasions, I could amuse 
 myself with my thoughts, with cutting out in paper 
 — why, I have a closet full of models, in paper, of 
 rooms, and arches, and vaults, and pavilions, and build- 
 ino-s, with so many plans of alterations, you can't think. 
 But now, if I want a pair of scissors, they can't be 
 found ; if I want a needle and thread, there is none 
 forthcoming ; and I am wearied to death about the 
 smallest trifles." 
 
 She here began to cry and wring her hands, pre- 
 senting a most melancholy picture of despair. When 
 she had recovered a little, she went on : " To look 
 upon me now, what a lesson against vanity ! Look at 
 this arm, all skin and bone, so thin, so thin, that you 
 may see through it ; and once, without exaggeration, 
 so rounded, that you could not pinch the skin up. 
 My neck was once so fair that a pearl necklace scarcely 
 shewed on it ; and men — no fools, but sensible men 
 — would say to me, ' God has given you a neck you 
 really may be proud of: you are one of nature's 
 favourites, and one may be excused for admiring that 
 beautiful skin." If they could behold me now, with 
 my teeth all gone, and with long lines in my face — 
 not wrinkles, for I have no wrinkles when I am left 
 quiet, and not made angry : but my face is drawn out 
 
 (
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 167 
 
 of its composure by these wretches. I thank God 
 that old age has come upon me unperceived. When 
 I used to see the painted Lady H. dressed in pink 
 and silver, with her head shaking, and jumped by her 
 footman into her sociable, attempting to appear young, 
 I felt a kind of horror and disgust I can't describe. 
 I wonder how Lady Staflord dresses, now she is no 
 longer young : but I can't fancy her grown old." 
 
 She paused, and then resumed. " I have,"" she 
 said, " been under the saw" (drawing the little finger 
 of her rioht hand backward and forward across the 
 forefinger of her left) "for many years, and not a 
 tooth but what has told ; but it is God's will, and I 
 do not repine : it is man's ingratitude that wounds 
 me most. How many harsh answers have even you 
 given me, when I have been telling you things for 
 your good : it is that which hurts me." 
 
 I confessed my fault, and expressed my deep regret 
 that I had ever caused her any pain. 
 
 She went on. " When I see people of understand- 
 ing moideriug away their time, losing their memory, 
 and doino- nothinir that is useful to mankind, I must 
 be frank, and tell them of it. You are in darkness, 
 and I have done my best to enlighten you : if I have 
 not succeeded, it is not my fault. As for pleasing or
 
 1 G8 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 displeasing me, put that out of your head : there is 
 no more in that than in pleasing or displeasing that 
 door. I am but a worm — a poor, miserable beinf — 
 an humble instrument in the hands of God. ]]ut, if 
 a man is benighted, and sees a light in a castle, does 
 he go to it, or does he not ? Perhaps it may be a 
 good genius that guides him there, perhaps it may be 
 a den of thieves : but there he goes." 
 
 In this mournful strain Lady Hester went on for 
 some time. Everything around me presented so 
 afflicting a picture, that, unable to restrain my emo- 
 tions, I burst into tears. She let me recover myself, 
 and then, making me drink a finjan of coffee, with a 
 little orange-flower water in it, to restore my spirits, 
 she advised me to go and take a walk. 
 
 An hour or two afterwards I saw her again. She 
 was much better, and was sitting up in her bed, cut- 
 ting out articles of clothing, and fixing on patterns for 
 new gowns for her maids. " I hate money," she said, 
 " and could wish to have nothing to do with it but 
 saying, ' Take this, and lay it out so and so." " Ever 
 sanguine, she was forming plans of what she should 
 do in the spring, when she purposed remodelling her 
 household, and replacing her present servants by a 
 fresh set. The world was to be convulsed by revolu-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 169 
 
 tions, nations were to be punished by sickness and 
 calamities ; and her object was to secure, for those in 
 whose welfare she felt interested, an asvlum in the 
 cominjr davs of trouble. 
 
 VOL. II
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Delphic priestess — Abdallah Pasha's ingratitude - 
 His cowardice — Lady Hester's spies — Her emaciatiou- 
 History of General Loustaunau. 
 
 12
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 173 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 December 8. — A most violent storm of rain, thunder, 
 and lightning, kept me prisoner. The courtyards 
 were flooded. When all the house was in confusion 
 from the wet, and clogs were heard clattering on all 
 sides, I entered Lady Hester's room, and remained 
 for about an hour, talking on indifierent subjects, 
 without hearing: from her one word in allusion to the 
 state of the weather. At last she said, " Doctor, I 
 find myself better from the thunder V And when I 
 replied that there were many persons who felt op- 
 pressed from an electric condition of the atmosphere 
 and were relieved by its explosion, she observed, with 
 some sharpness, " that I must be a great booby to 
 make such a remark to her, as there was not a servant 
 in the house who did not know that she could always 
 tell, three days beforehand, when a thunder-storm 
 was coming: on." 
 
 In the evenincr I sat with her about four hours.
 
 1 74 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 She was up, and had placed herself in a corner of 
 her bed-room on a low ottoman (as it is called in Eng- 
 land), which the Syrians name terdahah. The candle 
 was put far back in the window recess, the light being 
 thrown on my features, whilst it left hers in obscurity. 
 This was her custom on almost all occasions, even 
 when she had strangers visiting her, under pretence 
 that she could not bear the light in her eyes, but in 
 fact, as I have reason to believe, to watch the play of 
 people's countenances. 
 
 She resumed the subject of the preceding evening. 
 I was too weary when I left her, and too busy next 
 morning, to be able to write down her conversation : 
 but, could I have done it, it must have left a pro- 
 found impression on the reader"'s mind, an idea of 
 sublimity, whether he held her visionary opinions to 
 be the mere rhapsodies of a disordered intellect, or the 
 deductions of great reasoning powers, aided by re- 
 markable foresiofht. Her lan2:uao:e was so forcible and 
 sublime, that I sometimes suspended my breath, and 
 from time to time tried to assure mvself that I was 
 not hearkening to a superhuman voice. The smoke 
 from our pipes by degrees filled the room, closely shut 
 up as it was, and cast a deep gloom around us. The 
 wind howled without, with now and then occasional
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 175 
 
 echoes of the thunder among the mountains ; and it 
 required no great stretch of* imagination to believe 
 one's self listening to the inspired oracles of the Delphic- 
 priestess, as she poured forth the warnings of what 
 seemed a preternatural insight into futurity. 
 
 December 9. — The morning was employed in writing 
 letters, and in the evening I remained until half- 
 past one with Lady Hester. She spoke of the alarm 
 created in Mahomet All's cabinet, by her affordint; 
 protection to Abdallah Pasha's people after the sur- 
 render of St. Jean d'Acre. " That impudent f&llow 
 C********," said she, " sent me a packet of letters 
 from Colonel Campbell, and told me I was to prepare 
 a list of all the people in my house, giving their 
 names, nation, a description of their persons, &c. 1 
 returned him the packet, and desired him to forward 
 it whence it came, adding, ' These are all the com- 
 mands that Lady Hester Stanhope has at present to 
 give to Mr. C********.' To Colonel C. I wrote ' that 
 it was not customary for consuls to give orders to 
 their superiors ; that, as for the English name, about 
 which he talked so much, I made over to him all the 
 advantage he might derive from it.' And my letter 
 to Boghoz was to the effect that, ' in confessing, as he 
 did, that I rendered the state of this country unsettled
 
 i76 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 by my measures, he acknowledged the weakness of his 
 master's cause ; that I disdained all partnership in 
 it ; and that the column on which Mahomet All's 
 exaltation rested, would, before long, sink beneath 
 him, and his greatness melt like snow before the 
 fire. ' I added,' there could be little honour for Ma- 
 homet Ali to make himself a gladiator before a 
 woman f and here I meant that, as a gladiator was 
 some criminal who descended into the arena to fight, 
 so he was a malefactor too. 
 
 " As for Abdallah Pasha, he was not worth the 
 pains I took about him ; but I did it for my master, 
 the Sultan. I kept and maintained for two years two 
 hundred of his people, wounded, sick, and proscribed ; 
 and when I wrote to him to know what I should do 
 with them, as the expense was too great for me, the 
 answer of this ungrateful wretch was to ask me for a 
 loan of twenty-five purses, and not even to send his 
 remembrance to one of those who had bled and suffered 
 in his cause. His ingratitude, however, has partly 
 met with its reward : for the Sultan himself has heard 
 of his cold-hearted conduct, and has taken away half 
 what he allowed him. This is the man whose head I 
 saved by my intercession with a person in power. 
 
 " He was a coward, after all. The last day of the
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 177 
 
 siege of Acre he lost his senses quite. As Ibrahim 
 Pasha had effected a breach, some of Abdallah Pasha"'s 
 officers forced him to come upon the ramparts to 
 encourage the soldiers ; for he had remained during the 
 whole time shut up in a vault under-ground with his 
 women and boys, and had never once appeared. Well, 
 the first thins: he did was to sit down amidst the fire, 
 quite bewildered. He then asked for an umbrella. 
 Then he called for some water ; and, when they pre- 
 sented to him an ibryJc,^ as being the only thing they 
 had near at hand, not supposing that at such a mo- 
 ment he would mind what it was he drank from, he 
 would not drink out of it."" 
 
 They fetched him a goblet, and he made them take 
 it back, because it was a glass he drank sherbet out of, 
 and not water. The very man who handed it to him 
 told me the story. At last they placed him in one 
 comer of a battery, and covered him with a cloak. All 
 this time the bullets were flying about .^ 
 
 ' An ibryk is a common earthenware jug with a spout to it, 
 the .usual drinking-vessel of the lower classes. 
 
 * Tliis Pasha was so afraid, in the midst of all his power, of 
 being poisoned, that he had the dishes brought to his table 
 under padlock. When he travelled, a horseman in his suite had 
 the office assigned him of carrying the implement that makes 
 such a distinguished figure in the farce of Pourcignac. When 
 
 l5
 
 178 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Lady Hester continued : — "■ Of all those to whom 
 I gave an asylum and bread, after the siege, I can't 
 say there were many who shewed the least gratitude — 
 four perhaps : the rest robbed me, and abused my 
 goodness in every possible manner. One family alone 
 consisted of seventeen persons. Will it be believed, 
 tliat when I had new clothes made for the women for 
 the Byram holyday, they had the baseness to grumble 
 at the stuff, the make, and everything, complaining 
 they were not good enough for them ? But this did 
 not hurt me half so much as the little credit I get for 
 everything I do among my relations, and the English 
 in general. My motives are misconstrued, or not ap- 
 preciated ; and, whilst a mighty fuss is made about 
 some public subscription for people in Jamaica, New- 
 foundland, or God knows where, I, who, by my own 
 individual exertions, have done the like for hundreds 
 of wretched beings, driven out of their homes by the 
 sabre and bayonet, am reviled and abused for every 
 act of kindness or benevolence. 
 
 he was shaved, he always had some of his guards standing 
 round the barber with their pistols cocked, and he himself 
 had a drawn sabre lying across his lap. Fancy the situation 
 of a man who, in the midst of these formidable preparations, is 
 obliged to keep his hand steady.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 179 
 
 " I knew a pretty deal of what was going forward 
 during the siege of Acre by my own spies. Hanah, 
 your old servant — Giovanni, as he used to be called — 
 was one of them. He carried on his trade of a barber, 
 and was married in Acre ; and, when the bombarding 
 began, he got out somehow, and came to me. So I 
 furnished him with a beggar's dress. But first I 
 made him take leave of the other servants, and set oft' 
 from the door. Then hiding himself under a rock, 
 when he was at a distance, he dressed himself as a 
 fakyr^ and so perfect was his disguise, that when he 
 came back to me I did not know him. He was a poor 
 timid fellow, and that was the reason why I chose 
 him as fit for my purpose. In such a nice business 
 as that, I wanted a man that would follow my in- 
 structions exactly, and do nothing out of his own 
 head : and Giovanni was in such a fright, that I was 
 sure of him in that respect. Well, he succeeded per- 
 fectly well. There was a poor devil of a sacca^ or 
 water-carrier, in the camp, who used to take water to 
 Derwish Pasha"'s tents. Meanly dressed, and with 
 his head held down, like one in misery, nobody paid 
 any attention to him ; at night he would frequently 
 creep between the ropes of the Pasha's tent, and 
 seem to sleep there like an unhappy being who had
 
 180 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 HO hole to put his head in. Through a slit in the 
 tent, he could see and hear much that passed, com- 
 municating whatever information he obtained to 
 (jriovanni, who brought it at convenient opportu- 
 nities to me. But when I wanted a stout-hearted 
 fellow to carry a letter through the entrenchments to 
 the foot of the walls to be drawn up, then I chose a 
 different sort of a messenger; for I had them all ready." 
 
 December 16. — The last three days Lady Hes- 
 ter had suffered greatly. To-day she was in very 
 low spirits, and sobbed aloud and wrung her hands, 
 while she bitterly deplored her deserted state. " I 
 believe it will do me good to cry," she said, and she 
 gave way freely to her emotions. But her weeping 
 was not woman-like. It had a wild howl about it, 
 that was painful to me to hear ; she seemed not 
 to be made of stuff for tears : and, if Bellona could 
 have ever wept, she mufst have wept in this way. 
 After she had given vent to her feelings, she gradually 
 recovered, and her natural facundity returned. 
 
 December 17. — Christmas day was approaching, 
 but the weather was of extraordinary mildness. Some 
 idea may be formed of the climate of Syria from the 
 circumstance that my house had no glass to the win- 
 dows, and that the family sat always with the doors
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 181 
 
 open. It was only during the heavy rains that the 
 rooms felt chilly, and then a brazier, with lighted coals, 
 was agreeable and quite sufficient to obviate the cold. 
 
 Lady Hester made me observe how thin she had 
 become. Her bones almost protruded through her 
 skin, and she could not lie comfortably in any posture ; 
 so that it was difficult for her to get rest. Her fret- 
 fulness had increased to such a degree as to be equally 
 distressing to herself and to those about her : yet 
 the vigour of her mind never forsook her for a moment 
 when anything called for its exertion. 
 
 December 20 — was a rainy day, and, when I en- 
 tered her ladyship's chamber, I saw it would be a 
 melancholy one. She was seated in the corner of 
 the room, her features indicating great suffering. She 
 burst into tears the moment I approached her. She 
 had not slept the whole night, and had passed the 
 hours, from the time I left her, in getting up and 
 walking about supported by her women, and then 
 lying down again, seeking relief from the feeling of 
 suffocation and oppression which so much distressed 
 her. The floor of the bed-room was covered with 
 plates, pots, and pans, turnips, carrots, cabbages, 
 knives and forks, spoons, and all other appurtenances 
 of the table and kitchen.
 
 182 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 1 must observe that, on the preceding day, at Lady 
 Hester's request, I had ridden over to Mar Elias to 
 see General Loustaunau, the decayed French officer, 
 vfh.0 had now lived on her bounty for a period of more 
 than twenty years. And although, from being of a 
 choleric and violent temper, he had, on more than one 
 occasion, embroiled himself with her, yet the only 
 difi'erence it made in her treatment towards him was 
 merely to keep him at a distance from herself : but 
 she had never, for one day, ceased to occupy herself 
 with his wants and to provide for his comforts. He 
 was now, as I was told, eighty years old, and his mind 
 was possessed with hallucinations, which he fell into 
 from a belief that he could interpret the prophecies in 
 the Bible. He was constantly poring over that book, 
 and he went very generally by the name of the Pro- 
 phet : Lady Hester herself always called him so. 
 He had a maid-servant to take care of him, a barber, 
 on fixed days, to shave him. Lamb, mutton, or beef, 
 flour for his bread, and wine, were sent as his con- 
 sumption required, money being liberally furnished 
 him for purchasing everything else from Sayda. 
 
 Finding that he was very much neglected by the 
 woman who was appointed to attend him, I men- 
 tioned the fact on my return to Lady Hester, and to
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 183 
 
 this communication was to be attributed the extra- 
 ordinary display on the floor of her bed-room ; tor, 
 from her accustomed sensibility to the sufterings of 
 others, she had fancied that the poor man was in want 
 of everything. " See," she said, " what I am reduced 
 to : ever since daylight this morning" (and it was 
 then nearly noon) " have I been handling pots and 
 pans to make the Prophet comfortable. For on whom 
 can I depend ? — on these cold people — a pack of stocks 
 and stones, who rest immoveable amidst their fellow- 
 creatures' sufferings? Why did not you give that 
 woman a dressino; ? Til have her turned out of the 
 village— an impudent hussy !" 
 
 Here, from having raised her voice, she was seized 
 with a spasm in the throat and chest, and, making a 
 sudden start, " Some water, some water ! make 
 haste !" she cried, and gasped for breath as if almost 
 suffocated. I handed her some immediately, which 
 she greedily drank : I then threw the window open, 
 and she became better. " Don't leave me, doctor : 
 ring the bell ; — I can't bear to be left alone a mo- 
 ment ; for, if one of these attacks were to come on, 
 and I could not ring the bell, what could I do ? You 
 must forgive me if I fall into these violent passions ; 
 but such is my nature : I can't help it. I am like
 
 184- MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the horse that Mr. Pitt had. Mr. Pitt used to say, 
 ' You must guide him with a hair ; if I only move 
 my leg, he goes on ; and his pace is so easy, it's quite 
 charming : but, if you thwart him or contradict him, 
 he is unmanageable f — thafs me." 
 
 But, to return to General Loustaunau, or the Prophet. 
 As his name has already appeared several times, it may 
 not be amiss to give a short outline of his life, the 
 particulars of which he communicated to me himself. 
 From a village in the Pyrenees, near to Tarbes, one 
 day a young man, about twenty-four years of age, 
 sallied forth, he knew not whither, to seek his fortune. 
 Sprung from a family of peasants, he had received 
 little or no education, and had nothing to depend on 
 but his well-knitted frame, an intelligent and hand- 
 some countenance, robust health, and his activity. 
 He directed his steps towards one of the great sea- 
 ports of France, resolved to work his passage to 
 America. But, when walking the quays and in- 
 quiring for a vessel bound across the Atlantic, he was 
 told there was none ; there was, however, a large 
 merchant-ship freighting for the East Indies. Learn- 
 ing that the country she was chartered for was still 
 more distant than the western colonies, he concluded, 
 in his ardent and youthful mind, that it would open
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 185 
 
 to him a still greater chance of meeting with adven- 
 tures and of enriching himself. He accordingly got 
 himself rated to work his passage as a seaman, and 
 arrived in safety at the ship''s destination. 
 
 It would be useless to occupy the reader's time with 
 the struggles which every man, unknown and without 
 recommendations, has to make on a foreign shore, be- 
 fore he gets a footing in some shape congenial to his 
 talents or his inclination. Natural talents Loustaunau 
 had ; for, in the space of a few months after his arrival 
 on the Indian coast, he was spoken of as an intelligent 
 young man to the French ambassador, Monsieur de 
 Marigny, residing at Poonah, the Mahratta court, 
 as far as I could understand : since it is to be borne 
 in mind that Mr. Loustaunau, when he related all 
 this, was eighty years old, had almost lost his me- 
 mory, and was relapsing into second childhood. He 
 soon after became an inmate of the embassy, on terms 
 of some familiarity with Monsieur de Marigny, who 
 discovered, in the young adventurer's conversation, 
 so much o;ood sense and such elevation of mind, that 
 he used to say to him, " It strikes me that you are no 
 common man." 
 
 It so happened that the war between the English 
 and the Eajah of Mahratta brought the hostile armies
 
 186 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 into the field at no <Treat distance from Poouah ; and 
 Mr. L. one day told the ambassador, that, as he had 
 never seen what war was, and had not far to o-o to do 
 so, he should be much obliged if he would permit him 
 to absent himself for a short time to be spectator of 
 the action, which, report said, must soon take place 
 between the two armies. Monsieur de M. tried to dis- 
 suade him from it, asking him of what use it would be 
 to risk his life for the satisfaction of an empty curiosity. 
 Mr. L.'s reply was, " If I am killed, why then honjour, 
 and there will be an end of me." M. de Marigny, 
 therefore, complied with his wishes, and sent him with 
 some of his own people, and an introductory letter, to 
 General Norolli, a Portuguese, who commanded the 
 Eajah Scindeah's artillery. 
 
 He had not to wait lonj; for the gratification of his 
 curiosity. An action took place : the forces were 
 warmly engaged, and Mr. L. walked about within 
 musket-shot distance to observe the manceuvres of the 
 two armies. The English had planted a battery on a 
 rocky elevation, which made much havoc among the 
 Mahratta forces. Between this battery on its flank 
 and an opposite cliff there was a deep ravine which 
 rendered all access from one height to the other im- 
 practicable : but a sloping ground, by making a
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 187 
 
 circuit in the rear of the Mahratta forces, aftbrded 
 a practicability of bringing field-pieces to the summit 
 of the cliflf to bear on the Enijlish battery from the 
 Mahratta side. 
 
 Mr. L. took an opportunity of addressing himself 
 to General N., and pointed out to him the probability 
 of silencing, or, at least, of annoying the English 
 battery from the cliff in question ; but the general 
 treated his remark in a slighting manner, and, riding 
 to another part of the field, took no farther notice of 
 him. Mr. L. had seated himself on a hillock, still 
 making his reflections, when an old JNIaliratta officer, 
 who had heard the conversation between Mr. L. and 
 the general of the artillery, and had partly under- 
 stood what Mr. L. proposed should be done, ap- 
 proached him. " Well, sir," said he, " what do you 
 think of our artillery V — " If I were a flatterer," 
 replied Mr. L., " I should say that it was well served ; 
 but, as I am not, you will pardon me if I think it 
 bad." The officer went on — " You see the day is 
 likely to go against us — what would you do if you 
 had the command?" — "Oh! as for the command, I 
 don't know," rejoined Mr, L., " but this one thing I 
 do know, that, if I had but two pieces of cannon, I 
 would turn the day in your master's favour." — " How
 
 188 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 would you do that ?" asked the officer : " perhaps I 
 could put two field-pieces at your disposal." — " If you 
 could," said Mr. L,, "I would plant them on yonder 
 height" (pointing at the same time to it), "and let my 
 head answer for my presumption if I do not effect 
 what I promise." 
 
 The bearing of the Frenchman, and his energetic 
 manner of speaking, together with his evident cool- 
 ness and self-possession on a field of battle, made a 
 great impression on the Mahratta officer. " Come with 
 me, young man," said he, " I will conduct you to the 
 rajah." — " With all my heart," replied Mr. L. When 
 brought into his presence, Scindeah asked the officer 
 what the stranger wanted, and the officer repeated the 
 conversation that had just passed. " Well," says 
 Scindeah, " he does not ask for money, he only asks 
 for guns : give them to him, and let them be served 
 by some of my best gunners. The idea may be good : 
 only be expeditious, or we may soon be where that 
 infernal battery of the English can annoy us no 
 longer." 
 
 Accordingly, without a moment''s delay, two field- 
 pieces were dragged up by the back of the cliff to the 
 spot pointed out, Mr. L. entrusting the command of 
 one of them to another Frenchman whose curiosity
 
 LADY HP:STER STANHOPE. 189 
 
 had brought him on the field also. The very second 
 shot that was fired at the English battery blew up an 
 artillery waggon (caisson) full of powder. The ex- 
 plosion dismounted some of the cannon, killed several 
 men, and created so much confusion, that the English, 
 in consequence of it, eventually lost the battle and 
 were forced to retreat. Mr. L. had two or three of 
 his men killed. " There ! you may take your cannon 
 back,"" said he, as soon as the explosion took place ; 
 " I have nothino- farther to do ;" and he and his brother 
 Frenchman walked away to watch the result of the 
 mischief they had done. 
 
 When the day was over, an officer of the rajah's 
 conveyed to Mr. Loustaunau his master's request that 
 he would attend on him at his tent. Mr. L. pre- 
 sented himself, and Scindeah received him with marks 
 of great consideration. Addressing himself to Mr. L., 
 " You have done me, sir," said he, " a most essential 
 service to-day ; and, as a small recompense for your 
 gallantry and the military talent you have shewn, I 
 beo- your acceptance of a few presents, together with 
 the assurance that, if you like to enter my service, 
 you shall have the command of a company imme- 
 diately." Mr. L. thanked him in proper language, 
 and, declining the presents offered, said, " Your
 
 190 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 highness will excuse me if I refuse your gifts : I will, 
 however, with pleasure accept the sword which I see 
 among them, but nothing else. The offer of a com- 
 mission in your army I must equally decline, as I am 
 bound to return to our ambassador, to whom I owe 
 too many obligations to take any step without his 
 permission." Scindeah could not but approve of this 
 reply ; and Mr. L., making his bow, returned towards 
 the place where he was lodged. 
 
 When night came, and General Norolli, havinir 
 made his dispositions, had also returned to his quarters, 
 whilst yet on horseback and as if moved by jealousy 
 to repress the exultation which he imagined Mr. L. 
 might have indulged in, he called out in a loud and 
 angry tone, " Where is Mr. Loustaunau, where is 
 that gentleman V Mr. L., who was standing not far 
 off, approached, and, as the general dismounted, said, 
 " Here I am, general, at your command." — " I saw," 
 observed Mr. L. (interrupting himself whilst relating 
 this part of his story to me) " that the general was in 
 a rage, which appeared more plainly as he continued." 
 — " Who, sir, authorized you to present yourself to 
 the rajah without my leave ? Don't you know that all 
 Europeans must be introduced by me V — " General," 
 repKed Mr. L., " I was summoned by his highness,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 191 
 
 and I went : if you are angry because I have done 
 some little service to your master, I cannot help it. 
 You are not ignorant that I pointed out to you first 
 of all the commanding position which struck me as 
 fitted for planting a battery : you refused to listen 
 to my suggestion ; and, if it was afterwards adopted 
 by others, that is your fault, not mine." — " Sir," 
 cried the general, irritated more and more by this 
 remark, " you deserve to have this whip across your 
 shoulders." — " General," retorted Mr. L., "you suffer 
 your anger to get the better of your reason. If you 
 have any whippings to bestow, you must keep them 
 for your Portuguese — Frenchmen are not accustomed 
 to take them." The general's fury now knew no 
 bounds : he put his hand on one of the pistols in 
 his girdle, intending to shoot Mr. L. " But I," said 
 Mr. L., " was ready ; and, with my eyes fixed on 
 him, would have seized the other, had he drawn it 
 out, and I would have shot him; for, you know, in 
 self-defence, one will not stand still to have a bullet 
 through one''s body, without preventing it, if possible. 
 However, some officers held the general's arm, and 
 shortly after I retired, and, remaining a day or two 
 more in the camp, returned to the place where I had 
 left our ambassador.
 
 192 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " When I told him what had happened — * Stay 
 with me, Loustaunau,' said he ; 'it is my intention 
 to raise a few troops here, and, since you seem to like 
 fighting, you shall be employed,' But in a few weeks 
 the ambassador was recalled to France, and he offered 
 to take me with him, promising to get me employ- 
 ment at home. However, I considered that I had 
 better chances in remaining where I was than in 
 going to my native country, where birth, patronage, 
 and the usages of good society, are necessary for a 
 man's advancement, all which I wanted." 
 
 Mr. Loustaunau, left to his own exertions, recollected 
 the rajah's offer ; and, on applying to him, received a 
 commission in the Mahratta army. Eminently 
 qualified by nature for military command, his ad- 
 vancement was rapid ; and, after distinguishing him- 
 self in several actions, and showing likewise a 
 very superior judgment in political affairs, he finally 
 became general of Scindeah's troops, although I could 
 not ascertain in how short a time. His reputation 
 spread rapidly through the territory, and his noble 
 conduct and intrepidity must have been very generally 
 known, since, on one occasion, after having been 
 severely wounded in his left hand, two fingers of 
 which he had lost, the commander of the English
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 193 
 
 forces sent a flao- of ti-uce and his own suro-eon with 
 an offer of his professional assistance, fearing that 
 Mr. L. might not have a European surgeon to attend 
 liim. Scindeah, in his despatches to him, styled him 
 a lion in hattle and a lynx in council. He con- 
 sulted him in difficult negociations with the East India 
 Company''s servants ; and, in acknowledgment of his 
 services, he gave him a village as an appanage to his 
 rank. Mr. L. married the daughter of a French 
 officer, by whom he had four or five children, one of 
 whom is now living at Givet, in the department of 
 the Ardennes. 
 
 Mr. L. was fearless at all times, and inimical to 
 despotism even in the centre of its worshippers. 
 Scindeah had unjustly imprisoned an Armenian 
 merchant, whose wealth he intended to confiscate 
 for his own benefit. As the oppressive act was 
 founded on no just grounds, and application had 
 been made to General Loustaunau for his inter- 
 position, when he found that entreaties were of no 
 avail, " one day," said he, " I took fifty of my men, 
 fellows de bonne volo?ite, and, marching strait to the 
 rajah's palace at a time when I knew he was in his 
 divan, I entered, walked up to him, and in a mild, 
 but pretty determined tone, said, ' Highness, be not 
 
 VOL. n. K
 
 194 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 alarmed, I am come to ask a favour of you : you 
 must release the Armenian merchant, as I have sworn 
 to set him free.' Scindeah saw that I meant not to 
 trifle, and, assuming a friendly air, he complied with 
 my request. The guards were astounded at my 
 audacity, but they dared not stir, for I and my men 
 would have sabred them instantly." 
 
 After having covered himself with glory, as the 
 French express it, he obtained his conge; and, being 
 resolved to return to France, he visited some of the 
 English settlements in his way to the place of his em- 
 barkation, where he was most honourably and hospi- 
 tably treated. He always spoke of this period as the 
 happiest of his life, and mentioned the names of some 
 English gentlemen with the highest encomiums and 
 most pleasing reminiscences. 
 
 Having converted what property he could into 
 money, he obtained bills on France, and set out for 
 his native countrj\ The revolution had broken out ; 
 and, on his arrival, his bills were all paid, but in as- 
 signats ; so that in a few weeks he found himself 
 almost penniless. Of this calamitous part of his his- 
 tory I could gather but few details. I have heard 
 him say that some branch of the Orleans family 
 assisted him. Certain it is that he had either money 
 
 4
 
 LADY IIF.STER STANHOPE. 105 
 
 or friends yet left ; for, with the wreck of his property, 
 or by some other means, he establislied an iron-foundery 
 near the place of his nativity. He was so close, how- 
 ever, to the frontiers of Spain, that, during the war 
 with that country and France, in an incursion of the 
 enemy, all his property was destroyed. 
 
 How he got to Mahon, or for what purpose, I am 
 equally ignorant : but, embarking from that port, he 
 found his way to Syria, probably intending to make 
 his way overland to India, there to reclaim his pro- 
 perty. But his intellects must have been already 
 somewhat disordered : for, when we heard him first 
 spoken of in Palestine, in 1812 or 1813, he was de- 
 scribed as a man living almost on the alms of the 
 Europeans, and generally to be seen with a bible under 
 his arm, negligent of his person, housed in a hovel, 
 and going even then by the sobriquet of the Prophet. 
 
 At the time I am now speaking of, the bare men- 
 tion of politics or catastrophes was sure to set him 
 wandering on the prophetic writings, and then com- 
 mon sense was at an end. But I had known him for 
 twenty years, when his lucid intervals were only oc- 
 casionally interrupted by these hallucinations ; and I 
 had seldom met with a man who had such an inde- 
 pendent character, such naturally noble sentiments 
 
 K 2
 
 1.96 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 couched in such appropriate language, and such an 
 intuitive discernment of what was suitable in unlooked- 
 for emergencies. He was bold as a lion ; and, when 
 in anger, had the physiognomy and expression of that 
 noble animal. He had never served in diplomatic 
 situations before his elevation, had never studied poli- 
 tical economy, moral philosophy, literature, or any- 
 thing else, that I could find ; and yet, in all these, 
 the innate dictates of his mind responded at once to 
 the call, and he could see the right and wrong, the 
 utile et decorum, the expediency and evil, the loveli- 
 ness and ugliness of every subject presented to him. 
 He had a strong memory, and retained many of the 
 passages of the best French authors by heart. He 
 was handsome in his person, rather tall, and his de- 
 meanour was suitable to his station in life. In a word, 
 he was born to " achieve jrreatness." 
 
 General L. had now lived five and twenty years on 
 Lady Hester's bounty. His family, consisting of two 
 or three sons and some dauo;hters, were left with not 
 very bright prospects in France. Lady Hester Stan- 
 hope had at different times employed persons to assist 
 them, and, to my knowledge, had sent 1000 francs 
 through a merchant's hands at INIarseilles, besides 
 other sums, of which I have heard her speak. She
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 1.97 
 
 also paid for the education of one daughter some 
 years. In 1825, one of the sons, who had by his mi- 
 litary services obtained the rank of captain in Na- 
 poleon's Imperial Guard, being left, by the fall of that 
 Emperor, in inactivity, resolved to visit Syria, to see 
 his father. 
 
 General L.'s intellects were so far weakened, that 
 nothing which happened to him personally seemed to 
 affect him, only as it verified some of his favourite 
 predictions, drawn from texts in the Bible. He there- 
 fore beheld his son's arrival with indifference, as far as 
 paternal affection went, but discovered in it other bear- 
 ings, of immense importance in the political changes 
 that were at hand. Not so Lady Hester Stanhope : 
 she knew that the general held as an appanage the 
 revenue of a whole village in the Mahratta country, 
 which had been given to him by Scindeah ; and she 
 resolved to furnish Captain L. with money to enable 
 him to go and recover his father's possessions. 
 
 The captain remained at Dar Joon for some months. 
 He had his horse, was lodged in a pavilion in the 
 garden, and treated with every mark of respect. 
 Restless, hasty in his temper, overbearing, and accus- 
 tomed to the blustering manners of a camp, he occa- 
 sionally got into difficulties with the natives, both
 
 198 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Mahometans and Christians. Not aware of the ne- 
 cessity of much precaution in shunning checks of 
 perspiration in hot climates, he one day caught a fever, 
 which almost brought him to his grave. He recovered, 
 however, and was convalescent, when his imprudence 
 caused a relapse, and he died. He was buried in Lady 
 Hester"'s garden, where his tomb, ornamented with 
 flowering shrubs, and entirely shaded by a beautiful 
 arbour, still remains.' The poor father never would be- 
 lieve in his death. " He is not interred," he used to say, 
 " but is still alive, and on the earth : do not be grieved 
 about him ; in the year 1847 he will join me here. 
 I and my lady shall then be made young again, and 
 your little daughter is destined to be my future wife.*" 
 The poor old general, it was observed by us, seemed 
 to have no greater pleasure than watching our daughter 
 whilst she watered her flowers or fed her bulbiils. 
 
 The way in which Lady Hester herself sometimes 
 souo'ht to lio-hten the weiffht of the oblirations she 
 
 ~ ~ 'J O 
 
 conferred on the general will serve to shew the deli- 
 cacy of her feelings. At difterent periods, several 
 places had been chosen for his residence, according as 
 he grew tired of one or the other : for he was a testy 
 
 ' In this same tomb Lady Hester herself was afterwards 
 interred.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 199 
 
 uld man in some respects, and seemed to forget how 
 much it was his duty not to put her ladyship to more 
 trouble and expense than he could help. Once, when 
 she had had a comfortable cottage fitted up for him in 
 a village called Aynaaty (from taking in dudgeon some- 
 tliing that happened to him), he suddenly quitted it, 
 and went off to Beyrout. " He went off," said Lady 
 Hester, " with no less than five trunks full of clothes 
 and other things, with two watches bought with the 
 money I had given him, and with a good bag full of 
 piasters : for he had little occasion to spend, as 1 
 sent him every two days fresh meat of my own killing, 
 flour for his bread when it was wanting, sugar, tea, 
 coffee — and everything, I may say, except milk and 
 vegetables. He went to Beyrout, and there lived and 
 talked away largely and foolishly, and gave out that he 
 would sooner live with the devil than with such a woman 
 as I vv^as. After a time, his resources failed him, his 
 friends grew cool, and he returned to Sayda, where he 
 fastened himself on Monsieur Reynaud, who soon 
 grew tired of keeping him, and little by little I heard 
 he was reduced to great straits." The fact is, he 
 found no friend, except for an occasional invitation to 
 dinner, and Lady Hester knew he must be in want ; 
 but she knew also, in the state of mind he was in, he
 
 200 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 would refuse assistance from her. She therefore made 
 use of an expedient to furnish him with money. 
 
 Sending for one of the Pasha's Tartars, and putting 
 a bag of gold into his hand, she told him he was to 
 ride into Sayda, and proceed strait to the gate of 
 the French khan (where Mr. Loustaunau was), dusty 
 and sweating, as if from a long journey. There he 
 was to inquire if they knew anything of a French- 
 man, once a general in India ; and, after apparently 
 well ascertaining it was the man he was in search of, 
 the Tartar was to desire to speak with him, and to 
 say — " Sir, when on my road from Damascus, a 
 Hindu mussulman on his pilgrimage to Mecca, who 
 once served under you in India, but is now rich and 
 advanced in years, learning that you were in these 
 countries, and anxious to testify the respect which the 
 natives of Scindeah's territories still retain for you, 
 has commissioned me to put this into your hands." 
 — " Having done so," added Lady Hester Stanhope, 
 " you are not to give him time to see what it is, but 
 to ride away." The vile fellow promised faithfully to 
 execute his commission, received in advance a recom- 
 pense for his trouble, and then — will it be believed ? — 
 rode off with the money, and kept it. But Lady 
 Hester, who was careful to ascertain, by indirect
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOrE. 201 
 
 means, whether a Tartar had made his appearance at 
 the khan, on learning his perfidy, got it spread among 
 the Pasha's and the government Tartars ; and they 
 were so indignant at his little trustworthiness, a qua- 
 lity on which, from the nature of their employ, they 
 are obliged to value themselves, that they turned him 
 out of their corps, and he never dared to show his 
 face a^ain. 
 
 To finish what remains to be said of this once 
 shining character, but now the pensioner of an English- 
 woman, he had resided for these last ten years at a 
 distance from Lady Hester Stanhope's residence, and 
 they had not even seen each other for five or six 
 years. " I have been obliged to keep him at a dis- 
 tance," said her ladyship, "for the last ten years, 
 in order that people might not think I had taken 
 care of him to make him trumpet my greatness : 
 for you don't know what harm that man has done 
 me. He used to go about preaching that all the 
 queens in Christendom were a pack of women of the 
 town, iand that I was the only real queen. He told 
 everybody he would not change situations with the 
 first prince in Europe ; for the day would come when, 
 through me, he should be greater than any of them."" 
 
 k5
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Lady Hester like the first Lord Chatham — Her recollec- 
 tions of Chevening — Her definition of insults — Her deliberate 
 
 affronts — Her war-like propensities — Earl C Marquis of 
 
 Abercorn — Logmagi — Osman Chaoosh — Letter from Colonel 
 Campbell — George the Third's flattering compliment to Lady 
 Hester— Her Majesty Queen Victoria — Lord M. — Prophecy 
 of a ivelly — Lady Hester's poignant affliction — Her intracta- 
 bility — Her noble and disinterested benevolence.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 205 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 December 21, 1837. — I had sat up until two iu the 
 morning despatching letters to Europe, whicii I had 
 written by Lady Hester's dictation, through the channel 
 ofM. Guys, the French consul at Bey rout, who, alone, 
 among the Europeans there, had contrived to remain 
 on friendly terms with her. In my letter to him, 
 Lady Hester required that I should tell him she was 
 in a state of convalescence. Alas ! she was far from 
 being so ; for, on going to her, I found her labouring 
 under many bad symptoms, against which she con- 
 tended with a spirit that seemed to brook no control 
 — not even from nature herself. As she could not 
 talk, I read to her, out of the Speaker, a character of 
 the first Lord Chatham. She recognised, and so did 
 I, so many points of resemblance between herself and 
 her grandfather, that she said, more than once,
 
 206 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " That's me."' At the words, " He reigned with un- 
 bounded control over the wilderness of free minds," I 
 observed that there was something contradictory in 
 control and freedom. " No, there is not," said she. 
 " If you are walking on the road, and you inquire the 
 way of some person you meet, he tells you the best 
 road is in such a direction, and then takes his leave ; 
 you turn round, every now and then, as long as the 
 person is in sight, to look at him to see if he points to 
 you that you are going right ; but you are free to go 
 which way you will." 
 
 December 31. — 1 saw Lady Hester in the morning, 
 after which I took a walk with my family : on my 
 return, I went again to inquire how she was. One of 
 her maids told me that, soon after I had left her, she 
 suddenly burst into tears, and cried a great deal, they 
 could not tell why ; that she had called for Zezefoon 
 to dress her, had, in a manner, rushed out of her bed- 
 room, and had gone to the saloon, where, in con- 
 sequence of her long confinement, she found all the sofa 
 cushions piled up, and the sofa mattresses removed, 
 so that she had not a place to sit down on ; that then 
 she had left the saloon abruptly, on seeing the state 
 it was in, and returned to her bed-room, where she 
 gave loose to her sorrow.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 207 
 
 My presence being announced, I was admitted. 
 " Doctor," said she, " to-night in my father's house 
 there used to be a hundred tenants and servants sitting 
 down to a good dinner, and dancing and making 
 merry. I see their happy faces now before my eyes : 
 and, when I think of that and how I am surrounded 
 here, it is too much for me. When you left me this 
 morning, things of former times came over my mind, 
 and I could not bear to sit here, so I went out to 
 break the chain of my thoughts. I would have gone 
 into the garden, if it had not rained." 
 
 I endeavoured to say sometliing consolatory to her. 
 "■ Everybody," she continued, " is unkind to me. I 
 have sought to do good to everybody, either by re- 
 lieving their distresses or purifying their morals, and 
 1 get no thanks for my pains. I sometimes make 
 reproaches to myself for having spent my money on 
 worthless beings, and think it might have been better 
 otherwise ; but God knows best. I had hoped to find 
 some persons whose minds might have been en- 
 lifhtened, and who would have felt the importance of 
 what I tell them. But you even, of whom I had 
 some hope, are as bad as the rest ; and, if you assent 
 to the truth of what I say, you make so many hums 
 and hahs that I don't believe you care a farthing about 
 it. I want nobody that has no conviction."
 
 208 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " I should thiok it a sin, if I saw people acting 
 foolishly, not to tell them of it. It does not signify 
 who it is, you or the stable-boy ; if I can make them 
 aware of their folly, I have done my duty. Why do 
 I scold you so much, but because I wish you to pre- 
 pare yourself for the convulsions that will shortly take 
 place. I always acknowledge your spotless integrity, 
 and thank you for the care you bestow on my affairs, 
 and in keeping things a little in order ; but, in these 
 times, something more is wanting : a man must be 
 active, and prepared for great events. People are 
 teaching their children to read and write, when they 
 should be teaching them to drive a mule. For of 
 what use are your reading-men, who sit poring for 
 hours over books, without an object ? I have a 
 thorough contempt for them, and for all your mer- 
 chants, and your merchants"' clerks, who spend their 
 time between the countino;-house and the brothel." 
 
 Lady Hester reverted again to Chevening, and 
 spoke at great length of her grandmother Stanhope's 
 excellent management of the house, when she (Lady 
 Hester) was a child. At all the accustomed festivals, 
 plum puddings, that required two men to carry them, 
 with large barons of beef, were dressed, &c., &c. All 
 the footmen were like gentlemen ushers, all the 
 masters and mistresses like so many ambassadors and
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 209 
 
 ambassadresses, such form and etiquette were preserved 
 in all the routine of visits and parties. Every person 
 kept his station, and precise rules were laid down for 
 each inmate of the family. Thus, the lady's-maid 
 was not allowed to wear white, nor curls, nor heels to 
 her shoes, beyond a certain height ; and Lady Stan- 
 hope had in her room a set of instruments and im- 
 plements of punishment to enforce her orders on all 
 occasions, There were scissors to cut off fine curls, 
 a rod to whip with, «fec., &c. 
 
 No poor woman lay-in in the neighbourhood, but two 
 guineas in money, baby linen, a blanket, some posset, 
 two bottles of wine, and other necessaries, were sent 
 to her. If any one among the servants was sick, the 
 housekeeper, with the still-room maid behind her, was 
 seen carrying the barley-water, the gruel, the medi- 
 cine, &c., to administer to the patient, according to 
 the doctor's orders. In the hopping time, all the 
 vagrants and Irish hoppers were locked up every night 
 in a barn by themselves, and suffered to have no com- 
 munication with the household. A thousand pieces 
 of dirty linen were washed every week, and the wash- 
 house had four different stone troughs, from which the 
 linen was handed, piece by piece, by the washer- 
 women from the scalder down to the rinser. In the
 
 210 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 laundry a false ceiling, let down and raised by pulleys, 
 served to air the linen after it was ironed. There 
 was a mangle to get up the table-linen, towels, &c., 
 and three stoves for drying on wet days. The table- 
 cloths were of the finest damask, covered with patterns 
 of exquisite workmanship. At set periods of the 
 year, pedlars and merchants from Glasgow, from Dun- 
 stable, and other places, passed with their goods. 
 The housekeeper's room was surrounded with presses 
 and closets, where were arranged stores and linen in 
 the nicest order. An ox was killed every week, and a 
 sheep every day, &c., &c. In the relation of these 
 details, which I spare the reader, as being, probably, 
 what he has observed in many other families, Lady 
 Hester by degrees recovered her self-possession, whilst 
 they only served to impress more forcibly on my mind 
 the sad contrast which reigned in everything about 
 her between her former and her present condition. 
 
 January 10 — 15, 1838. — The cough continued, at- 
 tended by spasms in the limbs. Yet, although she was 
 thus exhausted and harassed by continued suffering, the 
 elasticity of mind she exhibited in the few intervals of 
 ease she enjoyed was astonishing. The moment she 
 had a respite from actual pain, she immediately set 
 about some labour for the benefit of others ; and the
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 211 
 
 room was again strewed over with bundles and boxes. 
 But, in spite of these delusive appearances, J could not 
 conceal from myself that a hectic spot occasionally 
 marked the inroads which disease was now making 
 on her lun2,s. 
 
 January 17, 1838. — What a day of anxiety and 
 sorrow for me, and of anguish for Lady Hester ! From 
 morning until midnight to see a melancholy picture 
 of a never-dying spirit, in an exhausted frame, wrest- 
 ling with its enemy, and daring even to set the 
 heaviest infirmities of nature at defiance. Yet, who 
 does not bend under the power of disease ? Lady 
 Hester held out as long as a human being could do ; 
 but at last her anguish showed that, like Prometheus 
 bound, she was compelled to acknowledge the weight 
 of a superior hand, and that resistance was vain. 
 
 The reflections she made on her abandoned situation, 
 neglected by her friends and left to die without one 
 relation near her, were full of the bitterness of grief. 
 In these moments, as if the excess of her indignation 
 must have some object to waste itself upon, she would 
 launch out into the most fierce invectives against me, 
 and tell me I was a cannibal and a vulture that tore 
 her heart by my insensibility. 
 
 A day or two before, in defending myself against
 
 212 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 the accusation of coldness and want of feelino-. I had 
 
 O' 
 
 inadvertently said that it was an insult to a person, 
 whose intentions she could not but know were well 
 meaning, to heap so much abuse on him. To this 
 her ladyship said nothing at the time ; but to-day, 
 being in a state of excitement, the word insult recurred 
 to her recollection, " Do you not know,"" she asked, 
 "that people of my rank and spirit are incapable of in- 
 sults towards their friends : it is only the vulgar who 
 are always fancying themselves insulted. If a man 
 treads on another's toe in good society, do you think 
 
 it is taken as an insult ? It is only people like 
 
 and who take such things into their heads. I never 
 
 have hurt a person's feelings in my life intentionally, 
 except, perhaps, by my wit. But if people expect 
 that I should not tell them the truth to their face, 
 they are much mistaken ; and if you or anybody else 
 acts like a fool, I must say so. Such people as Lord 
 Melville and Mr. Pitt would stop, perhaps, until a 
 person was gone out of the room to say ' That man is the 
 most egregious ass I ever saw f but I, were he a king, 
 must say it to his face. I might, if I chose, flatter 
 and deceive you and a hundred others. There is no 
 one whom I could not lead by the nose, if I chose to 
 do it ; I know every man's price, and how to buy
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 213 
 
 him : but I will not stoop to the baseness of makina,- 
 you run your head through a wall, even though I saw 
 some advantage for myself on the other side. As for 
 your saying, that's your character, and that you can't 
 boar to be spoken to as I speak to you, what do you 
 talk to me of character for? Ever^^body has a cha- 
 racter, and so they have a behind : but they don't go 
 about showing the one any more than the other. Fools 
 are always crying out, ' That's my disposition ;' but 
 what's their disposition to - other people more than 
 their anvthins; else ? 
 
 "Let us have no more of that stuff; for, thou2;h 
 not a man, I shall no more put up with it than if I 
 were ; and I warn you that, if you repeat that word, 
 you stand a chance of having something at your 
 head." 
 
 Let not the reader imagine this was all, or even one 
 half of what her ladyship said on this occasion : it 
 is only a tissue of the most striking sentences. Never 
 had I seen her so irritated as that one expression of 
 mine had made her. She went on in this merciless 
 way for four hours ; and, although I frequently 
 attempted to soothe her by the most earnest as- 
 surances and explanations, she continued in the same 
 strain until evening, when she subsided into a gentler
 
 214 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 tone. Being now restored to a calmer temper, she 
 seemed desirous to atone by kindness for the wound 
 she had inflicted on my feelings, and wanted, amongst 
 other things, to get ponies for my children to ride. 
 The generosity of her nature was obvious in all this, 
 and I resolved, whatever lanouafre she mioht make 
 use of in future, never to take the slightest notice 
 of it. 
 
 This haughty assumption of superiority over others 
 on almost all occasions was a salient feature in her 
 character. It must have created her a host of enemies 
 during the period when she exercised so much power 
 in Mr, Pitt's time ; and probably those persons were 
 not sorry afterwards to witness her humiliation and 
 her downfall. 
 
 Once, at Walmer Castle, the colonel of the regiment 
 stationed there thought himself privileged to take his 
 wife occasionally to walk on the ramparts of the 
 castle, I do not know the localities, and am ignorant 
 how far, in so doing, these two persons might infringe 
 on the privacy of Mr, Pitt and Lady Hester Stan- 
 hope : but, without intimating by a note or a mes- 
 sao-e that such a thino; was disagreeable, she 2:ave 
 orders to the sentry to stop them when they came, 
 and tell them they were not to walk there. Let any
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 215 
 
 one put liiinself in the place of Colonel W., and fancy 
 how such an aft'ront must have wounded his pride. 
 
 Mr. B., a Frenchman, who for many years had 
 been her secretary, and who afterwards held the post 
 of French vice-consul at Damascus, paid her a visit 
 at Joon, and, in the leisure of the morning, took his 
 gun and went out partridge-shooting. On his return 
 to the house, he gave the birds he had shot to the 
 cook, desiring they might be dressed for Lady Hester''s 
 dinner ; but, when they were served up, to his aston- 
 ishment, she ordered them to be thrown out of the 
 window ; observino- that it was stransje he should 
 presume to do that in Syria which he would not dare 
 to do in his native country ; for she thought that, 
 at the restoration of the Bourbons, all the ancient 
 game-laws were revived. She had a secretary after- 
 wards who was an Englishman, who also went out 
 shooting, and to whom she expressed her notions in 
 much the same way, and wondered where he got his 
 licence to carry a gun. Yet in Sj'ria, every person, 
 from the European stranger to the lowest slave, is at 
 liberty to go after the game Avherever he likes. 
 
 If any one expected from her the common courtesies 
 of life, as they are generally understood, he would be 
 greatly disappointed. In her own way she would
 
 216 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 show tliem, tliat is, mixed up with so nianj humili- 
 ations, and with such an assumption of personal and 
 mental superiority in herself, that much was to be 
 home from her, if one wished to live amicably with her. 
 Her delight was to tutor others until she could bring 
 them to think that nobody was worthy of any favour 
 but by her sufferance. Where she had the means, she 
 would assume the authority of controlling even thought. 
 Her daily question to her dependants was — " What busi- 
 ness have you to suppose ? What right have you to think ? 
 I pay people for their hands, and not their stupid ideas." 
 She would say — " What business have people to intro- 
 duce their surmises, and their ' probably this," and ' pro- 
 bably that,' and ' Lady Hester Stanhope, no doubt in 
 so doing,'' and ' the Pasha, as T conjecture, had this 
 in view V How do they know what I intended, or 
 wliat the Pasha thought ? I know that newspapers 
 every day take such liberties, and give their opinions 
 on what ministers and kings intend to do ; but no- 
 body shall take such a liberty with me without my 
 calling them out. My name is everything to me, 
 and nobody shall say he presumes this was what I 
 had in my mind, or that was what I intended to do. 
 At least, if people must pick pockets, let them pick it 
 of a clean pocket-handkerchief, and not of a dirty
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 217 
 
 one. Others are not to be made responsible for their 
 dirty opinions." 
 
 From her manner towards people, it would have 
 seemed that she was the only person in creation 
 privileged to abuse and to command : others had 
 nothing else to do but to obey, and not to think. 
 She was haughty and overbearing, impatient of con- 
 trol, born to rule, and more at her ease when she had 
 a hundred persons to govern than when she had only 
 ten. She would often mention Mr. Pitt's opinion of 
 her fitness for military command. Had she been a 
 man and a soldier, she would have been what the 
 French call a sabreur ; for never was any one so 
 fond of wielding weapons, and of boasting of her capa- 
 bility of using them upon a fit occasion, as she was. 
 In her bed-room, or on her divan, she always had a 
 mace, which was spiked round the head, a steel battle- 
 axe, and a dagger ; but her favourite weapon was the 
 mace. When she took it up, which sometimes was 
 the case if vociferating to the men-servants, I have 
 seen them flinch and draw back to be out of the 
 reach of her arm ; and, on one occasion, a powerful 
 Turk, a man about forty, of great muscular strength, 
 and with a remarkable black beard, on her making a 
 gesture as if to strike him, flew back so suddenly tliat 
 
 YOL. II. L
 
 218 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 he knocked dowu another who was behind him, and 
 fell himself. But though fearless and unruffled in 
 every danger, Lady Hester Stanhope was magnani- 
 mous, gentle to an enemy in her power, and ever 
 mindful of those who had done her any service. Her 
 martial spirit would have made a hero, and she had 
 all the materials of one in her composition. 
 
 Two more anecdotes may serve to show how she 
 sometimes rendered herself disliked. Once at a 
 cabinet dinner, Lady Hester Stanhope entered the 
 room in a way so as to pass the Earl C. who was 
 ushered in just at the same moment ; and, as she did 
 not bow or speak to him, Mr. Pitt said, " Hester, don't 
 you see Lord C. V Lady Hester replied, " No, I 
 saw a great chameleon as I came in, all in pigeon- 
 breasted colours, if that was Lord C." This was 
 because he was dressed in a pigeon-breasted coloured 
 court-dress. " And," she added, as she related the 
 story, " I gave it him prettily once : I said his red 
 face came from the reflection of red boxes ; for, 
 when at breakfast and dinner, he was always calling 
 for his despatch-boxes, and pretending mysterious 
 political affairs, although they were no more than an 
 invitation to a party, or a present of a little Tokay, 
 or something equally trivial. Lord C. had learned
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 219 
 
 his manners, I suppose, from Lord Chesterfield, or 
 some book or another. He attempted being pompous 
 with his large stomach, and his garter on a bad leg, 
 and his great whiskers sticking out as far as this," 
 (here Lady Hester put her fore -fingers indexAvise to 
 her cheeks to show how far) " and a forehead quite 
 flat like the Bourbons. He would talk very loud in 
 the lobby as he came in, or contrive to have his red 
 box brought to him, as if he had papers of great im- 
 portance in it." 
 
 " One day, at court," said Lady Hester, " I was 
 talking to the Duke of Cumberland of Lord Abercorn's 
 going over to Addington, and saying I would give it 
 to him for it, when Lord Abercorn happened to 
 approach us. The prince, who dearly enjoyed such 
 things, immediately cried out — ' Now, little bulldog, 
 have at him."' This was uttered at the moment I 
 advanced towards him. You know, doctor, he had 
 asked for the Garter just before Mr. Pitt w^ent out, 
 and, not having obtained it, had toadied Addington, 
 and got it. I thought it so mean of him, after the 
 numberless favours he had received of Mr. Pitt, to p-o 
 over to Addington, that I was determined to pay him 
 off. So, when I was close to him, looking down at 
 the garter round his leg, I said — ' What's that you 
 
 l2
 
 220 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 have got there, my lord V and before he could answer, 
 I continued — 'I suppose it's a bandage for your 
 broken le2;s."' For Lord Abercorn had once had 
 both his legs broken, and the remark applied doubly, 
 inasmuch as it hit hard on Addington's father''s pro- 
 fession. Lord Abercorn never forgot this : he and 
 I had been very great friends ; but he never liked me 
 afterwards." 
 
 Tuesday, January 23, 1838. — I found Lady Hester 
 to-day out of bed, seated on the ottoman. She wished 
 me to talk or to read to her, so that she might not be 
 forced to speak herself; but her cough, which was 
 incessant, precluded the possibility of doing either. 
 The accumulation of phlegm in her chest made her 
 restless to a painful degree. Shortly afterwards, her 
 spasms began, which caused her arms and sometimes 
 her head to be thrown from side to side with jerks. 
 Her irritability was excessive. Without consulting 
 me, she had been bled the preceding night by a 
 Turkish barber. Her conversation the day before 
 had turned in a general manner on bleeding ; and 
 having ascertained my opinion that bleeding would not 
 be proper for her, she said no more, but took the 
 opposite course. 
 
 The fear of remaining in a recumbent posture made
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 221 
 
 her get up from her bed, and her figure, as she stalked 
 about the room in a flannel dress, having thrown oft" 
 her pelisse and abah, was strange and singular, but 
 curiously characteristic of her independence. 
 
 The only newspaper she received was " Galignani's 
 Messenger," which, whether I was in Syria or in 
 Europe, I had for some years caused to be sent to her 
 from Marseilles, and a file generally went by every 
 merchant-vessel that sailed for Beyrout, which, on an 
 average, was about once a month. Sometimes there 
 was much irregularity in the departure of vessels, as 
 in the winter season, and then, in the solitude of 
 Mount Lebanon, one might remain ignorant of every 
 event in Europe for six weeks and even two months 
 together. 
 
 She had latterly shewn a particular desire to have 
 those passages read to her which related to the Queen, 
 either as describing her court, her rides, or any other 
 circumstance, however trivial, of a personal nature. 
 
 Wednesday, January 24. — Lady Hester sent to me 
 to say that she could see nobody, and requested that 
 I would do nothing, as the day was an unlucky one. 
 
 January 25. — Although suffering in a manner 
 that would have incapacitated any other person from 
 undertaking any occupation. Lady Hester was busily
 
 222 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 employed in making up a mule-load of presents for 
 Logmao'i. " You see, doctor," said she, " how I act 
 towards those who serve me. This man neglects his 
 business in town for me, and I, in return, try to make 
 him comfortable. I have packed up a few coloured 
 glass ornaments to stick up in his cupboards, and 
 some preserves and sweetmeats to treat his old mess- 
 mates with, who would eat him out of house and 
 home, I believe, if I did not take care of him. Only 
 
 7 7 4/ 
 
 think, too, how he beat his breast and cried, and what 
 signs of sorrow he showed at my illness, the last time 
 I saw him ! 
 
 " I must have that stupid fellow, Osman, in, to 
 talk to him about new roofing the dairy, but I shall 
 stick him behind the curtain. Poor man, his mother 
 is very ill, and I think I must let him go to Sayda. 
 He, Mahjoob, and Seyd Ahmed, may have asses when 
 they go to town, but all those other lazy fellows shall 
 walk : I won''t have one of them ride, unless they 
 have more than eioht or ten rotolos in weiolii to brin^ 
 back, idle beasts as they are !" 
 
 Now Osman''s mother might be ill, and no doubt 
 she was ; the dairy, too, might be the ostensible 
 cause of his being called in : but it is also more than 
 probable that, besides all this, she wanted Osman for
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 223 
 
 other purposes. The truth was, he was no stupid 
 fellow, but a wily knave and a clever spy, and Lady 
 Hester was often in the habit of employing him 
 on secret missions — to find out the reason of any 
 movement of the pasha's troops for instance, or to get 
 a clue to some intrigue of the Emir Beshyr's. But 
 she would say, " Osraan is gone to town to see his sick 
 mother ;" and nobody dared to say otherwise. 
 
 January 27. — To-day the secretary requested me 
 to acquaint Lady Hester that he wished to see her 
 on important business. He was admitted, and showed 
 a letter from his father, the English consular agent 
 at Sayda,' signifying that, in the course of the day, 
 he should be the bearer of a letter to Lady Hester 
 Stanhope, which had been sent by Mr. Moore, 
 Her Britannic Majesty's consul at Beyrout, which 
 he was charged to deliver into her ladyship's own 
 hands himself. I had retired when the secretary 
 entered ; but, when he was gone. Lady Hester sent 
 for me, and I found her in a violent passion. " There 
 
 ^ The English consular agent at this time was Signer 
 Abella, whose father was a Maltese : hence Mr. Abella was 
 known as El Malty. The noble family of Testaferrata and 
 Abella is the stock from which Signor Abella is descended ; 
 but in Turkey, Stemmata quid faciunt ?
 
 224 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 is that man, the okl Maltese," said she, " comiug to 
 pester me with his impertinence, but I have sent off 
 his son to meet him on the road, and drive him hack. 
 If anything in the shape of a consul sets his foot 
 within my doors, Fll have him shot ; and, if nobody 
 else will do it, Fll do it myself. See that he sets off 
 this very instant, and tell him to return with the 
 letter, without stopping." 
 
 I did so, and returned to Ladv Hester. Conceivinsr 
 that this letter was an answer she was expecting to 
 one she had written to Sir Francis Burdett, about the 
 property supposed to have been left her, her agitation 
 and impatience rose to such a degree, that I thought 
 she would have gone frantic, or that her violence would 
 have ended in suffocation. She complained she could 
 not breathe. " It's here, it's here," she cried in ex- 
 treme agitation, taking me by the throat to show me 
 where, and giving me such a squeeze, that now when 
 I am writing, twenty-four hours after, I feel it still. 
 I tried in vain to calm her impatience. I sent off a 
 servant on horseback to hurry the secretary back, but 
 he did not appear, and the day, until about four o'clock, 
 was passed in this manner. 
 
 To account for this extraordinary agitation, it 
 must again be observed, that at the recurrence of
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 22o 
 
 the period of each steainboafs arrival at Beyrout, 
 Lady Hester anxiously expected an answer to her 
 letter to Sir Francis Burdett ; for it was on the 
 strength of this property supposed to have been left 
 her that she had intimated to some of her creditors 
 her expectation of being soon enabled to satisfy all 
 their demands. It was in reliance on this, too, that 
 she had invited me to come over. And not doubting 
 in the least the truth of the information secretly con- 
 veyed to her by some one of her friends, it may be 
 supposed that a packet to be delivered into nobody's 
 hands but her own was readily conjectured to relate 
 to this business. 
 
 About four o'clock, Mr. Abella, the English 
 agent, his sou, and the servant, made their appear- 
 ance. The secretary was called in. " Tell your 
 father I shall not see him ; and, doctor, go and take 
 the letter, and bring it to me," was Lady Hester's 
 exclamation. I went to Mr. Abella, but found him 
 determined not to part with it, unless he gave it into 
 Lady Hester's own hand. I urged upon him the 
 impossibility of his doing so, as she had seen nobody 
 for some weeks ; at last, on his still persisting, we 
 became somewhat warm on the matter. This was 
 better than going to Lady Hester to ask her what 
 
 L 5
 
 226 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 was to be done ; for her answer probably would have 
 been to desire two of her stoutest Turks to go 
 with sticks, and take it from him by force. At last. 
 Mr. Abella gave up his trust, upon condition that 1 
 would write a paper representing that he had done it 
 forcibly ; in such a fright was he lest Mr. Moore 
 should turn him out of his place. 
 
 Instead of being an answer from Sir Francis Bur- 
 dett, the letter was from Colonel Campbell, signifying 
 that, in consequence of an application made to the 
 English government, by Maalem Horasy, one of Lady 
 Stanhope's creditors, an order had come from Lord 
 Palmerston to stop her pension, unless the debt was paid. 
 
 It might have been supposed that the double dis- 
 appointment of not hearing from Sir Francis Burdett, 
 and of receiving such a missive from Colonel Campbell, 
 would have considerably increased her anger : but, on 
 the contrary, she grew apparently quite calm, gently 
 placed the letter on the bed, and read the contents : — 
 
 Colonel P. Campbell^ Her Majesty's Consul-general for Egypt 
 and Syria, to Lady Hester Stanhope. 
 
 Cairo, Jan. 10, 1838. 
 Madam, 
 
 1 trust that your ladyship will believe my sincerity, when I 
 
 assure you with how much reluctance and pain it is that I feel
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 227 
 
 myself again ' imperatively called upou to address you upon 
 the subject of the debt so long due by you to Mr. Homsy. 
 
 The Government of the Viceroy has addressed that of Her 
 Majesty upon the subject, and, by a despatch which I have 
 received from Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for 
 Foreign Affairs, I am led to believe that a confidential friend 
 of your ladyship will have already written to you to entreat 
 you to settle this affair. 
 
 Your ladyship must be aware that, in order to procure your 
 pension from Her Majesty's Government, it is necessary to 
 sign a declaration, and to have the consular certificate, at the 
 expiration of each quarter. 
 
 I know that this certificate has hitherto been signed by 
 M. Guys, the consul of France at Beyrout; but, in strict 
 
 ' At the word " again," Lady Hester made the following re- 
 marks : — " He never addressed me on the subject, neither has 
 any one else. Nearly two years ago, there was a report in the 
 Bazar that my debts had been spoken of to the King ; that 
 my pension was to be seized ; that I was to be put under con- 
 sular jurisdiction ; and a set of extravagant things that nobody 
 ever heard the like ; and certainly those who had ventured to 
 charge themselves with such a message would have found that 
 I was a cousin of Lord Camelford's. 
 
 " Another version was, that the King talked very good sense 
 upon the subject, and had taken my part, and had been much 
 surprised that I had been so neglected by my family, to whom 
 he said some sharp and unpleasant things. There the matter 
 rested, and I heard no more of it, until Colonel Campbell's 
 letter."
 
 228 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 legality, it ought to be certified by the British, and not by any 
 foreign consul; and, should your ladyship absolutely refuse 
 the payment of this just claim, I should feel myself, however 
 deeply I may regret it, forced to take measures to prevent the 
 signature of the French, or any other consul but the British, 
 being considered as valid, and consequently your bill for your 
 pension will not be paid at home. I shall communicate this, if 
 your ladyship's conduct should oblige me so to do, to M. 
 Guys and the other foreign consuls of Beyrout, in order that 
 your certificate may not be signed — and also send this under 
 flying seal to Mr. Moore, Her Majesty's consul at Beyrout, in 
 order that he may take the necessary steps to make this known 
 to those consuls, if your ladyship should call on them to sign 
 the quarterly certificate for your pension. 
 
 I trust that your ladyship will be pleased to favour me with 
 a reply, informing me of your intentions, and which reply will 
 be forwarded to me by Mr. Moore. 
 
 I beg your ladyship will be assured of the pain which I 
 experience in being obliged to discharge this truly unpleasant 
 duty, as well as of the respect with which I have the honour to 
 remain, your ladyship's most obedient humble servant, 
 
 P. Campbell, 
 Her Majesty's Agent for Egypt and Syria. 
 
 When she had finished, she began to reason on the 
 enormity of the Queen's and her minister"'s conduct. 
 " My grandfather and Mr, Pitt," said she, " did some- 
 thing, I think, to keep the Brunswick family on the 
 throne, and yet the grand-daughter of the old king,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 22.9 
 
 without hearing the circumstances of my getting into 
 debt, or whether the story is true (for it might be 
 false), sends to deprive me of my pension in a foreign 
 country, where I may remain and starve. If it had 
 not been for my brother Charles, and General Barnard, 
 the only two who knew what they were about, when 
 the mutiny took place against the Duke of Kent at 
 Gibraltar, she Avould not be where she is now ; for her 
 father would have been killed to a certainty. 
 
 She mused for some time, and then went on. 
 " Perhaps it is better for me that this should have 
 happened : it brings me at once before the world, and 
 let them judge the matter. It would have looked too 
 much like shucMdban " (the Arabic for charlatanism — 
 and Lady Hester was accustomed now to interlard 
 her conversation with many Arabic words) " if I had 
 to go and tell everybody my own story, without a 
 reason for it. But now, since they have cliosen to 
 make a bankrupt of me, I shall out with a few things 
 that will make them ashamed. The old kino- 1 wrote 
 down on the paper, ' Let her have the greatest pension 
 that can be granted to a woman : ' — if he were to rise 
 from his grave, and see me now ! 
 
 " Did I ever tell you what he said to Mr. Pitt one 
 
 ^ Lady Hester means George III.
 
 230 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 day, on Windsor Terrace ? The king and all the 
 princes and princesses were walking, and he turned 
 round to him — ' Pitt,' says he, ' I have got a new 
 minister in your room.' Mr. Pitt immediately replied 
 — ' At your majesty's pleasure ; and I shall be happy 
 that your majesty has found one to relieve me from 
 the burthen of affairs : a little retirement and fresh 
 air will do me good.' The king went on, as if finish- 
 ing his sentence, and without heeding what Mr. Pitt 
 had said — ' a minister better than yourself.' Mr. Pitt 
 rejoined — ' Your majesty's choice cannot but be a 
 wise one.' The king resumed — ' I tell you, Pitt, I 
 shall have a better minister than you, and, moreover, 
 I shall have a good general.' The raillery began to 
 grow puzzling, and Mr. Pitt, with all his courtly 
 manners, was at a loss to know what it meant. So he 
 said, ' Do, pray, condescend to tell me who this un- 
 known and remarkable person is, that I may pay him 
 the respect due to his great talents and your majesty's 
 choice.' The king relieved him from his embarrass- 
 ment : ' There is my new minister,' said he, pointing 
 to me, whom Mr. Pitt had under his arm. ' There is 
 not a man in my kingdom who is a better poli- 
 tician than Lady Hester ; and ' (assuming an air 
 of seriousness which his manner made quite touch-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 231 
 
 ing) ' I have great pleasure in saying, too, there is 
 not a woman who adorns her sex more than she does. 
 And, let me say, Mr. Pitt, you have not reason to be 
 proud that you are a minister, for there have been 
 many before you, and will be many after you ; but 
 you have reason to be proud of her, who unites every- 
 thing that is great in man and woman.' Doctor, the 
 tears came in Mr. Pitt's eyes, and how the court 
 ladies did bite their lips ! 
 
 " The ichat lohat what? certainly did the old king 
 harm, in point of dignity, when no subject of conver- 
 sation interested him ; but he sometimes was more 
 serious, and could assume a manner and a tone befit- 
 ting a king. A peer, who had never known the Duke 
 of Cambridge, told me that, on the return of the Duke 
 from the continent, the king presented him to H.R.H., 
 with this short but fine compliment — ' This is my son, 
 my lord, who has his first fault to commit,"' How fond 
 the king was of him and the Duke of York ! He was 
 a fine man, and with a person so strong, that I don't 
 think there was another like him in England. 
 
 " The king liked me personally. I recollect once, 
 at court, when we were standing, as he passed round 
 the circle, he stopped at Harriet E., my cousin, and 
 said to her something about her dress ; and then,
 
 232 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 coming to me, he remarked how well I dressed my- 
 self, and told me to teach H. E. a little. She was so 
 vexed that she cried ; but it was her own fault ; 
 for with a good person, good fortune, and fine dresses, 
 she never could c^et a husband. 
 
 " I suppose the Queen is a good-natured German 
 
 girl. Did you ever see Lord M ? he has got 
 
 fine eyes ; and, if he is fattened out, with a sleek 
 skin and good complexion, he may be a man like Sir 
 Gilbert, and about his ao-e : such men are sometimes 
 still loveable. He used to be a prodigious favourite 
 with some of the handsomest women in London ; 
 so that his friends used to say, when he married 
 Lady M., though she was not a bad-looking woman — 
 ' Poor fellow ! what will he do ? you know he can't 
 
 like her long.' I recollect seeing her and Lady 
 
 sitting at a party on the top of the stairs, like two 
 figures in a pocket-book — both little creatures j those 
 that you call delicate. 
 
 " Lord M. is a very handsome man. His eyes are 
 beautiful, and he has spent forty years of his life in 
 endeavouring to please the women. I recollect, the 
 last time I saw him, he was behind Sir G. H., as 
 they came into Lady Stafford's. I had dined there, 
 enfamille, and there was a party in the evening. I
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 23*i 
 
 was in the second room, and tlie Prince was standinsr 
 by the fire, shewing his behind, as usual, to every- 
 body, and there was Lord M., always looking about 
 after somebody, whom he did not find perhaps for 
 three or four hours. They say he is filled out : he 
 was slim when I knew him. Doctor, he is a very 
 handsome man ; but he must be sixty, or more." 
 
 Ever and anon. Lady Hester Stanhope would re- 
 vert to Colonel Campbell's letter. " Yes," she said ; 
 " if he feels regret at being obliged to write it, I will say 
 to him, ' No doubt, he feels pain at having to do with 
 one of the most blackouard transactions I ever knew f 
 but I dare say he feels nothing of the sort." Then, 
 after a pause, she added, " I think I shall take the 
 bull by the horns, and send a letter to the Queen. If 
 fjettino- into debt is such a crime, 1 should like to 
 know how the Duchess of K o;ot into debt. 
 
 " Doctor, would you believe it ? a welhf (in Arabic, 
 a sort of soothsayer) " foretold what has happened to 
 me now so exactly, that I must relate the story to 
 you. He was sitting in a coffee-house one day, with 
 one of my people, and had taken from the waiter a 
 cup of coffee ; but, in carrying it to his mouth, to 
 drink it, his hand stopped midway, and his eyes were 
 fixed for some time on the surface of the liquor in
 
 234 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 silence. ' Your coffee will get cold,' said my servant. 
 The icelly heaved a deep sigh. ' Alas !' said he, ' I 
 was reading on the surface of that cup of coffee the 
 fate of your lady, the meleky. There will rise up evil 
 tongues against her, and a sovereign will try to put 
 her down ; but the voice of the people will cry aloud, 
 and nations will assemble to protect her.' Now, doc- 
 tor," said Lady Hester, " does not that mean just 
 what has happened \ Is not the Queen trying to put me 
 down, and going to deprive me of my pension ? — and 
 you will see, when I have written my letter, how 
 many persons will turn on my side. But isn't it very 
 extraordinary how that man in a coffee-house knew 
 what was going to happen I — yet so it is : they have 
 secret communications with spirits. A glass, or some- 
 thing, is held before their eyes, which nobody else can 
 see ; and, whether they can read and write or not, 
 they see events painted before their eyes." 
 
 January SO, 1838. — Lady Hester was still very ill ; 
 the convulsive attacks returning now regularly every 
 day. She began to be sensible that fits of passion, how- 
 ever slight, did her injury, and she was more calm for a 
 continuation than I had ever seen her since I had been 
 here. But a fresh occurrence, trifling in its nature, 
 although she gave much importance to it, excited her
 
 LADY HESTER STAxNHOPE. 235 
 
 anger considerably to-day, and did her mischief in pro- 
 portion. She had reason to suspect that her secretary 
 had been endeavourinii to ascertain whether she was 
 consumptive, and how long she was likely to live. To 
 dispel such a suspicion, she made a great effort, got 
 up, and went and sat in the garden. Before she left 
 her room, her wailings were for some moments heart- 
 rending. " Oh, God, have mercy ! oh, God, have 
 mercy !" she cried ; " only keep those beasts away : who 
 is to take care of me, surrounded as I am with those 
 horrible servants ? — only take care they don't rob me." 
 
 While she remained in the garden, her chamber 
 was put to rights (a process which it much required, 
 in consequence of her long confinement) ; and, at her 
 earnest request, I superintended the performance. 
 " Overlook them,"" she said, " or they will rob me." 
 But oh ! what a sight ! — such dust, such confusion, such 
 cobwebs ! Never was a lady's room seen before in such 
 a condition : bundles, phials, linen, calico, silk, galli- 
 pots, clothes, etuis, papers, were all lying about on the 
 floor, and in the corners, and behind and under the 
 scanty furniture ; for all this while she had been afraid 
 to get the chamber put into order, lest her servants 
 should take advantage of the opportunity to plunder her. 
 
 When she returned to her room from the garden.
 
 236 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 she was raving. " You had better leave me to die," 
 she cried, " if I am to die ; and, if I am not, oh ! 
 God, only let me crawl to my own country"" (by her 
 own country she meant Arabia, among the Koreysh), 
 " and there, with not a rag on me, I may be fed by 
 some good-natured soul, and not such cannibals as 
 these servants ! What are they good for 1 I will be 
 obeyed ; and you are not a man, to see me treated in 
 this manner." 
 
 Thus she went on, walking up and down her room, 
 until she worked herself up to a state of madness. I 
 was afraid she would rupture a blood-vessel. All my 
 attempts to pacify her were in vain — indeed, they only 
 excited her the more. Seeing her in this way, 1 
 left the room, and sent Fatoom to her ; but, before 
 Fatoora could get there, she rang her bell violently, 
 and I heard her say, " VVliere''s the doctor ? — whore's 
 the doctor V so I returned again to her. " Don't 
 leave me !" she cried ; and she expressed her sorrow 
 for the excess of her passion. '' I am much obliged 
 to you, very much obliged to you, for the trouble you 
 take on my account ; but you must not be angry 
 with me. Perhaps, if I get worse, I shall ask you to 
 let Mrs. M. come and sit with me." Soon after, as if 
 her very violence had relieved her, she grew calmer.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 237 
 
 Up to tliis time she had never seen my wife, since 
 her second visit to Syria ; nor my daughter nor the 
 jyoverness at alL I had, since her illness, said more 
 than once that they would be happy to come and sit 
 with her by day or by night, to relieve the tedium of 
 her solitary situation. But her dismantled room, her 
 ragged clothes, her altered appearance — and, above 
 all, her pride, compromised as it was by these unfor- 
 tunate circumstances — always made her turn off the 
 subject, although her secret feelings must have often 
 prompted her to avail herself of the solace thus frankly 
 and cordially offered to her. The exclamation by 
 which she usually evaded the proposal was, " Oh ! how 
 I hate everything Frankified ! how I hate everything 
 Frankified !"" or, " I must not see them until I get 
 into my saloon." After about half an hour I left her. 
 " I must see nobody this evening," she added ; " so 
 good bye !" 
 
 T went home, and, for the first time, told my family 
 how ill Lady Hester was. Alas ! I had not dared to 
 do so before : she had enjoined me not. " To say I 
 am ill," she would observe, " would be bringing a host 
 of creditors upon me, and I should not be able to get 
 food to eat." Consequently, I had kept them and 
 everybody, as much as I could, in ignorance of the
 
 238 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 real state of her health ; indeed, there was too much 
 truth in what she said not to make me see the mis- 
 chief such a disclosure would entail. She had now 
 onlj twenty pounds or 2,000 piasters left in the house 
 to provide for the consumption of two months ; and, 
 as her pension was stopped, there was every probability 
 she would be left penniless, with the exception of a 
 few dollars I had by me. Yet, in spite of all this, 
 she ordered me, a day or two before, to give 150 
 piasters to a leper, 150 to a distressed shopkeeper, and 
 some other small benefactions to other pensioners 
 on her inexhaustible bounty. 
 
 It may be said that any one, like myself, might 
 have represented, from time to time, the necessity of 
 a little more economy — I did so once ; but I received 
 such a peremptory injunction never to give my advice 
 on that subject again, that I took good care how I com- 
 mitted myself a second time. She fired up, and said, 
 " You will give me leave to judge what I ought to do 
 with my own money. There are various ways of 
 spending : you may think it best to be just before 
 being generous ; but I, with my character and views, 
 must be even munificent, and trust to God, as I have 
 hitherto done, for helping me on in my difficulties. 
 Never touch on that subject again : I 'will have no
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 239 
 
 human bcinsj interfere with me as to what 1 am to do 
 with mjr money." 
 
 All I can say is that, like her grandfather, she was 
 so intractable, that I never yet saw the mortal who 
 could turn her an inch from her determinations. It 
 was easy to lead the current of her bounty into one's 
 own pocket ; for I believe any person who knew her 
 foibles might have kept it flowing in that direction 
 until he had enriched himself. It was only necessary 
 to encourage her dreams of future greatness, to say 
 the world was talking of her, to consider her as the 
 associate of the Mehedah, the Messiah of nations, to 
 profess a belief in visions, in aerial beings, in astro- 
 logy, in witchcraft, and to bear witness to apparitions 
 in which her coming grandeur was prognosticated, 
 and then she would refuse nothing : but that was 
 not my forte, and I never did so. I went to her a 
 poor man ; was with her, off and on, for thirty years ; 
 and left her as poor as I went. 
 
 But it is not to be supposed that knaves, such as 
 some I have alluded to above, were the only objects 
 of her bounty. No ; the widow, the orphan, the aged, 
 the proscribed, the sick, the wounded, and the house- 
 less, were those she sought out in preference : and 
 time will show, when gratitude can speak out, the 
 immeasurable benevolence of her nature.
 
 240 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 It may not be useless to observe here that many 
 stories have been circulated of Lady Hester''s harsh- 
 ness to petitioners who presented themselves at her 
 door, which, if explained, would wear a very different 
 aspect. Sometimes a suppliant, apparently unworthy 
 of her commiseration, would gain admittance to her 
 presence, and be dismissed with a handful of piasters ; 
 and sometimes another, known to be a fit object of 
 benevolence, would receive nothing but a rude repulse. 
 Lady Hester said to me, " Do you suppose, doctor, 
 I don't know that many people think I fool away my 
 money in giving it to adventurers ? that others say I 
 am capricious ? that some call me mad ? Why, let 
 them : I am not bound to give reasons for what I do 
 to anybody. The good I do, first of all, I don't wish 
 to be known : and, again, many times the publicity 
 of an act of charity would be injurious to him it was 
 intended to serve. Fll give you an instance. There 
 was a merchant at Acre, who was ava?iized by Ab- 
 dallah Pasha, to whom he was obnoxious, until all his 
 property was squeezed out of him, and nothing was 
 left but a house, of which he was not generally known 
 to be the proprietor — for, had it been known that 
 the house was his, the Pasha, who fancied he had re- 
 duced him to beggary, would have persecuted him 
 until he had got that also. The man wished to sell
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 241 
 
 his house, and then to retire into Ef^ypt. He therefore 
 came to me, and told his story, begging my assistance. 
 As I was obliged to use an interpreter, who, I feared, 
 would talk of any act of kindness of mine for 
 the man, it appeared to me that the best thing I could 
 do was to turn the applicant roughly out of doors, 
 which I did at once, bawling out as he went, that I 
 did not want to be pestered with beggars. Well, my 
 strange harshness, of course, was talked of, and of 
 course was repeated to the Pasha, who, thinking the 
 object of his oppression was now an object of contempt 
 also, was perfectly satisfied, and left the man, as he 
 supposed, to utter ruin and degradation. But, after 
 a few days, T privately sent to the poor distressed 
 merchant, provided a purchaser for his house, smoothed 
 the difficulties in the way of the sale, and, furnishing 
 him from my own purse with a sum of money sufficient 
 to begin the world with again, I shipped him off' with 
 his family to Egypt." 
 
 Lady Hester was indeed generous and charitable, 
 giving with a large hand, as Eastern kings are repre- 
 sented to have given. She would send whole suits of 
 clothes, furnish rooms, order camels and mules to con- 
 vey two or three quarters of wheat at a time to a 
 necessitous family, and pay carpenters and masons to 
 
 VOL. n. M
 
 242 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 build a poor man's house ; she had a munificence 
 about her that would have required the revenue of 
 a kingdom to gratify. Hence too sprung tliat in- 
 satiable disposition to hoard — not money, but what 
 money could buy : she seemed to wish to have stores of 
 whatever articles Avere necessary for the apparel, food, 
 and convenience of man. Beds, counterpanes, cushions, 
 carpets, and such like furniture, lay rotting in her 
 store-rooms. Utensils grew rusty, wine spoiled ; 
 reams of paper were eaten by the mice, or mildewed 
 by the damp ; carpenters'" work lay unserviceable from 
 an over - supply ; mats rotted ; candles, almonds, 
 raisins, dried figs, cocoa, honey, cheese — no matter 
 what — all was laid by in destructive profusion ; and 
 every year half was consumed by rats, ants, and other 
 vermin, or otherwise spoiled. One store-room, which 
 was filled with clothes, linen, bedding, cushions, books, 
 carpets, and counterpanes, together with locked-up 
 trunks, full of what was most valuable, had not been 
 entered for three years : and oh ! what ruin and 
 waste did I not discover ! 
 
 When I told her of all this, and suggested that it 
 would be better to give them to her poor pensioners, 
 she said — "• Such tilings do not ever cause me a mo- 
 ment's thought : I would rather they should have
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 243 
 
 been used to some good purpose ; but, if I have got 
 such rascals about me, why, let the things all rot. 
 sooner than that they should profit by them. Money 
 can replace all that ; and, if God sends me money, I 
 will do so. If he does not, he knows best what should 
 be : and it would not give me a moment's sorrow to 
 lie down in a cottage with only rags enough to kee[» 
 me warm. I would not, even then, change places 
 with Lord Grosvenor, the Duke of Devonshire, the 
 Duke of Buckingham, or any of them : they can't 
 do what I can ; so of what use are all their riches ? 
 I have seen some of them make such a fuss about the 
 loss of a ten guinea ring, or some such bauble : not that 
 they cared for it, but they could not bear to lose it. But 
 if I want to know what is passing at Constantinople, 
 or London, or anywhere, I have nothing to do but to 
 turn my thoughts that way, and in a quarter of an 
 hour 1 have it all before me, just as it is ; so true, 
 doctor, that if it is not actually passing, it will be in a 
 month, in three months — so true : isn't it extraor- 
 dinary T 
 
 Upon some occasions, her munificence wore the ap- 
 pearance of ostentation. She would bestow on strangers, 
 like dervises, sheykhs, and fakyrs, large sums of money, 
 and yet drive hard bargains with those about her 
 
 M 2
 
 244 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 neighbourhood ; and would sometimes make presents, 
 not so much to comfort those who received them as to 
 display her own superiority and greatness over others. 
 I have said, in a preceding chapter, that she used 
 to give new suits of clothes to her people on Beyrh.m 
 day and at Easter, according to their religion : but it 
 should be mentioned that, on those days, every ser- 
 vant was called in, and received forty piasters ; and 
 one thousand piasters were divided by Logmagi among 
 the persons in Sayda who in any way were occasionally 
 useful to her or her people. These were the porter of 
 the French khan, and the janissary there ; the porters 
 of the town-gate ; the harbour-master ; the gardener 
 who supplied vegetables ; the fisherman who sent her 
 choice fish, &c. Two hundred piasters were paid an- 
 nually to old Jacob, the tailor ; fifty here and there to 
 the imams of particular mosques ; as much to the mis- 
 tress of the bath where she sent her maids to be 
 washed. Mr. Loustaunau generally had about five 
 hundred piasters a quarter. Of many of her benefac- 
 tions I never knew anything. Had I kept a list of 
 the sums which, besides these customary donations, 
 she gave to the distressed, few would wonder she was 
 so beloved and so generally lamented. Thus, when 
 the ferdy and miri^ two onerous taxes, fell due, she
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 245 
 
 commonly paid them for such of her servants as were 
 burthened with families, or whose means were scanty : 
 she did the same when unusual contributions were 
 levied, as during the conscription. On the 8th of 
 December, I find a note that 1 gave fifty piasters and 
 a counterpane to a poor shepherd boy, labouring under 
 anasarca from an indurated spleen, a most common 
 complaint in the country, the effect of protracted agues ; 
 and eighty to an old man, who had some years before 
 been her asacl'jee. To Logmagi mostly fell the distri- 
 bution of all these sums, and it was only occasionally 
 that I was the almoner to this truly noble and dis- 
 interested woman ; else I should have been able to 
 have cited more examples. 
 
 January 81. — Being Wednesday, it was a rule with 
 Lady Hester Stanhope to shut herself up from Tues- 
 day at sunset until the sunset of Wednesday, during 
 which time she saw nobody, if she could avoid it, did 
 no business, and always enjoined me to meddle in no 
 affairs of hers during these twenty-four hours. Wed- 
 nesday was an unlucky day with her, a dies nefastus. 
 After sunset, I waited on her, and found her languid, 
 moaning, and still visibly suffering from her yester- 
 day's exertion ; for it appeared, although I had not 
 seen her, that she had walked about her garden.
 
 246 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 forcing her strength so far as to deceive the gardeners, 
 who had given out tliat she would soon be as well as 
 ever ; and this was what, no doubt, she aimed at, for 
 tlie purpose of confounding the secretary. 
 
 Reminding her of the wish she had expressed to 
 liave Mrs. M.''s company, I now proposed that she, 
 my daughter, and the governess, should sit with her 
 by turns, suggesting that, by this means, much of 
 the disagreeable service of the maids, whom she con- 
 stantly complained of, might be dispensed with. But 
 to this she answered, " No, doctor, it will not do : 
 you must tell them how very much obliged to them 
 I am for their kind offers and intentions, but that 
 their presence will only be an embarrassment to me. 
 You don't consider the matter in its true point of view, 
 as you never do anything. In the first place, it kills 
 me to talk ; I can't fatigue myself by giving them in- 
 formation about the country, and be a Pococke : and, 
 as for oivino- them crood advice, the world is so turned 
 topsy-turvy, that everything one saj's is lost on every- 
 body. Then, as for being of any use to me, they 
 could be of none : if I wanted anything, they don't 
 know where it is ; and how are they to tell the nasty 
 wretches, who only speak Arabic 1 Besides, I am not 
 sure their nijems would suit me ; and then they
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 247 
 
 would do me more harm than good. Poor little 
 Euoonia ! T had thouoht that I niiirht derive some 
 consolation from lookino- on her innocent face whilst 
 she sat working at my bedside j but some one told me 
 her star perhaps would not agree with mine : is it so, 
 doctor ? I am like Mr. Pitt : he used to say, ' I 
 hear that man's footsteps in the passage — I can't bear 
 it ; do send him away to town, or to Putney i' so 
 it is with me. There was my grandfather, too — how 
 he felt the effect of the peculiar star of those people 
 who did not suit him ! — he could bear nobody near 
 him, when he was ill, but Lady Chatham, and an old 
 woman who had been a sort of woman of the town : 
 he sent all his children to Lyme Regis ; and even 
 liis tutor, Mr. Wilson, he could not bear. I know 
 the reason of it now, from my recollection of them, 
 but I did not at the time. My grandfather was born 
 under Mars and Venus ; Lady Chatham was born 
 under Venus, and so was the old woman, but both in 
 different hurges [houses] : and that is why their sym- 
 pathies were the same."
 
 i 
 
 i
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Lady Hester's system of astrology — Sympathies and an- 
 tipathies — People's nijems or stars — Mesmerism explained — 
 Lord Suffolk — Lady Hester's own star — Letter to the Queen 
 — Letter to Mr. Speaker Abercrombie — Messieurs Beck and 
 Moore — Letter to Colonel Campbell — The ides of March — 
 Lady Hester's reflections on the Queen's conduct to her — Letter 
 to Sir Edward Sugden — What peers are — Junius's Letters — 
 Spies employed by the first Lord Chatham — Mr. Pitt's opinion of 
 the Duke of Wellington — Lady Hester's letter to his Grace, &c 
 
 M o
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 2ol 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 In order to render intelligible to the reader many- 
 passages which have occurred, and will occur again, 
 in Lady Hester''s conversations, respecting what she 
 called people's nijems or stars, it may not be amiss 
 to give a brief outline of her system of astrology, and 
 of the supposed influence that the position of the stars 
 in the heavens at our nativity has on our future fate, 
 and on our sympathies. I must preface what follows 
 by observing that she had a remarkable talent for 
 divining characters by the conformation of men. Tliis 
 every traveller will testify who has visited her in 
 Syi'ia ; for it was after she went to live in solitude 
 that her penetration became so extraordinaiy. It was 
 founded both on the features of the face, and on the 
 shape of the head, body, and limbs. Some indications 
 she went by were taken from a resemblance to ani-
 
 252 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 nials ; and, wherever such indications existed, she 
 inferred that the dispositions pecuhar to those animals 
 were to be found in the person. But, independent 
 of all this, her doctrine was that every creature is 
 governed by the star under whose influence it was 
 born. 
 
 Everv star has attached to it two aerial beings, two 
 animals, two trees, two flowers, &c. ; that is, a couple 
 of all the grand classes in creation, animal, vegetable, 
 mineral, or etherial, whose antipathies and sympathies 
 become conijenial with the beins; born under the same 
 star. She would say, " My brother Charles vomited 
 if he eat three strawberries only : other people, born 
 under the same star as his, may not have such an in- 
 surmountable antipathy as his was, because their star 
 may be imperfect, whilst his was pure : but they will 
 have it, more or less. Some persons again will have 
 as much delight in the smell of particular flowers as 
 cats have in the smell of valerian, when they sit and 
 purr round it. 
 
 " The stars under which men are born may be one 
 or more. Thus Mr. H*****, an English traveller, 
 who came to see me, was born under four stars, all 
 tending to beauty, but of no good in other respects. 
 His forehead was as white as snow; his mouth" (1
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 253 
 
 think she said) "was good, with a handsome small 
 black beard ; but his stars were otherwise dull : for 
 you know the stars in the lieavens are not always 
 bright and twinkling, but sometimes heavy and 
 clouded. It is like engravings — some of them are 
 proofs, and those are perfect. Some persons may 
 have a good star, but it may be cracked like a glass, 
 and then, vou know, it can't hold water. 
 
 " The influence of stai's depends, likewise, on whe- 
 ther they are rising, or in their zenith, or setting ; 
 and the angle at which they are must be determined 
 by calculations, which good astrologers make very 
 readily. But a clever man will, from, his knowledge 
 of the stars, look even at a child and say, ' That child 
 will have such and such diseases, such and such vir- 
 tues, such and such vices ;' and this I can do : nay, 
 what is more, I can give a description of the features 
 of any person I have never seen, if his character is 
 described to me, and vice versa. There is a learned 
 man at Damascus, who possesses the same faculty in 
 an extraordinary desfree. He knew nothinor of me 
 but by report, and had never seen me : but a friend 
 of his, having given him a description of my person 
 and features, he noted down my virtues, vices, and 
 qualities so exactly, that he even said in what part of
 
 2o-4 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 my body I had got a mole, and mentioned the small 
 mark on my shoulder, where Mr. Cline removed a 
 tumour. There's for you ! Do you believe these 
 things, or do you not ? 
 
 " A man's destiny may be considered as a graduated 
 scale, of which the summit is the star that presided 
 over his birth. In the next degree comes the good 
 ano'el ^ attached to that star ; then the herb and the 
 flower beneficial to his health and agreeable to his 
 smell ; then the mineral, then the tree, and such other 
 things as contribute to his good ; then the man him- 
 self: below him comes the evil spirit, then the 
 venemous reptile or animal, the plant, and so on ; 
 things inimical to him. Where the particular tree 
 that is beneficial or pleasurable to him flourishes 
 naturally, or the mineral is found, there the soil and 
 air are salubrious to that individual ; and a physician 
 who understood my doctrines, how easily could he 
 treat his patients ! — for, by merely knowing the star 
 of a person, the simples and compounds most beneficial 
 to him in medicine would be known also. 
 
 ^ Lady Hester one day said, " I have a little angel under 
 my command, the angel of my star — such a sweet little crea- 
 ture ! — not like those foolish ones who are fiddling in Italian 
 pictures. What fools painters are, to think angels are made so I"'
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. Zoo 
 
 " How great the sympathies and antipathies are in 
 stars that are the same or opposite I have told you be- 
 fore in my grandfather's case, in Mr. Pitfs, and in my 
 own. Lord Chatham, when on a sick bed, coukl 
 only bear three people to wait on him — Lady Chat- 
 liam, Sarah Booby, and somebody else. My grand- 
 mamma's star and Sarah Booby's star were the same 
 — both Venus — only grandmamma's was more mo- 
 derate ; she could keep it down. Mr. Pitt, when he 
 was ill at Putney, had such an aversion to one of the 
 footmen, that he was nervous when he heard his step ; 
 for you know people, when they are sick, can hear a 
 pin drop : he said to me, ' Hester, do send that fellow 
 to town.' I did not let him know why he was sent 
 to town, but I got him off as quickly as possible : he 
 was, notwithstanding, a good servant, clean, and had 
 otherwise good qualities ; but Mr. Pitt's and his star 
 were different. As to myself, since I have been here, 
 I had a professed French cook, called Francois — the 
 people named him Fransees el Franjy. His skill was 
 undoubted ; yet, whenever he dressed my dinner, I 
 was ahvays sending for him to complain, and some- 
 times threw the dish in his face : a sweetmeat from 
 his hand turned bitter in my mouth. But, what is 
 most extraordinary of all, Miss Williams's star was
 
 256 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 SO disagreeable to me tliat I could not bear her to be 
 near me when I was ill. If I was in a perspiration, 
 it would stop the moment she came into the room. 
 You know how many good qualities she had, and how 
 attached she was to me, and I to her : well, I al- 
 ways kept her out of my sight as nmch as I could, 
 when anything was the matter with me. 
 
 " Such is the sympathy of persons born under the 
 same star, that, although living apart in distant 
 places, they will still be sensible of each other's suffer- 
 ings. When the Duke of York died, at the very 
 hour, a cold sweat and a kind of fainting came over 
 me, that I can't describe. I was ill beyond measure, 
 and I said to Miss Williams, ' Somebody is dying 
 somewhere, and I am sure it is one of my friends :' 
 so I made her write it down. Some time after, when 
 she was poking over a set of newspapers, she came to 
 me, and said, ' Ifs very singular, my lady ; but, the 
 time you were so very ill, and could not account for 
 it, corresponds exactly with the date of the Duke of 
 York's death — the hour, too, just the same !' Now, 
 doctor, wasn't it extraordinary ? You drawl out 
 ' Y — e — s,' just as if you thought I told lies : oh. 
 Lord ! oh, Lord ! what a cold man ! 
 
 " The proof of sympathy between the stars of two
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 257 
 
 persons, or, in other words, of the star of another 
 being good for you, is, when a person puts his finger 
 on you and you don't feel it. Zezefoon, when Made- 
 moiselle Longchamp touches her with her fingers, in 
 examining the Turkish dress, shudders all over. That 
 is a proof that her star is not good for her, and yet 
 Miss L. uses more kind expressions to her than any- 
 body ; but that makes no difference ; there is no 
 sympathy in their stars. 
 
 "Animal magnetism is nothing but the sympatliy 
 of our stars. Those fools who go about ma^jnetizing 
 indifferently one person and another, why do they 
 sometimes succeed, and sometimes fail? — because, if 
 they meet with those of the same star with them- 
 selves, their results will be satisfactory, but with op- 
 posite stars they can do nothing. Some persons you 
 may magnetize, some you cannot ; and so far will 
 the want of sympathy act in some, that there are per- 
 sons whom it would be impossible to put in certain 
 attitudes : they might be mechanically placed there, 
 but their posture never would be natural ; whilst 
 others, from their particular star, would readily fall 
 into them. Oh ! if I had your friend, Mr. Green,' 
 here, I could give him some useful hints on choosing 
 models for his lectures. 
 
 ' Mr. Joseph Green.
 
 258 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " There are animals, too, under the same star with 
 Imman beings. I had a mule whose star was the same 
 as mine ; and, at the time of my severe illness, this 
 mule showed as much sensibility about me, and more, 
 than some of the beasts who wait on me. When that 
 mule was first foaled, I had given orders to sell the 
 foal and its mother ; but, happening to see it, I 
 countermanded the order immediately. It received a 
 hurt in its eye, and when, with my hand, I applied 
 some eye-water with camphor in it, which, of course, 
 made the eye smart, it never once turned its head 
 away, or showed the least impatience of what I was 
 doing. When this mule was dying some years after- 
 wards, she lay twenty -four hours, every moment seem- 
 ing to be going to breathe her last ; but still life 
 would not depart. They told me of this, and I went 
 to the stable. The moment she saw me, she turned 
 her eyes on me, gave an expressive look, and expired. 
 All the servants said she would not die until my star, 
 which was hers, had come to take her breath : isn't it 
 very extraordinary I Serpents never die, whatever you 
 can do to them, until their star rises above the horizon.* 
 
 " Some can only do well when under the guidance 
 of another person''s star. What was Lord Grenville 
 ^ See note at the end of the vol.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 25.9 
 
 witliout Mr. Pitt? With him to o-uide him he did 
 pretty well ; but as soon as Mr. Pitt was dead, he 
 sunk into obscurity : who ever heard of Lord Gren- 
 ville afterwards I So again Sir Francis Burdett has 
 never been good for anything since Home Tooke's 
 death. So long as Napoleon had Josephine by his 
 side he was lucky : but, when he cast her off, his 
 good fortune left him. You know you sent me her 
 portrait : well, it was a good engraving, and I have 
 no doubt was a likeness. I observed in her face indi- 
 cations of much falsity, and a depth of cunning exceed- 
 ingly great : it was her sciad (luck) that held him 
 up. You may see so many examples of such good 
 fortune depending on men's wives. Mahomet AH 
 owes all to his wife — a woman without a nose. What 
 saved the Shaykh Beshyr but the saad of the Syt 
 Haboos? Hamaady told the Emir Beshyr, ' You 
 will never do anything with the Shaykh Beshyr until 
 you get rid of her, and then the Shaykh is in your 
 power.*" So what did he do I he sent his son — the 
 little Emir Beshyr, as they call him — who surrounded 
 her palace with twenty horsemen, and, when she 
 attempted to escape, drove her into her own court- 
 yard, and stabbed her : her body was cut in pieces, 
 and given to the dogs to eat.
 
 260 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 " What is to account for some poople"'s good fortune 
 but their star ? There was Lord Suffolk, an ensign in 
 a marching regiment, and thirteenth remove from the 
 title — see what an example he was ! It was predestined 
 that he should arrive at greatness, although, when 
 the news was brouo;ht him that he was come to 
 the title, he had not money enough to pay for 
 a post-chaise : but nothing could hinder what his 
 good star was to bring him. Lady Suffolk, a clergy- 
 man's daughter of a hundred a-year, was a very 
 clever, shrewd woman, and filled her elevated station 
 admirably." 
 
 I have embodied thus much in Lady Hester Stan- 
 hope's own words of what may give a tolerable idea of 
 her notion of planetary influence. What her own star 
 was, may be gathered from what she said one day, 
 when, having dwelt a long time on this, her favourite 
 subject, she got up from the sofa, and, approaching 
 the window, she called me — " Look," said she, " at 
 the pupil of my eyes ; there ! my star is the sun — 
 all sun — it is in my eyes : when the sun is a per- 
 son's star, it attracts everything." I looked, and 
 replied that I saw a rim of yellow round the pupil. — 
 " A rim !" cried she ; " it isn't a rim — it's a sun ; 
 there's a disk, and from it go rays all round : 'tis
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 261 
 
 no more of a rim tlian you are. Nobody has f^ot eyes 
 like mine.'''' ' 
 
 Lady Hester Stanhope, in a letter she wrote to 
 Prince Puckler Muskau, describes her system briefly 
 
 ^ I once showed Lady Hester Stanhope Raphael's Madonna 
 della Seggiola, to hear what she would say about it. " The face," 
 she observed, " is congruous in all the lineaments ; they all 
 belong to the same star ; but I don't like that style of face — 
 that is not the star that pleases me ;" and she returned roe the 
 engraving, with some signs of impatience. I imagined, as there 
 was a maid in the room, that she did so, lest the girl should 
 report that she adored the Virgin Mary. I then showed her a 
 painting of the Nozze Aldobrandini. "Ah!" said she, after 
 examining it, " that figure," pointing to the one farthest on 
 the spectator's right hand, " is the star I like, only the eyes do 
 not belong to that countenance : if the eyes were as they 
 ought to be, that figure would be charming." There was 
 much truth in the observations she made on the blunders of 
 artists and sculptors in giving incongruous features to their 
 works. An ordinary observer has only to look at the 
 statues of the antients, and he will find that the forehead, 
 nose, mouth, ears, and limbs of a Minerva, are such as he will 
 see in grave and dignified women, totally different from the 
 same features in a Diana or a Venus. Each temperament, each 
 class of beings in nature, has its external marks, which never 
 vary in character, but only in degree. But painters are 
 accustomed to make a selection of what they suppose the most 
 perfect lineaments, and to clap them on to a body, whether it 
 be for a muse, an amazou, a nymph, or a courtezan. This is
 
 262 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 as follows ; and she desired me to keep a copy of it, 
 that I might not, as she said, substitute my own ideas 
 for hers. 
 
 " Every man, born under a given star, has his 
 aerial spirit, his animal, his bird, his fruit-tree, his 
 flower, his medicinal herb, and his diemon. Beings 
 born under any given star may be of four different 
 qualities and forms, just as there may be four different 
 qualities of cherries, having little resemblance one to 
 another, but beino- nevertheless all cherries. Added 
 to this, there may be varieties in the same star, occa- 
 sioned by the influence of other stars, which were 
 above the horizon in particular positions at the hour 
 of a man''s birth : just as you may say that a ship 
 is more or less baffled by certain winds, though she is 
 standing her course. Again, a man being born under 
 the same star with another man, whilst that star is in 
 one si<zn of the zodiac, cliano;es somewhat the character 
 
 obviously false. " There are some women who are born 
 courtezans," Lady Hester w^ould say, " and whatever their 
 
 station in life is, they must be so. Thus, Lady was so 
 
 by nature ; from the time she first came out, she had the air of 
 
 a woman of the town : Mademoiselle de , who married 
 
 one of the , nothing could have ever altered her. There 
 
 was a woman for great passions ! it was almost indecent to be 
 where she was."
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 263 
 
 and appearance when in another sign of the zodiac : 
 just as two plants which are alike, when one grows 
 where there is always shade and the other where there 
 is constantly sunshine, although precisely of one and 
 the same kind, will differ slightly in appearance, 
 odour, and taste. 
 
 " A man born under a certain star will have, from 
 nature, certain qualities, certain virtues and vices, 
 certain talents, diseases, and tastes. All that educa- 
 tion can do is merelj^ artificial *. leave him to him- 
 self, and he returns to his natural character and his 
 original tastes. If this were better known, young 
 people would not be made to waste their time use- 
 lessly in fitting them for what they never can be. 
 
 " I have learned to know a man's star by his face, 
 but not by astrological calculations, as perhaps you 
 fancy ; of that trade I have no knowledge. I have 
 been told that the faculty which I possess is much 
 more vague than the astrological art, and I believe it : 
 but mine is good for a great deal, though not for 
 calculating the exact epoch of a man's maladies or 
 death. 
 
 " You will ask me how it is possible to know man- 
 kind by looking at their features and persons ; and so 
 thoroughly too. I answer — a gardener, when he sees
 
 264 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 twenty bulbs of twenty different flowers on the table 
 before him, will he not tell you that one will remain 
 so many days under ground before it sprouts, then it 
 will o-row little by little, very slowly, and in so many 
 days or weeks will flower, and its flowers will have 
 such a smell, such a colour, and such virtues : after 
 so many days more, it will begin to droop and fade, 
 and in ten days will wither. That other, as soon as 
 it is out of the ground, will grow an inch and a-half 
 in every twenty-four hours : its flowers will be brilliant, 
 but will have a disaoreeable smell ; it will bloom for a 
 long time, and then will wither altogether in a day : 
 and why may not I, lookingonmen, pronounce on them 
 their virtues, qualities, and duration in the same way ? 
 This may not be well explained, but a clever person 
 will divine what I mean." 
 
 Such were, in the main, the opinions of Lady Hester 
 on astrology, to which several travellers have alluded, 
 but, from defective information, have hitherto misrepre- 
 sented. It will be seen that there was at least method 
 in her belief. We will now return from this digres- 
 sion. 
 
 Our narrative broke ofi" in the middle of a conversa- 
 tion on the evening of January 31, 1888. 
 
 Tea was ordered ; but so simple a process as getting
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 265 
 
 tea ready was now a painful business. If it did not 
 come immediately, Lady Hester grew so impatient, 
 that it was distressin": to see her ao-itation. She 
 would then ring for a pipe, and perhaps send it back 
 to be fresh filled or changed four or five times in sue- 
 cession, each one being, for some trifling reason, 
 rejected. Alas ! it was not the tea nor the pipes that 
 were in fault ; it was Colonel Campbeirs letter that 
 had given a stab to her heart, from which she never 
 recovered ; and, in proportion to the apparent calm 
 that she endeavoured to assume, when speaking on 
 that subject, did the feeling of the supposed indignity 
 which she had received prey on her spirits — on her 
 pride — on her brain ! 
 
 She reverted to the letter. " The thing: to be 
 considered," she said, "is whether I shall write a 
 letter to the Queen, and ask the Duke of Wellington 
 to give it to her, or whether I shall put it in the 
 newspapers : for I am afraid, if I send it to him, he 
 will not give it to her ; or, if he does, they will say 
 nothing about it. I should like to ask for a public 
 inquiry into my debts, and for what I have contracted 
 them. Let them compare the good I have done in 
 
 the cause of humanity and science with the D s 
 
 of K 's debts, \^'heu I am better. 111 set all 
 
 VOL. II. N
 
 266 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 this to rights, I wonder if Lord Palmerston is the 
 man I recollect — a young man just come from college, 
 that was hanoinof about, waiting to be introduced to 
 Mr. Pitt. Mr. Pitt used to say, ' Ah ! very well ; 
 we will ask him some day to dinner.' Perhaps it is an 
 old grudge that makes him vent his spite. He is an 
 Irishman, I think." 
 
 February 1. — To-day Lady Hester was much the 
 same as on the preceding days : her pulse was low ; 
 her lungs were loaded with phlegm ; aphthse had shown 
 themselves on her tongue ; her nails were cracked 
 from the contraction of the surrounding integuments ; 
 the tips of her fingers were cold ; her back, as she 
 sat up in bed, was bent ; her bones almost protruded 
 through the skin, from being obliged to lie always on 
 one side. Speaking of her inability to sleep, except 
 in some particular position, she observed that she 
 was like those little figures of tumblers ; place her as 
 you would, she rolled over to the left side, as if there 
 was a weight of lead there. 
 
 After the usual preliminaries of smoking a pipe and 
 a little conversation, she dictated her letter to the 
 Queen and to Mr. Abercrombie, speaker of the House 
 of Commons.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 267 
 
 Lady Hester Stanhope to the Queen. 
 
 Joon, February 12, 1838. 
 
 Your Majesty will allow me to say that few things are more 
 disgraceful and inimical to royalty than giving commands with- 
 out examining all their different bearings, and casting, without 
 reason, an aspersion upon the integrity of any branch of a 
 family who had faithfully served their country and the house 
 of Hanover. 
 
 As no inquiries have been made of me what circumstances 
 induced me to incur the debts alluded to, I deem it unnecessary 
 to enter into any details upon the subject. I shall not allow 
 the pension given by your royal grandfather to be stopped by 
 force ; but I shall resign it for the payment of my debts, and 
 with it the name of English subject, and the slavery that is at 
 present annexed to it : and, as your Majesty has given pub- 
 licity to the business by your orders to consular agents, I surely 
 cannot be blamed in following your roj^al example. 
 
 Hester Lucy Stanhope. 
 
 Lady Hester Stanhope to Mr. Speaker Abercrombie. 
 
 Joon, February 12, 1838. 
 Sir, 
 
 Probably the wheel-horse has forgotten his driver, but 
 the latter has not forgotten him.^ I am told that the chief 
 weight of the carriage of state bears upon you ; if so, it must be 
 a ponderous one indeed, if I can judge by a specimen of the 
 talent of those who guide it. 
 
 You, who have read and thought a great deal upon men and 
 
 ^ This alludes to the childhood of Lady Hester Stanhope, 
 when she had played at horses with ISIr. Abercrombie. 
 
 N 2
 
 268 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 manners, must be aware that there are situations almost un- 
 known in Europe in which persons, in what is called a semi- 
 barbarous country, cannot extricate themselves with honour 
 without taking a part either for or against humanity : besides, 
 there are extraordinary gusts of knowledge, of extraordinary 
 information, which, if you do not take advantage of them 
 at the moment, are lost to you for ever. I have, therefore, 
 exceeded my pecuniary means, but always with the hope of 
 extricating myself without the assistance of any one ; or at least 
 (and ever before my eyes, should the worst come to the worst) 
 with that of selling the reversion of what I possess. Your mag- 
 nificent Queen has made me appear like a bankrupt in the 
 world, and partly like a swindler ; having given strict orders 
 that one usurer's account must be paid, or my pension stopped, 
 without taking into consideration others who have equal claims 
 upon me. Her Majesty has not thrown the gauntlet before a 
 driveller or a coward. Those who are the advisers of these 
 steps cannot be wise men. 
 
 Whatever men's political opinions may be, if they act from 
 conscientious motives, I have always respected them ; and you 
 know that I have had friends in all parties. Therefore, without 
 any reference to the present or past political career of ministers, 
 or her Majesty's advisers, their conduct Avould appear to me, 
 respecting myself, identically as it was, gentlemanlike or black- 
 guard. But, having had but too strong a specimen of the 
 latter by their attempting to bully a Pitt, and to place me under 
 consular control, it is sufficient for me to resign the name of an 
 English subject ; for the justice granted to the slave of de- 
 spotism far exceeds that which has been shown to me. Believe 
 me, with esteem and regard, yours, 
 
 Hester Lucy Stanhope.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 269 
 
 Friday, February 2. — To-day I found her lady- 
 ship busied in sorting out certain articles of apparel 
 which had, just before, been brought home for herself: 
 they had been made by the wife of Lufloofy, the 
 person at Sayda who generally lodged English tra- 
 vellers. As the fair sex may like to know what the 
 texture of ladies"' under- garments is in the East, 
 these were made of half cotton and half silk, and, to 
 the appearance and touch, not unlike crape. Some 
 women have them all silk. Either kind is favourable 
 for absorbing perspiration, and, under any circum- 
 stances, never strikes cold to the body.' 
 
 There had arrived, also, from Marseilles six cases of 
 claret, two of brandy, one of rum, twelve baskets of 
 champagne, one case of Kerch water ; and from Leg- 
 horn six cases of Genoese pate, two Parmesan cheeses, 
 some Bologna sausages, pots of preserve, one barrel of 
 salmon and tunny, one ditto of anchovies, brooms, 
 
 ' Lady Hester one day showed me fourteen of these articles 
 of ladies' apparel, six or seven of which were in slits and holes, 
 so that a maid-servant in England would not have accepted 
 them as a gift : she said her maids had torn them by their 
 rough handling in dressing her. I had them sent to my house, 
 and they were all mended. She expressed herself as grateful 
 for this little service to my daughter and the governess, as if 
 she had been a pauper clothed at their door !
 
 270 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 scuppets, perfumery, two chests of tea, and numberless 
 other good things, ^ to meet the wants of her expected 
 guest, the Baroness de Feriat, who was coming 
 from the United States. It was sad enough that 
 Lady Hester herself, with abundance of choice pro- 
 visions and wines, was unable to partake of any. 
 However, when samples of them were brought in, as 
 the cases were opened one after the other, to be shown 
 her, her usual (what shall I call it T) greediness of 
 manner manifested itself. She tasted everything, and 
 swallowed a great deal : the natural consequence of 
 which was that she threw herself back in her bed, 
 gasping for breath, and suffering horribly. On these 
 occasions, her favourite plan was to relieve the suc- 
 cession of momentary symptoms by a host of pallia- 
 tives, never leaving her stomach empty, or her 
 digestive organs at rest, and always fancying that it 
 was want of nourishment that generated uneasiness, or 
 caused the oppression on her chest, from both of which 
 
 ^ Here is a specimen of one of her notes, which she would 
 sometimes send in to me in the morning, or in the course of 
 the day, on a scrap of paper. 
 
 " I have slept, thank God ! and am better. Twenty-eight 
 boxes have arrived from Lunardi, who seems to have executed 
 my orders admirably. How are you to-day ?"
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 271 
 
 she never was free ; nor would she listen to any ariru- 
 ments that tended to show she was in error. 
 
 February 4, Sunday. — This morning it was dis- 
 covered in my house that a silver spoon had been 
 lost. I had a man-servant and a boy, the former a 
 Greek, the latter a Mahometan. The Greek had the 
 most sinister countenance I ever beheld : he was 
 the same man who had accompanied Mr. Moore and 
 Mr. Beck to the Dead Sea ;* and had been sent to 
 
 ' I was once speaking of the great results which might be 
 expected from Messrs. Beck and Moore's successful investigation 
 of the natural phenomena of the Dead Sea ; but Lady Hester 
 damped my admiration of those gentlemen's hazardous under- 
 taking, by exclaiming that all English travellers were a pack 
 of fools, and that they entirely neglected the objects that ought 
 to be inquired into. "There are none of them," said she, 
 " that know half as much as I do. I'll venture to say they 
 never heard of the forty doors, all opening by one key, in 
 which are locked the forty wise men who expect the Murdah. 
 Didn't I tell you the story the other day?" I answered, if she 
 had, I must have forgotten it, which was fortunate, as I was always 
 reluctant to show my dissent from her opinions ; having, by ex- 
 perience, learned how necessary it was to proceed cautiously in 
 doing so. " Yes, so it is," rejoined Lady Hester : " I talk for 
 half a day to you, wasting my breath and lungs, and there 
 you sit like a stock or a stone — no understanding, no con- 
 viction !"
 
 272 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 me from Beyrout by the innkeeper there : he was a 
 knave, a drunkard, and a har. Suspicion fell on him, 
 and he, to throw it on others, first accused the milk- 
 girl, and then the water-carrier. 
 
 Theft, in houses in Turkey, where many are sus- 
 pected, generally leads to the bastinadoing of them 
 all : and Logmagi suggested that he should apply the 
 korbash to all three, to elicit the truth. However, I 
 thought it more just to resort to the European way, 
 saying if the spoon were not found, the two servants 
 must pay for it, not doubting the innocence of the 
 water-carrier, a hard-working fellow of good repute. 
 Logmagi objected to this. " You must flog that Greek," 
 said he, " or you will lose, one by one, everything of 
 value you possess." 
 
 Here the matter rested, as the morning had been 
 fixed for answering Colonel CampbelPs letter : so I 
 wrote from her dictation the following laconic epistle 
 to him, and the friendly one to Mr. Moore, British 
 consul at Beyrout. When I had made fair copies of 
 both, I asked Lady Hester what she would have me 
 put at the close, and how she chose to subscribe her- 
 self. " Say nothing," replied she : " how many 
 times I have said I could never call myself the humble 
 servant of any body. I hate and detest all those com-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 273 
 
 plimeiits so unmeaning and so false : but to Mr. Moore 
 you may express my esteem and regard. I know I 
 shall have a great liking for Mrs. Moore, if ever I see 
 her : is she so very handsome as they say ? When 
 you go to Beyrout, you must tell her that I consider 
 it a duty to like her: she does not know why, no 
 more do you." 
 
 Lady Hester Stanhope to Colonel Campbell. 
 
 Joon, February 4, 1838. 
 Sir, 
 
 I shall give no sort of answer to your letter of the 10th of 
 January (received the 27th), until I have seen a copy of her 
 Majesty's commands respecting my debt to INIr. Homsy, or of 
 the official orders from her Majesty's Secretary of State for 
 Foreign Affairs, as also of JVIr. Homsy's claim, as well as of the 
 statement sent to England — to whom, and through whom — in 
 order that I may know whom I have to deal with, as well as 
 be able to judge of the accuracy of the documents. 
 
 I hope in future that you will not think it necessary to make 
 any apologies for the execution of your duty ; on the contrary, 
 I should wish to recommend you all to put on large Brutus 
 wigs when you sit on the woolsack at Alexandria or at 
 Beyrout. 
 
 Hester Lucy Stanhope. 
 
 N o
 
 274 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Lady Hester Stanhope to Mr. Moore, British Consul at 
 
 Beyrout. 
 
 Joon, February 4, 1838. 
 Sir, 
 
 The sacrifice which I have made of your acquaintance and 
 your society, that you might stand quite clear of everything 
 that affects me, appears to be to little purpose. You will have 
 some very disagreeable business to go through, as you will be 
 made Colonel Campbell's honourable agent, and he the agent 
 of the wise Lord Palmerston, and he the agent of your magni- 
 ficent' Queen. There is Colonel Campbell's answer, which I 
 leave open for your perusal, as he did his. 
 
 If in the end I find that you deserve the name of a true 
 Scotchman, I shall never take ill the part that you may have 
 taken against me, as it appears to be consistent with your duty 
 in these dirty times. 
 
 I remain with truth and regard, yours, 
 
 Hester Lucy Stanhope. 
 
 Besides these letters, I wrote others for England 
 and for Beyrout — in all about a dozen. What with 
 writing and listening to her conversation, 1 was Avitli 
 her five hours before dinner and five hours after. I had 
 to seal and put covers to all these, and just at the 
 moment when I was about to retire to ni}'- study, a 
 little room set apart for me in her house, to do this, 
 Lady Hester stopped me, and returned to the subject
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 275 
 
 of the silver spoon. After some consideration, she 
 recommended also the use of the korbash. 
 
 " How am I to live," cried she, " with thirty ser- 
 vants in my house, and such a man as you are that 
 can't say boh ! to a goose ? How do you expect they 
 will mind me, if you don't keep them under i 
 Hamaady is coming to-morrow to Joou : he must be 
 sent for, and shall interrogate the rascal. I warrant 
 you, he'll soon bring it to light." 
 
 When I left her for dinner, she had said to me, 
 " Send me word a quarter of an hour before you 
 return to say you are coming." This, in my hurry to 
 get through so much writing for her, I had neglected 
 to do ; and it, therefore, served now as the text for a 
 new grievance. " Didn't I say," she asked me, " let 
 me know a quarter of an hour beforehand when you 
 are ready to come to me ? That quarter of an hour 
 was everything to me : I wished to have more 
 candles brought in on account of your eyes, to have 
 the paper and ink got ready, and to collect my 
 thoughts ; but no ! everybody must do as they like, 
 and poor I be made the sacrifice. — I will live by the 
 rule of grandeur." 
 
 Then she called her maids in, one after the other, 
 poured on them a torrent of abuse for their laziness,
 
 276 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 dirt, and insolence. My heart sickened to think what 
 would be the consequence of all this to herself; for I 
 knew very well that her whole frame, the next morning, 
 would be debilitated from such excitement : yet all 
 this time her passion was sublimely eloquent, and, 
 sick though she was, terrible. Her maids tumbled 
 over each other from fright, and the thunder that 
 rolled in the sky (for a storm was raging at the time) 
 was but a faint likeness of her paroxysm. When it 
 was over, we drank tea, and at half- past one separated 
 for the night. 
 
 February 5. — The weather was still stormy. Snow 
 fell in abundance on the higher chains of Mount 
 Lebanon, where it lay apparently very thick. 
 
 When I paid my morning visit, Lady Hester held 
 out her hand to me the moment I approached her 
 bedside. " I said too much last night,"" she observed ; 
 " think no more about it, doctor ; but you know my 
 irritability, and you must bear with it." She was 
 pale, languid, and extenuated : her hands and arms 
 were jerked in convulsive flings. Strong electrical 
 shocks could not have shaken her so much. Alas ! 
 I sympathised too deeply with her wrongs, not to 
 forget all her ebullitions of anger the moment they 
 were over.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 277 
 
 When she found herself a little easier, she asked 
 me to explain to her Julius Ctesar's calendar, which 
 she had on some occasion li«;hted on in Ainsworth's 
 dictionary. " When I was a girl," said she, " I knew 
 all the constellations in the heavens, and was so quick 
 at astronomy, that they took my books and maps 
 away, fearing I should give myself up to it, to the 
 neglect of my other studies. I had it all before my 
 eyes, just like a pocket-handkerchief. What day are 
 the ides of March V I told her. " I think," she 
 continued, " the word Ides must be derived from 
 dat/d, JsAC." I guessed at once what was passing in 
 her mind. It was an illusion with her that her 
 destiny and Csesar's, or her character and his, had 
 some resemblance : and, when she mentioned Brutus- 
 wigs in her letter to Colonel Campbell, it had a 
 reference to the stabs they were giving her from 
 England in depriving her of her pension, and putting 
 ^ insults upon her. 
 
 She was deeply wounded in her pride by the treat- 
 ment she had received from home. " The Queen," 
 she would say, " should have desired her ministers to 
 write to me, and say, ' It grieves me that you should 
 have exceeded your income, and incurred debts, which 
 you know, when complaints are made to me, I
 
 278 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 cannot countenance ; endeavour to pay them by in- 
 stalments, and all may yet be well,"" or something to 
 that effect * * * * 
 
 But no ! she shall have my pension, and, if they 
 make me a bankrupt, why let them pay the usurers 
 themselves."" 
 
 February 9. — I did not see Lady Hester the whole 
 of the preceding day : she had sent me a message to 
 say she did not wish to trouble me. I attributed this 
 to the state of the weather ; for the wind was 
 high, the atmosphere wet and cold, and everything 
 about the residence uncomfortable. To go from my 
 house to Lady Hester"'s, I was obliged to wear high 
 wooden clogs and a thick Greek capote with a hood 
 to it. Umbrellas, from the gusts of wind, were out 
 of the question. The ground w^as like soap. But it 
 was not the weather made her decline my visit : she 
 had been closeted with a doctor of the country fi-ora 
 Dayx el Kamar, the son of that Metta of whom men- 
 tion has been made in a former part of these pages 
 as having bequeathed his family as a legacy to her. 
 He was come, as it was supposed, to give his opinion 
 on her case. I took no umbrage at this. Lady 
 Hester and I differed toto coclo on medical points ; 
 and she told me very often, after discussions of this
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 279 
 
 sort, that she had invited me to come this time, 
 not as her physician, but as a friend ; one in whom 
 she had confidence to settle her debts. 
 
 The muleteers had been sent on the 7th of February 
 to Mar Elias, to bring away the effects which had 
 been lying there, rotting and spoiling, since Miss 
 Williams's death. I accompanied them to superin- 
 tend the moving, as also to pay a visit to General 
 Loustaunau. Heavens ! what waste was I witness 
 to ! In one closet was a beautiful wax miniature of 
 Mr. Pitt, a portrait of the Duke of York, some other 
 pictures, stationery, glass, china, medicines, &c., enough 
 for a family. In one room were carpets, cushions, 
 counterpanes, mattresses, pillows, all completely 
 destroyed by mould and damp. In a store-room were 
 large japan canisters with tea, preserves, sugar, wine, 
 lamps, &c. From another room, (the roof of which 
 had fallen in at the time of the great earthquake,) 
 had disappeared, according to Lady Hester, 3 cwt. 
 of copper utensils, in cauldrons, boilers, saucepans, 
 kettles, round platters, called senneyah, and many 
 other things. A leather portmanteau lay with the 
 lock cut out ; a trunk had its hinges wrenched off; 
 and both were emptied of their contents. Every- 
 where proofs of pillage were manifest, and the villao-e
 
 280 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of Abra was notoriously thriving by it. For ten 
 years this plundering system had been going on, and 
 yet what still remained would have almost filled a 
 house. Among other things were papers and boxes 
 of seeds, roots, dried plants, and a variety of such 
 matters, which Lady Hester had collected. " For," 
 she would say, " the importance of people's pursuits 
 is judged in a different way by different individuals. 
 For example, Sir Joseph Bankes would think I had 
 done wonders if I found a spider that had two more 
 joints than another in his hind-leg ; and Sir Abraham 
 Hume would embrace me if I had got a coin not in 
 his collection ; but I have hoarded up something 
 for everybody. And yet, whether I have done good 
 for humanity or for science, those English give me 
 credit for nothing, and never even once ask how I 
 got into debt." 
 
 February 10. — I spent four hours with Lady 
 Hester Stanhope this evening. She was very ill, 
 and greatly convulsed during the major part of the 
 time. She moaned a good deal. Yet, in the in- 
 tervals of ease that she got, she had two baskets of 
 good things packed up as a present to an old French 
 widow, and two for an infirm old man, her pensioner, 
 residing at Sayda.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 281 
 
 Monday, February 13. - — Lady Hester to-day 
 dictated the foUowins; letter to Sir Edward Suffden : — 
 
 Lady Hester Stanhope to Sir Edward Sugden. 
 
 Joon, February 12, 1838. 
 Sir, 
 Born an aristocrat (for this assurance I received from your 
 father, whom it appeared to annoy as much as it delighted me), 
 with these genuine feelings it will not be necessary for me to 
 make any excuses for bringing so abruptly before you a subject, 
 which relates to this cause as well as that of justice. 
 
 I will not bore you with long details ; for it will be suffi- 
 cient for you to know that after my arrival in the East I was 
 not regarded by any class of persons with the same eyes of sus- 
 picion as strangers generally are. I have had it in my power, 
 without makmg use of intrigue or subterfuge on my part, or 
 hurting the religious or political feelings of others in any way, 
 to hear and investigate things which had never yet been inves- 
 tigated. This fortunate circumstance does not relate to those 
 who profess Islamism alone, but to all the curious religions (not 
 sects) which are to be found in the different parts of the East. 
 Not that I have learned the secrets of one religion to betray 
 them to another — on the contrary, I have observed an invio- 
 lable silence with all ; but it has served to enlighten, as well as 
 consolidate my own ideas, and given me an opportunity of seek- 
 ing corroboratory evidence of many wonderfully important and 
 abstract things, which has been hitherto very satisfactory. 
 
 The revolutions and public calamities, which often take 
 place in what is called a semi-barbarous country, call for great 
 presence of mind and energy, and a degree of humanity and
 
 282 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 liberality unknown in Europe. To have unfortunate sufferers 
 starving at your gate until you have had an opportunity of in- 
 quiring into their private life and character, and of investigating 
 how far it is likely to endanger your own life, or risk your pro- 
 perty, in receiving them — these reflections are not made in the 
 East. One takes one's chance ; and if one wishes to keep up the 
 character of either an Eastern monarch or an Eastern peasant, 
 you must treat even an enemy in misfortune avec les m^mes 
 egards that you would do a friend. Starting upon this prin- 
 ciple (which is, indeed, a natural one, and was always mine), 
 there were times in which I have been obliged to spend more 
 money than I could well afford, and this has been the cause of my 
 incurring debts ; not that I owe a farthmg to a poor peasant or 
 a tradesman, but all to usurers and rascals, that have lent their 
 money out at an exorbitant interest. You may judge of their 
 conscience. In the last levy of troops, made about two months 
 ago by Ibrahim Pacha, some rich peasants gave 100 per cent, 
 for six months for money to buy off their sons who were con- 
 scripts. 
 
 I often abuse the English ; and for why ? because they have 
 nearly lost their national character. The aristocracy is a proud, 
 morose, inactive class of men, having no great fundamental 
 principles to guide them, and not half the power that they give 
 to themselves — very little more worthy of being trusted by 
 their Sovereigns than by the people — full of ideas, all ego- 
 tistical, and full of their own importance and weight in a coun- 
 try, which may differ from an ounce to a pound in twenty-four 
 hours by the wavermg political line of conduct that they may 
 observe during that time, and which neither secures the confi- 
 dence of the people nor the friendship of their Sovereign. And
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 283 
 
 these columns of state may be reckoned a sort of ministers 
 without responsibiHty, but who ought to be wilhng at all times 
 to make every possible sacrifice for the honour of the crown 
 and for the good of the people in cases of emergency and mis- 
 fortune. 
 
 Had I been an English peer, do you suppose I would have 
 allowed the Duke of York's debts to remain unpaid ? I should 
 have laid down a large sum, and have engaged my brethren to 
 have done the same. If I had not succeeded, I should have 
 broken my coronet, and have considered myself of neither 
 greater nor smaller importance than the sign of a duke's head 
 in front of a public -house. But, ever willmg to come forward 
 with my life and property, I should expect that the Sovereign 
 would treat me with respect, * * ♦ 
 
 I have been written to by the Consul- General for Egypt and 
 Syria, Colonel Campbell, that, if I do not pay one of my nu- 
 merous creditors, I shall be deprived of my pension. I should 
 like to see that person come forward who dares to threaten a 
 Pitt! Having given themselves a supposed right over the 
 pension, they may take it all. In the early part of my life, 
 there was nothing I feared so much as plague, shipwreck, and 
 debt ; it has been my fate to suffer from them all. Respecting 
 my debts, of course I had expectations of their being settled ; 
 but if I was deceived in these expectations, I kept in view the 
 sale of my pension, as well as of an annuity of£l 500 a-year, left 
 me by my brother, if the worst came to the worst. The impor- 
 tance of the plan I Avas pursuing must, as you can easily imagine,
 
 284 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 have appeared most arbitrary, from my coolly delibei'ating that 
 the moment might arrive when I should make myself a beggar : 
 but I should have done my duty. What sort of right, then, 
 had the Queen to meddle with my affairs, and to give orders, 
 in total ignorance of the subject, upon the strength of an ap- 
 peal from a man whose claims might be half fabulous, and to 
 offer me the indignity of forbidding a foreign consul to sign 
 the certificate that I was among the number of the living, in 
 
 order to get my pension into her hands ? * * 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 I have written a few lines on the subject, and there is my 
 final determination : — "I shall give up my pension, and 
 with it the name of an English subject, and the slavery that is 
 entailed upon it." I have too much confidence in the great 
 Disposer of all things, and in the magnificent star that has 
 hitherto borne me above the heads of my enemies, to feel that 
 I have done a rash act. I can be anything but ignoble, or belie 
 the origin from which I sprang. 
 
 I have been assured by those not likely to deceive me, that 
 a large property has been left me in Ireland, which has been 
 concealed from me by my relations. I have put this business 
 into the hands of Sir Francis Burdett ; but should I in future 
 require a law opinion upon the subject, the little aristocratical 
 rascal (whose acquaintance I was about to make when a child, 
 had not a democratical quirk of my father's been the reason of 
 shutting up his family for some time in the country, and pre- 
 venting the execution of your father's intention of presenting 
 you to me) will not, I hope, take it ill that I should apply to his 
 superior talents for advice. 
 
 There is a horrible jealousy respecting the friendship that
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 285 
 
 exists between me and Mr. Henry Guys, the French Consul at 
 Beyrout. His grandfather, a learned old gentleman, was in 
 constant correspondence with the great Lord Chesterfield. It 
 is natural, therefore, that his son, the present Mr. Guys' fatherj 
 should feel interested about me when I first came into the coun- 
 try, and Mr. Henry Guys has always put into execution his 
 father's friendly intentions towards me. He is a very respect- 
 able man, and stands very high in the estimation of all classes 
 of persons : and as at one time there was no English consul or 
 agent at Sayda, the French agent sent a certificate of my life 
 four times a-year to England. At the death of this man, Mr. 
 Guys sent it himself. If you honour me with a reply, I request 
 you to address your letter to him {auxsoins de M. le Chevalier 
 Henri Guys., Consul de France a Beyrout)., notwithstandmg he 
 has been named for Aleppo ; as it is the only way I am likely to 
 receive my letters unopened, or perhaps at all. 
 
 Believe me, with esteem and regard, yours, 
 
 H. L. Stanhope. 
 
 I was much exhausted to-day. I had written six 
 hours to her dictation the preceding day, and now 
 sat talking until midnight ; but, from the late 
 hour at which I left her, it was as usual impos- 
 sible for me to note down even a hundredth part 
 of what she said. For example, it is now nearly 
 one o'clock in the morning ; and much as I could 
 wish, whilst my recollection is fresh, to make a few
 
 286 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 memorandums of the many things she has been 
 saying, my eyehds droop, and I am forced to lay down 
 my pen : yet one anecdote I must try to commit to 
 paper. In reading over the letter to Sir Edwai-d 
 Sugden, she made the following remark : " The peers 
 in England may be compared to doctors who have 
 made their fortunes : if they continue to practice, 
 they do it out of regard to some particular families, 
 or from humane motives. They know better than 
 those who are sick what is good for them, because 
 they have had long practice ; and, if their sons 
 are no doctors, they have heard so much talk about 
 the matter, that they sit in a corner, and watch the 
 effect of the medicine." 
 
 I was struck with the resemblance of Lady Hester's 
 style to Junius's in her letter to Sir Edward. This 
 led me to reflect, as I had observed on many 
 occasions that Lady Hester\s language was the 
 counterpart of her grandfather's, whether Lord Chat- 
 ham mio'ht not have been the author of Junius's 
 Letters ; but it has since been suggested to me that 
 there would be an absurdity in such a supposition (for 
 I had no opportunity of consulting books where I 
 was), because some of the most eloquent passages of 
 Junius are his panegyrics on Lord Chatham, and it
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 287 
 
 is not likely that he would have been guilty of writing 
 a eulogiuiu on himself; however, I mentioned it 
 to her. She answered, " My grandfather was per- 
 fectly capable and likely to write and do things 
 which no human being would dream came from his 
 hands. I once met with one of his spies," continued 
 she, " a woman of the common class, who had passed 
 her life dressed in man's clothes. In this way she 
 went, as a sailor, to America, and used to write 
 him letters as if to a sweetheart, o-ivino; an account 
 of the enemy's ships and plans in a most masterly 
 way, in the description of a box of tools, or in 
 something so unlike the thing in question that no 
 suspicion could be had of the meaning of the con- 
 tents. This woman by accident passed me at a w^a- 
 tering-place, whilst I was sitting near the sea-side 
 talking to my brother, and stopped short on hearino- 
 the sound of my voice, which was so much like my 
 grandfather's that it struck her. And there is nothing 
 extraordinary in this : I have known a horse do the 
 same thing. My father had two piebald horses : they 
 were very vicious, and hated one of the grooms so, 
 that, one day, whilst he was taking them out for 
 exercise, one threw him, and the other flew at him, 
 and attempted to strike him with his fore-feet ; but, as
 
 288 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 he could not succeed, tlie other, that had run off, 
 turned back, seized the groom with his teeth, and bit 
 him and shook him. That very horse went Wind, 
 and got into an innkeeper's hands, who made a post 
 horse of him. One day, on the high road, I saw 
 him, and made an exclamation to somebodj'^ who was 
 with me. The horse, although blind, knew my voice, 
 and stopped short, just like the woman. I too was 
 struck with the woman's manner ; and, without say- 
 ing anything, went next morning at daylight, before 
 anybody was about, to the same spot, and, finding 
 the woman there again, inquired who and what she 
 was. A conversation ensued, and the woman was 
 delijjhted, she said, to behold once a^ain somethinsr 
 that reminded her of her old employer. As for the 
 ministers of the present day, she observed, they are 
 good for nothing. When I went to prefer my claim 
 for a pension, one called me Goody-two-shoes, and 
 told me to go about my business. 
 
 " A government should never employ spies of the 
 description generally chosen — men of a certain appear- 
 ance and information, who may be enabled to mix 
 in genteel society : they are always knowli or sus- 
 pected. My grandfather pursued quite a different 
 plan. His spies were among such people as Logmagi
 
 LADV HESTER STANHOPE. 289 
 
 — a hardy sailor, who would ^et at any risk into a 
 port, to see how many ships tliere Avere, and how 
 many effective men — or a pedlar, to enter a camp — 
 and the like. This was the way he got information 
 as to the state of the armament at Toulon : and such 
 a one was the woman I have just told you about, who 
 knew me by the sound of my voice. 
 
 " There were two hairdressers in London, the best 
 spies Buonaparte had. A hairdresser, generally 
 speaking, must be a man of talent — so must a cook ; 
 for a cook must know such a variety of things, about 
 which no settled rules can be laid down, and he must 
 have great judgment. 
 
 " Do you think I did not immediately perceive that 
 
 those four Germans we met at were spies? 
 
 directly. I never told B**** and Lord S**** because 
 they would have let it out again. Fran9ois was the 
 only one who knew it besides myself. He took an 
 opportunity one day of saying to me, when nobody 
 
 was by, ' My lady, one of those Germans "* — ' Yes, 
 
 yes, Fran9ois, I understand you,"* answered I, before 
 he had said three words : * you need not put me on 
 my guard, but I am much obliged to you.' — ' Why, 
 my lady,"' said Fran9ois, ' when I was one day 
 standing sentry at Buonaparte's tent, there was one 
 VOL. II.
 
 290 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of those very gentlemen I have seen go in and out : 
 I recollect his face perfectly/ Francois was riglit, 
 doctor : there they were — there was the sick one, 
 and the learned one, and the musician, and the officer 
 — for all sorts of persons, 
 
 " You recollect, when we were at Constantinople, 
 one day I went to meet the Count de la Tour 
 Maubourg on the banks of the Bosphorus, and he 
 intimated to me that I had kept him waiting. ' Yes,"* 
 said I, ' there Avas a spy following my boat : I knew 
 him directly, and wanted to prevent his dogging me.' 
 ' Pooh ! nonsense,"* replied Mr. de la T. M : but we 
 had not talked for half an hour, when lo ! there he 
 was, taking a look at us. Next day, when I saw 
 Mr. Canning, ' Oh ! Lady Hester," said he, ' how did 
 you spend your day yesterday f — ' Why,"* answered I, 
 ' your spy did not spoil it.' — ' Ah !' rejoined he, 
 laughing — for he perceived at once it was of no use to 
 make a mystery of what he had done — ' you should 
 not do such things — I must write it home to govern- 
 ment."" — ' Yes,' said I, ' I'll write a letter, too, in this 
 way: — My lord, your excellent young minister, to 
 show his gallantry, has begun his diplomatic career 
 by watching ladies in their assignations, «Sz;c. &;c.' 
 and then I laughed at him, and then I talked
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 291 
 
 seriously with hiui, till I made him cry — yes, doctor, 
 made him cry. 
 
 " Spies, as I said before, should never be what are 
 called gentlemen, or have the appearance of such ; 
 for, however well they may be paid, somebody else 
 will always pay them better ; — unless fortune should 
 throw in your way a man of integrity, who, from 
 loyalty or a love of his country, will adventure every- 
 thing for the cause he is eno;as:ed in : such a man is 
 another sort of a thino; !" 
 
 February 14, — Being Wednesday, I was, as usual, 
 deprived of the honour of seeing Lady Hester until 
 night ; I therefore remained with my family, and, 
 having recovered the lost spoon, which my servant 
 produced out of fear of Hamaady's examination, pre- 
 tending to have found it, I took the opportunity of 
 settling his wages and turned him away. 
 
 After sunset, I waited on her. She was in low 
 spirits. " I am very weak," said she. " Look at 
 my veins — they did not use to be so : look at my 
 arms, too — mere skin and bone." She pointed to the 
 state of her room : " See how filthy it is again 
 already," she observed ; "and if I say a word, those 
 wretches seem not to mind me — they snub me, 
 doctor." 
 
 2
 
 292 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 Slie attempted to dictate the letter she proposed 
 writing to the Duke of Wellington, but was unable. We 
 drank tea. " Do you know," she said, " when old Malti" 
 (this was the name Mr. Abella, the English agent, was 
 generally designated by) " came in such a hurry, the 
 other day, with Colonel Campbeirs letter, and made 
 such a fuss about delivering it with his own hand, 
 people fancied I was going to die, and that he was 
 come up to seal my effects the moment the breath 
 should be out of my body. But, if I do die, they 
 sha^n't seal anytliing of mine : Til take care of that ; 
 for I am no longer an English subject, and therefore 
 they have nothing to do with me." 
 
 Again she asked me to take my pen and paper, and 
 returned to the Duke of Wellin2;ton"'s letter. " I 
 can't collect my ideas," she said. " One while I am 
 thinking of what Mr. Pitt said of him ; then of the 
 letter he wrote when invited down to the county ball ; 
 then of what he is now : so put down your paper, and 
 ring for a pipe. The duke is a man self-taught, for 
 lie was always in dissipation. 1 recollect, one day, 
 Mr. Pitt came into the drawing-room to me — ' Oh ! ' 
 said he, ' how I have been bored by Sir Sydney 
 coming with his box full of papers, and keeping me 
 for a couple of hours, when I had so much to do !' 1
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 293 
 
 observed to him that heroes were generally vain : 
 ' Lord Nelson is so.*" — ' So he is,' replied Mr. Pitt ; 
 ' but not like Sir Sydney : and how different is 
 Arthur Wellesley, who has just quitted me ! He 
 has given me details so clear upon affairs in India ! 
 and he talked of them, too, as if he had been a sur- 
 geon of a regiment, and had nothing to do with them ; 
 so that I know not which to admire most, his modesty 
 or his talents : and yet the fate of India depends upon 
 them.'' Then, doctor, when I recollect the letter he 
 wrote to Edward Bouverie, in which he said that he 
 could not come down to the ball which Bouverie had 
 invited him to, for that his only corbeau coat was so 
 bad, he was ashamed to appear in it, I reflect what a 
 rise he has had in the world. Bouverie said — ' You 
 would like to dance with him amazingly, Lady Hester : 
 he is a good fellow."' 
 
 " He was at first, doctor, nothing but what hun- 
 dreds of others are in a country town — a man who 
 danced, and drank hard. His star has done every- 
 thing for him ; for he is not a great general. He is 
 no tactician, nor has he any of those great qualities 
 that make a Caesar, or a Pompey, or even a Buona- 
 parte. As for the battle of Waterloo, both French 
 and English have told me that it was a lucky battle
 
 294 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 for him, but nothing more. I don't think he acted 
 well at Paris : nor did the soldiers like him." 
 
 Thursday, February 15. — This mornino-, the letter 
 to the Duke of Wellington was written, and after din- 
 ner I copied it out. 
 
 Lady Hester Stanhope to the Duke of Wellington. 
 
 Joon, February 13, 1838. 
 
 My dear Duke, 
 
 If you merit but half the feeling and eloquent praise I heard 
 bestowed upon you shortly before I saw you for the first time, 
 you are the last man in the world either to be offended or to 
 misconstrue my motives in writing to you upon the subject in 
 question, or not to know how to account for the warmth of the 
 expressions I may make use of, which are only characteristic of 
 my disposition. 
 
 Your Grace's long residence in the East will have taught 
 you that there is no common rate character in England an 
 adequate judge what manner of living best answers among a 
 semi-barbarous people, and how little possible it is to measure 
 one's expenses where frequent revolutions and petty wars are 
 carried on without any provision for the sufferers, from its 
 being considered the duty of every one to assist them as his 
 humanity may dictate, or as his circumstances may afford. 
 
 Acre besieged for seven months! Some days, 7,000 balls 
 thrown in in twenty-four hours ! — at last, taken by storm, and
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 295 
 
 little more than 200 of the garrison remaining! — then the 
 wretched inhabitants, who expected to find succour from their 
 old friends in the country, finding their backs turned upon 
 them in the dread and awe they stood in of Ibrahim Pasha ; 
 nay, it is very strange to say that the Franks likewise held 
 back in a most extraordinary manner. Therefore, these un- 
 happy people had no resource but in me, and I did the best I 
 could for them all. Mahomet Ali, Ibrahim Pasha, Sheriff 
 Pasha, all set at me at once, in order to make me give up cer- 
 tain persons, who immediately would have lost their heads for 
 having fought well in the cause which they were engaged in. 
 I opposed them all round single-handed, and said that I neither 
 protected these persons in the English or French name, but in 
 my own, as a poor Arab, who would not give up an unhappy 
 being but with his own life ; that there was no other chance of 
 making me bend by any other means than by attempting mine. 
 In this manner I saved some unfortunate beings, whom I got 
 rid of by degrees, by sending them back to their own country, 
 or providing for them at a distance in some way or another. 
 Can you, as a soldier, blame me for what I have done ? I 
 should have acted in the same way before your eyes to the 
 victims of your own sword. Then the host of orphans, and 
 widows, and little children, who, to feed or clothe for nearly 
 two years, took away all the ready money with which I ought in 
 part to have paid my debts, and caused new ones ! — Yet I am 
 no swindler, and will not appear like one. Your Queen had 
 no business to meddle in my affairs. In due time, please God, 
 I should have known how to arrange to satisfy everybody, even 
 if I left myself a beggar. If she pretends to have a right to 
 stop my pension, I resign it altogether, as well as the name of
 
 296* MEMOIRS OF 
 
 an English subject ; for there is no family that has served their 
 country and the crown more faithfully than mine has done, and 
 I am not inclined to be treated with moins (Tt'gards than was 
 formerly shown to a gentleman-like highwayman. 
 
 I have been every day in expectation of a reply from Sir 
 F. Burdett respecting a large property which is said to have 
 been left me in Ireland, and which has been concealed from me 
 for many years. In case of its coming into my hands, I shall 
 still not keep my pension, in order to cut off every communi- 
 cation with the English Government, from whom only proceed 
 acts of folly, which any moment may rebound upon an indi- 
 vidual. I chose Sir Francis Burdett to look into my affairs, 
 because I believe him to be a truly conscientious honest man. 
 Although we always disagreed upon politics, we were always 
 the best friends. It appears to me that he is beginning to see 
 things in their proper light. You may say it is strange that I 
 apply to a person out of my own family. My brother. Lord 
 Stanhope, having dined with Lord Holland, to meet Mr. Fox, 
 when Mr. Pitt was on his death-bed, when I regretted this 
 unhappy inadvertency, which I believed it to be, I was so 
 shocked with the cold-blooded answer that he gave me, that, in 
 the agitation I was in, I made a vow never to see him again. 
 This I have kept, and have had no connexion or communi- 
 cation with him since the period of Mr. Pitt's death. There- 
 fore, all that I have to entreat of your Grace is to allow me to 
 appear in the light in which I really stand — attached to hu- 
 manity, and attached to royalty, and attached to the claims that 
 one human being has upon another. Nor can I allow myself 
 to be deemed an intriguer ; because I have said here, in all 
 societies, that persons who abet those who attempt to shake the 
 
 I
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 297 
 
 throne of S-.iltan Mahmoud shake the throne of their own 
 sovereign, and, therefore, commit high treason: and among 
 that class of persons I do not choose to rank myself, Nor am 
 I to l)e reckoned an incendiary, when I seek to vindicate my 
 own character, that never was marked with either baseness or 
 folly. It may have been, perhaps, with too little consideration 
 for what are called by the world my own interests, and which 
 I, in fact, despise, or at least only consider in a secondary point 
 of view. There is nobody more capable of making the Queen 
 understand that a Pitt is a unique race than your Grace : there 
 is no trifling with them. 
 
 I have sent a duplicate of the enclosed letter to Her Majesty 
 to my Lord Palmerston, through the hands of the English 
 Consul, Mr. Moore. If it has not reached her safe, I hope 
 that you will see that this one does : or otherwise I shall put it 
 
 in the Augsburg Gazette, or in an American newspaper. ^ 
 
 ***** * 
 
 Hester Lucy Stanhope. 
 
 At eleven at night I joined her at tea in her bed- 
 room. She then asked me to read all the letters over, 
 to see if anything wanted correction. After that, 
 calling for her old parchment-covered blotting-book, 
 
 ' Several lines are here wanting, owing to a half sheet ot 
 paper having been lost in quarantine. They were highly com- 
 plimentary to his grace, and their omission is to be regretted. 
 
 O 5
 
 298 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 she took them oue by one, and folded them herself, 
 " in order," as she said, " to give me instructions on 
 that head." Generally speaking, she never seemed 
 more happy than when she had a huge packet of 
 despatches to put up. I dare say it reminded her of 
 former times. 
 
 She began — " Now, doctor, a letter to a great man 
 should fold over exactly to the middle — thus. Lord ! 
 what counting-house paper have you got here ? — this 
 will never do " (it was the thin paper common in 
 France as letter-paper). I told her it was the very 
 best there was in the house, and added, to quiet her, 
 that thick paper, when fumigated in quarantine, as 
 this must be, generally seemed to me to suffer more 
 than thin ; which is the fact. " Humph — ah ! 
 well, it is too late now to alter it ; so it nmst go as 
 it is." She then folded the cover with great exacti- 
 tude ; but, looking round her, she cried, " There, 
 now, that black beast has not given me the seal !" 
 (ding, ding). " Zezefoon, where''s the seal ?" Zezefoon 
 was the only servant who was permitted to touch the 
 seal, and she always had orders to put it away care- 
 fully, so that the other maids should not know where 
 it was, for fear they should lend it to some rascal, (like 
 Girius Gemmel, she would say,) who would put her
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 299 
 
 signature to some forojed letter or paper : and Zeze- 
 foon, as is customary with uneducated persons, liid it 
 very often so carefully that she could not find it her- 
 self. After turning- books and papers upside down, 
 at last she produced it. 
 
 Whilst melting the wax in the candle, Lady Hester 
 went on : — " Doctor, you never now can seal a letter 
 decently : you once used to do it tolerably well, but 
 now you have lost your memory and all your facul- 
 ties, from talking nothing but rubbish and empty non- 
 sense to those nasty women ; and that's the reason 
 why you never listen to anything one says, and 
 answer ' yes,' and ' no,' without knowing to what." 
 
 I gave her the letters in succession to seal, until 
 exhausted by the effort — for now the least thing was 
 too much for her — she fell back in her bed. She 
 roused herself again, and said, " Now let's direct 
 them. Where is the one to the Queen ? Write 
 
 Victoria Retina — nothing; else — in the middle 
 
 that will do very well. Whose is that? — the 
 Speaker's : very well. I wonder if it is the brother 
 I used to play driving horses with ; for there were 
 several brothers. Now, look for his address — James 
 — ah ! that's him. Direct ' To the Eight Hon. 
 Speaker' no, stop: put 'To the Right Hon.
 
 yOO MEMOIRS OF 
 
 James Abercrombie, with three et ceteras, Carlton 
 Gardens."' " 
 
 The next letter was the Duke of Wellington's. 
 Lady Hester said, " Let me see — he's a field-mar- 
 shal — ah, never mind. You must begin — ' To His 
 Cirace the Duke of Wellington, K. G.' " I accordingly 
 did so, and not knowing how much more was coming 
 to complete the superscription, I put it all, for fear of 
 wanting room, into one line. Her eye was on me as 
 1 wrote. " What's that ? — shew it me," she cried out ; 
 and taking the letter in her hands, she put on her 
 spectacles. What an exclamation burst from her ! 
 " (lood God, doctor, are you mad 1 — what can you 
 mean • — what is this vulgar ignorance, not to know 
 that ' His Grace' should be in one line, and ' The 
 Duke of Wellington, K. G.' in the other : what 
 people will he fancy I am got among I why, the 
 lowest clerk in the Foreign Office would not have 
 made such a blunder. This is your fine Oxford edu- 
 cation !" and then she gave a deep sigh, as if in utter 
 despair, to think that a letter should go forth from her 
 hands so different in paper, seal, and address, from 
 those of her early days, when she reigned in Downing 
 Street, co-equal with Mr. Pitt. Now it was a rickety 
 old card-table, a rush-bottomed chair, a white pipe-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 301 
 
 clay inkstand, wax that would not be used in a count- 
 ing-house in Clieapside ; — and both the Sultaness and 
 her vizir (for so I shall presume to style her and my- 
 self), fitting their spectacles on their noses, equally 
 blind, equally old, and almost equally ailing. 
 
 I finished the address to the Duke. " How many 
 et ceteras have you put T' asked Lady Hester. — 
 " What ! only two ? I suppose you think he's a 
 nobody !" The remaining letters were directed with- 
 out farther trouble, but, by some unaccountable 
 blunder. Sir Edward Sugden was made a Sir Charles 
 of. A long deliberation ensued, whether the letter to 
 Her Majesty should be enclosed in a cover to Lord 
 Palmerston, or whether it should be left to be seen by 
 the English consul at Beyrout, to frighten him. 
 
 It was now three o'clock in the morning. I left Lady 
 Hester, and had Ali Hayshem, the confidential mes- 
 senger, called out of his bed. I repeated to him Lady 
 Hesters instructions as follows : — " You are to take 
 this packet, and start at sunrise precisely — not before, 
 and not after — and to take care you deliver the letters 
 into M. Guys's hands before sunset : for it is Friday, 
 and Friday is an auspicious day. There are ten 
 piasters for your two days' keep, and let no one know 
 where you are going, nor for what."
 
 ;502 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 All was accustomed to this business — laid his haud 
 on his head to signify that should answer for his 
 fidelity — made a low salaam — went to the cook for his 
 five bread-cakes — turned in again upon his libad — 
 pulled his counterpane over his body, face and all, and, 
 I dare say, was punctual to his hour and his instruc- 
 tions. This sort of men, who are generally chosen 
 from the peasantry, are invaluable as foot-messengers. 
 With a nahoot or small bludgeon, well knobbed at 
 one end, and with a few bread-cakes in their girdle, 
 they will set off at any hour, in any weather, for any 
 place, and go as quick as a horseman. They sleep 
 anywhere and anyhow, and deliver their messages and 
 letters with exceeding punctuality. Ali was a hand- 
 some fellow, the picture of health, fearless of danger, 
 and a great favourite with Lady Hester, to whose ser- 
 vice he was devoted. Therefore, at every Byram, Ali 
 was sure to be seen in a new suit of clothes, the envy 
 of the men, and the admiration of all the girls of 
 Joon : but he knew how to make a proper use of his 
 money. Already he had begun to trade with some 
 success in silk, advancing small sums in the winter to 
 the poor women who breed silkworms, for which he 
 received silk in payment : this he resold in the city ; 
 and those who may chance to meet with Ali ten
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 303 
 
 years hence might find in him a warm trades- 
 man, smoking his pipe in the midst of his ob- 
 sequious dependants, and dignified with the title of 
 Shaykh.
 
 4
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Lady Hester in an alcove in her garden — Lucky days ob- 
 served by her — Consuls' rights — Mischief caused by Sir F. B.'s 
 neglect in answering Lady Hester's letters — Rashes common 
 in Syria — Visit of an unknown Englishman — Story of Hanah 
 Messaad — Lady Hester's love of truth — Report of her death 
 — Michael Tutungi — Visit from the Chevalier Guys — His 
 reception at Dayr el Mkhallas — Punishment of the shepherd, 
 Caasem — Holyday of the Korban Byram — Fatoom's accouche- 
 ment — Lady Hester's aversion to consular interference — 
 Evenings at Joon — Old Pierre — Saady.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 307 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Friday, February 16, 1838. — About two in the 
 afternoon, on going to pay my visit to Lady Hester 
 Stanhope, I proceeded to her bed-room, thinking, as 
 usual, to find her there, but was told by her maids 
 she was gone into the garden. The day was overcast, 
 and there was every appearance of rain. I found her 
 standing in one of the garden-walks, leaning on her 
 stick (such as those which elderly ladies were accus- 
 tomed formerly to use in England, and perhaps may 
 now), and pale as a ghost. " Doctor," said she, " I 
 have got out of my room that those beasts may clean 
 it ; but, if you don't go to them, they'll steal every- 
 thing." After expressing my fears that she had 
 chosen a bad day to come out, I left her. I saw her 
 room put into as much order as the conftision in it 
 would admit of It was crowded with bundles one
 
 308 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 upon another, as before ; books, papers, candle-ends, 
 phials, glasses, medicines, and an accumulation of 
 things for which there was no room, and numberless 
 trifles, which she dared not put into any other part 
 of the house, lest they should be stolen. 
 
 Independent of her desire to be more clean and 
 comfortable, I guessed at once why she had left her 
 bed-room to go into the garden. It was the struggle 
 which the sick often make — the resolution of an un- 
 subdued spirit, that finds corporeal ailments weighing 
 down the body, whilst the mind is yet unsubdued. It 
 was Friday too, the day in all the week she held as 
 most auspicious. 
 
 When I returned into the garden, I found her lying 
 on a sofa, in a beautiful alcove, one of three or four 
 that embellished her garden, and an attendant standing 
 with his hands folded across his breast, in an attitude 
 of respect before her. At these moments, she always 
 wore the air of a Sultaness. In this very alcove how 
 often had she acted the queen, issued her orders, sum- 
 moned delinquents before her, and enjoyed the sem- 
 blance of that absolute power, which was the latent 
 ambition of her heart ! Hence it was that she at last 
 got rid of all European servants, because they would 
 not submit to arbitrary punishments, but would per-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. S09 
 
 sist in raising their voices in self-justification. With 
 the Turks it was not so. Accustomed, in the courts 
 of governors and Pashas, to impHcit obedience and 
 submission, they resigned themselves to her rule as 
 a matter of course. In transferring, however, their 
 servility to her, as their mistress, they also transferred 
 the vices and dangers which servility engenders : 
 namely, lying, theft, sycophancy, intrigue, and 
 treachery. 
 
 Saturday, February 17. — During the whole of this 
 day I did not see Lady Hester, and I was not sorry 
 for it. Her thoughts were now constantly running 
 on the inexplicable silence of Sir Francis Burdett. 
 " He is a man of honour," she would say. " I sup- 
 pose he has to write to Ireland, and to the right and 
 left about my property ; or perhaps they have got 
 hold of him, too ; — who knows ? I am sure something 
 must have happened." As each succeeding steam- 
 boat arrived, a messenger was sent to Beyrout, but 
 still no answer. Then she reflected what she should do, 
 if Sir Francis at last should furnish her with proofs 
 that no property had been left her. Beggary stared 
 her in the face. In the mean time, she had no means 
 of raising a single farthing before the first of March, 
 when she could draw for d^'SOO. But of this sum i?200
 
 310 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 were due to Mr. Dromacaiti, a Greek merchant at 
 Beyrout, who had lent her money at an exorbitant 
 interest, but on her word, and this, therefore, she 
 would pay, I knew, if possible. During all this time, 
 my family remained in almost total ignorance of what 
 was going on within Lady Hester's walls as much as 
 if they had been living in China. I was, also, as 1 
 have said above, obliged to conceal, in a great measure, 
 her illness from them. They rode and walked out on 
 the mountains, fed their bulbuls, enjoyed the fine cli- 
 mate, and wondered what made me look so thin and 
 careworn : for thought and care preyed on my 
 spirits, and I wasted away almost as perceptibly as 
 Lady Hester herself. 
 
 Sunday, February 18. — To-day Lady Hester was 
 sitting up in the corner of her bed-room. Her look 
 was deadly pale, and her head was wrapped up in 
 flannels, just like her grandfather the last day he ap- 
 peared in the House of Lords. Without intending 
 it, everything she did bore a resemblance to that great 
 man. 
 
 Ali had returned from Beyrout without a letter. 
 " Did Ali Hayshem," she asked me, " set ofi" at sun- 
 rise on Friday ? I am glad he did. Do you know, I 
 once sent Butrus to Beyrout to fetch money ; and I
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 311 
 
 said to him, ' If you get in on Monday night, don't 
 come away on Tuesday or Wednesday ; for those are 
 unlucky days : loiter away those two days, and be 
 here on Thursday night. However, he paid no atten- 
 tion to my instructions, and on Wednesday evening 
 he made his appearance. ' Why did you come before 
 Thursday V I asked him. He answered, ' That the 
 bag of money, having been delivered to him, he had 
 brought it immediately, and you see, Mylady, here it 
 is : nobody, thank God ! has robbed me.' — ' That 
 does not signify,' I told him ; *• you will see there is no 
 hereki/ [blessing] in it.' Do you know, doctor, 1 
 paid the people's wages immediately, and it was well 
 I did ; for some ten or twelve thousand piasters, chest 
 and all, disappeared the next day. ' There, look,' said 
 I to him ! ' I told you that money never would turn 
 to account.' " 
 
 The conversation reverted to Colonel Campbell's let- 
 ter. " I have told the secretary," said she, " to tell his 
 father, that, if he dares make his appearance here 
 again, I'll send a bullet through his body. Not one 
 of them shall lay their vile hands on me or mine. I 
 have strength enoun-h to strangle him, and I would 
 do it, though it should cost me my life. As for Mr. 
 Moore, he perhaps may have a habeas corpus by him ;
 
 SI 2 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 but it only is good for twenty-four hours, and I should 
 know how to manajre. Consuls have no r'vj-hi over 
 nobility ; they may have over merchants, and such 
 people : but they never shall come near me, and I 
 would shoot the first that dared to do it. The Eng- 
 lish are a set of intermeddling, nasty, vulgar, odious 
 people, and I hate them all. The very Turks laugh 
 at them. Out of ridicule, they told one, if he was so 
 clever, to straiten a dog's tail. Yes, he might 
 straiten and straiten, but it would soon bend again ; 
 and they may bend me and bend me, if they can, 
 but I fancy they will find it a difficult matter : 
 for you may tell them that, when I have made up 
 my mind to a thing, no earthly being can alter my 
 determination. If they want a devil, let them try me, 
 and they shall have enough of it. 
 
 " When the steamboat came, and brought no letter 
 to-day from Sir Francis Burdett, you thought I 
 should be ill on receiving the news : but I am not a 
 fool. I suppo.se he is occupied with his daughter's 
 legacy, or with parliamentary business." 
 
 I had received a letter from a lady, which I had 
 occasion to read to her. When I had done, and she 
 had expressed her thanks for the flower-seeds sent 
 her, she added, " What I do not like in Mrs. U.^s
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 313 
 
 letter is, that foolish way of making a preamble about 
 her not liking to leave so much white paper in all its 
 purity, and all those turns and phrases which people 
 use. That was very well for a Swift or a Pope, who, 
 having promised to write to somebody once a fort- 
 night, and having nothing to say, made a great num- 
 ber of points to fill up the paper. But a letter that 
 has matter in it should be written with a distinct 
 narration of the business, and that's all. Do you 
 think such people as Mr. Pitt or Lord Chatham, my 
 grandfather, liked those nonsensical phrases ? No ; 
 they threw the letter aside, or else cast their eyes over 
 it to see if, on the other page, there was anytliing to 
 answer about." 
 
 February 19. — I was riding this morning with my 
 family beyond the village, which is separated by a deep 
 valley from Lady Hester's residence, when I saw two 
 servants on the verge of the opposite hill, vociferatin<T 
 — " Come directly, come instantly !" and waiving 
 their white turbans. I reflected that, if I put my 
 horse into a gallop, the people of tlie village would 
 immediately conclude that Lady Hester was dying ; 
 and the news (as news always gains by distance) would 
 be the next day at Sayda that she was dead. I 
 therefore continued the same pace ; and, although the 
 
 VOL. n. p
 
 Ft 
 
 14 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 servants redoubled their signs and cries, I steadily 
 retraced my steps. When I had dismounted, I was 
 told her ladyship was in a terrible way, unlike any- 
 thing they had ever seen. I hurried to her bed-room. 
 She was sitting on the side of her bed, weeping and 
 uttering those extraordinary cries, which I have before 
 compared to something hardly human. She clasped her 
 hands and exclaimed repeatedly, " Oh, God ! oh, 
 God ! what misery ! what misery !" When she was 
 a little calmed, and I could collect from her what was 
 the matter, she told me that, having fallen into a doze, 
 she awoke Avith a sense of suffocation from tightness 
 across her chest, and, being unable to ring or call, she 
 thought she should have died. " Thus," said she, " am 
 I treated like a dog, with nobody to administer to 
 my wants ;" and so she went on in the usual 
 strain. I was suffering at this time from the nettle- 
 rash, but treated it lightly, and thought Lady Hester 
 would do so too : until, having unluckily alluded to 
 it, a fresh source of uneasiness was inadvertently 
 started. " Good God, doctor I" cried she, " to come 
 out of doors with a nettlerash on you ! Go to your 
 house immediately ; get to bed, keep yourself warm, and 
 remain there until it is cured. After four or five days, 
 take such and such things ; then go to the bath, then
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 315 
 
 take some bark, &c., &c. How many persons have I 
 known go mad and die from it ! You treat it as no- 
 thing? why, you will drive me crazy. In God's 
 name, never mind me ; only go and take care of your- 
 self. You will act in your own usual inconsiderate 
 manner, and I shall have to bury another in this 
 house. Oh, God ! oh, God ! what am I doomed to !" 
 and then followed fresh cries and fresh lamentations. 
 
 Could Sir Francis Burdett have seen all this, and 
 have known that five words of a letter, sent a month 
 or two sooner, in answer to her inquiries about the pro- 
 perty she thought was left her, would have probably 
 saved all this excitement, he would have found reason 
 to reproach himself for his long silence. I knew the 
 workings of her mind full well, and that her proud spirit, 
 wounded by the general neglect she met with, vented 
 itself in tears, seemingly, for other causes than the 
 real ones. I recollected a succession of similar scenes 
 about twenty years before at Mar Elias, when she 
 was expecting letters from the Duke of Buckingham ; 
 but then she was sounder in bodily health, and could 
 better bear such convulsive paroxysms of grief. Now, 
 she was labouring under pulmonary disease, was old, 
 was in distress, and the consequences might prove 
 fatal. 
 
 p2
 
 816 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 I left her before dinner. " Good by, doctor V she 
 said, in a kind tone : " I cannot tell you bow much I am 
 obliged to you for everything you do for me ; and send 
 me a servant twice a day to let me know how you 
 are. I shall be uneasy about you ; I can''t help it : 
 from my childhood I have been so. How many 
 times in my life have I spent days and days in trying 
 to. make others comfortable ! I have been the slave 
 of others, and never got any thanks for it." 
 
 I went to my house, collected all the money that 
 remained, which was 1,190 piasters, or eleven pounds, 
 and sent it to her to meet the current expenses of the 
 household. For so she wished, that I might not be 
 annoyed, said she, and have the rash driven in on 
 my brain. 
 
 I experienced no ill effects from the nettlerash. 
 Few persons, new to the climate of Syria, escape a 
 rash of some description, sometimes pustular, some- 
 times miliary, but most frequently in the form called 
 prickly heat, which generally attacks them in summer 
 or autumn, and is truly distressing by the pricking 
 sensation it produces on the skin, as if thousands of 
 needle-points were penetrating the cuticle. Little is 
 required in such cases but cool diet, fruit, and diluents. 
 I performed my quarantine of four days, in compliance
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 317 
 
 with Lady Hester''s wislies, and then returned to 
 my customary mode of life. 
 
 Saturday, February 2-1. — As I had anticipated, a 
 report had become very general in Beyrout and in 
 the Mountain that Lady Hester was dead, and I re- 
 ceived a letter from M. Guys acquainting me with it. 
 This report was confiruied by an English gentleman, 
 who presented himself at my gate to-day after break- 
 fast. I was carpentering at the time, and went down 
 the yard to him, with my hatchet and chisel in my 
 hand. He seemed not to know what to make of me, 
 dressed as I was in Turkish clothes, with a beard, and 
 with my sleeves turned up like a mechanic. He held 
 out a letter to me, addressed in a fair hand to Lady 
 Hester : I told him this was not her gate, and that 
 a little beyond he would find it. He said he had 
 heard she was dead : I assured him that was not the 
 case, but that she was greatly indisposed. I regretted 
 to myself that I could not ask him in, or enter into 
 conversation with him ; but Lady Hester had exacted 
 from me a solemn promise that I never would hold 
 any parley with English travellers, until I had first 
 conferred with her on the subject, had described them, 
 so that she might obtain the necessary indications to 
 enable her to guess what their business was, or until
 
 318 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 she had read their letter of introduction, if they bore 
 one. So he left me, and only asked whether I was an 
 Englishman ; to which I answered that I left him to 
 judge. He appeared to be about twenty-one years of 
 a2:e : he had with him for his servant a Raffusean, 
 whom my servant knew, and who, he assured me, 
 was a drunken reprobate. Short as the stop at the 
 gate was, the Eagusean found time to tell the other 
 that he had famous wages : I think it was eight dollars 
 a month. Now I gave mine, who was also a Euro- 
 pean, four, which was considered good pay, the rate 
 being, in Lady Hester's house, from one to three. 
 Europeans, however, always get more than people of 
 the country, and have more wants to satisfy. How 
 many travellers are obliged, on their landing in these 
 countries, to take fellows into their service without a 
 character, outcasts of society, and who in England 
 would hardly be allowed to see the outside of a gaol ! 
 
 Of this English gentleman Lady Hester never spoke 
 to me, nor did she ever even allude to his visit : he did 
 not see her, and, I presume, continued his road. But, 
 if these pages ever meet his eye, he may be assured 
 he would have met with a hospitable reception, had she 
 been well enough to receive him, or had I been at 
 liberty to entertain him.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 819 
 
 It was not until to-day that, whilst at dinner, a 
 servant came to say Lady Hester would be ^lad to 
 see me in the evenin";. I found her weak and wan : 
 her cheeks were sunken, and her voice was less distinct 
 than usual ; for never was there a person who spoke 
 generally with so clear an enunciation. Logmagi was 
 witli her. Instead of receiving her welcome, and 
 those obliging expressions which she usually em- 
 ployed even after the most trifling ailment, she ad- 
 dressed me harshly, and seemed to take pains to mor- 
 tify me by using slighting expressions in Arabic that 
 Loffmasi mis-ht understand what she said. The 
 theme of her conversation was the debasement of men 
 who suffered themselves to be controlled by their 
 wives. Whom has she not mortified, that she has 
 had to do with, at some moment or another ? To 
 mortify people was one of her constant practices 
 through life, whether in action, correspondence, or 
 conversation. It is true, likewise, that she would 
 deliberately inflict those incurable insults which cover 
 a man with a sort of shame for life ; as, for example, 
 may be shown by the case of Mr. Hanah Messaad, 
 whose one eyebrow and one whisker (he being the son 
 of the British agent at Beyrout) were shaved off 
 before the whole villao-e, for having made an assertion
 
 820 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 then supposed to be false, but which was afterwards, 
 by her owu confession to me, admitted to be true. 
 
 Hanah, or John Messaad, a handsome young man, 
 a native of Beyrout, and the son of a former English 
 vice-consul, was interpreter and secretary to Lady 
 Hester for some time, and her ladyship has since be- 
 stowed great praise, in my presence, on his capacity, 
 usefulness, and knowledge of languages. There was 
 in her service also Michael Tutungi, son of an Arme- 
 nian, who had been under-dragoman, as I understood, 
 to the English embassy at Constantinople. Messaad, 
 it was thought, was jealous of Michael. 
 
 It was reported in the family that Michael had 
 been seen under a tree in very close conversation with 
 a peasant girl, and the report was traced to Messaad. 
 Now, the Emir T3eshyr affected, or really felt, a great 
 horror of all licentiousness, and never failed to bas- 
 tinado severely every man detected, in his princi- 
 pality, in any such conduct. Lady Hester knew 
 what imputations might be cast on her establishment, 
 if such things were left unnoticed ; and, fearing that 
 Messaad's intrigues (of which she thought this report 
 but a link) might injure JNlichaePs character, and de- 
 stroy his prospects of getting a place in the English 
 embassy at Constantinople, to which he had some
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 321 
 
 pretensions from his father's services, she resolved to 
 save him by making a signal example of Messaad. 
 
 She, therefore, ordered all the villagers from Joou 
 to be assembled on the green in front of her house, 
 and sent for Mustafa, the barber, from Sayda, with 
 two or three other tradesmen to be witnesses. Seating 
 herself on a temporary divan, with all the assembly in 
 a circle around her, not a soul dreaming what was 
 going to take place, and Michael and Messaad stand- 
 ing in respectful attitudes, with their arms crossed, 
 and covered, down to the fingers' ends, with their 
 benyshes, by her side, she began : " That young 
 man," said she, pointing to Michael, " is accused of 
 irregularities with" (here she mentioned the girPs 
 name, and the place and time of the meeting). " Now, 
 if any one of you knows him to have been guilty of 
 similar actions, or if, from his general conduct, under 
 similar circumstances, any one of you thinks the 
 thing probable, speak out, for I wish to do justice. 
 Messaad is his accuser : they are both my people, 
 and equally entitled to impartiality." As nobody 
 answered, she appealed to them all again, and all re- 
 plied they did not believe it. 
 
 She then turned to Messaad, and said : " Sir, you 
 have accused this young man, who is about to be 
 
 P 5
 
 322 MEMOIRS OP 
 
 launched into tlie world, and has only his good name 
 to help him on, of abominable things : where are your 
 witnesses V Messaad, frightened out of his senses, 
 replied, " that he had no witnesses ; that he had seen, 
 with his own eyes, what he had asserted, and, there- 
 fore, knew it to be so : but, as he was alone, it must 
 rest on his own word." Her ladyship told him his 
 word Avould not do against the concurring testimony 
 of all the servants, and of a whole village ; and she 
 added, in a judge-like tone, " As your mouth and 
 your eye have oftended, the stigma shall remain on 
 them. Servants, seize and hold him ; and, barber, 
 shave off one side of his mustachios and one eyebrow." 
 This was done. Michael was kept about a month or 
 two, in order that the protection he enjoyed might 
 seal his unblemished reputation, and then was packed 
 off to Constantinople. " Thus," said Lady Hester, 
 " I saved a young man from destruction. Messaad 
 has now a good place under the Sardinian consul at 
 Bey rout ; his eyebrows and mustachios are grown again ; 
 he has married, and has a family ; and I dare say the 
 Sardinian consul, if he knows anything of the story, 
 thinks not a bit the worse of him."" 
 
 The above are the words in which Lady Hester, 
 on the 20th of January, 1831, related this singular
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 323 
 
 punishment, inflicted with the best intentions on poor 
 Messaad. One evening, in 1837, when writing a letter 
 to the same Messaad, for certain commissions which he 
 had to execute for her ladyship, who was in the habit of 
 employing him to buy pipes, cloth, and sundry other 
 articles found in the shops at Beyrout, she spoke to 
 me as follows. " You know, doctor, all that affair 
 about Michael and Messaad, and how I had one side 
 of his face shaved. Well, I found out afterwards 
 that what Messaad had said was every bit of it true. 
 I have made it up to him since as well as I could : 
 he does not want abilities, and kept my house in ex- 
 cellent order whilst he was with me." 
 
 But this was not the first time Lady Hester had 
 resorted to this singular mode of punishment ; some 
 years before a chastisement for similar frailties, not 
 unlike that which Messaad underwent, as far as re- 
 garded the eyebrows, fell to the lot of a peasant girl 
 in her ladyship's service at a village called Mush- 
 moosliy. This was in the year 1813. How fallible 
 are the most clearsighted persons is the only comment 
 which can be made on such a lady's errors ! 
 
 She was a dangerous person to hold intercourse 
 with. " Live at a distance from my lady," General 
 Loustaunau used to say to Mrs. M. (when she wanted 
 to remove from Mar Elias to Dar Joon, in order to
 
 324 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 be near me) ; " live at a distance, or you will find, to 
 your cost, that her neighbourhood is a hell." But be 
 it said, to her honour, that it was from an unfeigned 
 horror of everything mean, dishonest, or vicious, she so 
 resolutely refused to keep terms with people who suf- 
 fered themselves to be led into the commission of such 
 acts ; and her indignation descended with equal impar- 
 tiality on friends and foes when they happened to deserve 
 it. Her disposition to utter the truth, whether 
 painful or disagreeable, overruled all other considera- 
 tions. 
 
 Few people conversed with her, or received a letter 
 from her, without being sensible of some expression or in- 
 nuendo, which they were obliged to treat as a joke at the 
 moment, but which was sure to leave its sting behind. 
 Of upwards of a hundred letters which I have written 
 for her at her dictation to correspondents of every rank 
 in life, there were few which did not contain some 
 touch of biting sarcasm or reproof ; except those which 
 were expressly written to alleviate distress, or encou- 
 rage the hopeful efforts of modest worth. Never 
 was there so inflexible a judge, or one who would do 
 what she thought right, come what would of it. Fiat 
 justitia mat coelum might have been written on her 
 escutcheon. 
 Sunday, February 25. — Having recovered her tran-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 325 
 
 quillity, she was to-day all kindness. I men- 
 tioned to her the report rife in "Beyrout respecting 
 her death, as M. Guys had written it. She observed 
 on it, " If I do die, those consuls, thank God, can 
 have nothing to do with me ! I am no English sub- 
 ject, and they have no right to seal up my effects. 
 Why do I keep some of my servants, although I 
 know them to be desperate rascals, but because they 
 have one or two qualities useful to me ? It would not 
 do for every one to run the risk, but it will for me, 
 who know how to manage them. For example : I 
 have got two that I can depend upon for shooting a 
 man, or giving a consul a good blow, if he dares to 
 set his foot within my doors, so as to prevent his ever 
 coming again ; and such are what I want just now." 
 
 She turned over in her mind how she could raise a 
 little money, andbethought herself of Mr. ]\Iicliael Tu- 
 tungi, the Armenian of Constantinople, who had for- 
 merly served her in the capacity of dragoman. To him 
 she had written in 1836, offering him the same situa- 
 tion he had held before, and, on his promise to come, 
 had forwarded to him 500 dollars for the expenses of 
 his journey, and for some commissions : but lie sub- 
 sequently declined the engagement, neither had he 
 executed the commissions. She therefore desired me
 
 S26 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 to draw a bill on him, payable to M. Guys's order, 
 and to request M. Guys to discount it ; for, during 
 my nettlerash, Lady Hester had given away the 
 greatest part of the 1,190 piasters to a family ruined 
 by the earthquake. It was in vain to represent to 
 her that she was in want of the money herself : "I 
 can't help it," she would say ; " I am not mistress of 
 myself on such occasions." 
 
 Tuesday, February 27. — Lady Hester got up, went 
 into her garden, and felt better. She had at last 
 found out that repletion, arising even from what would 
 be called small quantities of food and drink in health, 
 was very injurious in sickness ; and she had grown 
 more moderate in her diet, not swallowing one liquid 
 upon another, nor eating four or five times a-day. 
 Honey and butter mixed was now what she derived 
 most benefit from, and spermaceti linctuses. The mo- 
 ment she found anything soothed her cough, she im- 
 mediately sent ofi" an order to Beyrout for an immense 
 quantity of it, or to Europe, if at Beyrout it was not 
 to be had : she was never satisfied that her medicine- 
 chest was full enough. It will hardly be credited that 
 of Epsom salts she had a cask full, of the size of a 
 firkin. She masticated aniseeds as a remedy against 
 dyspepsia, and smoked them sprinkled on the tobacco
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 327 
 
 of her pipe : of course they were very injurious to 
 her, but it was idle to remonstrate. 
 
 February 29. — Lady Hester's first topic of conver- 
 sation to-day was her maids. " What a hywdn 
 [beast] is that Sdady r she said : " when she awakes 
 in the morning, she crawls on all-fours exactly like an 
 animal. lam convinced she is nothing more: her 
 back is only fit to carry a pair of panniers." I agreed 
 with her ladyship, and told her what I had seen her 
 do the day before. With one springing lift she raised 
 from the floor to her head a circular mankal or chafing- 
 dish, two feet in diameter, and piled up with live 
 coals — and, without holding it, but merely balancing- 
 it on her head, she stooped perpendicularly, and seized 
 with her two hands another mankal of baked earth of 
 equal size, filled with live coals also, and, lifting it, 
 carried them both at once into the drawing-room to 
 warm the apartment. These are the feats of dexterity 
 and strength in which Syrian women excel, and in 
 which they far surpass all European maids. 
 
 March 1. — Monsieur Henry Guys, the French 
 consul, having been advanced to the superior situation 
 of Aleppo, and being about to quit our part of the 
 country, arrived unexpectedly at Joon to take his 
 leave. It was Tuesday, and just after sunset, when
 
 328 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 he entered the gate. Lady Hester had, about a 
 quarter of an hour before, hurried me away from her, 
 as the sun was going to set, and it would liave been 
 unlucky, had I left her a minute after the sun was 
 down. " I shall not see you to-morrow," said she, 
 " as it will be Wednesday." Therefore, when she was 
 told that Monsieur Guys was come, it discomposed 
 her very much, and she sent word that, whatever his 
 business was, she could not see him until after sunset 
 next day. 
 
 As M. Guys was thus transferred to me for 
 twenty-four hours, I took the opportunity of letting 
 him know how disquieted I felt at having such great 
 responsibility on my shoulders, whilst Lady Hester 
 was so ill, and surrounded by a set of servants whom 
 I considered as so many cut-throats. 
 
 My position was extremely uncomfortable. Should 
 Lady Hester die, I foresaw I should be exposed, alone 
 as I was, to many difficulties and dangers. The 
 Druze insurrection afforded every facility to an assassin 
 or robber for putting himself beyond the reach of 
 justice : since, in about five or six hours, he could find 
 a sure refuge from capture. He revived my spirits by 
 assuring me I need be under no alarm. " All of them 
 are known," said he, " and liaA^e their families and rela-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 329 
 
 tions hereabouts : that one circumstance must always 
 be a check upon them. If they were not natives of 
 the province, then I should say you were not safe 
 among them. As for Lady Hester, you know her 
 determined character — if she is resolved to keep them, 
 you cannot help it. There is one," added he, " whom I 
 could wish not to be here ; I thought him gone a year 
 ago." This was the one whom Lady Hester relied on 
 for sending a bullet through the consul's body. 
 
 There is a large stone edifice of great extent, distant 
 about three-quarters of a mile, as the crow flies, from 
 the villa2;e of Joon, more like a fortress than the 
 peaceable habitation of Cenobites. It is the monastery 
 (ADayrel Mkhallas, or the Saviour, and contains about 
 fifty friars of the Greek Catholic church, wliich repu- 
 diates the Pope, recognizing as its spiritual head its 
 own patriarch. M. Guys enjoyed the unlimited con- 
 fidence of these people as the well-tried and efficient 
 friend of the Catholic church throughout Syria ; and it 
 was no sooner known that he was in the neighbour- 
 hood, than the superior of the monastery gave him to 
 understand that a visit from him w'ould be received as 
 a great honour by the monks. M. Guys devoted the 
 moming to this gratifying object, and his reception 
 was in the hiahest degree flatterins;. When he arrived
 
 S30 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 at the foot of the Mount, on the summit of Avliich the 
 monastery stands, he was saluted by a merry peal of 
 church-bells, and then the whole body of the friars, 
 with the cross borne before them, came out in pro- 
 cession to meet him. The greatest ceremony was ob- 
 served on the occasion, and sherbet, coffee, pipes, 
 aspersion of rose-water, and homage, were lavished on 
 him, not less in the hope of securing a continuation of 
 his good offices, than as expressive of gratitude for 
 past kindnesses : for no man holding official rank in 
 Syria has ever enjoyed more popularity, or obtained 
 more general consideration, than the Chevalier Guys. 
 Descended from an ancient family of Provence, in 
 which the consular rank may be almost said to have 
 become hereditary, the Levant saw, at the beginning 
 of the present century, the rare occurrence of three 
 brothers holding consulships at the same time. 
 
 After dinner, M. Guys was summoned by Lady 
 Hester Stanhope, and 1 availed myself of the oppor- 
 tunity it afforded me of remaining at home for the 
 evening. The next morning he departed before I was 
 up ; but, being anxious to ascertain his opinions of 
 Lady Hester's situation, I mounted my horse, and, 
 by taking a short but somewhat dangerous path down 
 the mountains, I overtook him. Nothing particular.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. S31 
 
 however, had transpired in their conversation, which 
 lasted for four hours ; but ho told me that he was 
 shocked to find her so much altered, and that he had 
 never heard such a hollow sepulchral cough. He 
 added that, frequently during the time he was with 
 her, she fell back on the sofa from exhaustion. She 
 spoke, too, a good deal, and in rather an odd way, of 
 extraordinary sights she had seen, of two apparitions 
 that had appeared to her, and of serpents near Tarsus, 
 that go in troops devouring all before them, and with 
 a tone of conviction as if she believed it all. " What 
 does it mean," he asked me — " and why do you let her 
 smoke so much V 
 
 March 2. — Lady Hester was now getting better 
 slowly, but, as usual, her strength no sooner began to 
 return than it brought out all the unmanageable 
 points of her character in full relief. Something hap- 
 pened in the house which ruffled her, and produced a 
 discussion between us, I hardly know how ; but it 
 ended by her calling me a crabbed old fool : upon 
 which I observed, that I never heard such expressions 
 from the lips of ladies before. This set her off upon 
 her inexhaustible theme of fearless speaking. " If you 
 were a duke," said she, " I would use exactly the 
 same expressions." — " Your ladyship"'s talents," I
 
 832 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 ventured to observe again, " are inexpressibly great 
 but, without questioning that, I only lament the intem- 
 perate use of them." Taking up this observation, she 
 dwelt at great length upon the " sweetness of her 
 temper," and I made my peace at last, by saying that 
 a physician should be the last person to complain of 
 the irritability of his patients. Apothegms of this 
 submissive character were never lost upon her, pro- 
 vided they were true, as well as apologetic : so pipes 
 were ordered, and we entered into an amnesty for the 
 rest of the evening. 
 
 A curious but characteristic incident occurred about 
 this time. In the ravines of the mountains, where the 
 few living creatures that are to be found may be sup- 
 posed to be drawn into closer comnmnion by a common 
 sense of loneliness, a shepherd named Caasem, who 
 was nearly fifty years old, formed a liaison with a 
 village girl, whose occupation consisted in leading a 
 cow about in the solitary green nooks where any 
 scanty herbage was to be secured. The circumstance 
 reached Lady Hester's ears before it was known to 
 anybody else, and she immediately ordered the man 
 to be flogged at break of day, with instructions that 
 nobody should tell him why or wherefore. " He will 
 know what it is for," she exclaimed ; then turning re-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 833 
 
 proachfiill y to Logmagi, to whom the execution of the 
 order was entrusted, she added : — " How is it you 
 leave me to be the first to discover these disfjraceful 
 acts, giving the Emir Beshyr an excuse to say that I 
 encourage depravity in my servants, when it is your 
 duty to know everything that passes about my pre- 
 mises ?" Logmagi went, gave the shepherd a beating, 
 and sent him about his business. Lady Hester used to 
 justify severities of this description on the ground that 
 it prevented the recurrence of similar licentiousness, 
 and " kept the fellows in order," 
 
 March 5. — This beino; the vio;il of the Korhan 
 Byrclm, or the Mahometan Easter, which is their 
 great holyday. Lady Hester, who had previously given 
 her orders to a person who had some reputation as a 
 pastrycook, despatched at twelve at night three ser- 
 vants, each with a sennyah^ or round tray, on which 
 they were to bring back from Sayda by daylight the 
 bahldmnj^ mamool^ and Jcaryby^ three delicious sorts of 
 sweet cakes, which are scarcely exceeded in delicacy 
 by the choicest pastry of Europe, 
 
 At noon, the servants, dressed in all their new 
 finery, sat down to a copious dinner composed of the 
 most luxurious Eastern dishes. But there was no 
 wine ; for, whatever transgressions these people may
 
 334 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 commit in that way in private, they never touch wine in 
 public. Logmao'i and some others were known not to be 
 much troubled with such scruples, when they could in- 
 dulge themselves in secret; but Logmagi always excused 
 himself on the score of being a Freemason, which is 
 held in Turkey to be equivalent to a jovial fellow who 
 does not care much what he does. The women, also, 
 had their own feast, and a piece of gold of the value of 
 twenty piasters was presented to each of the servants. 
 The day was literally abandoned to pleasure ; but 
 wliat a contrast do the sober manners of Mahometans 
 form to those of Europeans ? Gambling and noisy 
 revels are out of the question in the tranquil and easy 
 delights of this simple race. Dancing is generally con- 
 fined to the boys, or to some buffoon who gets up and 
 wrio-oles about to the music of a small tambourine 
 beaten with a single stick and producing a dull sound, 
 which they consider musical, and which habit renders 
 not disagreeable even to European ears. Every man 
 smokes his pipe ; and a good storyteller (for such a 
 one is rarely wanting in a party of a dozen,) relates 
 some traditionary tale, which absorbs for the time all 
 the faculties of his hearers. The cook was one of this 
 sort, a Christian of the village of Abra, a shrewd 
 fellow, who went by the name of Dylc^ or the Cock,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 335 
 
 from liis rather struttinf^ air, or from the vigorous 
 exercise of liis authority over his wife, whom lie beat 
 every now and then to keep her in proper discipHne — 
 a redeeming quality in the eyes of Lady Hester, who 
 otherwise would have dismissed him from her service. 
 Lady Hester's astrological powers were put to a 
 practical test to-day. Fatoom, one of her maid ser- 
 vants, whose name has frequently occurred in these 
 pages, required my medical services, under the follow- 
 ing circumstances. About six years before, having, in 
 league with Zeyneb, a black girl, and some men of the 
 village, robbed her mistress of several valuable effects, 
 she was turned away : but, upon exhibiting great 
 repentance, she was taken back again. Lady Hester 
 found no difficulty, as may be supposed, in extracting 
 from her a confession of the system of plunder that 
 had been carried on, and the names of her accomplices. 
 " I could hang them all," was her constant expression in 
 speaking of them. Fatoom had been in her ladyship's 
 service ten or eleven years, and was not yet twenty ; 
 and, being very pretty, and decked out in the finery 
 to which she was enabled to help herself by her share 
 of the plunder, she had vanity enough, when she was 
 turned away, to hope that she should get at least an 
 aga for a husband : but she was disappointed, and
 
 336 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 t 
 was obliged to put up with a small farmer. She con- 
 sequently came back a married woman, in poor plight 
 as to circumstances, with the prospect of having her 
 difficulties aggravated by a speedy increase to her cares. 
 On this day, 5th March, Fatoom complained of pains. 
 There was not a moment to be lost : the midwife was 
 instantly sent for ; Fatoom was hurried away to her 
 mother's in the village, and, before the expiration of a 
 quarter of an hour, she gave birth to a boy. 
 
 As soon as Lady Hester learned the result, she 
 requested me to go and see her. I found Fatoom 
 sitting on a mattress on the floor (for nobody in the 
 East has a bedstead) with from fifteen to twenty women 
 squatted around her, the midwife supporting her back, 
 and the child lying by her, covered with a corner of 
 the quilt. Fatoom, very yellow, looked as if she had 
 been in a great fright, but was now astonished 
 there was so little in it. After feeling her pulse, and 
 delivering to her mother a basket of good things, such 
 as lump sugar, six or eight sorts of spices, &c., with 
 which it is customary to make the caudle upon these 
 occasions, as also a new counterpane, and two silk 
 pillows, for her lying-in present, I took a glance at the 
 village gossips. There they were, holding forth much 
 in the same way as the peasantry in other countries,
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 337 
 
 with tliis (lifference, that here my presence was no 
 restraint, and the minutest details of the recent event 
 were discussed with as little reserve as if they had been 
 talking of the ordinary incidents of the day. 
 
 Having returned to Lady Hester with an account 
 of what I had seen, she immediately set about casting 
 his nativity, first ascertaining accurately the hour at 
 which he was born — a quarter before two. " He will 
 have," said she, " arched eyebrows, rolling eyes, and 
 a nose so and so : he will be a devil, violent in his 
 passions, but soon pacified : his fingers will be long 
 and taper, without being skinny and bony," &c. And 
 thus she went on, in a manner so impressed with faith 
 and earnestness, that it is not to be wondered at how 
 persons of good judgment have lent their ears to 
 astrologers, where the study has been fortified by a 
 previous knowledge of man, his temperaments, and the 
 innate and external characteristics of passions, of virtue, 
 and of vice. She gave him the name of Selim, 
 and sent word to say his star agreed with hers 
 very well. This was good news for Fatoom, as it 
 was equivalent to Lady Hester's taking charge of the 
 infant. 
 
 The cradle had already been prepared : it was of 
 wood, painted green, something hke a trough, and 
 
 VOL. n. Q
 
 338 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 perforated at the bottom, as is usual in tlie East. 
 A tube of wood with a bowl to it, exactly of the form 
 of a tobacco-pipe, is tied to the child's waist, a rude 
 but ingenious contrivance to save trouble to the nurse, 
 the bowl servins: as the immediate recipient, and the 
 tube passing through the side of the cradle.' 
 
 March 7. — This being Wednesday, Lady Hester, 
 as usual, was invisible. What she did on these mys- 
 terious days I never heard : for a person once away 
 from her, might as well divine how the man in the 
 moon was employed as to guess how she was passing 
 her time. 
 
 Thursday, March 8. — I saw Lady Hester about four 
 o'clock : she was in a very irritable state : she com- 
 plained bitterly, as usual, of her servants — of neglect 
 
 ' In the cottages of Mount Lebanon there are many things 
 occurring daily which would greatly surprise an English practi- 
 tioner. A luxation of the shoulder-joint in an infant, real or sup- 
 posed, was cured, they told me, by taking the child by the wrist 
 and swinging it round with its feet oif the ground, until the bone 
 got into place again. I assisted, the second time, at the cure of 
 a sore throat, in a man thirty-six years of age, who suffered a 
 pocket-handkerchief to be drawn tightly round his neck until 
 his face turned black and he was half strangled. The man 
 declared next day he was well, and the operator assured me 
 it was a never-failing remedy.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 339 
 
 — ignorance— heartlessness : she said she would rather 
 be surrounded by robbers ; for there is some principle 
 amongst thieves. " Oh !" she exclaimed, " that I 
 could find one human being who knew his Creator [" 
 
 She went on : — " I have had a very bad night, and 
 whether I shall live or die, I don't know : but this I 
 tell you beforehand, that if I do die, I wish to bo 
 buried like a dog, in a bit of earth just big enough to 
 hold this miserable skin, or else to be burnt, or thrown 
 into the sea. And, as I am no lonsrer an English 
 subject, no consuls, nor any English of any sort, shall 
 approach me in my last moments ; for, if they do, 1 
 will have them shot. Therefore, the day before I die, 
 if I know it, I shall order you away, and not only 
 you, but everything English ; and if you don't go, I 
 warn you beforehand, you must take the consequences. 
 Let me be scorched by the burning sun — frozen by the 
 cold blast — let my ashes fly in the air — let the wolves 
 and jackals devour my carcase ; — but" — here the agi- 
 tation she was in, and which had kept increasing, 
 brought on a severe fit of coughing, and it was a 
 quarter of an hour before she could recover strength 
 enough to speak again. Her exhaustion reduced her 
 to a little calm. 
 
 After dinner I saw her again, but now her irritability 
 
 Q 2
 
 340 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 had passed away. " Take your cliair," said slie, 
 " here by the bed — turn your back to the window to 
 save your poor eyes from the Hglit — never mind me : 
 there — I am afraid I have overworked them by so 
 much writing. But T know, if you did not write for 
 me, you would be writing or reading for yourself. 
 You are just like my sister Griselda." 
 
 She went on : — " You are angry with me, I dare 
 say, because I told you I would not have you near 
 me when I am dying : but I suppose I may do as I 
 please. No English consul shall touch me or my 
 effects : no ; when I am going, sooner than that, I 
 will call in all the thieves and robbers I can find, and 
 set them to plunder and destroy everything. But T 
 shall not die so : — I shall die as St. Elias and Isaac 
 did ; and, before that, I shall have to wade through 
 blood up to here " (and she drew her hand across her 
 neck), " nor will a spark of commiseration move me. 
 The hab el tohi [gate of pardon] will then be shut ; 
 for neither king, nor priest, nor peasant, shall enter 
 when that hour comes. You and others will then 
 repent of not having listened to my words." 
 
 Saturday, March 10. — Let us take this night as a 
 sample of many others, to shew sometimes what was 
 doing in a solitary residence in ]\lount Lebanon, in
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 341 
 
 which the vivid fancies of European writers had con- 
 jured up an imaginary mode of existence wholly 
 different from the sad reality. From eight o'clock at 
 night, until one in the morning, Lady Hester Stan- 
 hope had kept the house in commotion, upon matters 
 which would seem so foreign to her rank, her fortune, 
 and her supposed occupations, that, when enumerated, 
 they will hardly be believed. First, there was a de- 
 liberation of half- an -hour to decide whether it would 
 he best to send the mules on the next day, or the day 
 after, for wheat : then several servants were to be 
 questioned, one after another, in order to compare 
 their conflicting testimony, whether her fields of barley 
 had come up, and how high, and what crops they pro- 
 mised ; next, whether the oranges, now fit to be 
 gathered, should be put under the gardener's care, or 
 in a store-room in the house. Tlien ensued a conver- 
 sation with me, whether Fatoom was not playing some 
 deep game in pretending to be separated from her 
 husband ; and so on, with a score of other topics 
 equally unimportant, but with all of which she worried 
 herself so effectively, that it seemed as if she wilfully 
 sought refuge in such petty annoyances, for the sake 
 of escaping from secret heart-burnings, which she did 
 not choose to betray. In this way she had the secre-
 
 342 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 tary called up twice from his bed, and the bailiff once, 
 keeping the rest of the servants in continual motion, 
 whilst I was obliged to sit and listen to it all. 
 
 Old Pierre had been sent for from Dayr el Kamar. 
 As a person destined to figure occasionally in these 
 domestic scenes, I must make the reader a little 
 acquainted with his history. In the year 1812, when 
 Lady Hester was travelling from Jerusalem along the 
 coast towards Damascus, we reached Dayr el Kamar. 
 where Pierre came and offered himself to me as a ser- 
 vant. I took him ; but his various talents as a cook, 
 a guide, and an interpreter, and most of all as an ad- 
 venturer, who had an extraordinary fund of anecdotes 
 to relate, soon brought him into notice with Lady 
 Hester, and she asked him of me for her own service. 
 He accompanied us to Palmyra, and through different 
 parts of Syria, resided with her at Latakia and Mar 
 Elias, and remained in her service many years. Having 
 amassed a little money, he obtained permission to re- 
 tire to Dayr el Kamar, where he kept a cook's-shop, 
 or, if you will, a tavern. 
 
 But Lady Hester never lost sight of him. From 
 time to time, when any traveller left her house to 
 traverse Mount Lebanon, or to journey to Damascus 
 and Aleppo, or even to Palmyra, Pierre was recom-
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. S43 
 
 mended as interpreter and guide, and, I understand, 
 always discharged his duties to the satisfaction of liis 
 employers. He is known to many Englishmen, among 
 the rest to Mr. Way, who seems to have been very 
 good to him ; and Pierre, on his side, retains a most 
 grateful remembrance of that gentleman's bounty. 
 
 Pierre springs from a good family, by the name of 
 Marquis or Marquise, originally of Marseilles, and 
 afterwards established as merchants in Syria. When 
 he was a boy, he accompanied an uncle to France, 
 who took him to Paris. The uncle wore the Levantine 
 dress, and, having some business to transact connected 
 with government, was on one occasion summoned to 
 Versailles, where the court was. Chance or design 
 threw Pierre in the way of the king, Louis XVL, who 
 talked to him about the Levant, as did also Monsieur, 
 afterwards Charles X. Of this conversation Pierre 
 never failed to make considerable boast. 
 
 On his return to Syria, Pierre lived with his rela- 
 tions, until Buonaparte laid siege to Acre, where his 
 knowledge of the French language recommended him 
 to the notice of that general. He bore a commission 
 in his army ; and, on the retreat of the French into 
 Egypt, accompanied them, and remained there until 
 the final evacuation, when he obtained a pension ; but
 
 344 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of which, he declared, he had never touched a sou, in 
 consequence of residing abroad. 
 
 Mons. Urbain, a contributor to the Temps, hap- 
 pening to meet with Pierre when he was travelling in 
 Syria, was so highly diverted with his anecdotes, that, 
 on his return to France, he wrote no less than three 
 feuilletons, or notices, on Le Vieux Pierre ; at least, so 
 I was informed by Monsieur Guys. 
 
 Pierre had been sent for by Lady Hester Stanhope, 
 and she assigned him a room close to the doors of her 
 own quadrangle, that he might be always within call. 
 Pierre was a man exceedingly thin, with an aquiline 
 nose, and a steady eye, full of gasconade to be mis- 
 taken for courage, wonderfully loquacious, and deeply 
 imbued with all the mystic doctrines that Lady 
 Hester sometimes preached about. But Pierre''s chief 
 merit lay in his star, which, she assured me, was so 
 propitious to her, that it could calm her convulsions, 
 and lay her to sleep, when books, narcotics, and every- 
 thinij else failed. 
 
 Glancing in these desultory memorials from one 
 person to another, I may here mention, that one of 
 the maids, named Saady, incurred the particular aver- 
 sion of Lady Hester, just as strongly as Pierre was 
 favoured with her partiality. Poor Sfiady never
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 345 
 
 entered her presence without being saluted by some 
 epithet of disgust or opprobrium. Yet Sriady worked 
 from morning till night, and seldom got to bed until 
 three, four, or five o'clock in the morning. But Lady 
 Hester insisted on the necessity of treating her ser- 
 vants in this way for the purpose of keeping them on 
 the alert ; and she would frequently quote her grand- 
 father's example to prove how powerful particular 
 aversions were in people of exalted minds — such as 
 hers and his. In this way she kept herself in a state 
 of constant irritation, as if she were determined ob- 
 stinately to oppose the inroads of disease by increased 
 exertion, exactly in proportion as her physical strength 
 became more and more weakened and reduced. 
 
 Monday, March 12. — Two servant bo3^s were 
 flogged by Logmagi for having quitted the courtyard 
 both at the same time, when one at least was wanted 
 to carry messages from the inner to the outer courts. 
 These punishments were inflicted by making the de- 
 linquent lie at his full length flat on the ground, his 
 head being held by one servant, and his feet by 
 another, while the stripes were administered. My 
 disposition revolted at these whippings ; although 
 perhaps they were necessary, as Lady Hester said. 
 The servants would not have borne them, but that 
 
 Q 5
 
 'U6 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 
 
 they had in fact uo choice, knowing well that they 
 must either remain and be flooded, or be sent to the 
 Naziim, where they would be flogged twice as much, 
 with the risk of being killed to boot. 
 
 Wednesday, March 14. — Lady Hester was in very 
 low spirits this evening, and, as night advanced, she 
 had a paroxysm of grief, which quite terrified me. 
 AVith a ghastly and frenzied look, she kept crying 
 until my heart was rent with her wretchedness. 
 When I left her for the niirht, althouoh she was 
 somewhat composed, her image haunted me, even 
 when sleep had closed my eyes. 
 
 I 
 
 i
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Visit of Mr. Vesey Forster and Mr. Knox — Lady S. N.'s 
 pension and Mr. II. — Lady Hester undeservedly censured ])y 
 English travellers, for declining their visits — Mr. Anson and 
 Mr. Strangways — Mr. B. and Mr. C. — Captain Pechell — 
 Captain Yorke — Colonel Howard Vyse — Lord B.
 
 I 

 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE 349 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Mr. Forster and Mr. Knox, two Enn;lish o-entle- 
 men, came up to Joon this morning to pay a visit to 
 Lady Hester. To my great surprise, I found them 
 seated at the porter's lodge among the servants, who 
 were standing around them ; a situation to which they 
 accommodated themselves with the good sense of men 
 of the world. They had sent in a message that two 
 Franks were at the gate, having a letter for the Syt 
 Mylady, and were patiently awaiting the result. 
 
 I took the liberty of inquiring their names, and 
 hastened to her ladyship ; whilst orders were given to 
 conduct them immediately to the strangers'' room. 
 Lady Hester, who had got their letter in her hand, 
 told me one was a relation of Sir Augustus Forster, 
 our ambassador at Turin. " Go instantly to them," 
 said she, " for Sir Augustus is an old friend of mine, 
 and be particularly attentive to Mr. Forster — indeed.
 
 ^50 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 to both of them. Tell tbeiii, I am very sorry I can't 
 see them ; for, when I get into conversation, I become 
 animated, and then I feel the effects of it afterwards ; 
 but assure them that they are welcome to make their 
 home of their present lodging for a couple of days or 
 a couple of hours, or as long as they like. Do they 
 look gentlemanlike ?" she asked. " Ah !" continued 
 she, " what a charm good-breeding gives to mankind, 
 and how odious vulgarity is after it ! Only reflect ! 
 I, who have been all my life accustomed to the most 
 refined society, what I must feel sometimes to have 
 nothing to do but with beasts. But go, go ! and 
 make them as comfortable as you can." 
 
 They were in the strangers' room, which stood in 
 a small garden, ornamented with a few rose-bushes, 
 pomegranate and oUve-trees, and some flowering 
 plants. It was a little enclosure, which had by no 
 means a disagreeable aspect, surrounded by a wall 
 topped with prickly thorn-bushes. Once inside this 
 place, the new comer could know nothing of what was 
 passing without. Such were Lady Hester's con- 
 trivances : everything about her must wear an air of 
 mystery. 
 
 I lost no time in conveying Lady Hester's message 
 to them, and, for the short hour I enjoyed the plea-
 
 LADY HESTER STAiNHOPE, Sui 
 
 sure of their conversation, had every reason to rejoice 
 in the opportunity of making their acquaintance. As 
 this visit of two travellers may serve as a specimen of 
 what occurred, with slight variations, on every similar 
 occasion, when Englishmen came to her liousc, who 
 were little aware how much trouble their unexpected 
 arrival sometimes caused her, I shall detail what 
 passed as minutely as I can. 
 
 I had hardly paid my compliments to them, and 
 inquired whether they would take an English break- 
 fast or something more solid, when a message came 
 from Lady Hester to say she wanted to see me for a 
 moment. This was always her way. The ruling 
 passion of ordering what was to be done and what was 
 to be said on all occasions, made her impatient about 
 things passing out of her sight. 
 
 " Well, doctor," cried Lady Hester, " what age do 
 they appear to be, and where do they come from V 
 Having satisfied her on the first head, I told her 
 they were last from the Emir's palace at Btedyn : 
 then, after some trifling observation, I added, the 
 Emir complained to them that M. Lamartine, in his 
 recent work on Syria, had greatly compromised him 
 with Ibrahim Pasha, in having said that he, the 
 Emir, had entertained the most friendly dispositions
 
 352 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 towards Buonaparte and the French during the siege 
 of Acre. This tlie Emir denied, and averred that 
 his great friend was Sir Sydney Smith : meaning, pro- 
 bably, as I observed from myself, to compliment his pre- 
 sent guests at the expense of the absent French. " He 
 was very civil to the two travellers," I added, " and, 
 understanding they were going to see your ladyship, 
 he sent his compliments to you." — " Ah !" replied she, 
 " that looks as if he were fishing for friends, in case he 
 should shortly have to fly ; for they say that Sheryf 
 Pasha lias been defeated in the Horan, and the Emir 
 begins to tremble ; for the Druzes will not spare him." 
 I then told Lady Hester they had refused tea or 
 coffee, but, as they were come from a distance, would 
 probably like something more substantial : they liad 
 expressed, too, a wish for a glass of lemonade. Here 
 Lady Hester interrupted me, suddenly raising herself 
 in her bed, with " Good God ! — lemonade ! why, 
 the maid said that the secretary had been to ask for 
 some violet syrup for them: now, which is it they 
 want ? Can nobody ever take upon them to direct 
 the simplest thing but they must blunder? must 
 everything fall upon me V — " Well, but," observed I, 
 " lemonade or violet syrup, it does not much matter 
 which !" — " Not matter ! — there it is again : and
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE, 3.53 
 
 then who is there can make lemonade I — not a soul 
 but myself in the whole house ; and poor I am obliged 
 to wear my little strength out in doing the most trivial 
 officer. Here I am ; I wanted to write another letter 
 to go by the steamboat, and now all my thoughts are 
 driven out of my head. Zezefoon !" (ding, ding, ding, 
 went the bell) " Zezefoon ! order the gardener to 
 bring me four or five of the finest lemons on the tree 
 next the alley of roses — you know where I mean — 
 and prepare a tray with glasses." This was accord- 
 ingly done, and Lady Hester, sitting up in bed, went 
 to work squeezing lemons and making lemonade. 
 
 In my way to her ladyship's room from the stran- 
 gers'", I had called the cook, and directed him to dress 
 a mutton-chop, to make a vermicelli soup, a dish of 
 spinach and eggs, a little tunny-fish salad, and with 
 a cold rice pudding (which I recollected and sent for 
 from my house), and some Parmesan cheese, I trusted 
 there would be enough for a hasty meal. Whilst 
 making the lemonade, the following conversation went 
 on. " Now, doctor, what can be got for their de- 
 jeuner a la fourchette ? for there is nothing whatever 
 in the house." I mentioned what I had ordered. 
 " Ah ! yes," resumed Lady Hester, " let me see. 
 There is a stew of yesterday's, that I did not touch,
 
 So 4 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 that may be warmed up again, and some potatoes may 
 be added ; and then you must taste that wine that 
 came yesterday from Garyfy, to see if you think they 
 will like it. The spinach my maid must do. Dyk" 
 (the cook) " does not know how to dress spinach, but 
 1 have taught Zezefoon to do it ver}^ well." (Ding, 
 ding, ding.) " Zezefoon, you know how to boil 
 spinach in milk, and you must garnish it with five 
 eggs, one in each corner, and one in the centre." — 
 " Yes, Sytty." — " And, Zezefoon, send the yackney'' 
 (stew) "to Dyk, and let it be warmed up for the 
 strangers. They must have some of my butter and 
 some of my bread. Likewise give out the silver 
 spoons and knives and forks ; they are under that 
 cushion on the ottoman, there ; and mind you count 
 them when you give them to Mohammed, or they will 
 steal one, and dispute with you afterwards about the 
 number : — a pack of thieves ! And let the cook send 
 in the dishes necessary : for I will not have any of 
 mine go out. 
 
 " You must tell the travellers, doctor, and espe- 
 cially Mr. Forster, for he is an Irishman, that I have 
 a great deal of Irish and Scotch blood in me, and no 
 English. Tell him* I have made great investigations 
 on the subject of the origin of the Scotch, and could
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 355 
 
 prove to him that they came originally from this 
 country. Tell him how beautiful the Irish women 
 are, and that I, having had opportunities of seeing some 
 of the finest Circassians and Georgians of the haryms 
 of great Turks here and at Constantinople, think there 
 are none like Irishwomen. 
 
 " If Mr. Forster asks you anything about the 
 Druzes (as he seems to interest himself concerning the 
 religion of that people), say to him that the Druzes, 
 the Ansaries, the Ismilelites — all these sects — must 
 and will remain a mystery to strangers. There was 
 Monsieur lleynaud, one of the forty savants who wrote 
 the great book on Egypt, and was afterwards consul at 
 Sayda : if any body could comprehend the secret, he 
 could ; yet, although he had four of the Druze books 
 in his possession, and five learned persons of this 
 country to assist him in translating and explaining them 
 through a whole winter, he could make out nothing : 
 because, even if you understand the text, you are still 
 not a bit the wiser. Suppose, for example, you open 
 a page, and you find these words — ' Do you use senna 
 leaves V which is one of their questions of recognition, 
 like similar apparently vague questions in freemasonry : 
 what do you know about that ? You may understand 
 the answer clearly enough, so far as mere words
 
 356 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 go ; but it is useless unless you understand the thing of 
 which the words are a symbol ; for they are all sym- 
 bolical. You must know that it refers to an insursreut, 
 who, in the cause of their faith, raised the standard of 
 revolt, centuries ago, in the land where senna grows, 
 and that it implies, ' Do you adopt his tenets V and 
 so of other passages. Tlie chiefs of their religion 
 cannot make any disclosures ; for, if they did, their 
 lives would be the forfeit. Tell him they are a bold, 
 sanguinary race, who will cut a man in pieces them- 
 selves, or see it done by others, and never change colour. 
 Why, one of them, not long since, killed or wounded 
 with his own hands five of Ibrahim Pasha's soldiers, 
 who were sent to seize him as a refractory recruit." 
 
 Here Lady Hester, having finished making the 
 lemonade, stopped for a moment to desire Zezefoon to 
 take it out and send it to the strano-ers"* room. She 
 then resumed, " Tell them, doctor, that no people will 
 bear a flogging like the Druzes. The Spartans were 
 nothing to them : isn't it the Spartans that were 
 such flojrsfers? — for I am such a dunce that I never 
 can recollect some things which every schoolboy knows ; 
 and I always said I was a dunce in some things, 
 although Mr. Pitt used to say, ' Hester, if you would 
 but keep your own counsel, nobody could detect it,'
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 357 
 
 But it is tlio truth, and Avlien 3'ou talk to me of paper 
 money and the funds (although I may understand for 
 the moment what you try to explain to me), I forget it 
 all the next morning : yet, on subjects which my 
 inclination leads me to investigate nobody has a better 
 judgment. My father, with all his mathematical know- 
 ledge, used to say I could split a hair. Talk to the point, 
 was his cry : and I could bring truth to a point as sharp 
 as a needle. I divested a subject of all extraneous 
 matter, and there it was — you might turn and twist it 
 as you would, but you must always come back to that. 
 " The Druzes like me, and all the Emir Beshyr's 
 hatred of me arose from my friendship for the Shaykh 
 Beshyr.' After you left me, I went to stay with him 
 
 ^ The reader ought to be informed that, a few years before 
 this time, Beshyr Jumbalat, a man of the first family of the 
 Druzes, had risen by his possessions and influence to such power 
 in Mount Lebanon as to excite the jealousy of the Emir 
 Beshyr, the recognised prince of the Druzes, by right of 
 investiture from the Porte. The Emir (who is a Mussulman) 
 entertained such fears of being supplanted by a chief of such 
 power and popularity, that, after a variety of intrigues and 
 plots, he at last succeeded in effectually awakening the distrust 
 of Abdallah, the Pasha of Acre, who finally united Avith the 
 Emir in a plan for his destruction. The person of the un- 
 fortunate Beshyr Jumbalat was accordingly seized, his palace 
 razed to the ground, and his possessions confiscated ; nor was
 
 S58 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 at Makhtaara : he assigned me a -wing of the palace 
 to live in : he was a clever man, and afterwards, in 
 his troubles, came to me for advice and succour : he 
 offered me a third of his treasures, but I refused them. 
 When he fled, the Emir Beshyr got about a third of 
 them ; an equal portion they say is buried : and 
 the remainder was carried off by his wife, but after- 
 wards lost. Poor woman ! she is dead now. It was 
 the attempt to relieve her, amongst other causes, that 
 drew me into embarrassments. She had fled — her 
 husband was a captive at Acre — and the Emir was 
 pursuing her in every direction to take her life. The 
 snow was thick on the ground. She had with her a 
 child at the breast, one two years old, and another : 
 two were with the father in prison. I despatched 
 people with clothes and money to relieve her imme- 
 diate wants ; they found her in the Horan, where she 
 had taken refuge with an old servant. Her daucrhter 
 also applied to me for assistance, but I was penniless, 
 and could do nothing for her. Poor girl ! she was 
 afterwards married, but Ibrahim Pasha cut off her 
 husband's head, and she went raving mad. To com- 
 plete the tragedy, Hanah Abood, one of those I sent 
 
 their jealousy set at rest until they ultimately got rid of him by 
 strangulation.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. o59 
 
 to look after lier, fell asleep out of weariness, after 
 having returned home on foot through the snow, and 
 got an inflammation in his eyes, which ended in total 
 blindness. The journey back occupied I think forty 
 hours. I have been obliged partially to maintain the 
 poor fellow and Werdy, his wife, ever since. 
 
 " Perhaps, doctor, Mr. Forster and Mr. Knox may 
 have heard of the extraordinary conduct of the Enolish 
 government towards me ; so let them know that I am 
 not low-spirited about it ; and although the Queen may 
 think herself justified in taking away my pension, I 
 would not, even if I were a beggar, change places with 
 her. As for the Queen's interfering in my affairs, 
 she might just as well go and stop Sir Augustus 
 Forster's salary, on the plea that he had left his 
 tailor'^s bill unpaid. My debts were incurred very 
 often for things I did not care about for myself. For 
 example, what are books to me, who never look into 
 them ? If I had been like you doctors, who tell your 
 patients to take turtle soup, and then contrive to be 
 asked to dinner, it were another thing : but my 
 researches were for the good of others, and for no 
 advantage of my own. 
 
 " When I think what I have done, and what I could 
 have done if I had had more money ! There was a
 
 360 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 book came into my hands, which the owner, not 
 kno^ving its value, oft'ered for my acceptance as you 
 would offer an old brass candlestick. I consulted 
 several persons about it ; and, when all assured me it 
 was a valuable manuscript, I scorned to take advantage 
 of the man's ignorance, and returned it to him, telling 
 him when I was rich enough I would buy it of him. 
 Ought not a person to act so V " Undoubtedly," 1 
 replied, "a person of principle would not act other- 
 w'ise.'''' " Principle !" she exclaimed : " what do you 
 mean by principle ? — I am a Pitt." 
 
 As I did not understand precisely why a Pitt should 
 be above principle, although it would seem there is a 
 species of integrity higher than principle itself, I held my 
 tongue, and Lady Hester went on. " I know where to 
 find a book that contains the language spoken by Adam 
 and Ev^e :' the letters are a span high. Such things 
 have fallen into my hands as have fallen into nobody's 
 else. I know where the serpent is that has the head of 
 a man, like the one that tempted Eve. The cave still 
 exists not far from Tarsus ; and the villages all about 
 are exempted from the miri in consideration of feeding 
 the serpents. Everybody in that neighbourhood knows 
 
 ' Ben Jonson, in his " Alchemist," alludes to such a book, 
 " Ay, and a treatise penned by Adam."
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 361 
 
 it : isn''t it extraordinary ? Why don't you answer 1 
 Is it, or is it not ? Good God ! I should go mad if I 
 were obliged to remain three whole days together in 
 your society — Fm sure I should. Such a cold man 
 I never saw ; there is no getting an answer from you : 
 however, think as you like These serpents will 
 march through the country to fight for the Messiah, 
 and will devour everything before them." Here she 
 paused for about a minute, and then added, " I think 
 you had better not tell them anything about the 
 serpents ; perhaps their minds are not prepared for 
 matters of this sort." 
 
 I have already observed that Monsieur Guys had 
 mentioned, with some surprise, the serious manner in 
 which Lady Hester spoke of these serpents ; and, 
 although he did not express it, yet he half intimated 
 that he thought her intellects a little disordered : 
 we shall see hereafter if they were so. 
 
 Lady Hester resumed : " But now, doctor, if you can 
 spare a minute, you must write a line by the messenger 
 to Monsieur Guys, and tell him I had begun a letter 
 to him, but that the arrival of two English travellers, 
 one of whom revived a number of recollections, had 
 obliged me to stop short, and I could write no more. 
 Doctor, this Mr. Forster must be one of the children 
 
 VOL. 11. R
 
 362 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 of the Irish Speaker. He was left with ten ; and I 
 remember very well one day that H******** was 
 standing before me at a party, making a number of 
 bows and scrapes, turning up his eyes, and cringing 
 before me so, that when we got home, Mr. Pitt said 
 to me, ' Hester, if I am not too curious, what could 
 H******** have to say that animated him so much : 
 what could he be making such fine speeches about : 
 what could call forth such an exuberance of eloquence 
 in him V — ' Oh ! it was nothing,'' answered I ; 'he was 
 telling me that all the power of the Treasuiy was at 
 my service — that he would take care that Lady S**** 
 N*****''s pension should be got through the different 
 offices immediately — that he had nothing so much at 
 heart as to execute my orders — that he would see all 
 that was necessary should be done according to my 
 wishes, and so on ; but, as I despise the man, I only 
 laughed at him and turned my back on him ; for I 
 drink at the fountain head."* 
 
 " ' Now, this is really too good a thing,' interrupted 
 Mr. Pitt, lifting up his hands in astonishment. ' It 
 was but this very day, at three o'clock, that he was 
 urging me not to let this very pension be given, or at 
 least to prolong the business for a year, if it were pos- 
 sible ; till, by tiring her patience, the thing might be
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 363 
 
 dropped, or something turn up to set it aside ; adding, 
 that it would be opening the door to abuses, and, if I 
 granted this too readily, I should have Forster's ten 
 childi'en to provide for.' " 
 
 Lady Hester went on : " From that day, I knew 
 my man. I then said to Mr. Pitt, ' Let me shew 
 him who he has to deal with ; do give your orders 
 that the thing may be done immediately."* — ' Oh ! but 
 it is too late to-night,'' said Mr. Pitt. ' No, it is not,' 
 I cried ; 'for I see a light in the Treasury."* So I 
 rang, and sent for "" (here her ladyship mentioned a 
 name which I could not catch, but I think it was 
 
 Mr. Ohinnery) . When he came, I said to him, 
 
 ' Will you be so good, sir, the first thing in the morn- 
 ing, to see that all the signatures are put to Lady 
 S. N.''s paper : there is Mr. Pitt ; ask him if it is so 
 or not.' Mr. Pitt of course assented, and there the 
 matter ended. Doctor, I had a great deal of trouble 
 
 with those sort of people, like H . Now, if 
 
 Mr. Forster is about thirty-five years old, he must be 
 one of that family. ^ 
 
 ^ It may be right to mention that Mr. Forster, as I believe, 
 is not one of the family alluded to in this anecdote : but, as 
 Lady Hester's remarks hinged on his name, I thought it best 
 to retain it. 
 
 R 2
 
 364 MEMOIRS OF - 
 
 " Do tell Mr. Forster what a pack of beasts these 
 servants are. Ask him if he ever heard of women 
 throwing- themselves down to sleep in the middle of a 
 courtyard, or on the floor of a kitchen, dragging their 
 quilt after them from place to place. Tell him that 
 is what mine do, and that 1 am obliged to wait a 
 quarter of an hour for a glass of water. 
 
 " You may talk to them a little about stars, but I 
 dare say you will commit some horrible blunder, as 
 you always do, and that is what makes me so afraid 
 of your having to say anything that concerns me. 
 Tell Mr. Forster that in people's stars lie their abi- 
 lities, and that you may bring up a hundred men to 
 be generals and another hundred to be lawyers, but 
 out of these perhaps four or five only will turn out 
 good for anything. When a grand Llama is to be 
 chosen, why do they go about until they have found a 
 particular boy with certain marks, known to the 
 learned of that country — a child born under a certain 
 star ? It is because, when they have found such a 
 one, he has no occasion for instruction ; he is born the 
 man for their purpose. 
 
 " Thus, the Duke of Wellington is not a general 
 by trade — I mean by instruction ; for, if examined 
 before a court-martial on all the branches of military
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 365 
 
 tactics, perhaps he would be found deficient. Hun- 
 dreds may know more of them than he does : but he 
 is a general by his star. He acts under a certain im- 
 pulse, which makes him hit on the stratagem he ought 
 to practise, and, without the help of previous study, 
 or even the suggestions of experience, he knows that 
 his manoeuvre is risrht. It was thus with me when 
 I was young. People might preach and talk ; but, 
 when I saw them doin*]: thinjjs or reasoning; about 
 them, I could at once distinguish the things that were 
 right from the things that were wrong ; but I could 
 not say why or wherefore. My father said I was the 
 best logician he ever saw — I could split a hair. The 
 last time he saw me, he repeated the same words, and 
 said I had but one fault, which was being too fond of 
 royalty." 
 
 I observed here to Lady Hester, that in many 
 things she reminded me of the ancient philosophers, to 
 whom she bore a strong resemblance on most points ; 
 but that in this one particular she differed from them 
 widely, as most of them were strenuously opposed to 
 royalty and monarchical power. " My liking for 
 royalty," she answered, " is not indiscriminate, but 
 I believe in the divine right of kings ; for I have found 
 it out. And you may ask Mr. Forster also why the
 
 3CG MEMOIRS OF 
 
 bottle of oil came from India to anoint the kinirs of 
 France. I dare say they never heard of Melek es 
 Sayf, a hero whose exploits and name are hardly in- 
 ferior in the East to those of Solomon. Is it not ex- 
 traordinary, that in Europe they know nothing of 
 those people — of him and his forty sons, all of whom 
 were men of note in their time ? This must be so ; for 
 some of the gates of Cairo are named after them. 
 
 " If you happen to speak about the Albanians and 
 the other soldiers that I had here, tell them I did not 
 see them all ; I only saw the most desperate, and 
 those whose violence was to be kept under. When I 
 admitted them to my presence, I was always alone, 
 and they always wore their arms ; but I never feared 
 them." 
 
 Thus Lady Hester went on talking : the dish of 
 potatoes, the dessert, and several other things were 
 forgotten. So, reminding her that Mr. Forster and 
 Mr. Knox must be all this time marvelling what could 
 have detained me, I at last made my escape. In the 
 meanwhile, the half-dinner had been served up as 
 well as the resources of the place would admit. The 
 scene must have been highly curious to her ladyship's 
 guests, who could not foil to be amused as well as 
 surprised at the sight of a deal table, rush-bottomed
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 367 
 
 chairs, cheese put ou first and a pudding in a copper 
 dish after it, with other anomalies that would have 
 made even a third-rate Brummell shudder. But the 
 occasions for eating in the European way in Lady 
 Hester''s house occurred very rarely, and the servants, 
 who were habituated to Turkish usages, or to the 
 mon2;rel service of some Levantine drao-oman, had no 
 notions of the regulations of an Euijlish table. In 
 my own house I had two tolerably well-trained boys ; 
 but there was an interdict against their ever crossino- 
 the threshold of Lady Hester's gate, in order that no 
 information of what was going on within her walls 
 should be carried out to the female part of my family. 
 In the most common concerns. Lady Hester's servants 
 made much bustle and did little. They ran in diffe- 
 rent directions, jostled and crossed each other half a 
 dozen at a time for the same thing, entirely reversing 
 one of her favourite maxims, that everything in a 
 great person's house should be done as if by magic, 
 and nobody should know who it was set it agoing. 
 These servants had but one spring of action, and that 
 was the hakshyshy or present, which they all looked for on 
 the departure of a stranger. It was a painful thought 
 to me, as these gentlemen left the gate, that, when
 
 3G8 MEAIOIRS OF 
 
 they were about to mount their horses, the mercenary 
 spirit of such a set of varlets might be charged to the 
 connivance of the mistress. 
 
 The two travellers made a miserable repast, and, 
 when it was over, signified their desire to take leave. 
 It seems they had taken Lady Hester''s invitation " to 
 make the place their home for two hours or two days" 
 in its literal acceptation ; and it is scarcely necessary to 
 say that there was no time for me to enter into an expla- 
 nation on the subject, nor, indeed, to deliver a tenth 
 part of the discursive matter with which Lady Hester 
 had charo;ed me. It was from these jrentlemen I 
 learned, for the first time, that a committee had been 
 appointed, on the motion of Mr. D. W. Harvey, for in- 
 (][uiring into the pensions on the civil list. It had so 
 happened that no newspapers had reached us for a 
 long time, and, consequently, this was the first inti- 
 mation her ladyship had received of a measure in 
 which it may be supposed she felt no inconsiderable 
 interest. 
 
 As Mr. Forster and his friend had to cross a deep 
 valley and mount a steep ascent before they could 
 take the road to Beyrout, to which city they were 
 now going, I sent Ali Hayshem, the messenger, to
 
 LADY HESTER SffANHOPE. 3t).9 
 
 put them on their way. He returned in the course 
 of an hour or two, and was despatched the same even- 
 ing on foot to Beyrout with letters, where he arrived 
 next day before Messieurs Knox and Forster. He 
 told me, on his return, that their surprise was very 
 great on finding him at the inn, knowing that they 
 had left him behind them, the morning before, up the 
 mountain. Ali's account of Mr. Forster's regimen- 
 tals, in which he saw him dressed at Bey rout, was 
 very flaming ; and from that day, in speaking of the 
 two, he always distinguished him from Mr. Knox by 
 the title of the oeneral. 
 
 Lady Hester deeply regretted that she was not able 
 to see these gentlemen. "Ah!" said she, "how 
 many times have I been abused by the Englisli when 
 1 did not deserve it, and tor nothing so much as for 
 not seeing people, when perhaps it was quite out of 
 my power ! There was Mr. Anson and Mr. Strang- 
 ways, who, because I refused to see them, sat down 
 under a tree, and wrote me such a note ! Little did 
 they know that I had not a bit of barley in the house 
 for their horses, and nothing for their dinner. I could 
 not tell them so ; but they might have had feeling 
 enough to suppose it was not without some good rea- 
 
 R 5
 
 370 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 son that I declined their visit. Many a pang has 
 their ill-nature given me, as well as that of others. I 
 have got the note ^ still somewhere. 
 
 " Among the visitors I have had was the Duchess 
 of Gontaut's brother, she that brought up the Duke 
 of Bordeaux. I suppose she must have talked of me 
 to her brother, whom I never recollect : however, he 
 came with his two sons ; but I would not see him. 
 It was that time when Monsieur (xuys, after sitting 
 and staring at me some minutes, exclaimed — ' Madam, 
 when I see you dressed in that abah^ (the Bedouin 
 cloak), ' in that Tzeffiali' (the Bedouin vizor), ' and 
 when I think you are that Lady Hester Stanhope, qui 
 
 ' This note I afterwards read and copied. These two gentle- 
 men presented themselves at the gate, and Lady Hester dic- 
 tated the following message to them, which Miss Williams 
 wrote : — " Lady Hester Stanhope presents her compliments to 
 Mr. Anson and IVIr. Strangways, and acquaints them that she 
 is little in the habit of seeing European travellers, therefore 
 declines the honour of their visit." To this was returned the 
 following answer : — " Mr. Anson presents his compliments to 
 Lady Hester Stanhope, and begs to assure her he has not the 
 slightest wish to intrude where his visit is accounted disagree- 
 able : but having, during a three months' residence among the 
 Arabs, met with universal hospitality, he took for granted that 
 he would not have met with the first refusal in an English 
 house."
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 371 
 
 faisoit la plide et le beau temps a Londres, I am lost in 
 wouder how you could have come and fixed yourself 
 in these desolate mountains,"' 
 
 " Another of Charles the Tenth's courtiers came 
 here, but a higher personage, whom I also refused 
 to see : he was dreadfully savage about it too. 1 
 fancy Charles the Tenth had a secret intention of 
 resigning the crown, and of coming to this country to 
 finish his days in the Holy Land like another 
 St. Louis ; and I think this man had something to 
 ask me about it : however, I refused to see him. But 
 it was not caprice, nor, as this proves, was it English- 
 men alone I denied myself to. Sometimes I was not 
 well enough to sustain a conversation — sometimes I 
 had no provisions in the house, perhaps no servant 
 who knew how to set a table ; but travellers never 
 fancied that there could be any other reason for my 
 refusal, but the determination to affront them. God 
 knows, when I could, I was willing to receive any- 
 body. 
 
 " Once I had a visit from two persons whom we 
 will call Mr. A. and Mr. B., or Mr. B. and Mr. C. — 
 what letter you like. I thought Mr. B. very stupid, 
 but, good God ! doctor, there never was anything so 
 vulgar as Mr. C. When I got his note to ask
 
 372 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 > 
 
 leave to come, the name deceived me : I thought he 
 might be a son of Admiral C. But when he came 
 into the room with his great thighs and pantaloons so 
 tight that he could hardly sit down, I thought he was 
 more like a butcher than anything else. He was a man 
 entirely without breeding with his INIa'ams and lady- 
 ships. I asked him a few questions, as — ' Pray, sir, 
 will you allow me to ask if you are a relation of 
 Admiral C'sf — ' No, ma'am, I am no relation at all.' 
 — ' Will you permit me to inquire what is the motive 
 of your visit to me V — ' Only to see your ladyship, 
 ina'am.' — ' Do you come to this country with any 
 particular object V — ' To be a merchant.'' — ' You are 
 probably conversant in mercantile affairs f — 'No, 
 ma'am, I am come to learn,' — and so on. After 
 some time, I told them that I never saw people in the 
 morning, and would take my leave of them, as they 
 probably would wish to set off early : and I desired 
 tliem to order what they liked for their breakfast. 
 Next morning, when I thought, as a matter of course, 
 they were gone, in came a note from them to say, 
 they were not going till next day, and then another 
 to say they did not know, and then a third to say 
 that, as they expected ships, and God knows what, 
 they must go. — Good God ! they might go to the
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 373 
 
 devil for me : I liad taken my leave of them, and 
 there was an end of it. Mr. C. was a downright 
 vulgar merchant's clerk, come to Syria, I suppose, to 
 set up for himself. Lord St. Asaph said to me — 
 ' Lady Hester, you really should consider who you 
 are, and not allow people of that description to pay 
 visits to you.' 
 
 " There was a man who bore a great resemblance to 
 the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Clarence, 
 but something between both, who passed two or three 
 years in this neighbourhood and sometimes came to 
 see me : he was good-natured, and I liked him. He went 
 about with a sort of pedlar's box, full of trinkets and 
 gewgaws to shew to the peasant women, thus bringing 
 the whole population of the village out of their houses : 
 and then giving away beads and earrings to get the 
 young girls around him. 
 
 " Of the English, who have visited me here, I 
 liked Captain Pechell and Captain Yorke very much, 
 and thouo'ht them both clever men. 
 
 " Colonel Howard Vyse one day came up to the 
 village and wrote me a note, and did everything he 
 could to see me. Pie was an old Coldstream : — it 
 broke my heart not to see him ; but it would have
 
 374 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 revived too many melancholy reflections. Poor man ! 
 I believe lie was very much hurt ; but I could not 
 help it. 
 
 ^ A man came here — I believe the only one who 
 was saved out of a party that was killed going 
 across the Desert — and asked me for a letter to 
 tlie Arabs. I sent him away, telling him that he 
 might just as well come and ask me for a pot of 
 beer. What had I to do with their schemes and 
 their navigation of the Euphrates ? Yet, for this, 
 this officer wrote verses upon the wall of the room 
 against me. 
 
 " Then Mr. Croix de la Barre came, but I could 
 not see him. He said he wanted to talk politics 
 with me, and learn the customs and manners of the 
 natives. I should tire you, doctor, if I were to tell 
 vou how manv have come. I saw Lord B****** 
 when he was travelling at the baths of Tiberias, 
 where Abdallah Pasha happened to be. Lord B. 
 proposed calling on the pasha, and equipped himself 
 for that purpose with a pair of pistols and a yatagan 
 in his girdle, after the fashion of a Turkish subaltern ; 
 for the Franks, who surrounded him as dragomans and 
 menials, had taught him to adopt what accorded with
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 375 
 
 their i^eas of finery, and not what was suitahle to his 
 rank. Luckily he mentioned his intention the day 
 before to me, and I told him that there was a full 
 dress of ceremony in Turkey as well as in Europe, 
 and I lent him the most essential part of it, a henysh^ 
 with which he presented himself. At first there was 
 some hesitation, on his entering the room with his 
 people, as to which was the great Mylord ; for his 
 lordship''s doctor, who sat down close by him, and 
 poked his head forward with an air of great attention 
 to what the pasha said, made him doubt whether the 
 doctor was not the chief personage ; it being a part 
 of Oriental etiquette that no dependant should obtrude 
 himself into the least notice in his superior's presence. 
 Nay, generally speaking, it is required that doctors, 
 secretaries, dragomans, and the like, should remain 
 standing during such interviews. This difficulty being 
 got over, the pasha, after some questions about Lord 
 B.'s health, asked him what brought him to Tiberias, 
 a part of his province the least beautiful and most 
 barren. The question would have led Jiiost persons 
 to say that, knowing the pasha was there, he seized 
 the opportunity of paying his respects to him, or 
 some such complimentary speech. But Lord B., with 
 a naivete somewhat plebeian, replied, that he came to
 
 376 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 sec the baths. Tlie pasha coldly desired that proper 
 persons should show tuem to him, and soon after 
 broke up the interview. The very attendants of his 
 Highness were struck with the incivility and want of 
 tact which Lord B. showed, and it was one of them 
 who told me the story. But this was not all : the 
 pasha, who is fond of consulting European doctors, 
 requested Lord B,, who was to depart next day, to 
 leave his doctor behind for tweuty-tbur hours ; which 
 request Lord B. refused. After he was gone, the 
 pasha sent me a pelisse of considerable value, with a 
 request that I should present it in his name to Lord 
 B., but I returned it, saying Lord B. was gone ; for I 
 did not think his incivihty deserved it. So much for 
 English breeding ! and then let them go and call 
 the Turks barbarians. 
 
 " Mr. Elliot came to see me from Constantinople, in 
 order to make the pashas and governors of the neio-h- 
 bouring provinces treat me well. He fell ill, and I 
 sent for the doctor of a frigate that was on the coast 
 for him — a man who could kick his forehead with his 
 toe. I quizzed Mr. Elliot a great deal. 
 
 " But now, doctor, what did Mr. Forster say about 
 the Scotch t If he agrees with me that they sprang 
 from hereabouts, 1 might have given him some useful
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 377 
 
 hints on tliat subject : but we will wi-ite him a 
 letter' about it." 
 
 When I told her that Mr. Forster had spoken of 
 a work of Sir Jonah Barrington's on Ireland, in which 
 it was said that Mr, Pitt got up the Irish rebellion 
 in order to make the necessity of the Union more 
 palatable to parliament, she observed that if she met 
 
 ' A long letter was subsequently written, in which she ex- 
 plained her theory of the origin of the Scotch ; and, having 
 learned by a note from Mr. Forster that they would return 
 from Beyrout to Sayda in their way to St. Jean d'Acre, I rode 
 down to Sayda in the hope of meeting him. Circumstances, 
 however, made them set off a day sooner than they intended, 
 and I missed them. The letter Lady Hester took back into 
 her own possession, and seemed to set so much value on it that 
 she would not even give me a copy. At the time I could have 
 repeated the substance of it with tolerable accuracy from 
 memory ; but, as she strictly regarded it in the light of a private 
 communication, I did not consider myself justified in making 
 any use of it without her sanction. It will be sufiicient to 
 say that she found a great resemblance between the names of 
 the Scotch nobility and certain terms in the Arabic language, 
 indicating patronymics, dignities, offices, &c. Her general 
 notion was that Scotland had been peopled by the flight of 
 some tribes of Arabs in the middle ages. She once had an 
 intention of writing to Sir Walter Scott, to urge him to make 
 some researches on that head, and she showed me a list of
 
 378 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 liim, she would settle his business for him. " Mr. 
 Pitt liked the Irish," said she. " There were some 
 fools who thought to pay their court by abusing them, 
 and would talk of men's legs like Irish porters, or 
 some such stuff: but I always answered, they would 
 be very much pleased to have their own so, which was 
 much better than having them like a pair of tongs : 
 and I was certain to observe a little smile of appro- 
 bation in Mr. Pitt's eyes, at what I had said." 
 
 In this way her ladyship would run on from topic 
 to topic with a rapidity and fluency which frequently 
 rendered it difficult to preserve notes of even the heads of 
 her discourse. Her health was slightly improved : she 
 attended a little more closely to my advice, but still 
 would never allow me to see her until her coughing 
 lit was over, which usually lasted for about a couple 
 of hours. Notwithstanding this, her pulse maintained 
 
 Scotch names apparently of Arabic origin. Thus she would 
 say Gower meant Gaoor, or infidel; and by a stretch of de- 
 duction, commonly indulged in even to still greater excess by 
 people who have a favourite theory to sustain, she would argue 
 that, as Mr. Pitt used to say that Lord Granville was the 
 counterpart of the statue of Antinous, with the same face and 
 the same pose when he stood talking unconcernedly, therefore 
 the race of Antinous, which was also Eastern, was continued 
 in him.
 
 LADY HESTER STANHOPE. 379 
 
 a degree of vigour whicli was perfectly extraordinary, 
 considering the state of attenuation to which she was 
 reduced. She had a ijreat reluctance in touchinsf on 
 her bad symptoms, but dwelt readily on such as were 
 favourable. " I certainly have got small abscesses," 
 she answered to mc, " but it is not consumption : be- 
 cause there are hours in the day when my lungs are 
 perfectly free, as there are others when I can hardly 
 breathe. Sometimes, doctor, my pulse is entirely 
 gone, or so thin — so thin ! — as to be but just per- 
 ceptible, and no more. You pretend to find it very 
 readily, and tell me it is not bad : but Zezefoon can''t 
 feel it, and Saada can't feel it, and old Pierre has 
 tried, and says the same. I think, too," continued 
 she, " I was a little delirious this morning ; for, when 
 I awoke, I asked where Zezefoon had gone, although 
 there she was, sitting up on her mattress by my bed- 
 side before my eyes."
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 
 
 Page 28. — " Our ambassador." 
 " In 1800, ]VIr. Pitt, for the third time, contemplated renewing 
 his attempts to make peace with France, and he offered the 
 mission again to Lord Malmesbury. Lord Grenville wished 
 to appoint his brother, Mr. Thomas Grenville; and Lord 
 Malmesbury, whose deafness and infirmity had much in- 
 creased, readily consented." — Diaries and Correspondence of 
 the Earl of Malmesbury . 
 
 Pase 64. — "• It was a lamentable end." 
 
 " I dislike both as to his principles and the turn of his 
 
 understanding : he wants to make money by this peace." — 
 Diaries and Correspondence, &c. 
 
 Page 74. — " Whenever I can make peace." 
 
 " Mr. Pitt has always been held up to the present generation 
 as fond of war ; but the Harris papers could furnish the most 
 continued and certain evidence of the contrary, and that he 
 often suffered all the agony of a pious man who is forced to 
 fight a duel. The cold and haughty temper of Lord Gren- 
 ville was less sensitive. Our overtures to France were synony-
 
 382 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 
 
 mous with degradation, and he could not brook the delays of the 
 directory." — Diaries and Correspondence, v. iii., p. 516. 
 
 Page 101. — " Man without a heart." 
 
 " The second day of the king's illness, and when he was at 
 his worst, the P. of W. went in the evening to a concert 
 at Lady Hamilton's, and there told Calonne (the rascally 
 French ex-minister) : ' Savez vous. Monsieur de Calonne, que 
 mon pere est aussi fou que jamais.'" — Diaries and Correspon- 
 dence, V. 4, p. 20. 
 
 Page 102.—" Letter from Sir Walter Scott." 
 
 Sir Walter could not have written worse prose if he had 
 tried. It shows how difficult it is to string words together on 
 a subject where the convictions of the heart are not altogether 
 in unison with the sentiments expressed. 
 
 Page 231.— "Duke of York." 
 
 " The Duke of York's behaviour is incomparable ; he is 
 their great and only comfort and support at the Queen's house, 
 and without his manly mind and advice neither the Queen nor 
 Princesses would be able to bear up under their present distress." 
 — Diaries and Correspondence, p. 20, v. 4. 
 
 It is pleasing to find in persons so entirely different in every 
 respect a corresponding testimony to the merits of an excellent 
 prince. 
 
 Page 240. — " Avanized." 
 
 To avanize is the expression used throughout the Levant 
 to signify oppressive and forcible exactions of money from in- 
 dividuals, without right or claim.
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 383 
 
 Page 258. — " Serpents never die." 
 
 There is a passage in an interesting domestic tale recently 
 published (The History of Margaret Catchpole, by the Rev. 
 Ml". Cobbold), which has a strange coincidence with the super- 
 stitious belief of the Syrians, considering how widely the 
 English are separated from them. It is as follows : " He 
 told me he was the most venomous snake in the country. His 
 bite is attended with swelling and blackness of the body, and, 
 when the sun goes down, death ensues." — Vol. ii., p. 188. 
 
 Pa-^e 275. — " Use of the korbash." 
 
 The korbash is a thong of the raw hide of the buffalo or 
 rhinoceros, about the length of a hand-whip, and cut tapering 
 in a similar form. In the hand of a powerful flagellant it 
 becomes an instrument of great torture. 
 
 Page 293. — " He is not a great general." 
 There is a strong resemblance between Lady Hester's cha- 
 racter of the Duke of Wellington and that of Frederick the 
 Great of Prussia : for see what Lord Malmesbury says of the 
 latter, in his Diary and Correspondence, vol. i., p. 8 : — 
 
 " His fort is not so much his courage, nor what we gene- 
 rally understand by conduct ; but it consists in a surprising 
 discernment, in the day of battle, how to gain the most ad- 
 vantageous ground, where to place the proper sort of arms, 
 whether horse or foot, and in the quickest coup d'oeil to dis- 
 tinguish the weak part of the enemy." 
 
 Page 321. — " Hands covered doAvn to the fingers' ends." 
 
 No dependant stands before his superior in the East without 
 covering his hands with his robe, or ^vith the hanging sleeves
 
 384 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 
 
 customary among Orientals. In sitting, the feet and legs are 
 likewise hidden ; at least, so good-breeding requires, and per- 
 sons alone who are on terms of familiarity would thrust them 
 out, or let them hang pendent. 
 
 Page 375. — " A benysh." 
 
 The benysh is a large mantle, reaching to the ground, ample, 
 and folding over, with bagging sleeves hanging considerably 
 below the tips of the fingers. When worn, it leaves nothing 
 seen but the head and face. 
 
 END OF VOL. II. 
 
 FREDERICK SHOBERL, JUNIOR, 
 PRINTER TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT, 
 
 51, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET, LONDON.
 
 STANDARD WORKS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY MR. COLBURN, 
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 
 SEQUEL TO TIIE,HISTORY OF "THE FRENCH REVOLUTION." 
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 M, A. TUIERS' IIISTOllY 
 
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 FRANCE UNDER NAPOLEON. 
 
 TRANSLATED, WITH THE SANCTION AND APPROVAL OF THE AUTHOR, 
 
 BY D. FORBES CAMPBELL, ESQ. 
 
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 HISTORY 
 
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 GENEALOGICAL AND HERALDIC DICTIONARY 
 
 OP 
 THE WHOLE OF THE LANDED GENTRY, OR UNTITLED ARISTO- 
 CRACY OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. 
 
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 AND 
 
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 LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND, 
 
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 THE DIARY AND LETTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 MADAME D'ARBLAY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "EVELINA," "CECILIA," &c., &c. 
 
 INCLUDING TIIE PERIOD OF HER 
 
 RESIDENCE AT THE COURT OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE. 
 
 EDITED BY IIER NIECE. 
 
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 ADMIRAL LORD VISCOUNT NELSON. 
 
 EDITED BY SIR HARRIS NICOLAS, G.C.M.G. 
 
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 judiciously adopted, and in which elegance and economy are so happily com- 
 bined." — Sunday Times. 
 
 " A truly popular undertaking. The series so got up and embellished, and 
 so cheap, must extend the fame even of the author of ' Pelham.' " — Literary 
 Gazette. 
 
 " We earnestly press this cheap and elegant publication of Mr. Colburn's on 
 the notice of our readers, under a sincere conviction that we are doing them a 
 service." — Scotsman. 
 
 " Thousands, and tens of thousands, will patronise this undertaking." 
 
 " What an admirable opportunity is here presented to such as are about to 
 form a select library of fiction!" — Sun, 
 
 HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, 
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH-STEEET, LONDON, 
 
 Agents: for Scotland, Bell and Bradfute, Edinburgh ; for Ireland, John Gum- 
 ming, Dublin. Orders received by all Booksellers.
 
 MR. COLBURN'S standard WORKS. 
 
 PERSONAL MEMOIRS OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Preparing for Publication, beautifully printed, in demy 8vo., and cmbellisbed 
 
 with Portraits, 
 
 LIVES OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 BY THOMAS ROSCOE, ESQ. 
 
 While History is occupied with the public deeds of the great and the mighty 
 of the earth, and with the consequences which result from them, it is the pro- 
 vince of Biography to explore the peculiarities of individual disposition, cha- 
 racter, and way of thinking; to study the influence of external circumstances 
 upon these; to search out the real motives of actions; to follow its subject into 
 the privacy of domestic and social life; and to draw a faithful picture alike of 
 his virtues and his vices, his excellences and his failings, his passions, propen- 
 sities, and eccentricities, — in short, of every trait by wliich he is distinguished 
 from the rest of mankind. 
 
 The reader of observation need scarcely be remmded how often trivial cir- 
 cumstances and expressions afford a clearer insight into the real motives, views, 
 characters, and dispositions of men than could ever be obtained from the mere 
 consideration of their public conduct : hence the sagacious biograplier, extend- 
 ing his researches to minute details, may chance to discover truths wliich elude 
 the eye of the historian, content Avith the great outluies of general facts. 
 
 The " Lives of the Kings of England," written with such impressions, must 
 therefore prove a valuable auxiliary to those readers who, fond of tracing effects 
 up to theu" true causes, are desirous of ascertaining the real share contributed 
 by each of the British Sovereigns to those results which have conferred on our 
 country and nation their present proud pre-eminence in power, prosperity, 
 freedom, and glory. To such as seek amusement only, they cannot fail to be 
 equally acceptable, as a connected record of the sajdngs and doings of person- 
 ages, many of them ranking foi-emost as models of chivalry, and most enjoying 
 the highest renown among the politicians and the warriors of their OAvn time. 
 The series commences with the Norman Conquest, when History begins to 
 shake off the legends which cling to her when narrating the lives of even the 
 most eminent of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs, and which are still strikingly ex- 
 emplified in the sculptured frieze in the chapel of Edward the Confessor, in 
 "Westminster Abbey. 
 
 It may not be improper to remark that the work wiU form an almost neces- 
 sary companion and complement to that in which the " Lives of the Queens of 
 England" are related by the felicitous pen of Miss Agnes Strickland, with the 
 peculiar grace of her own sex and the vigour of the other. 
 
 HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, 
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, LONDON. 
 Agents: for Scotland, Bell and Bradfutc, Edinburgh; for Ireland, John Gum- 
 ming, Dublin. Orders received by all booksellers.
 
 ^1 
 
 8 
 
 MR. COLBURN'S standard WORKS. 
 
 Published on the 1st of every Month, price Ss. 6d., 
 
 COLBURN'S 
 NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE 
 
 AND HUMORIST. 
 
 This Magazine contains contributions from the ablest writers of the age, in 
 every department of literature, appropriate to a periodical that seeks to combine 
 valuable information on subjects of paramount interest to readers of all classes, 
 with such pleasant sketches of society and manners as cannot fail to afford an 
 inexhaustible fund of entertainment to the family circle. " The New Monthl v 
 Magazine" has now been established upwards of Twenty Years, and under the 
 able Editorship of such men as Thomas Campbell, Sir Bulwer Lytton, Theodore 
 Hook, and their successors, has continued to maintain the high place amongst 
 its competitors for public favour, for which the remarkable degree of talent, 
 always so evident in its pages, affords its fairest title. 
 
 The Publisher refers with confidence to the various opinions of the Press, 
 regarding the value and interest of this publication. 
 
 The following is a List of some of the distinguished Writers who have 
 contributed to this popular Periodical : — 
 
 MRS. AUSTEN. 
 
 J. BANIM, ESQ. 
 
 BARRY CORNWALL. 
 
 COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON. 
 
 CAPT. F. CHAMIER, R.N. 
 
 MISS ELIZA COOK. 
 
 REV. DR. CROLY. 
 
 W. 11. CURRAN, ESQ. 
 
 B. DLSRAELI, ESQ., M.P. 
 
 ALBANY FONBLANQUE, ESQ. 
 
 JOHN FORSTER, ESQ. 
 
 REV. G. R. GLEIG. 
 
 MR,S. GORE. 
 
 T. C. GRATTAN, ESQ. 
 
 MRS. S. C. HALL. 
 
 THOMAS INGOLDSBY. 
 
 G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ. 
 
 MRS. JAMESON. 
 
 DOUGLAS JERROLD, ESQ. 
 
 J. SHERIDAN 
 
 SIR E. BULWER LYTTON, BART. 
 CAPT. MARRYAT. 
 W\ H. MAXWELL, ESQ. 
 CAPT. MEDWIN. 
 MISS MITFORD. 
 LADY MORGAN. 
 HON. MRS. NORTON. 
 LORD NUGENT. 
 JOHN POOLE, ESQ. 
 T. ROSCOE, ESQ. 
 RT. HON. R. L.SHEIL. 
 HORACE SMITH, ESQ. 
 MISS STRICKLAND. 
 T. N. TALFOURD, ESQ. 
 W. M.THACKERAY, ESQ.. 
 MRS. TROLLOP E. 
 R. PLUMER WARD, ESQ. 
 N. P.WILLIS, ESQ. 
 I T. WYSE, ESQ., M.P. 
 KNOWLES, ESQ. 
 
 HENRY C OLBURN, Publisher, Great Marlborough-streeif, Londom
 
 I
 
 
 7 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 Series 9482
 
 000 262 993