1909] on The Letters of Queen Victoria. 519 



at the head of a cavalcade of courtiers. She, who had spent her 

 mornings with the excellent Dean of Chester, reading geography, 

 now spent her afternoons with her Prime Minister, discussing the 

 affairs of Europe. 



Pictures from the Journals. 



But the aroma of the schoolroom was about her still. Here is 

 her Journal for Monday, April 2, 1838 : — 



" I said to Lord Melbourne I was so stupid that I must beg him 

 to explain to me about Sir William FoUett again ; he answered very 

 kindly ; ' It is not stupid, but I daresay you can't understand it ' ; 

 and he explained it to me like a kind father would do to his child ; 

 he has something so fatherly, and so affectionate and kind in him, 

 that one must love him." 



A week later the Queen writes describing one of many evenings 

 spent with her Prime Minister at Buckingham Palace : — 



" Sunday, April 8. Lord Melbourne looked over one of the 

 Volumes (the 6th) of a work called ' Gallery of Portraits ' ; there are 

 portraits of all sorts of famous people in it, with short Memoirs of 

 them attached to them. Lord Melbourne looked carefully over each, 

 reading the accounts of the people and admiring the prints. I wish 

 I had time to write down all the clever observations he made about 

 all. It is quite a delight for me to hear him speak about all these 

 things ; he has such stores of knowledge ; such a wonderful memory ; 

 he knows about everybody and everything ; tvho they were, and 

 wltat they did ; and he imparts all his knowledge in such a hind and 

 agreeable manner ; it does me a world of good ; and his conversations 

 always improve one greatly. 



" I shall just name a few of the people he observed upon : — 

 Rayleigh. Hodbes ; who was ' an infidel philosopher ' ; he had been 

 tutor to one of the Earls of Devonshire, he said. Knox; Lord 

 Melbourne observed that those Scotch Reformers were very violent 

 people ; but that Knox denied having been so harsh to Mary Queen 

 of Scots as she said he had been. Lord Mansfield. Melanctho?i ; 

 whose name means Black Earth in Greek, and whose head he 

 admired. Fitt ; whose print Lord Melbourne said was very like ; — 

 ' He died in 1806 when I came into Parliament ; ' he (Ld M) came 

 in for Leinster. Wesley ; Lord Melbourne said that the greatest 

 number of Dissenters were Wesleyans ; he read from the book that 

 there were (at his death) 135,000 of his followers. Porson ; Lord 

 Melbourne said : ' I knew him ; he was a great Greek scholar ' ; and 

 looking at the print—' it's very like him.' Leiinitz ; a great German 

 philosopher, and a correspondent of Queen Caroline, wife to 

 George II. ; spoke of her being so learned and her whole Court too ; 

 ' The Tories laughed at it very much,' and Swift ridiculing the Maids 

 of Honour, wrote : ' Since they talk to Dr. Clark, They now venture 



Vol. XIX. (No. 103) 2 m 



