168 Turkey, Constantinojjle, Egypt, QAuG. 



Tery seldom eats meat. Other nights it was still later when I retired ; tea was 

 sometimes brought in towards two in the morning. 



" The male attire of Syria is extremely rich and flowing : it becomes females 

 no less than men, and sets off the pojtly figure of Lady H to great advan- 

 tage. As the situation of her Ladyship is more that of a Bedouin soA'ereign 

 than of one in a private station, I do not conceive the laws of hospitality are 



infringed by giving you these particulars. Lady H complains only of 



those who have given false and malicious accounts of her. I trust I have 

 given neither. In conversation she expressed her opinion very freely of Mr. 



C g, who appeared to be no great favourite of hers^ and of many other 



public characters ; and though she professed to read no books, for ' books/ 

 she asserts, ' file away the mind,' she yet appeared conversant with every thing 

 that was going on in the political and literary world. I give you her opinions 

 of C g and some others, word for word, as I heard them from her. 



" ' I hate your fiery-headed Irish politicians ; for soldiers, there are none 

 like them ; for a coup de main I would have Irish — all Irish. The Scotch 

 should plan the project, the Irish execute it ; the latter know not how to 

 retreat : they have a great deal of wit, which consists in quickness of appre- 

 hension ; they always have genius, but they never have any judgment. 



George C g was one of your fiery-headed Irish politicians. When I acted 



as ]\Ir. Pitt's secretary, I had nothing but trouble with this Irishman. One 

 day I could hardly prevail on him to sit down to dinner at Mr. Pitt's, because 

 Lord Castlereagh was present ! — He was like a fine lady at a play, who 

 becomes quite fidgety because a naughty person is sitting in the next box : 



he was afraid of infection. Oh ! there is no one knows George C g so well 



as I do ; he was never staunch to any person, nor to any party ; he never 

 would serve Mr. Pitt well, nor yet would he break with him. 



" ' When jNIr. Pitt went out of office, C g used his name to make it 



believed that Mr. P — was only waiting for a bait to be drawn in again. Mr. 



p was obliged to forbid him the house: but he soon ingratiated himself 



again into favour. C has no largeness of soul : he is voluble and erudite, 



but he never was such an orator as Grattan : Grattan's speeches will read 



well to every one ; but C g's speeches are only intelligible to your Greek 



and Latin gentlemen : to the country squires they are nonesense ; for the 



agricultural interests are foreign to the classical consideration of C g: the 



corn laws are not more congenial to his contemplation than the study of 

 alchymy is to the Archbishop of Canterbury. To such beings as myself, who 

 have their own strong notions of things and persons, the speeches of 



£ tr are vapid ; there is no depth in the argument ; no universality in the 



philosophy. 



" ' Lord C h was the best meaning man in the world, but his intellect 



•was not of the first order ; in the documents he was in the habit of writing 

 for Mr. P — , there were always blunders, but he used to write them over 



again, very good-humouredly, when Mr. P — pointed out the error. C 



and he were always in one another's way, the senate was not large enough 

 for them both. 



" ' AVhen i\Ir. Pitt was out of office, I acted as his secretary, and he had 

 then as much business as when he was in. He very seldom opposed my 

 opinions, and always respected my antipathies. In private life he was cheer- ' 

 ful and affable ; he would lise in the midst of his gravest avocations to hand 

 me a fallen handkerchief; he was always polite to women, and a great 

 favourite with many of them ; but he was wedded to the state, and nothing 

 but death could divorce him from his country. lie was fond of me ; he loved 

 ori"-inalitv in any shape. His great recreation, after the fatigue of business, 

 was stealing into the country, entering a clean cottage, where there was a 

 tidy woman and a nicely-scoured table, and there he would eat bread and 

 cheese like any ploughman. He detested routs, and always sat down to 

 plain dinners. He never eat before he went to the House; but when any 



