424 HER DEATH. [1821. 



" All London was in the greatest hubbub about it, 

 as I learn. Yours ever, H. B. 



" I suppose the King would at first be very glad at 

 her death ; but he would soon find how odious it 

 made him." 



Two days after I arrived at York I had a letter an- 

 nouncing her death. Indeed the favourable symptoms 

 had disappeared the morning after I saw her, and the 

 first letter I received at York appeared to preclude all 

 hope. 



I returned to London to attend the funeral, and I 

 found that Lushington and Wilde, whom she had ap- 

 pointed her executors, had a long interview with her 

 the day before she died. She was then in no pain, 

 mortification having commenced, and she had alto- 

 gether lost her head. She talked incessantly on every 

 subject for three hours ; and it is very remarkable that 

 the only persons she mentioned were the " Petite 

 Victorine," Bergami's child, and the child of Parson 

 Wood, which she had taken one of her fancies for."" 

 While at Hammersmith she had made him her chap- 

 lain, and caused Lord and Lady Hood to quit their 

 places of Lord of the Bedchamber and Mistress of the 

 Ivobcs in order to appoint Wood and his wife, who had 

 not the proper rank, and indeed were in all respects unfit 

 for the situation. This is the only bad thing I can 

 recollect of her doing in the management of her house- 

 hold or other affairs, for the Hoods had been most in- 

 valuable friends and servants, standing by her through 



* Son of the Alderman Wood \vlio Lad made himself somewhat 

 notorious on the Queen's coming to England in 1820. 



