Fifty years of my life

Front matter

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FIFTY YEARS

Chapter I

My Birth— Elden Hall— Early Recollections— The ** Junius" Duke of Grafton — His Friendship for Lord Keppel — His Opinion on Naval First Lords — Account of a Cabinet Council — The Right Hon. Sir Robert Adair — His First Interview with Charles Fox — Visits St. Petersburgh — Ambassador to Vienna — Adair and the Anti-yacobin — His Mission to ConstJintinople — His last act of Diplomacy — Sir William Keppel — Sir David Dun das . , , . Pages i — 14

CHAPTER n.

The Threatened Invasion— The Dowager Ladyde CliflTord — My Introduction to George, Prince of Wales — My first school — "All the TALENTS " Administration — My father appointed Master of the King's Buckhounds — Visit to Charles Fox — Anecdotes of Fox — Tiie Prince of WaUs at "Red Barnes"— The old *♦ Pavilion"— Chairing of Sir Francis Burdett . • Pages 15 — 21

CHAPTER IH.

My entrance into Westminster School — Masters and Ushers — Fagging — Dowager Lady Albemarle — Dowager Lady de Clifford — Appointed governess to Princess Charlotte — George the Third to Lady de Clifford — Prince of Wales to Laciy de Clifford — Memorandum for Lady de Clifford from the Prince of Wales — The Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte — Lady de Clifford's recollections of the Princess of Wales — Letter from the Princess of Wales — Princess Charlotte as a child — Her dressers — Rev. George Nott — Letters from Princess Charlotte to Lady Albemarle — Princess Charlotte's will . , J 'ages 22 — 40

CHAPTER IV.

The Duchess Downger of Brunswick— Charles Duke of Brunswick — Lord Malmesbury's description of the Duchess— The Princess of Wales to Princess Charlotte— The Duchess of Gloucester — Her sister, Mrs. Frederick Keppel — Prince of Wales to Ladyde Clifford— Warwick House — Prince of Wales to Lady de Clifford . . Pages 41—46

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

My first acquaintance with Princess Charlotte — Her ability and habits — Her letter to me — Her visit to Westminster — Dr. William Short — Lady de Clifford's stipulation with the King — Dr. Fisher, Bishop of Exeter — The Duke of Kent to Colonel Macmahon — Anecdotes of Princess Charlotte — The Dean of Winchester— Princess Charlotte's visit to my father — The Duke of Brunswick — Warwick House — Robert Tyrwhitt Pages 47—59

CHAPTER VI.

The Four-in-Hand Club— Betty RadclifTe of the " Bell "—Charles Longley, late Archbishop of Canterbury— The Burdett Riots — The "Piccadilly Butchers"— Fighting at Westminster — The "Game Chicken" — Crib and Molyneux — Tothill Fields — The "Seven Chimneys" — William Heberfield — George IV. in Tothill Fields — The Prince of Wales's change of Politics — His attempts to convert his Daughter — Princess Charlotte to the Earl of Albemarle — The Prince Regent and I^ady de Clifford — Princess Charlotte to Ladyde Clifford — Princess Charlotte's Establishment— Princess Charlotte to Lady de Clifford — Princess Charlotte at Windsor — Ladyde Clifford's Retirement — Carlton House — The Prince of Orange — General Sir Thomas Picton — London "Lions" — Field Marshal von BlUcher — Hetman Platoff — The Emperor of Russia and the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg — "All the World's at Paris"— My last Days at Westminster . . . . . Pages 60 — 85

CHAPTER VIL

I get my commission — Lansdowne House — Am ordered to join my Regiment in Flanders — Sir Colin Campbell — Sir Neil Campbell — Ostend — My first day's March— Join my Regiment — My Commanding Officer — The Fourteenth to the Front — Our Brigade— Sir Henry Ellis — Our Cantonment — Grammont Races — We received the "Route" — Waterloo Pages 86 — 107

CHAPTER VIIL

^a ira — A Fal>e Alarm — Our General's Congratulations— Commandant of Head-quarters — Attack on Cambray — Louis XVHI.'s Proclamation — Open Right and Left— Hare-hunting extraordinary — First sight of Paris— A "Ghost"— A Catastrophe— Mr, Alexander Adair — Bonapartists — Bummelo — General la Bedoyere — A Dinner at the Louvre

CONTENTS. vH

CHAPTER IX.

Our March Through Paris — Ordered Home — Our Cold Reception — The Sea Horse — Its Fate — Our reflections thereupon — •* Calvert's all Butt " — Property Tax Repealed — Princess Charlotte at the Chapel Royal — Our Waterloo Medals — Zante — Sante Maura — Corfu — ** King Tom " — Military Execution — Deaths of Princess Charlotte and my Mother — Set sail for Mauritius — The Island during the Reign of Terror — The Slave Trade — A Hurricane — Cape of Good Hope — Lord Charles Somerset — Dr. James Harry — St. Helena —Napoleon's Last Moments— Return to England — Api^inted Equerry to the Duke of Sussex — The Duke's Political Debut - A Regal Canvasser — Accompany the Duke t<> Holkham — Coke of Norfolk — A Norwich Corn Law Riot — The Norwich Fox Dinner — The Trumpet of Liberty — The Taylors of Norwich — Death of the Duke of Kent — The Holkham Sheep-shearing — Lord Erskine — Queen Can)line— A Ball at the Argyll Rooms — Attend the Queen's Trial — Her Personal Appearance and Demeanor — Witness for the Prosecution — The Queen and Teodoro Majocchi— Lord All>emarle to Lady Anne Keppel — Brougham and Lord Exmouth — A Letter from Lord Albemarle— House of Lords Adjourns to the 3rd of October — Letters from Lord Alhemarle — Second Reading of the Bill — Brougham, Denman, Giflbrd, and Copley — Vice-Chancellor Leach — *• Othello " and the Queen's Trial — Beefsteak Club Pages 126 — 174

CHAPTER X.

Ordered out to India — Appointed Aide de-cainp to Lord Hastings — Calcutta Theatricals — Jackal Hunting — An Indian Fever — A Cobra Capella— General Ilardwick's Snakery — A Suttee — Lord Hastings Embarks for Europe — I am appointed Aide-de-camp to the Governor- General ad tutertm— Set out on my Overland Journey — Arrival at Bombay — Captain Marryat — His Caricatures — His Descriptions of Clawing off a Lee-shore — My Brother Tom . Pages ly^ — 185

CHAPTER XI.

Preparations for my Overland Journey — My Fellow-Travellers — Embark on board H. M. S. Al/igator -Mm<\ arm Smith — Land at Bussorah- -Horse-racing in the Desert — Prepare for our Trip up the Tigris — Our Arab Guard — Take leave of our Shipmates — Arab Black Mail— Our Voyage up the River — Koorna — Our first Interview with the Desert Arabs — Partridge Shooting in the Desert — A Lion and Lioness — Arrive at Bagdad — A Visit to Babylon — The Pa.sha of Bagdad — A Residence of Caliph Haroun al Raschid — Refleciious iliereupon — We leave Bagdad — Are Waylaid — Arrive at Kermanshah — A curious order of Kni^htiioo'' — ^n Arab Outlaw — A Moolan — A Royal Fuiiernl — We prevent a Duel — The Moolah's opinion of Duelling — An Au-nence with the Prmce Governor . . . . Pages 186 — 20I

^ia CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII.

Arrive at Teheran— Are presented to Futteh Ali Shah— Interview with another Shah— Tabreez— My Valet ad inierim— Becomes a Kahn — Resume my Journey — "The Proud Araxes "—Enter the Russian Territory—Sheesha— Baku -Steppe Travelling— Smatreetels— Astrakhan— A Sturgeon Fishery — Fair of Nishney Novogorod — Horsemanship — A Russian Dance — Moscow — Dine with the Governor-General — A Russian State Prisoner— First sight of a Macadamized Road— St. Petersburgh— An Imperial Aide-de-camp — We are under secret Surveillance — Departure from St Petersbuigh — General Jomini— General and Madame de Zublikoflf— Emperor Alexander — His Death foretold — Military Colonies — Russian Corvee — Sir Robert Ker Porter — We are overtaken by a Storm — Run into a small Harbor in Finland — Arrive in England ^ages 202—217

CHAPTER XIII.

Promoted to a Company — Join my Regiment—Torrens's ** Field Exercises — Appointed Aide-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland — The Two Wellesleys — Richard CoUey, Marquis Wellesley — His early Promise— Arthur Wellesley — His slow Development — His Demeanor as Aidede-camp of the Viceroy — The Wellesleys in India — Lord WellesJey's Contingent to the Army in Egypt — A question to Wellington — His answer — Wellington's first Visit to his last Battle-field — Death of the Emperor Alexander— A tour of waiting on the Duke of Sussex — An Illustrious Child — A Brother Equerry — A Visit to Holkham— Joe Hibbert — Polly Fishbourne — I appear in Print — Miss Lydia White — My admission into Literary Circles — A Dinner at General Phips's — Coleman and Lady Cork — Three Agreeable Acquaintances — Interview with the Duke of Wellington — Its Result . , , Pages 218 — 229

CHAPTER XIV.

The Hoo — Lady Dacre — Hoo Theatricals— Cosy— Join the Hatfield House Company — Our Corps Dramatiqite — Theodore Hook— Our Audience — The Ghost of Queen Elizabeth — A Distinguished Brother Actor — Harrington House Theatre — Travellers and Raleigh Clid:)s — James Holman, the Blintl Traveller— Return to Ireland — Lord Plunkett's Definition of the Word "Personal" — A Vice- Regal Dinner — LaHy Morgan and Lady Clark — A Mascjuerade Group— A Poetical Sketch of l^uhlin Society — Lady Morgan and her Sister " Livy" — Pass Christmas Holidays at Bowood — Make a new acquaintance — Moore and his Melodies — Sloperton Cottage — Extracts from Moore s "Journal" — The Bowood Servants' s Ball — A day with Poet Moore — My Lodg ings in Bury Street — Enter the Military College - Bagshot Park — Death of Lady de Clifford — Meet the Duke of Orleans at Cobliam — Lady Elizabeth Brownlow's Account of the Visit — A Soiree at Mrs. Norton's — Theodore Hook — The two Chin-men . Pages 230 — 24J

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV.

Aspect of the "Eastern Question" in 1829 — Public Opinion on the Turkish Military Organization — On the Campaign of 1828 — Dr. Walsh's Account of the Bulcan — Set out for Turkey — Zante — " Campbell's direction Post" — i*)gina— Visit to Athens — Boatswain of H. M. S. Wasp — Join the British Squadron — Land at the Entrance of Dardanelles— Constantinople — Visit to the Ambassador — My fellow Guests — Captain Lyons and his two Sons — Execution of Three Greeks — En Route to Adrianople — Field Marshal Diebitsch — A question of Identity — Departure from Adrianople — The Selimno Pass of the Balcan — Shumla — Our wretched Quarters — An Execution — Visit to the Grand Vizier — Our Dialogue — Departure from Shumla — The Pravadi Pass — Our First Night's Quarters — Carnabat — Our Adventures by Flood and Field — Louleh Bourgaz — Chorli — Return to Constantinople — Ball at the French Embassy — The French Ambassador and Ambassadress — Journey into Asia Minor — Return to England , Pages 244 — 260

CHAPTER XVL

Visit to Paris — Dine with the King of the French — Aumale and Albemarle — My Father Master of the Horse — My Journey across the Balcan — King William's Vi>it to my Father— The Court at Brighton— The King and the Paddocks Keeper — Twelfth Night at the Pavilion— Toast-drinking extraordinary — Sikes and •' Punch" — The State Coachman and the Guard of Honour — Lord Dudley and Ward — His opinion of Pavilion Cookery — His Dinner to the Duke and Duchess of Clarence — I am elected Member for East Norfolk — The Chairing — Anecdote of William Windham the Statesman — Take my seat in the first Reformed Parliament — Princess Victoria's Visit to Holkham

CHAPTER XVIL

Death of Mrs. Fitzherbert — The Duke of Wellington and my Father — George IV, 's dying request — Horace Smith — Am appointed Groom-in-waiting to the Queen — In attendance at the Coronation — Visit to Charles Fox's Widow — In attendance upon Her Majesty on the day of her Marriage — Presented to the Princess Royal — Termination of my Court Life— Succeed to the Family Title — Move the Address — Bearer of the Cap of Maintenance — The Duke of Wellington —His last appearance in a Public Pageant — His last appearance at a Wedding — His last Speech in Parliament — His last Waterloo Banquet — Accompany the Lord Mayor and Corporation to Paris — Mr. James Stuart Wortley — Banquet at the Hotel de Ville— The Lord Mayor's '* Chasseur "—Am presented to the Prince President of the Republic — ** Les Cameleons" — A Scene in the House of Lords — A Dinner at Lord John Russell's — A Dinner at the Poet Rogers's — The End . Pages 270—285

Appendix

The Keppels uF Guelderland . . • Pages 287—302 The Keppels of England .... Pages 303 — 398 Index Page 399

CHAPTER I.

My Birth.— Elden Hall.— Early Recollections.— The "Junius" Duke of Grafton. — His friendship for Lord Keppel. — His Opinion on Naval First Lords. — Account of a Cabinet Council. — The Right Hon. Sir Robert Adair. — His First Interview with Charles Fox. — Visits St. Petersburg. — Ambassador to Vienna. — Adair and the Anii-yacobin. — His Mission to Constantinople. — His last act of Diplomacy. — Sir William Keppel. — Sir David Dundas.

On the fly leaf of a family Bible is the following record, in my father's handwriting, of the first important event of my life : —

"George Thomas Keppel,* born y* 13 June 1799, christened by the Rev. — Croft, July y* 7, 1799, in the Parish of Marylebone."

My earliest childhood was passed principally at Elden Hall, Suffolk : an estate bequeathed to my father by Admiral Viscount Keppel. Charles Fox, the statesman, who was in the habit of shooting there, both in my uncle's and father's time, used to speak of Elden as the best sporting manor for its size in the kingdom. The property has passed out of the family ; it is now the residence of the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, and its fame as a preserve has suffered no diminution in the hands of its present princely owner.

My memory carries me back to a very early period. I have a distinct recollection of the dress and personal appearance of

* For an account of the Keppel family, of which the Earls of Albemarle are members. «ee Apuendix, (i)

I my eldest brother William, who died upwards of seventy years ago (1804) in consequence, as was believed in the family, of ill treatment at Harrow School.

Equally present to my mind's eye with my brother's form is that of the starch little governess who taught me my letters. How well I remember when one day she was directing my attention, pin in hand, to some such letters as c, a, t, cat, and my forefinger came in contact with the point, how the smart, the sight of the blood and the sense of injury called forth a flood of tears ; how the litde lady raised her hands and eyes in affected astonishment that a nephew of the Admiral should cry at the prick of a pin. Her voice and manner led me to resolve for the future, better to sustain the credit of the family, but my powers of endurance were put to a sore proof by a pretty nursery maid, Sally Martindale by name. Cruelty is proverbially the attendant of beauty, but Sally's attribute was not of that nature of which lovers complain ; it was not so much the hardness of her heart, as of her hand, that has left its mark on my memory.

Although my father was one of the most good-natured of men, it never entered his head to check the severe discipline carried on in the nursery. He was born in an age when the paterfamilias was not wont to spoil the child by a too sparing use of the rod. The coercive system had the sanction and the example of the first man in the realm. In the matter of chastisement George the Third gave a carte blanche to the persons charged with the education of the young princes. The Duke of Sussex, in whose household I was some years an equerry, used frequently to speak of the barbarous treatment which the Duke of Kent and he experienced from their pedagogue ; and it is on record that the sub-governor of the Prince of Wales and Prince Frederick (Duke of York), a clergyman of the name of Arnald (a very different man from the Arnold of Rugby celebrity), exercised his discretionary power so ?«discreetly, that his pupils one day rose against their tormentor, and he, in turn, became \ki^floggee^

* "Georgian iEra of Eminent Persons." Vol. i. p. 105, 106,

CIRC. 1804] THE ''JUNIUS'' DUKE OF GRAFTON. 3

Four miles distant from Elden is Euston Park, the residence in my young days, of Augustus Henry, the third, or, as he was popularly called, the "Junius " Duke of Grafton. As I was twelve years old before he died I had frequent opportunities of seeing so near a neighbor. Once seen he was not easily forgotten. Not that I would pretend to any personal acquaintance with this formidable individual, for he had no liking for children, and when my mother took me to lunch with the ladies at Euston, if the Duke happened to enter at one door, I was always smuggled out at the other. It was while fishing sometimes for roach and dace in the stream that runs through the Park, that I used to see an elderly gentleman pass by mounted on a thorough-bred horse, which he bestrode with much grace and dignity. He was of low stature and spare figure, had lank silver hair, a long nose, high cheek-bones and a stern expression of countenance, which a picture of him at Euston forcibly recalls to me. He was usually habited in a peach-colored, single-breasted coat extending below the knee, leather breeches, and long topless boots, then only worn by bishops and butchers. On his head was a small gold-laced three cornered hat — this whole style of dress he might almost have worn when he was Lord of the Bedchamber to George the Third's father, Frederick Prince of Wales.

The Duke was a keen sportsman, and in his autobiography takes himself to task for liking hunting better than politics. His principal kennel was in Northamptonshire, but he used to bring his hounds to Euston for a part of every season. He had a great aversion to our broad ditches with their honeycombed banks, and used to call them " Suffolk graves." Indeed the whole country is a mere rabbit warren, and still goes by the name of the holey (holy) land.

In the field the Junius Duke was a strict disciplinarian. Woe betide the wight who uttered a sound when the pack was making a cast. His nephew, General William Fitzroy, told me that on one of these occasions an old gentleman happened to cough ; the Duke rode up to him, and taking off his gold-laced hat, said to him, in a voice in which politeness and

^ FIFTY YEARS OF MY LIFE. [Episode 1770,

passion strove for the mastery, " Sir, I wish to heaven your cold was better."

But although of an irascible temper and a somewhat cold and repulsive exterior, the Duke was capable of warm and lasting friendships. With the Keppel family (my generation excepted) he lived on terms of great cordiality. It will be seen by the memoir of his life, to which I have already alluded, that some hundred and thirty years ago, he was a guest of William Anne, Lord Albemarle, then Ambassador at Paris.

But it was with this Lord Albemarle's second son, and his own near neighbor, Admiral Keppel, that the Duke was best acquainted. Although both professed the common name of Whig, they were, as not unfrequently happened in those days, diametrically opposed to each other in politics, yet this difference of opinion never for one moment marred their private friendship. Evidence of this feeling pervades the autobiography in which the name of the Admiral is always mentioned with honor and regard.

A few extracts from the MS. while affording evidence of the estimation in which the writer held his neighbor, will show also the opinion of a distinguished statesman upon a subject that crops up from time to time — the description of person to whom the direction of naval affairs in this country ought to be consigned.

Speaking of 1770, soon after he had resigned the post of First Lord of the Treasury, the Duke writes : —

*' There was a strong belief about this time that I was invited to become First Lord of the Admiralty and in the opinion of many it was thought that I was particularly desirous of holding that office. Having gone so far I will not close the subject (very uninteresting to any but my own friends) without mentioning my real sentiments. I was always strongly of opinion that a naval officer should preside at the head of the Admiralty. Any other could never know enough to answer satisfactorily to the incessant questions which must be necessarily put to him by a cabinet composed of landsmen. In such cases, what can the first Lord do but run out to get the information from others, who, in consequence, must be let into the secret of what is passing, the knowledge of which ought to be confined as much

Episode 1782.] DEFENCE OF GIBRALTAR. ^

as possible to the cabinet alone ? Admiral Keppel and Lord Howe were, as men and officers, well qualified for the station, though probably Mr, Keppel would have declined it, as he was much connected with Lord Rockingham and his friends who were hostile to the Ministry. '*

The Duke reverts to the subject in 1782 when he and his frien-i had become members of the same Cabinet, the one as Lord Privy Seal and the other, who had just been created Viscount Keppel, as first Lord of the Admiralty.

England was then at war with France and Spain.

'' Great was the anxiety of the public on the perilous state of Gibraltar, against which a force so very formidable had been collected both by sea and land. The enemy thought they were marching down to certain conquest, and the French Princes of the Blood came in order to be eyewitnesses of the downfall of this mighty fortress. ... At Paris nothing could be admitted as fashionable which was not ' a la Gibraltar.* The ladies' dresses were entirely so, and their very fans represented on one side * Gibraltar comme il ^tait,' on the other were so constructed as to fall to pieces in order to exhibit * Gibraltar comme il est.' . . .

** Before the arrival of General Elliot's account of the glorious defence of Gibraltar, a Cabinet was summoned to take into consideration the most effectual means for the relief of that important fortress. I was alone with Lord Keppel some time, and he opened to me the plan of operations he had prepared, and which appeared to me to be entitled to great applause, for none could be more rational or simple, or better calculated to answer the different services ; and I may say that whenever I have related the detail of this business, it always conveyed to those present a high idea of Lord Keppel's naval character, with a strong conviction of the great utility of placing a seaman at the head of the Admiralty.

" On Lord Thurlow's coming into the room where we were all assembled, he asked, in his blunt manner, where was the man who could point out the means to save Gibraltar? Lord Keppel answered to the Chancellor and to us that he certainly had a plan prepared for our consideration and approval, which he would proceed to open to the Cabinet. But he expressed his concern that he was obliged to state to them another service as pressing and equally necessary as the Relief of Gibraltar, namely, to get the Baltic Fleet safe into our ports."

After giving in detail the deliberations of the Cabinet, the Duke continues : —

"We were all so well pleased with the relief which Lord Keppel had given to our minds that, after a few questions to indulge the curiosity of us landsmen, we assured him we concurred most cordially with every part of his scheme. He then acquainted us that Mr. Stephens with two Lords of the Admiralty were waiting to sign the instructions, which should go into no other hands in order to greater secrecy. We undertook to assure His Majesty the absolute necessity for the service that the whole plan should be put into motion instantly.

" The wisest of human schemes are under superior control, and the present well-digested plan must have been deferred at least, had the wind come about too soon ; but all was propitious, and gave just time to the officer commanding at Bergen to receive his orders and execute them instantly with success."

One of my first friendships, begun in the Elden nursery, continued till after I had passed my climacteric, and then only ended by death, was the late Sir Robert Adair, the diplomatist. He was born in 1764, and lived to be upwards of ninety. His father was Staff-Surgeon to George IH., his mother my father's aunt. Lady Caroline Keppel.

His name calls up the image of a tall, thin man, with a sallow complexion and a melancholy cast of features, who was known in the family as the " knight of the woeful countenance." Like his cousins, the Duke of Bedford and Lord Albemarle,* he wore his hair d la guillotine^ that is to say, he kept it cut short, and had neither powder nor pigtail. This coiffure derived its name from a practice of the French Royalists who, during the Reign of Terror, being liable to be

* EVizabetli, Marchioness of Tavistock, motlier of the Duke of Bedford, and Lady Car-

c'inc Adair, were sisters of George, Lord Albemarle.

CiRC. 1782.] SIR ROBERT ADAIR. y

summoned suddenly from their cells to the scaffold, cut off their queues in prison to prevent the executioner from performing that office for them. As the fashion in England was mainly adopted by members of the Whig party, their political opponents affected to believe it was a symbol of their sympathy with sans culotterie. It is in this sense that Adair figures in the " Anti-Jacobin." In " A Bit of an Ode to Fox," he is described as undergoing the metamorphosis of a goose, and is thus made to address his political chief : —

** I feel the growing down descends Like goose-skin to ray fingers' ends ;

Each nail becomes a feather.

My cropped head waves with sudden plumes, Which erst (like Bedford's and his grooms)

Unpowdered braves the weather."

Adair took early to politics. At six years old, in the Wilkes and Liberty riots, he broke his father's windows, — because he was a placeman.

Like most of his mother's male relations, he was sent to Westminster School ; and with a view to his future profession of diplomatist, finished his education at the University of Gottingen, On his return to England he became a constant guest of his uncle. Lord Keppel, and was staying at Elden when the Whigs came in for their short tenure of office in 1782. In the autumn of that same year, he went over to Euston to shoot pheasants in Fakenham wood. He there first became acquainted with his celebrated cousin, Charles James Fox. That most good-natured of men, seeing a shy youth, whom nobody knew or noticed, did all in his power to set him at his ease. " Well, young 'un," said Fox, " where do you spring from ? " " From Gottingen," was the reply. " Not much shooting there, I suppose?" "Oh yes, we used to shoot foxes." " Hush ! " said Fox \ " never pronounce that word again, at least in this house, for if the Duke were to hear that you had ever killed one of my namesakes, he would swear it belonged to Fakenham wood."

In order to acquire a knowledge of continental politics.

8 FIFTY YEARS OF MY LIFE. [Episode 1790

Adair, after making the tour of Europe, took up his residence for a time at St. Petersburg. Bishop Tomline in his " Life of Pitt," asserts that he went to the Russian capital on a political mission from Fox, then a member of the Opposition. The statement was untrue, and although it met with a strenuous denial, it furnished another stanza to the " Bit of an Ode," at Adair's expense still in his character of goose.

" I mount, I mount into the sky Sweet bird, to Petersburg I fly,

Or if you bid, to Paris.

Fresh missions of the Fox and Goose Successful treaties may produce,

Though Pitt in all miscarries."

While in the Russian capital Adair was presented to the Empress Catherine. He does not seem to have been favorably impressed with the personal appearance of that famous princess, whom he used to describe to me as vulgar-looking and shabbily dressed.

Adair once accompanied Lord Whitworth, the British Ambassador, to a dinner which Her Imperial Majesty gave at Tzarskeselo. The hour of the meal was at three in the afternoon. After dinner the guests lounged about the gardens till sunset. One of the ladies of the company wishing to show her friends an ornamental box which lay on her toilet table, a general officer sent his aide-de-camp to bring it down. Unfortunately for the young man he fetched the wrong one. Whereupon his chief began boxing his ears and pulling his hair. The aide-de-camp fell upon his knees and implored pardon for his blunder ; but the general was implacable, and kicked him while in the posture of supplication. " This is not a scene for Englishmen to witness," said Lord Whitworth, significantly, and he and Adair each turned upon his heel.