rd person, and alluding to the
_loose reports_ which had been current on the subject, and saying
that 'the Chancellor might have his own reasons for not choosing
to speak to Lady Lyndhurst on the subject;' to which the
Chancellor replied that 'he knew nothing of any loose reports,
but that if there were any, in whatever quarter they might have
originated, which went to affect the conduct of Lady Lyndhurst in
the matter in question, they were most false, foul, and
calumnious.' So ended the correspondence; all these latter
expressions were intended to apply to the Duke himself, who is
the person who spread the _loose reports_ and told the lies about
her. When she first denied him, she told Lord Bathurst of it, who
assured her she had done quite right, and that she had better
never let him in, for if she did he would surely invent some lies
about her. Last Sunday week the Chancellor went down to Windsor,
and laid the whole correspondence before the King, who received
him very well, and approved of what he had done; but of course
when he saw the Duke of Cumberland and heard his story, he
concurred in all his abuse of the Chancellor. I think the
Chancellor treated the matter in the best way the case admitted
of. Had he taken it up, he must have resigned his office and
called the Duke out, and what a mixture of folly and scandal this
would have been, and how the woman would have suffered in it all!

[Page Head: QUARREL OF CUMBERLAND AND LYNDHURST.]

August 22nd, 1829 {p.226}

The day before yesterday Sir Henry Cooke called on me, and told
me that he came on the part of the Duke of Cumberland, who had
heard that I had seen the correspondence, and that I had given an
account of it which was unfavourable to him, that his Royal
Highness wished me, therefore, to call on him and hear his
statement of the facts. Cooke then entered into the history, and
told me that it was he who had originally acquainted the Duke
with the reports which were current about him, and had advised
him to contradict them, but that he had not found any opportunity
of taking it up till this paragraph appeared in the 'Age'
newspaper; that the Duke had given him an account of what had
passed, which was that Lady Lyndhurst had begged him to call upon
her, then to dine with her, and upon every occasion had
encouraged him. I heard all he had to say, but declined calling
on the Duke. As I wished, however, that there should be no
misrepresentation in what I