etentive memory, but a noble, straightforward,
independent character, a sound and vigorous understanding,
penetration, judgment, taste. She is perfectly natural, open and
sincere, loves conversation and social enjoyment; with her
intimate friends there is an _abandon_ and unreserved communion
of thoughts, feelings, and opinions which renders her society
delightful. Of all the women I ever saw she unites the most
masculine mind with the most feminine heart. Lord Harrowby[8] has
all the requisites of disagreeableness, a tart, short, provoking
manner, with manners at once pert and rigid; but he is full of
information, and if made the best of may yield a good deal of
desirable knowledge. Though not illiberal in politics, he has
fallen into the high Tory despondency about the prospects of the
country, and anticipates every evil that the most timid alarmist
can suggest. Still, justice should be rendered to Lord Harrowby;
a purer and more disinterested statesman never existed. He was
always devoid of selfishness and ambition, honourable and
conscientious to a degree which rendered him incapable of a
sordid or oblique action. Always acute, but sometimes crotchety,
he had the same fault in politics which was the reproach of Lord
Eldon in law--indecision; and this in no small degree impaired
both his efficacy and his authority. His great idol was Pitt,
and, after him, he was the friend and admirer of Perceval. Bred
in their school, and a Tory by taste, by habit, and in opinion,
it is not a little to his honour that he was able to comprehend
the mighty changes which time and circumstances had effected, and
to perceive that an inflexible adherence to high Tory maxims was
dangerous, because their practical operation was no longer
possible; but justice must be rendered to him hereafter, for he
will never obtain it in his own time. By endeavouring to steer
between two great and exasperated factions he became thoroughly
obnoxious to both. After having refused the post of Prime
Minister, no one can doubt the sincerity of his desire to retire
from public life, and in the consciousness of rectitude, the
disgust of parties, and a calm and dignified philosophy, he finds
ample consolation for all the obloquy with which he has been
assailed.

[7] [This must have been written at Sandon, Lord Harrowby's
seat in Staffordshire, but the entry is not dated.]

[8] [Dudley Ryder, second Baron and first Earl of Harrowby,