made a greater
noise. A few cheers were given to Lord Grey as he returned, which
he just acknowledged and no more. On Friday we dined at the
Castle; each day the King asked a crowd of people from the
neighbourhood. We arrived at a little before seven; the Queen was
only just come in from riding, so we had to wait till near eight.
Above forty people at dinner, for which the room is not nearly
large enough; the dinner was not bad, but the room insufferably
hot. The Queen was taken out by the Duke of Richmond, and the
King followed with the Duchess of Saxe Weimar, the Queen's
sister. He drinks wine with everybody, asking seven or eight at a
time. After dinner he drops asleep. We sat for a short time.
Directly after coffee the band began to play; a good band, not
numerous, and principally of violins and stringed instruments.
The Queen and the whole party sat there all the evening, so that
it was, in fact, a concert of instrumental music. The King took
Lady Tavistock to St. George's Hall and the ball room, where we
walked about, with two or three servants carrying lamps to show
the proportions, for it was not lit up. The whole thing is
exceedingly magnificent, and the manner of life does not appear
to be very formal, and need not be disagreeable but for the bore
of never dining without twenty strangers. The Castle holds very
few people, and with the King's and Queen's immediate suite and
_toute la batardise_ it was quite full. The King's four sons were
there, _signoreggianti tutti_, and the whole thing 'donnait a
penser' to those who looked back a little and had seen other
days. We sat in that room in which Lyndhurst has often talked to
me of the famous five hours' discussion with the late King, when
the Catholic Bill hung upon his caprice. Palmerston told me he
had never been in the Castle since the eventful day of Herries'
appointment and non-appointment; and how many things have
happened since. What a _changement de decoration_; no longer
George IV., capricious, luxurious, and misanthropic, liking
nothing but the society of listeners and flatterers, with the
Conyngham tribe and one or two Tory Ministers and foreign
Ambassadors; but a plain, vulgar, hospitable gentleman, opening
his doors to all the world, with a numerous family and suite, a
Whig Ministry, no foreigners, and no toad-eaters at all. Nothing
can be more different, and looking at him one sees how soon this
act will be finished, and the same be changed for a