8th.—I dined at the Speaker’s, whose house forms part of the House of Commons. The rooms are large, and fitted up in the best style of Gothic architecture, with furniture to correspond. The dining-room is immediately under St. Stephen’s Chapel, and is, I think, the handsomest room of the kind I ever saw. It consists of three divisions, separated only by two open arches; the ornaments, though minute in the Gothic style, are well adapted to the room, and the whole is well worth seeing. We had a very pleasant party; but the accounts arrived from France are very melancholy, and it is said one of Bonaparte’s generals[39] has entered Bordeaux, and the Duchess d’Angoulême has been obliged to depart by sea.
9th.—I dined at Lady Downshire’s, and went in the evening to Lady Aylesbury’s. People in general seem to wish for peace, not willing to make any sacrifices, and hardly wishing to hear good news.
10th.—I went in the evening to the Duchess of Orleans’; the Duchess of Leeds and Lady Catherine went with me. Mademoiselle and the Duke were there. She has a lady companion with her, the Countess de Montjoie. She is said to be accomplished and sensible; some add that she is an intriguante. The Duke is much with Ministers. They are all well-bred and affable; the Duchess of Orleans good, and kind, and unaffected. Mademoiselle told me the Duchess d’Angoulême was gone to Passages, and the Duke to Marseilles.
11th.—I saw Baroness Montalembert, who told me her husband was gone, with ten thousand stand of arms, to the Duchess d’Angoulême; Colonel Jenkinson with him. Before they sailed from Plymouth they heard of the fall of Bordeaux, and will act accordingly. Lord Bathurst seems to have despatched them without loss of time. Princess Charlotte came to town to-day. The entrance of Warwick House towards the lane is secured by bars of iron in the inside, and she goes through Carlton House, or rather through the court. Lady Ilchester and Mrs. Campbell are to sleep in the house, and the other ladies and gentlemen to come in the day; a list given and signed by the Prince Regent of what people she is to see. Only Miss Mercer Elphinstone, and Lady Warwick and her daughters, to be suffered to see her in the evening. She is to go once a week to the Play or the Opera, but to go away before it is over, and not to court publicity.