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    300 LADY HESTER STANHOPE.

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    Part Ii. Fiiattery Is Sometimes A Low Re...

    Is also contrary to tliat of Lord Malmesbury , who , repeating Ms details from the information of Sir Walter Farquhardeclared that

    , Pitt died repeating to himself , " O what times ! O my country ! " _* Lady Hester often dwelt on the ingratitude of those whom her uncle had

    served . Pie retained his cheerfulness and sanguine disposition to the last ; and when , having "been stricken by fever , he lay a corpse in his

    own house , he was so utterly neglected by his friends that Lord Brougham relates how some one in the neighborhood having sent

    to inquire after Mr . Pitt ' s state , found the wicket open , and " nobody answering the bell , walked through the rooms till lie reached the

    bed on which the minister ' s body lay lifeless , the sole occupant of the mansion whose doors only a few hours before were darkened by

    crowds of _obseqiiious suitors . " All was now changed for Lady Hester . Many of her former

    friends deserted her in trouble , and those who had often smarted under the sallies of her wit were now relieved to be able to treat

    her with indifference . The pension which had been accorded to her at the request of her uncle , was not sufficient to maintain

    her in her former style and expenditure . Envious tongues circulated reports at her expenseand old acquaintances _wb-O met her in

    the streets had forgotten to , recognise her face . Indignant but not broken-spiritedand smarting with wounded

    , pride , she hastened to confine herself in a small house in Montaguesquare , seldom leaving it even for the benefit of fresh airtill the

    death of her brother Charles , at the battle of _Coronna , had altogether , disgusted her with society and London .

    Breaking up her small establishment , she next journeyed into Wales , and ensconced herself in a small lodging with a room only

    twelve feet square , where she occupied her time with rustic pursuits .

    But the world which she now hated , was still able to disturb her at Brecon . English faces invaded her cynical solitude ; and

    shrinking with horror from the touch of former friends , she determined , like _' a " female Coriolanus , " to desert the country which

    had offended her vanity , and to place the Mediterranean between herself and those whom she imagined had outraged her . _SjDace

    fails us to follow her through all her wanderings in the East . After some sojourn at Gibraltar and Malta , she set out for Zante

    ( 1810 ) , visited Constantinople , and set sail for Egypt . After long journey ings without any settled abode , the " prophetess

    of Syria" determined to live at Mount Lebanon . The insatiable pride , and the eager desire for control which had been baneful to her

    life * : — The " Oh last , my words country of Pitt ! how are g I iven love in my the country fourth volume ! " Since of Lord then Stanhope the author ' s

    ill lias leave eg written ible manuscri inste to ad the of pt Times . A truer to stat transcri e that pt these , by words another were person taken , has from the a word very

    " of the C " ontinental war " love produced ; " referring by the , as battle seemed of Auaterlitz kely , to the . disastrous state

    300 Lady Hester Stanhope.

    300 LADY HESTER STANHOPE .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1862, page 300, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071862/page/12/