Greville Memoirs. 16 Dec 1830. At Court yesterday; William Bathurst (age 39) sworn in. All the Ministers were there, and the Duke of Wellington at the levee looking out of sorts. Dined at the Lievens'; Lady Cowper (age 43) told me that in the summer the Duke had not made a direct offer to Melbourne, but what was tantamount to it. He had desired somebody (she did not say who) to speak to [her brother] Lamb (age 48)⁶, and said he would call on him himself the next day. Something, however, prevented him, and she did not say whether he did call or not afterwards. He denied ever having made any overture at all. To Palmerston he proposed the choice of four places, and she thinks he would have taken in Huskisson if the latter had lived. He would have done nothing but on compulsion; that is clear. It is very true (what they say Peel said of him) that no man ever had any influence with him, only women, and those always the silliest. But who are Peel's confidants, friends, and parasites? Bonham, a stock-jobbing ex-merchant; Charles Ross, and the refuse of society of the House of Commons.

Note 6. Sir Frederick Lamb (age 48).

Greville Memoirs. 12 Jan 1831. Passed two days at Panshanger [Map], but my room was so cold that I could not sit in it to write. Nobody there but [her brother] F. Lamb (age 48) and J. Russell. Lady Cowper (age 43) told me what had passed relative to the negotiation with Melbourne last year, and which the Duke or his friends denied. The person who was employed (and whom she did not name) told F. Lamb (age 48) that the Duke would take in Melbourne and two others (I am not sure it was not three), but not Huskisson. He said that it would be fairer at once to say that those terms would not be accepted, and to save him therefore from offering them, that Melbourne would not be satisfied with any Government which did not include Huskisson and Lord Grey, and that upon this answer the matter dropped. I don't think the Duke can be blamed for answering to anybody who chose to ask him any questions on the subject that he had made no offer; it was the truth, though not the whole truth, and a Minister must have some shelter against impertinent questioners, or he would be at their mercy. An Envoy (age 20) is come here from the Poles¹¹, who brought a letter from Prince Czartoryski to Lord Grey, who has not seen him, and whose arrival has naturally given umbrage to the Lievens.

Note 11. This Envoy was Count Alexander Walewski (age 20), a natural son of the Emperor Napoleon, who afterwards played a considerable part in the affairs of France and of Europe, especially under the Second Empire. During his residence in London in 1831 he married Lady Caroline Montagu (age 22), a daughter of the Earl of Sandwich, but she did not live long. I remember calling upon him in St. James's Place, and seeing cards of invitation for Lady Grey's assemblies stuck in his glass. The fact is he was wonderfully handsome and agreeable, and soon became popular in London society.

Greville Memoirs. 01 Jan 1832. Panshanger [Map]. Distress seems to increase hereabouts, and crime with it. Methodism and saintship increase too. The people of this house are examples of the religion of the fashionable world, and the charity of natural benevolence, which the world has not spoiled. Lady Cowper (age 44) and her family go to church, but scandalise the congregation by always arriving half an hour too late. The hour matters not; if it began at nine, or ten, or twelve, or one o'clock, it would be the same thing; they are never ready, and always late, but they go. Lord Cowper never goes at all; but he employs multitudes of labourers, is ready to sanction any and every measure which can contribute to the comfort and happiness of the peasantry. Lady Cowper (age 44) and her daughters inspect personally the cottages and condition of the poor. They visit, enquire, and give; they distribute flannel, medicines, money, and they talk to and are kind to them, so that the result is a perpetual stream flowing from a real fountain of benevolence, which waters all the country round and gladdens the hearts of the peasantry, and attaches them to those from whom it emanates.

Greville Memoirs. 13 Jan 1832. Last night [her brother] Frederick Lamb (age 49) told me that Lord Grey had sent word to Melbourne of what Wharncliffe (age 55) had said to Sir Herbert Taylor, and Lord Grey assumed the tenour of Wharncliffe's (age 55) language to have been merely an advice to the King not to make Peers, whereas all I suggested to him was to explain to the King that the creation was not necessary for the reasons which have been assigned to his Majesty by his Ministers, viz., the intention of all who voted against the second reading last year to vote against it this. In the meantime the dispute has been going on in the Cabinet, time has been gained, and several incidents have made a sort of cumulative impression. There is a petition to the King, got up by Lord Verulam (age 56) and Lord Salisbury, which is in fact a moderate Reform manifesto. It has been numerously signed, and Verulam (age 56) is going to Brighton to present it. I have been labouring to persuade him to make up his mind to vote for the second reading, and to tell the King that such is his intention, which he has promised me he will. When I had obtained this promise from him I wrote word to Lady Cowper (age 44), telling her at the same time that Lord Harris (I had heard) would vote for the second reading, and this letter she imparted to Melbourne, who stated the fact in the Cabinet, where it made a considerable impression. All such circumstances serve to supply arms to the moderate party.

1833. John Lindsay Lucas (age 26). Portrait of Emily Lamb Countess Cowper (age 45).

Adeline Horsey Recollections. Lord and Lady Palmerston gave delightful parties, to which I was often invited. Lady Palmerston was a daughter of the first [her father] Viscount Melbourne, and she married the fifth Earl Cowper as her first husband. It was generally known that she had been Palmerston's mistress for many years, but she was a charming woman and proved herself an ideal helpmeet to him. Her manner was most genial, and she always appeared grateful to her husband's friends for their support. She possessed that peculiar art of making each guest feel that he or she was the one particular person she wished most to see; so the dinners and receptions of this perfect hostess were always very pleasant functions.

Adeline Horsey Recollections. At one of her parties Lord Palmerston presented Lady Palmerston's son, [her son] William Cowper, to a foreign ambassador, who, not catching the name, looked at him and then at Lord Palmerston and said with a smile, "On voit bien, monsieur, que c'est votre fils, il vous ressemble tant!" [Note. Losely translated "I can see that he is your son. He looks like you".].