Our party went to-day to Sunderland, where the Duke was brilliantly received by an immense population, chiefly of seamen.  The difficulty of getting into the rooms was dreadful, for we chanced to march in the rear of an immense Gibraltar gun, etc., all composed of glass, which is here manufactured in great quantities.  The disturbance created by this thing, which by the way I never saw afterwards, occasioned an ebbing and flowing of the crowd, which nearly took me off my legs.  I have seen the day I would have minded it little.  The entertainment was handsome; about two hundred dined, and appeared most hearty in the cause which had convened them—­some indeed so much so, that, finding themselves so far on the way to perfect happiness, they e’en ...  After the dinner-party broke up there was a ball, numerously attended, where there was a prodigious anxiety discovered for shaking of hands.  The Duke had enough of it, and I came in for my share; for, though as jackal to the lion, I got some part in whatever was going.  We got home about half-past two in the morning, sufficiently tired.  The Duke went to Seaham, a house of Lord Londonderry’s.  After all, this Sunderland trip might have been spared..

October 5.—­A quiet day at Ravensworth Castle, giggling and making giggle among the kind and frank-hearted young people.  Ravensworth Castle is chiefly modern, excepting always two towers of great antiquity.  Lord Ravensworth manages his woods admirably well, and with good taste.  His castle is but half-built.  Elections[52] have come between.  In the evening, plenty of fine music, with heart as well as voice and instrument.  Much of the music was the spontaneous effusions of Mrs. Arkwright, who had set Hohenlinden and other pieces of poetry.  Her music was of a highly-gifted character.  She was the daughter of Stephen Kemble.  The genius she must have inherited from her mother, who was a capital actress.  The Miss Liddells and Mrs. Barrington sang the “The Campbells are coming,” in a tone that might have waked the dead.

October 6.—­Left Ravensworth this morning, and travelled as far as Whittingham with Marquis of Lothian.  Arrived at Alnwick to dinner, where I was very kindly received.  The Duke is a handsome man,[53] who will be corpulent if he does not continue to take hard exercise.  The Duchess very pretty and lively, but her liveliness is of that kind which shows at once it is connected with thorough principle, and is not liable to be influenced by fashionable caprice.  The habits of the family are early and regular; I conceive they may be termed formal and old-fashioned by such visitors as claim to be the pink of the mode.  The Castle is a fine old pile, with various courts and towers, and the entrance is magnificent.  It wants, however, the splendid feature of a keep.  The inside fitting up is an attempt at Gothic, but the taste is meagre and poor, and done over with too much gilding.  It was done half a century ago, when this kind of taste was ill-understood.  I found here the Bishop of [Gloucester], etc. etc.