October 7.—­This morning went to church and heard an excellent sermon from the Bishop of Gloucester;[54] he has great dignity of manner, and his accent and delivery were forcible.  Drove out with the Duke in a phaeton, and saw part of the park, which is a fine one, lying along the Alne.  But it has been ill-planted.  It was laid out by the celebrated Brown,[55] who substituted clumps of birch and Scottish firs for the beautiful oaks and copse which grows nowhere so freely as in Northumberland.  To complete this, the late Duke did not thin, so the wood is in poor state.  All that the Duke cuts down is so much waste, for the people will not buy it where coals are so cheap.  Had they been oak-wood, the bark would have fetched its value; had they been grown oaks, the sea-ports would have found a market.  Had they been [larch], the country demands for ruder purposes would have been unanswerable.  The Duke does the best he can to retrieve his woods, but seems to despond more than a young man ought to do.  It is refreshing to see a man in his situation give so much of his time and thoughts to the improvement of his estates, and the welfare of the people.  The Duke tells me his people in Keeldar were all quite wild the first time his father went up to shoot there.  The women had no other dress than a bed-gown and petticoat.  The men were savage and could hardly be brought to rise from the heath, either from sullenness or fear.  They sung a wild tune, the burden of which was Ourina, ourina, ourina.  The females sung, the men danced round, and at a certain part of the tune they drew their dirks, which they always wore.

We came by the remains of the old Carmelite Monastery of Hulne, which is a very fine object in the park.  It was finished by De Vesci.  The gateway of Alnwick Abbey, also a fine specimen, is standing about a mile distant.  The trees are much finer on the left side of the Alne, where they have been let alone by the capability-villain.  Visited the enceinte of the Castle, and passed into the dungeon.  There is also an armoury, but damp, and the arms in indifferent order.  One odd petard-looking thing struck me.—­Mem. to consult Grose.  I had the honour to sit in Hotspur’s seat, and to see the Bloody Gap, where the external wall must have been breached.  The Duchess gave me a book of etchings of the antiquities of Alnwick and Warkworth from her own drawings.[56] I had half a mind to stay to see Warkworth, but Anne is alone.  We had prayers in the evening read by the Archdeacon.[57]

The Marquis of Lothian on Saturday last told me a remarkable thing, which he had from good authority.  Just before Bonaparte’s return from Elba there was much disunion at the Congress of Vienna.  Russia and Prussia, conscious of their own merits, made great demands, to which Austria, France, and Britain, were not disposed to accede.  This went so far that war became probable, and the very Prussian army which was so useful at Waterloo was held in readiness to