I did not expect them to be clear of the House till near 12, so went into my room, and soon after to bed, but I slept well.  For I had heard of them.  They were all, I tell you, before 12 in my parlour, eating cake and chattering, and talking the whole farce over, comme a la grille du convent.  I can at present tell you no more, but I was impatient to begin my letter a cette heure; j’ai en quelque facon satisfait a mon envie.  I shall embark at eleven for Isleworth, and hope with a fair wind to land at Campbell-ford stairs in ten minutes after.  From thence I will finish my letter.  I shall there have the whole en detail.  The Prince and the Duke of Q. were expected, but I heard from my servants nothing of them.

Il fait un lien beau tems; c’est quelque chose.  It has come late, and to make us only a short visit I suppose, and to tell us that we shall have a better autumn than we have had a summer; no courtier cajoles one like a fine day.  Yesterday was a fine day also, and I completed, as they call it, my seventy-first year.  I dined at your sister’s.(289) Mr. Campbell and Car and Mie Mie were to have been of the party; they had an apology to make, I had none. 71 is not an age to Barrymoriser.  There were only Mr. Woodcock and his wife.  I met on my return their Majesties, que j’ai salues; and so ended my day.

(288) Richard Barry, seventh Earl of Barrymore (1769-1793).  Lord Barrymore was brilliant, eccentric, and dissipated, and in his short life he managed to spend 300,000 pounds and encumber his estates.  He gambled, owned racehorses and rode them, played cricket, and hunted.  He had a strong taste for the stage.  At Wargrave-on-Thames he had a private theatre adjoining his house, and liked to make up companies with a mixture of amateurs and professionals.  He is the prototype of many modern and aristocratic spendthrifts.  He was killed by an accident when he seemed about to be giving up his wild career for a. more useful life.  He accepted a commission in the Berkshire Militia and threw himself into his work with characteristic zest.  When escorting some French prisoners near Dover, the gun which was in his carriage accidentally exploded and wounded him fatally. (See “The Last Earls of Barrymore,” by J. R. Robinson, London, 1894.)

(289) Lady Louisa Leveson-Gower, married to Sir Archibald Macdonald in 1777.  She died 1827.

(1790, Aug. 12,) one o’clock, Richmond.—­I have been at Isleworth.  I found Car very well, and at her painting, with the Italico Anglico artiste of Mr. Campbell’s, and Mr. Lewis.  Mr. C(ampbell) was gone to London.  They were asked to dine to-day at Fulham Field, that is, I think, the name of the Attorney Gen(era)l’s(290) place.  I am not sure if she told me that they intended to go.  Lord Barrymore danced the pas Russe with Delpini, and then performed Scaramouche in the petite piece.  I asked how he danced; Mr. Lewis said very ill.  How did he perform the other part? execrably bad.