Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/108

 told me this, and I replied—If he asks me, I will have an answer ready for him, and that is, 'When he behaves like them I shall like him, and not before.' I loved all the princes but him. They were not philosophers, but they were so hearty in their talking, in their eating, in all they did! They would eat like ploughmen, and their handsome teeth would" (here she imitated the mastication of food, to show me how) "at a pretty rate.

"The Prince is a despicable character. He was anxious enough to know me whilst Mr. Pitt was alive; but the very first day of my going to court, after Mr. Pitt’s death, he cut me, turning his back on me whilst I was talking to the Duke of Richmond.

"As for the princesses, there was some excuse for their conduct: I do not mean as regards myself— for they were always polite to me—but as to what people found fault with them for. The old queen treated them with such severity, shutting them up in a sort of a prison—at least the Princess Sophia—that I rather pitied than blamed them.

"But look at the princes: what a family was there! never getting more than four hours’ sleep, and always so healthy and well-looking. But men generally are not now-a-days as they were in my time. I do not mean a Jack M. and those of his description, handsome, but of no conversation: they are, however,