Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/27

 phical pursuits: and thus we children saw neither the one nor the other. Lucy used to say that, if she had met her in the streets, she should not have known her. Why, my father once followed to our own door in London a woman who happened to drop her glove, which he picked up. It was our governess; but, as he had never seen her in the house, he did not know her in the street.

"He slept with twelve blankets on his bed, with no nightcap, and his window open: how you would have laughed had you seen him! He used to get out of bed, and put on a thin, with a pair of silk breeches that he had worn overnight, with slippers, and no stockings: and then he would sit in a part of the room which had no carpet, and take his tea with a bit of brown bread.

"He married two wives; the first a Pitt, the second a Grenville; so that I am in two ways related to the Grenvilles.

Lady Hester continued: "As I grew up, Lady Stanhope used to chuck pie under the chin, and cry, 'Why the kurl (girl) is like a soap ball; one can't pinch her cheek:' and I really used to think there was something very strange about me. Soon after Horne Tooke took notice of me, and pronounced flatteringly on my talents. And when Mr. Pitt followed, and kindly said, 'Why I believe there is nothing to find