Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/65

 "When the Grenville administration wanted to introduce new regulations into the Customs, and diminish their profits, I wrote such a petition for them, that Lord Grenville read it over and over, and cried out—'There is only one person could write this, and we must give up the point.' He sent the Duke of Buckingham to me to find out if it was I, and the duke said, to smooth the matter—'Lady Hester, you know, if you want any favour, you have only to ask for it.'—'Indeed,' said I, 'I shall ask no favour of your broad-bottomed gentry; what I want I shall take by force.'—'Now, Hester,' cried the duke, 'you are too bad; you are almost indelicate.'

"Oh, I made a man laugh so once when speaking of an officer, who, I said, would not do for an hussar, as he wanted a little more of the Grenville make about him."

After a pause, as if reflecting, Lady Hester resumed—"Is there nothing in the book about the G********'s getting the Prince down to Stowe? They received him with extraordinary magnificence, and the most noble treatment possible: they fancied they were going to do wonders. But I said to them—'Do you think all this makes the impression you wish in the Prince's breast? You suppose, no doubt, that you gratify him highly with such a splendid reception: you are much mistaken. From this