Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/75

 avenues, alleys, and the like, as being more adapted to an ancient castle. Such was the amiable politeness of Mr. Pitt.

"When Mr. Pitt retired from office, and sold Hollwood, his favourite child, he laid down his carriages and horses, diminished his equipage, and paid off as many debts as he could. Yet, notwithstanding this complete revolution, his noble manners, his agreeable, condescending air, never forsook him for a moment. To see him at table with vulgar sea captains, and ignorant militia colonels, with two or three servants in attendance—he, who had been accustomed to a servant behind each chair, to all that was great and distinguished in Europe—one might have supposed disgust would have worked some change in him. But in either case it was the same—always the admiration of all around him. He was ever careful to cheer the modest and diffident; but if some forward young fellow exhibited any pertness, by a short speech, or by asking some puzzling question, he would give him such a set down that he could not get over it all the evening."

In answer to a question I put, "By whom and how ministers effected their purposes in the city," she told me that they got hold of one of the great squads, as Lloyd's, the Angersteins, the Merchant Tailors, and so on; and by means of one body set the rest to work.