Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/78

 put to the trouble of addressing the crown, got Mr. S., who was an active man, to do it for him. It suited Mr. Pitt very well, in making Lord Carrington governor of Deal castle, to have sombody near at hand who could take off the bore, and the expense too, of entertaining people from London."

"Sir Nathaniel Wraxall speaks of Mr. Pitt's supposed inclination for one of the Duke of Richmond's daughters, and goes on to say that he showed one of them great attention." Lady Hester Stanhope interrupted me at that passage, and said, "So he did to all."

She denied that Mr. Dundas had any direct influence over Mr. Pitt, as Wraxall avers. Her words were, "Because Mr. Dundas was a man of sense, and Mr. Pitt approved of his ideas on many subjects, it does not follow, therefore, that he was influenced by him." With the exception of Mr. Dundas, Lord and another that she named, "all the rest," said Lady Hester, "were a rabble—a rabble. It was necessary to have some one at their head to lead them, or else they were always going out of the right road, just as, you know, a mule with a good star must go before a caravan of mules, to show them the way. Look at a flight of geese in the air: there must always be one to lead them, or else they would not know in what direction to fly.