a good Heart.-The Prince's Letter pleases me much. -Adieu, my Heart's Beloved. and give us both all we wish! May God bless you, Amen. WARREN HASTINGS. P.S.. I have only a Line left to write that I have been laboring incessantly for the last Ten Days for the Packet, and am yet well. 393 CHAPTER V. DECEMBER, 1784, AND JANUARY, 1785. Mrs Hastings in England. In view of his wife's arrival in England, Hastings had sent the most precise directions to Mr Woodman and to Scott as to the preparations to be made for her. Mr Woodman was "to engage a good and furnished house for her reception in the most healthy part of the town. She prefers Portman Square," and he tells Hastings that "You may, my dear Brother, assure yourself that a House, Coach, Servants and everything shall be ready for her reception, in a proper Stile against her arrival." Scott writes on June 21st that he has heard from Mrs Hastings from St Helena, and learns that she is expected in a week at furthest at Portsmouth, whither he will set off to meet her. Woodman has "taken a delightful house for her in one of the most airy and healthy situations in London," and everything is ready. The house is in South Street, close to Hyde Park, "with a fine view of the Park and the Surry Hills." The anxious Woodman writes that it is scarcely to be equalled for situation, as well as warm and convenient; it is airy, with an uninterrupted view to Banstead Downs, and is "the second house from Park Lane next Hyde Park wall." He has procured "a new Coach, with your Crest and Cypher upon it. . Servants we have also prepared, who are alredy in the House, with every other necessary." On August 2nd Markham writes that Mrs Hastings had arrived safely, and that her looks, health and spirits improved every day on the voyage. Pott-apparently the fashionable physician of the day-laughs at her complaints, and promises she shall be in perfect strength before the winter. This promise of approaching recovery is corroborated in a letter from Mr Percival Pott himself. Woodman gives a detailed account of her landing on July 27th. He and his wife were waiting to welcome. her at Portsmouth, where she was received with great honour, the Commissioner of the Dockyard having ordered the King's yacht to fetch her from the Atlas. Unfortunately, she and Mrs Motte, escorted by Markham, had left the ship off Dunnose Point, so that they missed the yacht, "but the Civility was the same." "The Bells at the Church were rang on the occasion, and the Commissioner's lady came in the evening to the inn to pay her compliments, and insisted on lending Mrs Hastings her coach all the way to London." This lady, Mrs Martin, was sister to a General Parker who had served in India, so that she knew what was due to the Governor-General's wife. The Atlas did not arrive at her moorings at Blackwall until August 5th,1 when Mrs Hastings' troubles with the Custom-house began. Scott had written earlier that he hoped he had arranged for her baggage to pass without being rifled, "but there are not such a Sett of Vermin in England. as our Custom House Officers." Among Hastings' miscellaneous papers in the British Museum is a list of goods belonging to her which were either prohibited or detained on arrival. Her muslin gowns were merely detained, but everything made of silk was prohibited, as well as a velvet riding-habit worked with pearls, and various dresses, curtains and stuffs containing gold or silver thread. She seems, in fact, to have been threat'Lady's Magazine." ened with the loss of all her own clothes-save those she had taken on shore with her at Portsmouth - and all the articles she had brought for presents. Not until the beginning of the next year is Scott able to announce that the Directors have remitted the Company's duties, £250, on Mrs Hastings' things, and paid the King's duties, amounting to £875, for her. Very soon after landing, Mrs Hastings paid a visit to her husband's old friends, General and Mrs Caillaud, at Aston.1 Returning to London, she was presented at Court by Lady Weymouth on August 19th, and, in accordance with the curious etiquette of the day, attended a second Drawing-room on September 2nd.2 Scott, who escorted her punctiliously, writes joyfully of the extreme kindness and attention shown her by the Queen, which he accepts as a pleasing augury for the future. The gracious acceptance accorded to the gifts she brought for the King and Queen also attracted much notice. On September 22nd, says the 'Lady's Magazine,' "A state bed of rich and very curious workmanship was carried to the queen's palace, as a present from lady Hastings, brought from India, which far exceeds any thing of the kind for grandeur, ever seen in this kingdom." On October 8th we read, "A few days ago two very fine young Arabs, a horse and a mare, were presented to his majesty from Mr Hastings. They were brought from Bengal in the Atlas and Besborough EastIndiamen." "The King," writes Scott, "is delighted with the Arabs which were presented to him in your Name, and asks every Body if they have seen the beautiful Horse and Mare Mr Hastings sent to him. Her Majesty is equally pleased with the Ivory Bed and Chairs given to her by Mrs Hastings, and which the Foxites have declared to be ornamented with Pearls and worth £50,000, but we are too high now in the Public Opinion to be hurt by such execrable Nonsense." 2 Gleig, III. 173. 1 See infra, p. 405. This was no doubt the "Ivory bedstead," which was among the things detained in the Customs. The Rolliad declared unkindly that it was ornamented with representations of Hastings' Indian exploits by the hand of Baron Imhoff, "the German husband of your Warren's wife." The Arab sent for the King is that mentioned in Letter XXVIII. Woodman writes in August that both horses are well, and that he has sent the grey which arrived by the Atlas to his fields at Ewell, that he may recover the use of his limbs. The little mare has been landed from the Busbridge at Plymouth, and is on her way to town by short journeys. Mrs Hastings' dress and jewels proved almost as stimulating a theme as her presents to royalty for the eloquence of her husband's enemies, though her friends considered them as merely suitable. "Her dress at Court was extremely elegant," writes Mrs Motte, "and I never saw her in one which became her better: and yet Mr Burke himself could have said nothing upon it." In January, 1785, Scott writes, "Mrs Hastings is well, perfectly so, and as happy as she can be in your absence. She was at Court on the (Queen's) Birthday, and attracted universal admiration, and of course some Envy. The Chancellor told me, she was dressed as Mrs Hastings ought to be, and her Majesty paid her a very handsome and just compliment on her appearance. I was standing next, when the Queen spoke to her, which she did in a most gracious Manner, and said she was happy to find she had benefited so much by her Trip to Bath." Hastings' own view of his wife's appearance on state occasions is shown by an "epigram borrowed from the French" which is given by Sir C. Lawson. It should apparently form part of Letter XXIX., but Gleig does not append it. "Flowers, Ribbands, Lappets, Feathers shaking. |