This lady, who was highly accomplished, and the authoress of some pretty poems, {81b} which were published after her death, was the eldest daughter of Francis, Marquis of Hastings, and Flora, Countess of Loudon, and was lady of the bedchamber to the Duchess of Kent. Two old busybodies, the Ladies Portman and Tavistock, spread the vile and unfounded rumour that the unfortunate lady was _enceinte_, and the Queen forbade Lady Flora to appear at Court until she had submitted to the indignity of a medical examination. The case called forth some very strong feeling—and a vast quantity of correspondence was published on the subject, especially the indignant letters of the poor lady’s mother to the Queen; but, perhaps, the most temperate account of the whole affair, is in a letter from Lady Flora’s uncle, Mr. Hamilton Fitzgerald, which was published in the _Examiner_ of Sunday, 24th of March, and, afterwards, copied into all the daily papers. “SIR,—Many false and contradictory reports of the deplorable insult which has been lately offered to my niece, Lady Flora Hastings, at Buckingham Palace, having appeared in the public papers, I, as her ladyship’s nearest connection, feel it my duty to request of you to publish the following account of the transaction, for the correctness of which I vouch. “Lady Flora arrived, some weeks since, from Scotland, very unwell. She immediately consulted Sir James Clark, the physician to both Her Majesty and the Duchess of Kent. One symptom of her complaint was a swelling of the stomach. By dint of exercise and medical treatment, she was getting better; the swelling had considerably subsided, and she had every hope of a speedy recovery; when, on or about the 1st of March, Sir James Clark went to her room, and announced to her the conviction of the ladies of the Palace that she was pregnant. In answer to all his exhortations to confession, ‘as the only means of saving her character,’ Lady Flora returned an indignant, but steady denial that there was anything to confess. Upon which, Sir James Clark told her, ‘that nothing but her submitting to a medical examination would ever satisfy them, or remove the stigma from her name.’ Lady Flora found that the subject had been brought before the Queen’s notice, and that all this had been discussed, arranged and denounced to her, without one word having been said on the subject to her own mistress, the Duchess of Kent; who had no suspicion of what was going on, and whose sanction was not sought for the humiliating proposition which had been made to Lady Flora. On leaving Lady Flora’s room, Sir James Clark went to the Duchess of Kent, and announced his conviction that Lady Flora was with child; and was followed by Lady Portman, who conveyed a message from Her Majesty to her mother, that the Queen would not permit Lady Flora to appear till