The Duchess’ receptions at St. James’s Palace in what is now York House, and at Cambridge Cottage, were delightful. At Kew they often took the shape of a dinner, followed by a little dance. I remember a very droll incident at one of her parties at St. James’s Palace at which the future King of Greece, then a midshipman in the Danish Navy, was present. Levassor, the greatest of all _amuseurs_, had been engaged and was singing his very best. “Titi à la représentation de Robert le Diable,” the drollest sketch of a Parisian street-arab at the opera, and what he thought of it, was perhaps his masterpiece. When he came to the third act, after an imitation of the famous trombone introduction he said “On annonce”—at that very moment, from down below, there came a loud, cockneyfied voice which was heard all over that small house: “The Lord Mayor’s carriage stops the way!” It was excruciatingly funny, the laughter was electric, and Levassor was bound to admit afterwards that he had been beaten in his own special vocation by a London footman. I feel inclined to add one word about the Duke’s father, whom I remember coming down to Eton as an old man when I was a very small boy. He attended Chapel, so I heard him give his famous, loud-voiced response when the officiating clergyman said, “Let us pray,” and he piously and fervently ejaculated, “With all my heart!” After Chapel he went into the playing-fields to see a cricket match in Upper Club, but broke away from the big-wigs as soon as he could and made me pilot him. I never saw him again, for he died in 1850. He was the only one of King George the Third’s sons whom I ever saw. * * * * * I had held the office of Secretary for twelve years. When I was first appointed Mr. Disraeli gave me to understand that the department was in a most unsatisfactory state. Mr. Corry, his private secretary, told me that “the Chief” said “the place was an Augean stable and must be swept out.” I was to evolve kosmos out of chaos, and chaos it certainly was. I was at once opposed tooth and nail by Lord Henry Lennox backed by the solicitor to the department and the director of works, an engineer officer. The position became untenable, and I wrote to the Prime Minister telling him that in view of this obstruction it was not possible for me to carry out his instructions, and so I put my resignation in his hands. The result was the appointment of a Committee of the Cabinet of which the Chancellor of the Exchequer was Chairman and which included, among others, Lord John Manners, a former First Commissioner. The Committee fully justified me, and when I produced my scheme it was accepted in its entirety by a Departmental Committee of which Sir William Stephenson was Chairman.