We have been here eleven weeks, quite alone, but walking and driving eternally, and very few interruptions except an occasional visit from, or to, the F. Egertons and W. de Roos’s, and a royal dinner, luncheon, and party at the Studhouse, which always turns out amusing. The King is so good-natured that it does not signify his being a little ridiculous or so; it is impossible not to love him. The Albemarles[416] do the thing in the handsomest manner as far as the dinner, establishment, etc., goes, and I think the Studhouse a charming possession. She always gets all the King’s Ministers that she can find to meet him, and it charms me to hear her _judgments_ of people:--How unlucky that the Spring-Rices should _look_ less well at a dinner than the Stanleys; and what luck she was in in having such a showy person as Lady Bingham last year in the neighbourhood; not adverting to the possibility that one person may be pleasanter than the others, and admitting that, their position being changed, they do not amount to being _persons_ at all. I suppose that things are going on well, for I never saw people in greater glee than the Ministers are. Lord Melbourne is in the highest state of spirits, which seems to me odd for the Prime Minister of the country. They all went off from the last luncheon at the Studhouse early, leaving only the W. de Roos’s, Fanny and me and Lord Hill[417] to go round Hampton Court Palace with the King,--a long and curious process, as he shows it just like a housekeeper with a story for each picture. It was pitch dark, so it does not much matter if the pictures were as improper as the stories, for I saw none of them, but it lasted two hours, and in the meantime the Ministers, having had their dinner so early, had set fire to the two Houses of Parliament just for a _ploy_ for the evening.[418] That is the sort of view the Tories take of it, and it sounds plausible, you see; and from Lord Hill’s staying to see the Palace it is clear he had not been let into that plot. No, I did not see the fire,--wish I had--will trouble them to do it all over again when there are more people in town. Is Lord Fordwich the new Under Secretary? I asked George and he said he did not know, and I asked Lord Melbourne and he said he could not tell me--both very good answers in their way and such as I am used to, but it leaves the fact of Fordwich’s appointment doubtful, and I heard from Lady Cowper three days ago and she said nothing about it.