[Illustration: _Fagan, pinx._ _Walker E. Cockerell, ph. sc._ _Elizabeth Lady Holland._] THE JOURNAL OF ELIZABETH LADY HOLLAND (1791–1811) EDITED BY THE EARL OF ILCHESTER _WITH PORTRAITS_ IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. 1791–1799 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 1908 All rights reserved PREFATORY NOTE I have not considered it necessary to include an extended preface in these volumes. The requisite words of explanation have been given in the short introductory sketch of Lady Holland’s career, which follows. I should like, however, to express my gratitude to Sir Augustus Webster for the assistance he has given me on matters connected with his family history, and for the anecdotes of his great-grandmother’s life at Battle. My thanks are also due to Mr. Walter Sichel for allowing me to use certain material relating to Sheridan which he has collected for his forthcoming work. ILCHESTER. _September, 1908._ INTRODUCTION Fame is notoriously fickle. Her methods are many and varied, and all do not receive a like treatment at her hands. The names of those who have done the most, by laborious and scientific pursuits, alike injurious to their health and happiness, to smooth the thorny paths of their fellow-creatures, are perhaps allowed to lapse into utter oblivion. While others, whose claim to immortality rests on a more slender base, are celebrated among their posterity. Lady Holland’s claim to renown rests upon the later years of her life. She is known to the readers of memoirs and historical biographies of her time as the domineering leader of the Whig circle; as a lady whose social talents and literary accomplishments drew to her house the wits, the politicians, and the _cognoscenti_ of the day. She is known as the hostess who dared to give orders to such guests as Macaulay and Sydney Smith, and, what is more, expected and exacted implicit obedience. As yet, however, little has been written of her earlier years, and on these her Journal will throw much light. It is a record of the years of her unhappy marriage to Sir Godfrey Webster; and after her marriage with Lord Holland the narrative is continued with more or less regularity until 1814.