_Sunday, 28th April._--Wednesday 24th, dined with Ly. B.; only Ld. H. and myself; went to the play afterwards. On Thursday, 25th, we had all the _Anti-Jacobin_ wits to dinner, Ld. Hobart for the first time; he is facetious and convivial. I liked him very much. Canning made a good joke upon Borino’s comparing Mr. Adderley to an ostrich, and enumerating the characteristics of that very _foolish_ bird, which did very well at first, but grew tiresome. It is the fault of that set to wear a joke threadbare. We had Frere, the first time since his appointment to Canning’s place.[281] Since favorit_ism_ is _à l’ordre du jour_, I am rather glad he is a sharer, tho’ I think he cannot make a good man of business. He is _distrait_ and poetical, and in lieu of writing a dispatch may be tempted to pen a sonnet. Saturday, Marsh came. Ld. H. dined at the Royal Academy, and I dined at L. House, Ld. L. being very kind and cordial. In ye evening went to ye Dss. of L. On Sunday we had a large party here, Lds. B., M., L. G., Amherst, Adderley, etc., etc., and Bannister,[282] who was very comical and burlesque. It being the eve of Mimi’s marriage, I slept at Ly. Bessborough’s, that I might be ready in time for the wedding. I invited my party to supper; the four gallants, the Dss. of Devonshire came, and the Duke of Bedford. The change in former is painful to see; scarcely has she a vestige of those charms that once attracted all hearts. Her figure is corpulent, her complexion coarse, one eye gone, and her neck immense. How frail is the tenure of beauty! Alas! too true, too trite a saying. The next morning I went to the wedding; all parties behaved with propriety. Ly. Pembroke[283] deemed it incumbent on her to hatch up a whimper during the ceremony, but as it was evidently a homage to her idol--decorum--it was received as such, and affected none. The excellent Dss. felt the awful moment of separation. The event took place in Harley Street, and afterwards the married pair set off to Moneyhill. The whole of the Dss.’s family came here, dined, and slept. Ld. Henry was one of their party; they all went to-day. _30th April._--Marsh made a proposal to Ly. Lucy, which she accepted, but the Dss. rejected, on the score of there not being a competency. In refusing him they know not the excellence they lose. He is in himself a treasure, and his popularity will ensure him high preferment; he is at the moment wretched, and goes to-morrow in consequence of the unpleasantness of the circumstance. [Sidenote: MADAME DE COIGNY] Adderley came and sat with me some time; Ld. G. L. has a nonsensical joke of his being smitten, _mais je n’en crois rien_. The old _compère_[284] is quite reconciled to me; he has called twice to see me. Nobody dined here but Mr. Morris, Mrs. Wyndham; and Mde. de Coigny came in the evening.