Whilst Webby was at Petworth with Ld. Egremont, I wrote him a letter under cover to Ld. E., in which, after inquiring how he was, I conveyed my sense of Ld. E.’s kindness, adding that it was such that it claimed the gratitude of all his family. Before this letter reached Petworth Ld. E. had brought him to town to his grandmother’s and the Chaplins, and I have not received a word of acknowledgment, which seems unnecessarily harsh. This behaviour in Chaplin is the more remarkable, as _he_ has uniformly assured me that he would use his utmost endeavours to persuade Sir G. to let me see the children. This assurance I have under his hand and signature. Besides, he was quite cordial when I married Ld. H., wished me joy, and wound up his congratulatory sentence with a sort of prophecy that I should be happy, as my disposition was of a domestic turn, and that I had never hitherto had a fair opportunity of showing the real goodness of my heart. He visited Ld. H. and me, the year after, when he came to town, and, in short, rather affected a sort of intimacy of intercourse. I shall set every engine to work to counteract these unjust projects. A few days ago I asked Ld. Stair[127] just to mention, the first occasion he could find naturally, to Ld. Egremont how grateful I felt for his tenderness to my child. He did, and brought back a civil reply. I consulted Ld. S. about asking Ld. E. to do something towards getting me the facility of seeing my children. He told me he was a real good-hearted man, but one who was habitually indolent and to a degree timid as to meddling in other people’s concerns, but that tho’ he would do nothing for me, yet he was incapable of doing anything against. However, yesterday, to my great delight, Ld. Stair told me he had _de son chef_ had a conversation with Ld. E., who not only was not averse to me, but offered to call and explain all he knew about my children’s concerns, and would undertake to advise Chaplin to be more tractable. Ld. Stair advised me to write a letter of acknowledgment to Ld. E., which I did last night. Thus I have the sanction of one of the most respectable and worthy persons in my favour.