At a dinner-party at Lord Ripon’s in July, Peel took Mrs. Gladstone in to dinner. She was glad of this because it enabled her to thank him for the letter[62] he had written to her father-in-law about Gladstone. In it Peel said: “At no time in the annals of Parliament has there been exhibited a more admirable combination of ability, extensive knowledge, temper, and discretion. Your feelings must be gratified in the highest degree by the success which has naturally and justly followed his intellectual exertions, and that the capacity to make such exertions is combined in his case with such purity of heart and integrity of spirit.” Mrs. Gladstone gives the following interesting account of Peel’s talk at dinner: “He was in great force, some of the conversation very interesting. He had seen a letter written by the Duke of Wellington soon after entering the army, in which he expressed the hope that he should be taken out of the army, as there seemed to be no chance of any promotion!! “Peel told me he required very little sleep, that he was a light sleeper at any time, and got but a small portion when his mind was occupied. He still regretted the political power which some had, the Duke of Wellington for instance.” Mrs. Gladstone in these years saw something of the Royal children, as their governess, Sarah, Lady Lyttelton,[63] was the mother-in-law of her sister Mary. The following visits to the Palace are recorded in the Journal: “_July, 1842._--Went to see Lady Lyttelton and the Royal children. The Princess[64] is a very interesting child, no longer answering to Mary’s[65] description, ‘a sadly delicate thing.’ She is the image of the Queen. I played on the pianoforte, which delighted her, she tried to dance, and when I stopped called for ‘more.’ The Prince of Wales a fine, fair, satisfactory baby, whom William and I gazed upon with deep interest. We kissed his little hand. Who could look at him and think of his destiny without mixed emotion?”