Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 2

[15] next passed the day at Windsor Castle, the guest of the household, breakfasting and lunching with Lord Byron, Earl of Surrey, Hon. Colonel Cavendish, Murray, and Rich; next dined with Joseph Parkes, the great Radical and a most intelligent man, who thoroughly knows Lord Brougham; next with Mr. Senior, where were Count Pologne, Count Ravel, and Mr. Bellenden Ker; next with Mr. Serjeant D'Oyly, where were Mr. Justice Littledale, Mr. Serjeant Taddy, and Mr. Impey; and to-night, if my cold will let me go out, with Bingham,¹ the reporter,—a most able man, and friend of Jeremy Bentham,—to meet Austin and some of the philosophical Radicals; to-morrow with Talbot,² the son of Earl Talbot, to meet undoubtedly a Tory party; next day (being Sunday) to breakfast and pass the day with Roebuck, and to dine with Leader, the member for Westminster, to meet Lord Brougham and Roebuck; the next to dine with Sir Robert Inglis, the most distinguished Tory now in town; then with Sir Gregory Lewin; then with Cresswell, Theobald, Warren (‘Diary of a Physician’), &c. I cannot content myself by a bare allusion to my dinner at Guildhall and to my day at Windsor. I was indebted for the honor of an invitation to Guildhall³ to Lord Denman; and Sir Frederick Pollock was so kind as to take me in his carriage. Our cards of invitation said four o'clock for the dinner; but we were not seated till seven o'clock. I never saw any thing so antique and feudal. The hall was gloriously illuminated by gas, and the marble monuments of Lord Chatham, William Pitt, and Nelson added to the historic grandeur of the scene. I could hardly believe that I was not on the stage, partaking in some of the shallow banquets there served, when the herald, decked with ribbons, standing on an elevated place behind the Lord Mayor, proclaimed that ‘the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor to his guests, —lords, ladies, and gentlemen, all,—drank a cup of loving kindness.’ The effect of the scene was much enhanced by the presence of women decked in the richest style; among them was the Princess of Capua⁴ (the famous Miss Penelope Smith), who has been married in so many countries, and who is the most queenly-looking woman I ever saw.

But my day at Windsor would furnish a most interesting chapter of chitchat. I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance, at Lord Morpeth's table, of Mr. Rich,⁵ the member for Knaresborough, and the author of the pamphlet, ‘What will the Peers do?’ He is one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber of the Queen; or, as they are called under a virgin queen, gentlemen-in-waiting.