Maria's Diary 3

January 6, 1830

William came and dined with us on the Monday after Christmas. He had heard
from Mary and she seemed pleased with his likeness. She suggested she might paint one of him herself to see if she could do it more to his liking. “She is a very talented painter,” he said.

His younger brother Edward is to be married to Sarah Avison and are then coming to London. His sister Mary Ellen is going to come too, so perhaps we
will get to meet them both.

20 January

William was able to spend quite a bit of time with his brother Edward, and they went to Grandma’s house, but we didn’t get to meet him. But now we hear that his new wife’s sister, Anne Avison has died. She was only 22 or so. William was with them at the hotel when they got the news. They were all invited here to meet us that night, but obviously that had to be curtailed.

It has been so cold lately. Apparently almost as cold as it is in Russia. And the snow is deep and prevents the mail carriages from getting through.

2nd February

William is so proud that he has formally been admitted an Attorney of His
Majesty’s Court of King’s Bench at Westminster, and took the oath of Supremacy (denying the power of the Pope) and an oath that he will demean himself in an honest manner. Afterwards, they went to St James’ Palace and heard a band, after that to Buckingham Palace.

He sometimes leaves letters with Father, who works from Mr. Bentham’s house in Queen Square. Father can get them franked for him, which I suppose saves him a bit of money.

10th February

Poor William has a terrible cough and cold. He does bring it on himself, going outside in this terrible cold and damp weather. He came to visit with us on Friday. Father was not as home, as so often the case, but it was nice for us to have him to ourselves, as when he is here, usually he is closeted with Father.

March 25

William came to tea with us again. Mother and Father really enjoy his company. Tomorrow he will come over again for a conversazione as they call them and I usually get him to tell me about who was there and what they were talking about.

This week one of the famous people is Washington Irving who visits London
fairly often. He now wants his book Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, (which is his pseudonym), which has been published in the US, to be made available here. He hopes to self-publish it. Father thinks he will have problems with that but thinks that his friend Sir Walter Scott may be able to help out with recommending him to his publisher. His book contains the famous stories of Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow among many others.

General Mina is another of Father’s “collection of lions”. He is a Spanish General who fought against the French in the Peninsular War. Father was very much involved with that at the time. The General also fought for Wellington, and needed to take refuge in England after that.

Prince Esterhazy is someone who comes here quite often. He is the Hungarian
representative in London.

Daniel O’Connell from Ireland was supposed to come, but thinks he won’t be able to make it.

31 March

I asked William to tell us more about his office in London. It is at a corner of a square, three sides of which are built up. One side is towards the River Thames, and there is a grassy field running down to it. He says now and then he gets a glimpse of Waterloo Bridge, and he fancies he is almost in the country.

William intends to spend Easter at Windsor. I wonder if he will see the King. I shall certainly quiz him about him. We hear the King is not very well.

April 16

William came to see us again today. Father was planning on going to Liverpool, to spend some time with William’s family, but he changed his mind as he now has to go to Edinburgh.

I asked William about his visit to Windsor, and this is what he told me. “We went to the part of the castle that is shown to strangers, and the park and the forest. There is a long avenue through the forest, and we saw the King in a plain green carriage with four horses. He went into the private parts of the park where strangers have no access.

“The next day we went to the little park in Windsor and in the afternoon
we went to the Chapel which belongs to the Knights of the Garter. The
service and anthem were beautiful. Later we went to the Chapel again, as we hadn’t time to view it properly during the service. There is a Cenotaph to the memory of Princess Charlotte. Then we went to the King’s menagerie in the Great Park. On our return we again saw the King in his carriage with some ladies. The bulletins say that it was on that ride that he took a chill and now is dangerously ill."

He is so lucky to be able to go to those royal places.