Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/295

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1765-1766
REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT
269

and Lady Louisa told us Miss Emily Hervey had run away with Mr. Cope, brother to Mrs. Walker.

Sunday, January 12th.—Lady Louisa went early to St. James's Chapel, and breakfasted with Lady Charlotte Finch. At our breakfast came Dr. Leigh, an American, and Mr. Taylor, who desired Lord Shelburne to assist the Petition he is to present to the House of Commons concerning the Wells election, which he declined on account of not choosing ever to interfere with the decisions of that House. After they were gone I went to see Lord Fitzmaurice, and at my return to my own room I found in it Lord Shelburne talking to a Mr. Case about the construction of pondheads, and desiring him to look at that Mr. Brown is constructing at Bowood on his way to Lord Egmont's, where he works.[1] He went away and Lord Shelburne read me two sermons before he went out. Governor Vansittart, Mr. Sulivan, Colonel Barré, and Captain Howe dined here. Lady Juliana Penn call'd in the evening. The gentlemen came up to drink tea, and after it Lord Shelburne went out with them and returned to supper. In the meantime Lady Louisa entertained me with reading to me some former letters of Lady Anne Dawson's.

January 13th.—Lord Shelburne read to us a paper concerning the Stamp Act in America. He afterwards rode with Colonel Barré and Mr. Townshend to see my Lord Bessborough's villa at Roehampton.

January 14th.—Lord Dunmore breakfasted here, and went afterwards with Lord Shelburne to the new house in Berkeley Square, and from thence to the House of Lords, the Parliament meeting to-day. Lady Louisa Manners came to us, and Mr. Ehret to me, with whom I begun the Chinese plants that blew at Bowood this summer. Mr. Sulivan, Lady Louisa, and I dined alone, the House of Lords sitting late, and Lord Shelburne going afterwards to the House of Commons, where Mr. Pitt spoke on the repeal of the Stamp Act in America. The Duchess of Bolton, Miss Finches, and Miss Lowther, drank tea

  1. Brown, the famous landscape gardener, commonly known as "Capability" Brown.