Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Countess of Cork to Lady Morgan, 3 April 1830
6, New Burlington Street,
April 3, 1836.
Dear Lady Morgan,
Your old friend departed this life a few
days ago; he is buried in my garden, and his merits well deserve an
epitaph from your pen. He committed but one crime, and only made a
bit of an assault on George the
Fourth’s stocking. That was an offence merely,
the crime was running away with a piece out of Lady Darlington’s leg. I have
been ill with the tic, but am
414 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. | |
better now, and
just going out of town for the holidays. Your admirer, Lady Hatherton, has just returned
from Paris. Are you coming to England—and when? I am more
stupid than ever—only pick a little bit of dinner and drink a
little drop of tea. I have neither vocals nor wit going on,
chez moi.
Don’t forget that I am ninety years old, and was, and am, and
shall be to the end,
Your ever affectionate,
Barbara Palmer, duchess of Cleveland [née Villiers] (1640-1709)
The daughter of William Villiers, second viscount Grandison (1614-1643) and mistress of
Charles II, who granted her the title in 1670. Her sexual adventures were detailed in
Delarivier Manley's
The New Atalantis (1709).