ved in a very simple, plain manner; breakfast was at half-past
eight, luncheon at half-past one, dinner at seven--to which I came
generally (when it was no regular large dinner party)--eating my bread
and milk out of a small silver basin. Tea was only allowed as a great
treat in later years.

[Pageheading: DUCHESS OF SAXE-COBURG-SAALFELD]

"In 1826 (I think) my dear Grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, came to Claremont, in the summer. Mamma and my
sister went on part of the way to meet her, and Uncle Leopold I think
had been to fetch her as far as Dover. I recollect the excitement and
anxiety I was in, at this event,--going down the great flight of steps
to meet her when she got out of the carriage, and hearing her say,
when she sat down in her room, and fixed her fine clear blue eyes on
her little grand-daughter whom she called in her letters 'the flower
of May,' 'Ein schoenes Kind'--'a fine child.' She was very clever and
adored by her children but especially by her sons. She was a good deal
bent and walked with a stick, and frequently with her hands on her
back. She took long drives in an open carriage and I was frequently
sent out with her, which I am sorry to confess I did not like, as,
like most children of that age, I preferred running about. She was
excessively kind to children, but could not bear naughty ones--and I
shall never forget her coming into the room when I had been crying and
naughty at my lessons--from the next room but one, where she had
been with Mamma--and scolding me severely, which had a very salutary
effect. She dined early in the afternoon and Uncle Leopold asked many
of the neighbours and others to dinner to meet her. My brother Prince
Leiningen came over with her, and was at that time paying his court
to one of her ladies, Countess Klebelsberg, whom he afterwards
married--against the wish of his grandmother and mother--but which was
afterwards quite made up. In November (I think, or it may have been
at the end of October) she left, taking my sister with her back to
Coburg. I was very ill at that time, of dysentery, which illness
increased to an alarming degree; many children died of it in the
village of Esher. The Doctor lost his head, having lost his own child
from it, and almost every doctor in London was away. Mr Blagden came
down and showed much energy on the occasion. I recovered, and remember
well being very cross and screaming dreadfully at having to wear, for