painting has been so often repaired in consequence of decay, that not
a vestige of the original work remains; while the two figures painted
by Raphael in oil still stand out in all their original freshness, and
even improved from what they were when first executed....

Lord Melbourne dined and slept on Wednesday at Wimbledon.[108] He
met there Lord and Lady Cottenham, Lord[109] and Lady Langdale, Lord
Glenelg and his brother, Mr Wm. Grant, who was his private secretary,
and is an amusing man. Lord Melbourne is going there again to-morrow
to stay until Monday. The place is beautiful; it is not like
Claremont, but it is quite of the same character, and always puts Lord
Melbourne in mind of it. The Duchess has many merits, but amongst them
is the not small one of having one of the best cooks in England.

[Footnote 104: Madame de Lieven wrote to Aberdeen, 12th
September 1841: "Ne jugez pas cet Ambassadeur par son
exterieur; il personnifie un peu les Marquis de Moliere....
Passez-lui ses cheveux poudres, son air galant et papillon
aupres des femmes. He cannot help it."]

[Footnote 105: Sir Henry Bulwer, afterwards Lord Dalling.]

[Footnote 106: Sir Charles Bagot.]

[Footnote 107: He was a pupil of Raphael, celebrated for
(among other works) his "Fall of the Titans."]

[Footnote 108: The word is almost illegible. Wimbledon was at
that time in the occupation of the Duke of Somerset.]

[Footnote 109: Master of the Rolls.]

[Pageheading: PEERS AND AUDIENCES]

_Sir James Graham to Queen Victoria._

WHITEHALL, _2nd October 1841._

Sir James Graham with humble duty begs to lay before your Majesty two
letters, which he has received from the Earl of Radnor,[110] together
with the copy of the answer which Sir James Graham returned to the
first of the two letters.

If the presentation of Petitions were the sole subject of the
Audience, it might be needless to impose on your Majesty the
trouble incident to this mode of receiving them, since they might be
transmitted through the accustomed channel of one of the Secretaries
of State; but Sir James Graham infers from a conversation which,
since the receipt of the letters he has had with Lord Radnor, that
the Audience is asked in exercise of a right claimed by Peers of the
Realm.

The existence of this right is not recognised by Statute; but it
rests in ancient usage, and is noticed by Judge Blackstone in his
Comme