mes.[23] The Duke wrote
him word that he knew nothing of his case, and the only advice he
could give him was to let the affair be settled as speedily as
possible. When the late King had evidently only a few days to
live, the Duke of Cumberland consulted the Duke as to what he
should do. 'I told him the best thing he could do was to go away
as fast as he could: Go instantly,' I said, 'and take care that
_you don't get pelted_.' The Duke, Aberdeen, and FitzGerald all
condemned his proceedings without reference to their justice or
to his legal and constitutional right as regards Hanover, but on
account of the impression (no matter right or wrong) which they
are calculated to produce in this country, where it ought to be a
paramount interest with him to preserve or acquire as good a
character as he can. They all declared that Lyndhurst was equally
ignorant with themselves of his views and intentions, with which
in fact the Conservatives had no sort of concern. The Duke also
advised him not to take the oaths as Privy Councillor, or those
of a Peer in the House of Lords, because he thought it would do
him an injury in the eyes of his new subjects, that he, a King,
should swear fealty as her subject to the Queen as his Sovereign;
but somebody else (he thought the Duke of Buckingham) overruled
this advice, and he had himself a fancy to take the oaths.

[23] [The first act of Ernest, King of Hanover, on his
accession, was to suspend the Hanoverian Constitution,
and to prosecute the liberal Professors of Goettingen.]

[Page Head: MR. GREGORY'S HOUSE AND ESTATE.]

To-day we[24] went to see the house Mr. Gregory is building, five
miles from here. He is a gentleman of about L12,000 a year, who
has a fancy to build a magnificent house in the Elizabethan
style, and he is now in the middle of his work, all the shell
being finished except one wing. Nothing can be more perfect than
it is, both as to the architecture and the ornaments; but it
stands on the slope of a hill upon a deep clay soil, with no park
around it, very little wood, and scarcely any fine trees. Many
years ago, when he first conceived this design, he began to amass
money and lived for no other object. He travelled into all parts
of Europe collecting objects of curiosity, useful or ornamental,
for his projected palace, and he did not begin to build until he
had accumulated money enough to complete his design. The grandeur
of it is such, and