kes (losing no time) about eleven and a half
hours--one hundred and fifty miles--of which thirty-four by road.
The road from Bridgenorth to Ludlow is very striking and commands
exceedingly fine views.

The day before I left town I saw Lord Tavistock, who told me
divers things. I asked him what could induce Lord John to consent
to making Ballot an open question, and he replied, that nothing
else could have prevented the dissolution of the Government, and
that _three_ of the Ministers--he did not say which--threatened
to resign instanter if this concession was not made. Here then,
as I said to him, was another example of the evils of that
catastrophe which broke up the embryo Government of Peel and
brought them back again: unable to go on independently and as
they desire to do, they are obliged to truckle, and are squeezed
into compliances they abhor, and all this degradation they think
themselves bound to submit to because the principle on which
their Government stands, and which predominates over all others,
is that of supporting the Queen. No Tory Government ever ventured
to dissociate its support of the Queen from its measures and
principles as a party, in the way these men do. Macaulay made his
first re-appearance in the Ballot debate in a speech of unequal
merit, but Peel and Graham complimented him on his return amongst
them.

I am greatly delighted with this country, which is of surpassing
beauty, and the old Castle of Ludlow, a noble ruin, and in
'ruinous perfection.' On Saturday I explored the Castle and
walked to Oakley Park, Robert Clive's, who is also the owner of
the Castle, which he bought of the Crown for L1,500. The gardens
at Oakley Park are very pretty and admirably laid out and kept,
and the park is full of fine oaks. Yesterday I walked and rode
over the hills above Ludlow, commanding a panoramic prospect of
the country round, and anything more grand and picturesque I
never beheld. But above all, the hills and woods of Downton
Castle, with the mountains of Radnorshire in the distance,
present a scene of matchless beauty well worth coming from London
to see.

June 26th, 1839, Delbury {p.218}

I rode to Downton Castle on Monday, a gimcrack castle and bad
house, built by Payne Knight, an epicurean philosopher, who after
building the castle went and lived in a lodge or cottage in the
park: there he died, not without suspicion of having put an end
to himself, which would have been fully conformabl