alf a
century later in her Syrian fastness, was struck by the likeness to the
Chatham of Copley's famous picture.

Certainly she had more in common with him than with the younger Pitt.
During the time when she brought storm and sunshine to Walmer, Park
Place, and Bowling Green House, she often rallied her uncle on showing
undue complaisance to the King or to stupid colleagues whom the Great
Commoner would have overawed. Pitt laughingly took the second place, and
at times vowed that when her voice rang with excitement, he caught an
echo of the tones of his father.[660] Perhaps it was this which
reconciled him to her vagaries. For her whims and moods even then showed
the extravagance which made her the dreaded Sultana of that lonely
Syrian castle where she ended her days amidst thirty quarrelsome but
awe-struck servants, and an equal number of cats, over whom an
apprehensive doctor held doubtful sway.

But that bitter, repining, spirit-haunted exile was far different from
the joyous creature who shed light on Pitt. Her spasmodic nature needed
his strength; her waywardness, his affectionate control. As for her tart
retorts, terrifying to bores and toadies, they only amused him. In truth
she brought into his life a beam of the sunshine which might have
flooded it had he married Eleanor Eden. Hester soon found that, far from
being indifferent to the charms of women, he was an exacting judge of
beauty, even of dress. In fact, she pronounced him to be perfect in
household life. His abilities in gardening astonished her; and we may
doubt the correctness of the local legend which ascribes to her the
landscape-gardening undertaken in the grounds of Walmer Castle in 1803.
The dell at the top of the grounds was Hester's favourite haunt.

The varied excitements of the time are mirrored in her sprightly
letters. Thus, on 15th November 1803, she wrote at Walmer:

We took one of their gunboats the other day: and, as soon as she
came in, Mr. Pitt, Charles,[661] Lord Camden and myself took a
Deal boat and rowed alongside of her. She had two large guns on
board, 30 soldiers and 4 sailors. She is about 30 feet long, and
only draws about 4 feet of water; an ill-contrived thing, and so
little above the water that, had she as many men on board as she
could really carry, a moderate storm would wash them
overboard.... Mr. Pitt's 1st battalion of his newly-raised
regiment was reviewed the other day by Gene