e Blanche," on account
of the dazzling fairness of her complexion. She was very brilliant
and amusing, and I remember her saying to one of her admirers one
evening, when her snowy neck and shoulders were shining in all the
unveiled beauty of full dress, "Oh, go away, P----, you _tan_ me."
(The gentleman had a shock head of fiery-red hair.)

_Friday._-- ... I am horribly fagged, and after dinner fell fast
asleep in my chair. At the theater, in the evening, the house was
remarkably good for a "second night," and the play went off very
well.... My voice was much better to-night, though it cracked once
most awfully in the last scene, from fatigue.... I think Lord
Francis, or the management, or somebody ought to pay me for the
bruises and thumps I get in this new play. One arm is black and
blue (besides being broken every night) with bolting the door, and
the other grazed to the bone with falling in fits upon the floor on
my elbows. This sort of tragic acting is a service of some danger,
and I object to it much more than to the stabbing and poisoning of
the "Legitimate Drama;" in fact, "I do not mind death, but I cannot
bear pinching."

_Saturday._-- ... Rode in the park with my father. Lord John
Russell rode with us for some time, and was very pleasant. He made
us laugh by telling us that Sir Robert Inglis (most bigoted of Tory
anti-reformers) having fallen asleep on the ministerial benches at
the time of the division the other night, they counted him on their
side. What good fun! I never saw a man look so wretchedly worn and
harassed as Lord John does. They say the ministry must go out, that
they dare not make these new peers, and that the Bill will stick
fast by the way instead of passing. What frightful trouble there
will be!...

_Sunday, 22d._-- ... After church looked over the critiques in the
Sunday papers on "Katharine of Cleves." Some of them were too
good-natured, some too ill-natured. The _Spectator_ was exceedingly
amusing.

By far the best account and criticism of this piece is Mr. Barham's
metrical report of it in the "Ingoldsby Legends." Lord Francis
himself used to quote with delight, "She didn't mind death, but she
couldn't bear pinching." ...

GREAT RUSSELL STREET, January 22, 1832.

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