The provost is very fat, with a large paunch and gouty
legs. He is good-humoured, loquacious, gay,
civil, and parading. I am told, nevertheless,
he is a poet, and a very good one. This, indeed,
appears not, neither in a person such as I have described,
nor in manners such as have drawn from me the character
just given. 441
Mrs. Roberts is a fine woman, though no longer very
young; she is his second wife, and very kind to all
his family. She seems good-natured and sensible.
The evening turned out very well: they were so
delighted with making a visit under the royal roof,
that everything that passed pleased them: and
the sight of that disposition helped me to a little
more spirit than usual in receiving them.
The king came into the room to fetch Mrs. Delany,
and looked much disappointed at missing her; nevertheless,
he came forward, and entered into conversation with
the provost, upon Eton, the present state of the school,
and all that belongs to its establishment. His
majestytakes a great interest in the welfare and prosperity
of that seminary.
The provost was enchanted by this opportunity of a
long and private conference, and his lady was in raptures
in witnessing it. She concluded, from that time,
that the door would never open, but for the entrance
of some of the royal family; and when the equerries
came, she whispered me, " Who are they ? " And again,
on the appearance of a star on the Duke of Montagu.,
she said, “Who can that be, Miss Burney?”
Dec. 10.-Mrs. Delany, upon her recovery,(227) had
invited the general and colonel to come to tea any
evening. For them to be absent from the Lodge
was contrary to all known rules ; but the colonel
vowed he would let the matter be tried, and take its
course. Mrs. Delany hoped by this means to bring
the colonel into better humour with my desertion of
the teatable, and to reconcile him to an innovation
of which he then must become a partaker.
On the day when this grand experiment was to be made,
that we might not seem all to have eloped clandestinely,
in case of inquiry, I previously made known to the
queen my own intention, and had her permission for
my visit. But the gentlemen, determining to
build upon the chance of returning before they were
missed, gave no notice of their scheme, but followed
me to Mrs. Delany’s as soon as they quitted
their own table. I had sent to speak with General
Bud`e in the morning, and then arranged the party:
he proposed that the colonel and
himself should esquire me, but I did not dare march
forth in such bold defiance ; I told him, therefore,
I must go in a chair.
Mrs. Delany received us with her usual sweetness.
We then began amusing ourselves with surmises of
the manner in which we should all be missed, if our
rooms were visited in our absence ; and the colonel,
in particular, drew several scenes, highly diverting,
of what he supposed would pass,-of the king’s
surprise and incredulity, of the hunting up and down
of the house in search of him, and of the orders issued
throughout the house to examine to what bed-post he
had hanged himself,-for nothing less than such an
act of desperation could give courage to an equerry
to be absent without leave!
