_the king._ i had the honour of dining with the duke of clarence, where i also met the princess augusta, the duchess of kent and her daughter, and the duchess of gloucester. the duke makes a most friendly host, and is kind enough to retain a recollection of the different times and places where he has before seen me. he has much of the english national character, in the best sense of the word, and also the english love of domestic arrangement. the daughters of the duke are _dun beau sang_, all extraordinarily handsome, though in different styles of beauty. among the sons colonel fitzclarence is, in many respects, the most distinguished. rarely, indeed, do we meet with a young officer of such various accomplishments. _the duchess of st. a._ according to the earliest recollections or her grace, she found herself a forsaken, starving, frozen child, in an outshed of an english village. she was taken thence by a gipsy-crew, whom she afterwards left for a company of strolling players. in this profession, she obtained some reputation by a pleasing exterior, a constant flow of spirits, and a certain originalitytill by degrees she gained several friends, who magnanimously provided for her wants. she long lived in undisturbed connexion with the rich banker c, who, at length, married her, and, at his death, left her a fortune of 70,000l. a year. by this colossal inheritance, she afterwards became the wife of the duke of st. a, the third english duke in point of rank, and, what is a somewhat singular coincident, the descendant of the well-known actress nell gwynn, to whose charms the duke is indebted for his title, in much the same way (though a hundred years earlier) as his wife is now for hers. she is a very good sort of woman, who has no hesitation in speaking of the paston the contrary, is rather too frequent in her reminiscences. thus she entertained us the whole evening, with various representations of her former dramatic characters. the drollest part of the affair was, that she had taught her husband, a very young man, thirty years under her own ageto play the lovers part, which he did badly enough. malicious tongues were naturally very busy, and the more so, as many of the recited passages gave room for the most piquant applications. _fortune-telling._ i dined to-day with lady f. her husband was formerly governor in the isle of france, and she had there purchased from a negress, the pretended prophesying book of the empress josephine, who is said to have read therein her future greatness and fall, before she sailed for france. lady f. produced it at tea, and invited the company to question fate, according to the prescribed forms. now, listen to the answers, which are really remarkable enough. mrs. rothschild was the firstand she asked if her wishes would be fulfilled. answer: weary not fate with wishesone who has obtained so much, may well be satisfied. next came mr. spring rice, a celebrated parliamentary speaker, and one of the most zealous champions of the catholic question. he asked, whether on the following day when the question was to be brought forward in the upper house, it would pass. i should here remark, that it is well known here that it will not passbut that in all probability in the next session it will. the laconic answer of the book ran thus:you will have no success _this time_. they then made a young american lady ask if she should soon be married. not in this part of the world, was the answer. the gatherer. _shakspeare and garrick._at the opening dinner of the garrick club, the company forgot to drink the memory of shakspeare; and the health of our living dramatists was only proposed when the party had dwindled from 200 to 20! where would be the fame of garrick but for shakspeare. talent has lately been liberally marked by royal favour. among the last batch of knights are mr. smirke, the architect; dr. meyrick, the celebrated antiquarian scholar; and col. trench. _passing strange_.the _court journal_, speaking of the deputation of boys from christs hospital at the drawing-room, says, the number of boys appointed to attend on this occasion is 40; but, owing to the indisposition of one of them, there were _no more than 39 present_. _millinery authorship._we must acknowledge our prejudice in favour of an opportunity for the display of that most courtly of all materials, the train of genoa velvet; where (as lord francis levison expresses it) finger-deep the rich embroidery stiffens. _court journal._ in a puff precipitate of a play, we are told that m is pleased _with his character_