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2 June 1899 — 3 Savile Row | |
Friday. 2nd [June 1899]. Got up with a headache—very sultry day. Up to very little. About 11 I got a note from Miss Knowles saying the Pss of Wales wished me to go & see her at 3 o’cl at Marlboro’ House. So I went. I sat sometime with Miss Knollys while waiting to be summoned. She was very chatty & pleasant. I told her the trouble I had had about the last Drawing Room & how as an old diplomat’s wife both Lady Vivian & I felt the Entrée being taken from us. She sympathized with me but had no sympathy for Lady V. whom she called a most pushing woman—evidently she has put up Miss K’s back. She said I should be surprised if she told me things she had done but she was not at liberty to do so. Abt 3.30 the Princess sent for me & I was taken up to her sitting room on the 1st floor where H.R.H. was & she received me cordially & kissed me & then we sat down & talked. She told me all about her journey after she left Venice– As she talked I wondered how people could say she is a stupid woman. She spoke of Crete wh she had visited. How she had seen Sir Herbert Chermside who had brought her 2 English officers who were to receive medals for gallant conduct during the late massacres in Crete & she had to give the medals & was delighted to do so. She told me that she knew that our Consul there Biliotti was very Turkish & helped to keep up the anti Greek feeling—that he had told her he was going to leave Crete being tired of it—when she knew that he had been removed by our Govt. She told me about her visit to Tunis & said how she liked our Consul Genl Sir Harry Johnstone—how clever he is &c. He took her to see the Bey of Tunis & the French Resident was jealous—but that she drove away from the Palace with the latter who said to her as they went thro’ the Gate with the Bey’s guard “Nous leur [illegible word] laissé celà!” However she said the French are going well in Tunis which is a greater success than any of their other colonies. She said that at Carthage beautiful antiquities have been discovered—& a fine Museum made—but the French official said the British Museum had secured some of the best things at which H.R.H. told him she was very glad. She described the model of a musical organ found there just like our modern ones. I asked her if she ever went to the British Museum & she said she meant to go to see the things found at Carthage. (This word she pronounced in French & said “I don’t know how you say it”). I told her that when she went there I hoped she would look at Henry’s Nineveh discoveries & she promised to do so. She said it was a great pity that Tunis no longer belonged to England as it once had done, which is a thing I did not remember. Then the Princess gave me long instructions about the fountain which Dorigo is making for her at Venice & I carried away the plans to send to Venice. H.R.H. looked very pretty and young. A pretty little pink flush on each cheek from the hot weather & her eager way of talking made her very fascinating. She was dressed very simply in black & only wore one little black enamel heart brooch surrounded by little pearls. Now that people wear so many chains & gewgaws it is refreshing to see such good taste. Her room is very full of furniture & every table crammed with small objects. She dismissed me a little after 4. I went on to see Mrs Rate who was at home. From there I went in search of a manservant at a Registry Office in Derby St & then home to tea– Rested & read. Nellie dined with me. | |
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