Note 23 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
About the time of the Duke of York’s affair with Mrs. Clarke, Lady Hester went into Wales, and, in an inn at Builth, she got round her the exciseman, the apothecary, the landlord, and some of the village farmers. “Pray, Mr. Innkeeper,” she said, “how should you like a painted wife, with half-a-dozen fine gentlemen about her, shaking the hair-powder on her face? Or is it agreeable, Mr. M., to have the window opened at dinner-time, in a cold November day, to let out the smells of a parcel of dogs? I suppose, if you had an uncomfortable home, you would think yourself at liberty to take a little pleasure elsewhere.” With speeches of that sort she won them all over to the duke’s side. To hear her relate the story herself, with her mimickry of the men and the landlady, to each of whom she addressed some question, which brought the case home to their own feelings, was infinitely amusing: it was one of the best scenes I ever heard her act.