Mr. Littleton goes to Ranton Abbey for dinner with Lord Lichfield and his family, the Duke of Sussex (brother of King William IV) and one particularly unwelcome guest.......

"........ my friend, the honest commissioner of the Teddesley inclosure, Mr. Wyatt (Lord L's agent) whom I indicted before the Grand Jury at Stafford and who found the bill, but who got off at Gloucester by still greater roguery on the part of the attorneys, who, knowing that exposure of the man was my object and not punishment, kept back the evidence that would have convicted him.

The Duke of Sussex talked after dinner in his usual manner, always more than half injudicious. [He] abused the Emperor of Russia and his policy and foretold violent revolution in that country. He directed much of his conversation to me, as he always does when I have the honour to meet him.

I was much amused at the conduct of his aide-de-camp, Lord John Churchill, a most stupid naval captain next to whom I sat at dinner. He was all attention, apparently, to the Duke of Sussex and whenever HRH said anything jocose the adc laughed and bowed. I once enquired of him in a whisper what it was he had said as soon as HRH had finished. He answered in a whisper, "I did not hear him". He did not seem aware he had either bowed or laughed.

I must, however, admit that we all bowed and laughed whenever HRH spoke to us and when HRH concluded a didactic or speculative discourse on any of his thousand theories and concluded with the sharp, "What ? Eh ? What ?" with which he generally challenged discussion when he thought he had spoken cleverly, we invariably bowed and assented.

It is, however, but justice to say that he admits of and likes the most perfect familiarity and that he is rather a shrewd man for a prince. During one of his discourses after dinner he called me "my Lord" which I observed produced a smile from some at the bottom of the table who suspected me of ambitioning the title.