Ali's account of Mr. Forster's regimentals, in which he saw him dressed at Beyrout, was very flaming: and from that day, in speaking of the two, he always distinguished him from Mr. Knox by the title of 'the general.'
Lady Hester deeply regretted that she was not able to see these gentlemen. "Ah!" said she, "how many times have I been abused by the English when I did not deserve it, and for nothing so much as for not seeing people, when perhaps it was quite out of my power! There was Mr. Anson and Mr. Strangways, who, because I refused to see them, sat down under a tree, and wrote me such a note! Little did they know that I had not a bit of barley in the house for their horses, and nothing for their dinner. I could not tell them so; but they might have had feeling enough to suppose it was not without some good reason that I declined their visit. Many a pang has their ill-nature given me, as well as that of others. I have got the note[1] I still somewhere.
- ↑ This note I afterwards read and copied. These two gentlemen presented themselves at the gate, and Lady Hester dictated the following message to them, which Miss Williams wrote:— "Lady Hester Stanhope presents her compliments to Mr. Anson and Mr. Strangways, and acquaints them that she is little in the habit of seeing European travellers, therefore declines the honour of their visit." To this was returned the following answer:—"Mr. Anson presents his compliments to Lady Hester Stanhope, and begs to assure her he has not the slightest wish to intrude where his visit is accounted disagreeable: but having, during a three months' residence among the Arabs, met with universal hospitality, he took for granted that he would not have met with the first refusal in an English house."
