here ever since, with the exception of a day or two in town (I perform the
journey in an hour by the railroad), and the Queen has sat five times. She
is now so far satisfied with the likeness, that she does not wish me to
touch it again. She sat not only for the face, but for as much as is seen
of the figure, and for the hands with the coronation-ring on her finger.
Her hands, by-the-bye, are very pretty, the backs dimpled, and the fingers
delicately shaped. She was particular also in having her hair dressed
exactly as she wore it at the ceremony, every time she sat. She has
suggested an alteration in the composition of the picture, and I suppose
she thinks it like the scene, for she asked me where I sat, and said, 'I
suppose you made a sketch on the spot.'

"The Duchess of Kent and Lord Melbourne are now sitting to me, and last
week I had sittings of Lord Conyngham and Lady Fanny Cowper [Footnote:
Daughter of a beautiful and popular mother, Lady Palmerston, by her first
husband, Earl Cowper.] (a very beautiful girl, and one of the Queen's
train-bearers), who was here for a few days on a visit to her Majesty.
Every day lunch is sent to me, which, as it is always very plentiful and
good, I generally make my dinner. The best of wine is sent in a beautiful
little decanter, with a V.R. and the crown engraved on it, and the
table-cloth and napkins have the royal arms and other insignia on them as a
pattern.

"I have two very good friends at the Castle--one of the pages, and a little
man who lights the fires. The Queen's pages are not little boys in green,
but tall and _stout gentlemen_ from forty to fifty years of age. My
friend (Mr. Batchelor) was a page in the time of George III, and was then
twenty years old; George IV died in his arms, he says, in a room adjoining
the one I am painting in. Mr. Batchelor comes into the room whenever there
is nobody there, and admires the picture to my heart's content. My other