Chapter IX: Caroline, Her Times and Contemporaries

Whiston patronised by Queen Caroline--His boldness and
reproof of the Queen--Vanity of the poet Young punished
--Dr. Potter, a high churchman--A benefice missed--
Masquerades denounced by the clergy--Anger of the Court--
Warburton, a favourite of the Queen--Butler’s ‘Analogy,’
her ordinary companion--Rise of Secker--The Queen’s
regard for Dr. Berkeley--Her fondness for witnessing
intellectual struggles between Clarke and Leibnitz--
Character of Queen Caroline by Lord Chesterfield--The
King encouraged in his wickedness by the Queen--General
grossness of manners--The King managed by the Queen--
Feeling exhibited by the King on sight of her portrait--The
Duchess of Brunswick’s daughters--Standard of morality low
--Ridicule of Marlborough by Peterborough--Morality of
General Cadogan--Anecdote of General Webb--Lord Cobham
--Dishonourable conduct of Lord Stair--General Hawley and
his singular will--Disgraceful state of the prisons, and
cruelty to prisoners--Roads bad and ill-lighted--Brutal
punishment--Insolent treatment of a British naval officer
by the Sultan--Brutality of a mob--Encroachment on Hyde
Park by Queen Caroline--Ambitious projects of Princess Anne
--Eulogy on the Queen--The children of King George and
Queen Caroline---Verses on the Queen’s death 359

CHAPTER X.

THE REIGN OF THE WIDOWER.

Success of Admiral Vernon--Royal visit to ‘Bartlemy Fair’--
Party-spirit runs high about the King and Prince--
Lady Pomfret--The mad Duchess of Buckingham--Anecdote of
Lady Sundon--Witty remark of Lady Mary Wortley--_Fracas_ at
Kensington Palace--The battle of Dettingen--A precocious
child--Marriage of Princess Mary--A new opposition--
Prince George--Lady Yarmouth installed at Kensington--
Death of Prince Frederick--Conduct of the King on heaving
of this event--Bubb Dodington’s extravagant grief--
The funeral scant--Conduct of the widowed Princess--
Opposition of the Prince to the King not undignified--
Jacobite epitaph on the Prince--The Prince’s rebuke for a
frivolous jeer on Lady Huntingdon--The Prince’s patronage
of literary men--Lady Archibald Hamilton, the Prince’s
favourite--The Prince and the Quakers--Anecdote of Prince
George--Princely appreciation of Lady Huntingdon 386

CHAPTER XI.

THE LAST YEARS OF A REIGN.

Princess Augusta named Regent in the event of a minority--
Cause of the Prince’s death--Death of the Prince of Orange
--The King’s fondness for the theatre--Allusion to the
King’s age--Death of the Queen of Denmark--Her married
life unhappy--Suffered from a similar cause with her mother
--Rage of Lady Suffolk at a sermon by Whitfield--Lady
Huntingdon insulted by her--War in Canada--Daily life of
the King--Establishments of the sons of Frederick--Death
of the truth-loving Princess Caroline--Deaths of Princess
Elizabeth and Princess Anne--Queen Caroline’s rebuke of her
--Death of the King--Dr. Porteous’s eulogistic epitaph on
him--The King’s personal property--The royal funeral--
The burlesque Duke of Newcastle 408

_CHARLOTTE SOPHIA_,

WIFE OF GEORGE III.

CHAPTER I.

THE COMING OF THE BRIDE.

Lady Sarah Lennox, the object of George III.’s early affections
--The fair Quaker--Matrimonial commission of Colonel
Græme--Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburgh--Her spirited
letter to the King of Prussia--Demanded in marriage by
George III.--Arrival in England--Her progress to London
--Colchester and its candied eringo-root--Entertained by
Lord Abercorn--Arrival in London, and reception--Claim
of the Irish peeresses advocated by Lord Charlemont--The
royal marriage--The first Drawing-room--A comic anecdote
--The King and Queen at the Chapel Royal--At the theatre;
accidents on the occasion--The coronation--Incidents and
anecdotes connected with it--The young Pretender said to
have been present--The coronation produced at the theatre 423

CHAPTER II.

COURT AND CITY.

The _levée_--The King goes to parliament--The first night
of the opera--Garrick grievously offended--The King
and Queen present on the Lord Mayor’s Day--Entertained
by Robert Barclay, the Quaker--Banquet at Guildhall to
the King and Queen--Popular enthusiasm for Mr. Pitt--
Buckingham House purchased by the King for Queen Charlotte--
Defoe’s account of it--The Duke of Buckingham’s description
of it--West and his pictures--The house demolished by
George IV.--First illness of the King--Domestic life of
the King and Queen--Royal carriage--Selwyn’s joke on the
royal frugality--Prince Charles of Strelitz--Costume--
Graceful action of the Queen--Birth of Prince George 462

CHAPTER III.

ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS.

Scenes, and personal sketches of Queen Charlotte--Her
fondness for diamonds--Visit to Mrs. Garrick--Orphan
establishment at Bedford founded by the Queen--Her
benevolence on the breaking of the Windsor bank--Marriage
of Princess Caroline Matilda--Unfounded rumours about the
Queen--Hannah Lightfoot--The King’s illness--A Regency
recommended by the King--Discussions relative to it--
Birth of Prince Frederick--Failing Health of the Duke of
Cumberland 479

LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND.

_SOPHIA DOROTHEA, OF ZELL_,

WIFE OF GEORGE I.

Das Glänzende ist nicht immer das Bessere.

KOTZEBUE, _Bruder Moritz_.