A forgotten Prince of Wales

by Henry Curties

FOOTNOTES:

[16] From the “Old Whig” newspaper 26 Feb., 1736. This inscription was afterwards introduced by Hogarth in his caricature of Gin Lane. Wilkins.

CHAPTER VII.
Peter Wentworth’s Letters on the Prince’s Life.

Floating in and out of English history of this period are the letters of a person who apparently was furnished by Providence to write tittle-tattle of his times for the information of posterity. These are the letters of the Honourable Peter Wentworth, mostly addressed to his brother, Lord Strafford, but others to his sister-in-law, Lady Strafford. To these we have to look for the first little insights into the Prince’s life in England.

Through the insistence of the Privy Council, not of the King’s own freewill, Frederick had been created Prince of Wales soon after his arrival in England, but the King had made no provision for him, although £100,000 per annum of the King’s income—he received no less than £900,000 a year from the country—had been earmarked for the Prince’s use, subject to his father’s pleasure. He preferred to keep him in the Palace like his other younger children, and under very much the same restrictions. The young Prince of Wales appears at this time to have had a good friend in his mother, even if she had forgotten her natural love for him. It was she who urged the King to provide a separate establishment for him becoming his rank, even going as far as to look at a house for him in George Street, Hanover Square, but her solicitations produced no effect whatever upon the King, who would not make him any sufficient allowance. So Frederick, though over twenty-two, and Prince of Wales, had to remain at his mother’s apron strings.

He appears, however, at this time to have lived on very pleasant terms with the Queen, and to have steadily grown in the public favour. He had learned English in Hanover, and spoke it fairly well on his arrival in this country.

In a letter dated July 28th, 1729—a few months after the Prince’s coming—written by Mr. Peter Wentworth to Lord Strafford, his brother, we get a little glimpse of what the Prince’s life was like at this time.

“Kensington.

“I have been at Richmond again with the Queen and the Royal Family, and I thank God they are all very well. We are going there to-day, and the Queen walks about there all day long. I shall be no longer her jest as a lover of drink at free cost, not only from her own observation of one whom she sees every morning at eight o’clock and in the evening again at seven, walking in the gardens, and in the drawing-room until after ten, but because she has, my Lord Lifford[17] to play upon, who this day sen’night got drunk at Richmond. His manner of getting so was pleasant enough, he dined with my good Lord Grantham, who is well served at his table with meat, but very stingy and sparing in his drink, for as soon as his dinner is done, he and his company rise, and no round of toasts. So my lord made good use of his time whilst at dinner, and before they rose the Prince (of Wales) came to them and drunk a bonpère to my Lord Lifford, which he pledged, and began another to him, and so a third.

“The Duke of Grafton, to show the Prince he had done his business, gave him (Lord Lifford) a little shove and threw him off his chair upon the ground, and then took him up and carried him to the Queen.

“Sunday morning she railed at him before all the Court upon getting drunk in her company, and upon his gallantry and coquetry with Princess Amelia, running up and down the steps with her. When somebody told him the Queen was there and saw him, his answer was: ‘What do I care for the Queen?’

“He stood all her jokes not only with French impudence, but with Irish assurance. For all you say I don’t wonder I blushed for him, and wished for half his stock. I wonder at her making it so public.

“Nobody has made a song; if Mr. Hambleton will make one that shall praise the Queen and the Royal Family’s good humour, and expose as much as he pleases the folly of Lord Grantham and Lord Lifford, I will show it to the Prince, and I know he won’t tell whom he had it from, for I have lately obliged him with a sight of Mrs. Fitzwilliam’s Litany; and he has promised he will not say he had it from me. So I must beg you to say nothing of this to Lady Strafford, for she will write it for news to Lady Charlotte Roussie, and then I shall have Mrs. Fitz. angry with me, and the Prince laughing at me for not being able to be my own counsellor, as I fear you laugh now. But if you betray me, I make a solemn vow I will never tell you anything again.

“The Queen continues very kind and obliging in her sayings to me, and gave me t’other day an opportunity to tell her of my circumstances. As we were driving by Chelsea, she asked me what that walled place was called. I told her Chelsea Park, and in the time of the Bubbles ’twas designed for the Silkworms.[18] She asked me if I was not in the Bubbles. With a sigh I answered: ‘Yes; that and my fire had made me worse than nothing.’ Some time after, when I did not think she saw me, I was biting my nails. She called to me and said: ‘Oh, fie! Mr. Wentworth, you bite your nails very prettily.’ I begged her pardon for doing so in her presence, but I said I did it for vexation of my circumstances, and to save a crown from Dr. Lamb for cutting them. She said she was sorry I had anything to vex me, and I did well to save my money. The Prince told her I was one of the most diligent servants he ever saw. I bowed and smiled as if I thought he bantered me. He understood me, and therefore repeated again that he meant it seriously, and upon his word he thought that the Queen was happy in having so good a servant. I told him it was a great satisfaction to me to meet with His Royal Highness’s approbation. He clapped his hand on my shoulder, and assured me that I had it.

“As we went to Richmond last Wednesday our grooms had a battle with a carter that would not go out of the way. The good Queen had compassion for the rascal, and ordered me to ride after him and give him a crown. I desired Her Majesty to recall that order, for the fellow was a very saucy fellow, and I saw him strike the Prince’s groom first, and if we gave him anything for his beating ’twould be an example for others to stop the way a-purpose to provoke a beating. The Prince approved what I said, for he said much the same to her in Dutch, and I got immortal fame among the liverymen, who are no small fools at this Court. I told her if she would give the crown to anybody it should be to the Prince’s groom, who had the carter’s long whip over his shoulders. She laughed, but saved her crown.”

“Kensington,
“Aug. 14th, 1729.

“The Queen has done me the honour to refer me for my orders to Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, and what is agreed by her will please Her Majesty; the height of my ambition is to please them all. I flatter myself I have done so hitherto, for Princess Anne has distinguished me with a singular mark of her favour, for she has made me a present of a hunting suit of clothes, which is blue, trimmed with gold, and lined and faced with red. The Prince of Wales, Princess Anne, the Duke of Cumberland, Princess Mary and Princess Louisa wear the same, and look charmingly pretty in them. Thursday sen’night Windsor Forest will be blessed with their presence again, and since the forest was a forest it never had such a fine set of hunters, for a world of gentlemen have had the ambition to follow His Royal Highness’s fashion....”

“Kensington,
“Aug. 21st, 1729.

“Yesterday the Queen and all the Royal Family dined at Claremont,[19] and I dined with the Duke (of Newcastle) and Sir Robert (Walpole), etc. The Prince of Wales came to us as soon as his and our dinner was over, and drank a bumper of sack punch to the Queen’s health, which you may be sure I devoutly pledged, and he was going on with another, but Her Majesty sent us word that she was going ‘to walk in the garden,’ so that broke up the company. We walked till candlelight, being entertained with very fine French horns, then returned to the great hall, and everybody agreed never was anything finer lit.

“Her Majesty and Princess Caroline, Lady Charlotte Roussie and Mr. Schiltz played their quadrille. In the next room the Prince had the fiddles and danced, and he did me the honour to ask me if I would dance a country dance. I told him ‘Yes,’ and if there had been a partner for me, I should have made one in that glorious company—the Prince with the Duchess of Newcastle, the Duke of Newcastle with the Princess Anne, the Duke of Grafton with Princess Amelia,[20] Sir Robert Walpole with Lady Catherine Pelham—who is with child—so they danced but two dances. The Queen came from her cards to see that sight, and before she said it, I thought he (Sir Robert Walpole) moved surprisingly genteelly, and his dancing really became him, which I would not have believed had I not seen, and, if you please, you may suspend your belief until you see the same. Lord Lifford danced with Lady Fanny Manners; when they came to an easy dance my dear Duke took her from my lord, and I must confess it became him better than the man I wish to be my friend, Sir Robert, which you will easily believe. Mr. Henry Pelham[21] danced with Lady Albemarle, Lord James Cavendish with Lady Middleton, and Mr. Lumley with Betty Spence.

“I paid my court sometimes to the carders, and sometimes to the dancers. The Queen told Lord Lifford that he had not drunk enough to make him gay, ‘and there is honest Mr. Wentworth has not drunk enough.’ I told her I had drunk Her Majesty’s health. ‘And my children’s, too, I hope?’ I answered ‘Yes.’ But she told me there was one health I had forgot, which was the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle’s, who had entertained us so well. I told her I had been down among the coach-men to see they had obeyed my orders to keep themselves sober, and I had had them all by the hand, and could witness for them that they were so, and it would not have been decent for me to examine them about it without I had kept myself sober, but now that grand duty was over, I was at leisure to obey Her Majesty’s commands....

“The Queen and the Prince have invited themselves to the Duke of Grafton’s hunting seat which lies near Richmond, Saturday. He fended off for a great while, saying his home was not fit to receive them, and ’twas so old he was afraid ’twould fall upon their heads. But His Royal Highness, who is very quick at good inventions, told him he would bring tents and pitch them in his garden, so his grace’s excuse did not come off; the thing must be Saturday.

“I have sent you enclosed a copy of my letter I wrote to Lord Pomfret, which will explain to you how I am made Secretary to the Queen,[22] and before dinner, under pretence to know if I had taken Her Majesty’s sense aright, Her Royal Highness (the Princess Royal) being by when I received the orders I desired leave to show it her. She smiled and said: ‘By all means let me see it.’ She kept it till she had dined, read it to the Queen, her brothers and sisters, and then sent for me from the gentlemen ushers’ table, and gave it to me, again thanked me, and said it was very well writ, and she saw, too, that I could dine at that table without being drunk at free cost.”

“Kensington,
“September 22nd, 1729.

“Yesterday, when the Queen was just got into her chaise, there came a messenger who brought her a packet of letters from the King, with the good news that His Majesty was very well. He had left him at the play this day sen’night. It also said the guards of Hanover were not to march, for all differences were accommodated between the King and the King of Prussia, so that I hope now the match[23] will go forward, and that we shall soon have the King here. The Queen opened the letter and read it as she went along; the Princess (Anne) and the Duke (of Cumberland) were riding on before, and neither saw nor heard anything of this. Therefore I scoured away from the Queen to tell them the good news, and then I rode back and told the Queen what I had done, and that I had pleasure to be the messenger of good news. She and they thanked me and commended what I had done. I have sent you a copy of the orders I have been given to-day, that you may see we go in for a continual round of pleasure.”

“Kensington,
“Sept. 16th, 1729.

“There was one Mr. W(entworth) who had a very agreeable present from the Queen. As he went over with her in the ferry boat Saturday sen’night she gave a purse to Princess Anne, and bade her give it to Mr. W(entworth). Then she told him she wished him good luck, and in order that she might bring it to him, she had given him silver and gold, a sixpence, a shilling and a half-guinea.

“He took the purse and gave Her Majesty a great many thanks.

“‘What,’ said she, ‘will you not look into ’t!’ His answer was: ‘Whatever comes from Your Majesty is agreeable to him’; though had he not felt in the purse some paper, he could not have taken the royal jest with so good a grace. There was a bank bill in ’t, which raised such a contention between him and his wife that in a manner he had better never have had it. He was willing to give her half, but the good wife called in worthy Madam Percade to her assistance, and she determined to give a third to her.

“All this was told the Queen the next day, and caused a great laugh, but poor Mr. W(entworth) upon the thought of soliciting the great Lord L(ifford) for a sum of £15 he had forgotten to pay him in the South Sea. When the chase was over, the Prince clapped Mr. W(entworth) upon the back and wished him joy of his present, and told him now he would never be without money in his pocket. He replied that if His Highness had not told him so publicly of it, it might have been so, but now his creditors would tease every farthing from him.”

From above it will be seen that these letters of Mr. Wentworth were written during the period of Queen Caroline’s first Regency, when George the Second was abroad, and consequently the Prince of Wales had more freedom of action. From what little can be gathered from them the Prince seems to have been leading a harmless and happy life with his mother, but unfortunately there is another of Mr. Wentworth’s letters which tells a different tale.

It has been said that the position imposed on him by his father, the King, would have tried the most dutiful and virtuous of sons, but then unfortunately Frederick was neither, certainly not the latter. Mr. Wentworth’s letter throws a strong light on this part of the Prince’s life:

“Thursday morning, as the King and Queen were going to their chaise through the garden, I told them the Prince had got his watch again. Our farrier’s man had found it at the end of the Mall with the two seals to ’t. The Queen laughed, and said: ‘I told you before ’twas you who stole it, and now it is very plain you got it from the woman who took it from the Prince and you gave it to the farrier’s man, to say he had found it to get the reward.’ (This was twenty guineas, which was advertised with the promise of no questions being asked). I took Her Majesty’s words for a very great compliment, for it looked as if she thought I could please a woman better than His Highness. Really his losing his watch and its being brought back in the manner it has been is very mysterious, and a knotty point to be unravelled at Court, for the Prince protests he was not out of his coach in the Park on the Sunday night it was lost. But by accident I think I can give some account of this affair, though it is not my business to say a word of it at Court, not even to the Queen, who desired me to tell her all I knew of it, with a promise that she would not tell the Prince (and I desire, also, the story may never go out of Wentworth Castle again).

“My man, John Cooper, saw the Prince that night let into the Park through St. James’s Mews alone, and the next morning a Grenadier told him the Prince was robbed last night of his watch and twenty-two guineas, and a gold medal, by a woman who had run away from him. The Prince bid the Grenadier run after her, and take the watch from her, which, with the seals were the only things he valued; the money she was welcome to, he said, and he ordered him when he had got the watch to let the woman go. But the Grenadier could not find her, so I suppose in her haste she dropped it at the end of the Mall, or laid it down there for fear of being discovered by the watch and seals, if they should be advertised.”[24]