The year closed with an act of parliament settling forty thousand pounds per annum on Queen Charlotte, with a dowry of a hundred thousand pounds and two palaces, in case she should outlive the king. His majesty went in state to the House to give the royal assent to the bill; and the queen, who accompanied him, rose from her seat and made him a profound curtsey in acknowledgment of the favor.
Somerset House was not considered fine enough for her majesty's town residence, so George bought another for twenty-one thousand pounds, and settled it on his consort. It was known as Buckingham House, and afterwards as Queen's House, and was intended as a sort of retreat when its owner felt disposed to retire from the ceremony and state of St. James's Palace. It was in this house that George III. began the formation of a library, that in the following reign was presented to the nation, and is now in the British Museum.
The king continued for a time to be popular. In a letter written by Horace Walpole, about this period, he says: "I saw his majesty yesterday, and was surprised to find the levee-room had lost so entirely the air of a lion's den. The sovereign does not stand in one spot, with his eyes royally fixed on the ground, and dropping bits of German news; he walks about and speaks to everybody." It was this affable manner of George III. that pleased people, yet he could make himself disagreeable when he chose; for one historian tells us that "when anything displeased his majesty he became sullen, silent, and cross, and would go off to enjoy the melancholy of his own ill-humor."
A.D. 1762. Well, the royal couple established their household in a style that would have done credit to a private family, but was not becoming in them, because every detail was planned with an eye to economy. Considering that the nation had made such a liberal allowance to both the sovereigns, it was expected that they would support the royal dignity in a manner more in accordance with the generally accepted ideas. But they were absurdly economical, and their life was excessively prosaic and dreary, though they were a model couple. The first entertainment at their new house was given to about half a dozen strangers, the whole company consisting of not more than thirty people in all. Everybody danced excepting the king's mother, the Duchess of Bedford, and Lady Bute. Even the king and queen, the Princess Augusta, and her four younger brothers all danced from half after six until one o'clock in the morning, scarcely stopping for a moment to rest, and then the guests went home without refreshment of any kind. It was certainly carrying economy to excess when people left a ball after several hours of dancing, and had no supper. The famished guests must have retired in ill-humor, and with little desire to pay so dearly in future for their amusement. It need scarcely be said that the courtiers made fun of such a tame entertainment, or that they were greatly disappointed because the young couple did not establish their household on a more luxurious scale. They had expected pleasure to reign supreme; but, instead of that, they found an abode of gloom and meanness.
The queen's drawing-room was usually crowded; but as there were seventeen English and Scotch unmarried
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dukes always present, it is no wonder that ladies attended regularly. A visit from Queen Charlotte's brother, Prince Charles of Strelitz, was an event that disturbed the court monotony somewhat, and so royally was that handsome young man entertained that his younger brother afterwards spent a month in England. On that occasion, several splendid fêtes were given in his honor by various members of the nobility.