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brave man that will fight; thou art a valiant prince and art to be married to a lovely princess; love her, make her a good husband, and the Lord will bless thee both!"
This was the warmest greeting the bridegroom received in England, for the royal couple treated him with marked coldness, and Queen Charlotte did all she could to prevent too great an outlay of money. To be sure, she gave the bride a gold watch set with jewels of exquisite workmanship, and George III. presented her a diamond necklace worth thirty thousand pounds; but everything pertaining to the wedding was conducted on a very simple scale, considering the rank of the principal parties concerned, and not a gun was fired by way of congratulatory salute. The servants of the royal household were not even permitted to put on their new attire, either for the wedding ceremony or the drawing-room, which was held next day; but were ordered to reserve them for the queen's birthday.
As soon as the marriage ceremony was performed the bridal pair drove to the Leicester House, where a splendid supper awaited them. It was a season when political party spirit ran high, and George III. took great pains to conceal the unpromising condition of affairs from the prince. But it would have been a very unobservant person who had failed to notice the difference between the enthusiasm accorded to the young couple on their arrival at the theatre a few nights later, and the lack of it that signalized the entrance of their majesties. Queen Charlotte was young then, and it is certain that she did not love the bride and groom any better because of their seeming popularity.
Horace Walpole describes their visit on the next night at the Opera House thus: "The crowd is not to be described. Many noble ladies sat on chairs between the scenes; the doors of the boxes were thrown open, and the boxes were all filled to the back of the stoves; nay, women of fashion stood on the very stairs till eight at night. In the middle of the second act the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick turned his back to the king and queen, pretending to offer his place to Lady Tankerville. You know enough of Germans and their stiffness to etiquette to be sure that this could not be done inadvertently, especially as he repeated this only without standing up with one of his own gentlemen in the third act."
Now it is very probable that the prince was far from pleased at the treatment he had received at the hands of his bride's brother and sister-in-law; but it is scarcely likely that he would be guilty of a desire to insult the king, whose guest he was. Several grand balls succeeded the wedding, and then the bride and groom went in separate carriages, each with three uninteresting attendants, on their way to Harwich. Arriving at the sea-coast, they embarked on separate yachts for Holland, and had such a tempestuous voyage that they were in great danger most of the way. This seems a rather unsociable way of travelling; but perhaps court etiquette required the prince and princess each to have a different ship.
A grand ovation awaited them all along the route to their home-in Brunswick, where they were greeted with a hearty welcome by all the ducal family. This union proved a happy one; but we shall have nothing more to say about it, merely having introduced the Prince and Princess of Brunswick, because they became the parents of Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, the subject of this sketch.
A.D. 1768. Caroline, their second daughter, was born in 1768. Her home education was very imperfect, for there was a lack of discipline in it that colored her after-life. It was her misfortune that she early discovered how to be mistress of her weak-minded mother, for whom she had, in consequence, little respect. She was good-hearted, but utterly wanting in tact and common sense.