George R.
A.L.S. OF KING GEORGE III. WRITTEN FOUR DAYS BEFORE THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR.
Shortly after the death of the late Duke of Cambridge a vast number of George III.'s letters suddenly flooded the market. The average price fell from £5 and more to £2 and less. Every autograph dealer in London had a stock, so there could be no "corner" in "Georges." I contrived to get thirty or forty—mostly written from Weymouth. It seems that during the great crisis King George wrote almost daily to "Dear Frederic" (his son the Duke of York, Commander-in-Chief), and many of these letters are of the greatest interest. For 10s. I picked up the King's holograph draft of a plan for mobilising an army of defence between Dorchester and Weymouth.[31] Between 1789 and 1805 George III. paid fourteen visits to Weymouth. Many momentous acts of State were carried out at the Royal Lodge, now transformed, with hardly any structural change, into the Gloucester Hotel. If it had not been for the death of the Duke of Gloucester, the King would have received the news of Trafalgar in the same place where he had talked a few weeks previously with "Nelson's Hardy." Some day these letters will help materially the telling of the story of the "Court by the Sea." I thank Thackeray for the lines which made George III., when old, blind, and forsaken, say:—
"My brain perhaps might be a feeble part,
But yet I think I had an English heart
When all the Kings were prostrate; I alone
Stood face to face against Napoleon,
Nor even could the ruthless Frenchman forge
A fetter for old England and old George."
The letters of the Princess of Wales (1796-1819), the Queen Caroline of 1820-21, are not very valuable, but they are curious.[32] They are now quite as valuable as those of her worthless husband and his successor, of whom I possess several interesting examples, beginning in the days when he was sailing with Digby and earning the sobriquet of "Jolly Young Tarry-breeks." At the sale of the library of the Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar (June 21, 1904) I purchased three volumes, bound in green calf, full of Prince William's early notes and exercises. One of these is docketed by the youthful sailor "Remarks on Countries, Harbours, Towns, etc. on board the Prince George, Feb 8 1780 William Henry." Some day my friends in the United States will read a description of New York from the pen of a future King of England, written a century and a quarter ago, and the romantic story connected with it. Here is a letter he wrote home to his tutor, Dr. Majendie, from Sandy Hook. It speaks volumes, at any rate, for his good intentions:—
Dear Sir,—I send you enclosed a key of a table of mine that stands in the long room next to my bed-chamber in London. I shall beg as a favour you would send me to the West Indies everything in those drawers and a box with colours and pencils as Captain Knight is so good as to teach me to draw.
I understand that the convoy does not sail till late, therefore you will go in the Packet, I suppose: In this case I must heartily wish you a quick passage, a sight of your family in London, to whom I beg you will make my best wishes, thank your Brother in my name for having collected the Poets for me.
The little I have seen of Captain Napier I like very well; I hope he does the same of me; in the letters you allowed me the pleasure to write pray give me such advice as you think necessary I shall hope to receive it from nobody, but particularly from you I have so long lived with.