[Inventories of plate at Windsor, etc.]
Used when Prince of Wales. A Prince of Wales' plume within a princely coronet.
[London and its Environs described. London, 1761.]
George IV. used the same coat-of-arms as the last one of George III., that is to say, first and fourth grand quarters, England; second grand quarter, Scotland; and third grand quarter, Ireland; on an escutcheon of pretence the arms of the Dominions of the Crown in Germany, ensigned with the Hanoverian Royal Crown.
When George IV. inherited the large library made by his father, he very soon found that it was a very costly and troublesome legacy, and at one time he was inclined to sell it to the Emperor, Alexander I. of Russia. This idea, however, was very displeasing to English feeling, and the Premier, Lord Liverpool, was able to convince the King that any such sale would be highly unpopular. After considerable trouble the matter was amicably arranged, and Ministers were able to satisfy the King by means of a fund called "Droits of Admiralty," which they could dispose of without troubling Parliament. The King then wrote a letter, 15th January 1823, to Lord Liverpool, in which he says:—
"The King, my late revered and excellent father, having formed during a long series of years, a most valuable and extensive Library, I have resolved to present this collection to the British Nation."
The library was consequently removed from Buckingham House to the British Museum in 1828, and arranged in the beautiful room built for it. In this room the books are kept by themselves, apart from the rest of the library. It is probable that some idea of the ultimate destination of this library existed as long ago as 1791, as in that year a German preacher, Frederick Wendeborn, wrote that the books in the King's private library, "it is said, will be one time or another joined to those of the British Museum."