In a few days it was announced that all that was ‘now missing of the late King’s jewels were his star and garter,’ valued at about seven thousand pounds. How the diamond-hilted sword was discovered is not stated in the current news of the day; but while that was recovered the garter appears to have been lost, for no mention of such loss had been previously made.
The consort of Queen Charlotte survived until January 1820. Her son, Edward Duke of Kent, died a week previously. During the last years of the old King—who seemed to grow in majesty as his end approached—he lived in a world of his own, conversed with imaginary individuals, ran his fingers ramblingly over his harpsichord, and was in every other respect dead to all around him. He passed out of the world calmly and unconsciously after a long reign—and perhaps a more troubled reign than that of any other King of England. Of the children of Charlotte four ascended thrones. George and William became successive Kings of England, Ernest King of Hanover, and Charlotte Augusta Queen of Wurtemburg. The married daughters, Charlotte, Elizabeth, and Mary, died childless. Of her married sons only the King of Hanover and the Dukes of Kent and Cambridge left heirs behind them—the first a son, the second a daughter, our present Queen, the last a son and two daughters.
With the old royal family Kew is inseparably connected. Mr. Jesse, in his ‘Memoirs of the Life and Reign of George III.,’ says that when, many years since, ‘he wandered through the forsaken apartments at the old palace at Kew, he found it apparently in precisely the same condition as when George III. had made it his summer residence, and when Queen Charlotte had expired within its walls. There were still to be seen, distinguished by their simple furniture and bed-curtains of white dimity, the different sleeping-rooms of the unmarried princesses, with their several names inscribed on the doors of each. There were still pointed out to him the easy chair in which Queen Charlotte had breathed her last; the old harpsichord which had once belonged to Handel, and on which George III. occasionally amused himself with playing; his walking-stick, his accustomed chair, the backgammon board on which he used to play with his equerries; and, lastly, the small apartment in which the pious monarch used to offer up his prayers and thanksgivings. In that apartment was formerly to be seen a relic of no small interest, the private prayer-book of George III. In the prayer which is used during the session of Parliament the King, with his own hand, had obliterated the words “our most religious and gracious King,” and had substituted for them “a most miserable sinner.”’ The old ‘palace’ still retains many interesting memorials of King George, Queen Charlotte, and the princes and princesses during their happy days at Kew.
CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK,
WIFE OF GEORGE IV.
CHAPTER I.
MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.
Marriage of Princess Augusta to the Prince of Brunswick—His reception at Harwich—Wedding performed with maimed rites—The Prince at the opera—A scene—Odd mode of travelling of the bride and bridegroom—Issue of this marriage—Dashing replies of Princess Caroline—Her mother the Duchess a weak and coarse-minded woman—Education of German princesses—Infamous conduct of the Duke of York—Lord Malmesbury sent to demand Princess Caroline in marriage for the Prince of Wales—His account of the Princess—Eloquence of the Duchess on the virtues of the Princess—The Duke’s mistress, and picture of the Court of Brunswick—The Duchess’s stories of bygone times—The marriage by proxy—Celebration of the wedding-day—The marriage treaty—Eccentricity of the Duke—Education of the Princess neglected—The courtesan champion of morality—The Duke’s fears for the Princess—Lady Jersey and the Queen—Lord Malmesbury’s advice to the Princess—Madame do Hertzfeldt’s portraits of the Princess—The Princess’s exuberant spirits at a court masquerade—More admonitions by Lord Malmesbury—Madame de Waggenheim’s taunt, and Lord Malmesbury’s thrust en carte.
On the 12th of January 1764, Charles William Frederick, the hereditary Prince of Brunswick, landed at Harwich (then the portal by which royal brides and bridegrooms had ingress to and egress from England), to take the hand which had been already asked and not over-graciously granted of the Princess Augusta, the sister of George III. This half-reluctance was on the part of the King and Queen, but especially of the latter. There was none on the part of the bride.
The young Prince was a knightly man, lacking a knightly aspect. His manner was better than his looks. His reputation as a hero was, however, so great that the people of Harwich, expecting to see an Adonis, nearly pulled down the house in which he temporarily sojourned, in order to obtain a better view of the illustrious stranger. When the Prince did show himself they were rather disappointed. His renown for courage, however, made amends for all shortcomings, and even the Quakers of Harwich warmed into enthusiasm. One, more eager than the rest, not only forced his way into the Prince’s apartment, but took off his hat to him, called him ‘Noble friend!’ kissed his hand, and protested that, though not a fighting man himself, he loved those who could fight well. ‘Thou art a valiant Prince,’ said he, ‘and art to be married to a lovely Princess. Love her, make her a good husband, and the Lord bless you both!’
The bridegroom got no such warm greeting from any other quarter as he did from the Quaker, and it is to be regretted that he did not follow the counsel which was offered him by his humble and hearty friend. He loved his wife and made her such a husband as heroes are too wont to do—who are accustomed to love their neighbours’ wives better than their own.
The marriage took place on the 16th with something, if not of maimed rites, at least of diminished ceremony. The ‘Lady Augusta’ was wedded with as little formality as was observed—under the same roof too—at her birth. The latter vexed Queen Caroline because so little etiquette was followed at it. The wedding troubled Queen Charlotte lest there should be too much and of too costly a sort. Not a gun was fired by way of congratulatory salute, as had been done when Anne, the daughter of Caroline, married the Prince of Orange. More trifling testimonies of respect were denied on this occasion, even when the bride had petitioned for them, on the ground that there was no precedent for them in the ‘Orange marriage.’ The bride, fairly enough, complained at quotation of precedent in one case which had been followed in no other.