His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury arrived at the Castle early in the morning, and he performed the baptismal ceremony with solemnity and graceful expression, assisted by the Rev. John Thornton, Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Rutland, who made the responses.... A discharge of fifteen cannon from the Castle announced the event,” &c. &c. There are long accounts in the papers of the time of the festivities at Belvoir Castle. The Prince Regent’s subsequent illness may be thence easily accounted for.”
[158]. “A singularly neat and very elegant landau will be launched in a few days by H.R.H. the Princess Charlotte of Wales. It is built by Messrs. Birch and Son, Great Queen-street, Lincoln’s Inn-fields. The carriage is beautifully finished. The body is painted a fine light green, emblazoned with arms, supporters, &c., with mantles on the panels. On the side panels is a beautiful à la Grecque border, enclosing the cipher C. P. W., with a coronet above. The same ornaments are placed on the door rails; very superb silver joints, lamps, and other appropriate ornaments, extremely neat; the lining is a fine scarlet cloth, with rich gold lace and fringe; the hammercloth is, agreeable to royal etiquette, composed of scarlet cloth, very full, with a purple velvet border, and trimmed with gold lace. Outside elbows are introduced, but the projection is upon so moderate a scale that they are scarcely perceptible. The carriage is a very light compass perch painted yellow, picked out with maroon colour, hung upon whip springs, two feet six inches from the ground; silver hoops to the wheels; an upright coach-box, made in the usual style, but not fixed.”—Morning Chronicle, February 3rd, 1814.
This statement was contradicted in the same paper on the following day “by authority.”
[159]. “The Baron Van der Duyn Van Maasdam, Grand Master of the Household to his Royal Highness the Prince Sovereign of the Netherlands, whose presentation to the Prince Regent at a private audience on the 9th inst (March), accompanied by M. Fagel, the regular ambassador, was notified in the Gazette of Saturday last, as having come on a special mission from the Court of the Hague, has been sent over to make a demand in form of the Princess Charlotte’s hand in marriage for the hereditary Prince of Orange. The sanction of the previous consent and approbation of the Prince Regent, the Princess herself, and of the whole Court and Government, has already smoothed the way to the arrangements of this important and auspicious union, which must, however, according to the established etiquette among crowned heads, be demanded by embassy after it has been agreed upon by the parties; and the settlements and provisions resulting from the exalted condition and prospective sovereign duties of the personages to be married, must be reduced into a treaty by plenipotentiaries specially appointed. M. Van Maasdam is charged with full powers for this purpose on the part of the Prince Sovereign of the Netherlands.”—Morning Chronicle, March 17, 1814.
[160]. It had been adjourned to that date.
[161]. See Lord Colchester’s Journal, under date February 28. “At Lord Sidmouth’s office met Lord Liverpool; talked over the proceedings upon the intended marriage of the Princess Charlotte to the hereditary Prince of Orange, which is to be communicated to Parliament before Easter.”
[162]. “May 21, 1814. The Prince of O——e, it is said, wishes his wife to go with him to his own Dutch land, and so does the Prince Regent, who does not like a rising sun in his own: but report also whispers that the rising sun is aware of this, and will not consent to the marriage, unless she is allowed to shine in her own dominions.”—Lady C. Campbell’s Diary, vol. i.
[163]. Subsequently married to the Crown Prince of Würtemberg.
[164]. Prince Nicolas Wasiliwitch Repnin, nephew of Count Panin, minister and favourite of the Empress Catherine. As Russian Ambassador at the Court of Stanislaus Poniatowski, he virtually governed Poland from 1764 till 1770, when he joined the army under Count Romanzoff, and greatly distinguished himself in the campaign against the Turks. In after years he gained more than one victory over that enemy, and also became the successful rival of Prince Potemkin. He was raised to the rank of Field Marshal by Paul I., and was sent to Berlin rather as a negotiator than as an ambassador. He died at Moscow in 1801.
[165]. And in their persons, too. Lord Colchester speaks of them as “two ugly old women.”