[103]. Previously Princess Royal of England.
[104]. This would have been a gross breach of etiquette. In Madame d’Arblay’s Memoirs there are some good-naturedly satirical directions given as to the conduct to be observed in the presence of royalty. “You must not upon any account stir either hand or foot. If, by chance, a black pin runs into your head, you must not take it out. If the pain is very great, you must be sure to bear it without wincing; if it brings the tears into your eyes, you must not wipe them off; if they give you a tingling by running down your cheeks, you must look as if nothing was the matter,” &c. &c.—Vol. ii. p. 407.
[105]. Lady George Murray was widow of Lord George Murray, Bishop of St. David’s. George the Third, proposing to appoint her preceptress to Princess Charlotte in 1805, commanded Mr. Rose to state distinctly what he knew about that lady. Mr. Rose then said, “that as a girl she was remarkably amiable, and very innocent; that she had been married when little more than a child to a young man under age; that she had conducted herself most unexceptionably, to say the least, both as a wife and mother; that he had never heard a syllable to her disadvantage, but much in her commendation.”—Diaries and Correspondence of the Right Hon. George Rose, vol. ii.
[106]. The pall was supported by the Viscountess Cranley, Lady E. Thynne, the Countess of Ely, and Lady G. Murray. The chief mourner was the Countess of Chesterfield, whose train was borne by Lady Halford, the wife of the eminent physician, supported by the Countesses of Macclesfield and Ilchester. The ladies attendant on the Queen and Princesses who were present on this occasion were Lady Albinia Cumberland, Miss Goldsworthy, Mrs. Williams, Hon. Mrs. Fielding, Hon. Mrs. Egerton, Hon. Miss Townshend, Madame and Mademoiselle Beckersdorff, Miss Knight, Mrs. Adams, Miss Montmollin, Miss Planta, Miss Gaskin, Miss Byerley, Mrs. Davenport, and Mrs. Robinson. The funeral took place in the evening of the 14th of November.
[107]. The words of the concluding verse of the sixteenth Psalm: “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
[108]. The comet of 1811 was first discovered at Viviers by M. de Flanguergues on the 25th March. It was seen at Marseilles by the Messrs. Pons on the 11th April, and at Paris on the 20th May. It then became invisible until some time in August, when it was first seen in England. Its nearest approach to the earth was on the 24th of October, on which the Gentleman’s Magazine remarks: “We regret to say that the awfully sublime stranger will not much longer appear to the same advantage to our view.” The length of its tail was conjectured to be between twenty and thirty millions of miles.
[109]. The Princess’s governesses were the Countess Elgin and Baroness de Clifford. In 1809, Dr. Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury, was appointed her Royal Highness’s preceptor, with Drs. Nott and Short as his assistants.
[110]. Afterwards Lady Charlotte Bury, authoress of “A Diary Illustrative of the Times of George the Fourth,” and of many now forgotten novels, such as “The Disinherited,” “The Devoted,” “Flirtation,” “Fortune-Hunting,” &c.
[111]. Lady Aylesbury died in Seymour-street, on the 8th of January, 1813.
[112]. Lady Aylesbury’s niece.