[[15]] Jer. viii. 3.
[[16]] Gray, the poet, who gives a very spiteful portrait of James, as if he had some personal pique against him, speaks of his "rueful length of person," and "extreme tallness and awkwardness." Spence describes him as "a tall, well-limbed man, of a pleasing countenance. He has an air of great distinction."
[[17]] His Stonyhurst portrait gives him gray-blue eyes, and some others dark blue, but the majority have brown.
[[18]] Gray cynically remarks that "he has extremely the air and look of an idiot, particularly when he laughs or prays; the first he does not often, the latter continually."
[[19]] Deut. xvii. 15. This passage was very frequently cited by the Jacobites as barring the accession of William of Orange, though his mother was the eldest daughter of Charles the I., and he stood next in succession to the children of James II. It was much more applicable to the House of Hanover, which was further from the original English stock.
[[20]] "Tall and admirably shaped," said Lord Peterborough, in describing her to his royal master when negotiating the marriage in 1673. She was then fourteen. In 1688 Mademoiselle Do Montpensier thought her "une grande créature mélancolique." Lady Cavendish (née Rachel Russell), writing to a friend, describes Mary II. as "tall, but not so tall as the last Queen" (Maria Beatrice).
[[21]] "Fort maigre"—Mdlle. De Montpensier.
[[22]] "Face the most graceful oval."—Lord Peterborough.
[[23]] "Complexion of the last degree of fairness."—Lord Peterborough. "Complexion clear, but somewhat pale."—Mad. De Sévigné. "Assez jaune."—Mdlle. De Montpensier.
[[24]] "Mouth too large for perfect beauty, but her lips pouting, and teeth lovely."—Mad. De Sévigné.