So much for Lord Hervey’s idea of what he considered a just punishment for his enemy the Prince of Wales.
Coxe, in his “Walpole,” refers to the expressions in this draft as “harsh, improper and indecorous.” The Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke, was the chief reviser of this abominable letter of Hervey’s, and even when several amendments had been made, considered it in its completed form too strong, but it was practically that letter of Lord Hervey’s, though some of the words were softened, which was eventually delivered to the Prince of Wales, and upon which he and his family had to turn out of St. James’s Palace.
But there is one incident which occurred at this time and which has been much used by Lord Hervey, Horace Walpole, and other enemies of the Prince.
On the ninth day after the confinement of the Princess of Wales, the Queen, with her two eldest daughters, drove from Hampton Court to St. James’s to pay another visit to the mother and child.
It is said that this visit was a very painful one, because the Queen and her son—who met her only at the door of his wife’s bedchamber, whether by accident or design it is not stated—did not speak. It is very evident that from this time forward, the Prince, whether rightly or wrongly, regarded his mother as the cause of the King’s anger against him, and did not conceal his feelings on the point.
During the hour which his mother spent with the Princess and the Royal baby, not a word passed between mother and son, and exception is taken to the fact that when the Queen observed that “she feared she was troublesome,” nobody had the politeness to say she was not. At the conclusion of the visit, the Prince very properly led his mother down to her coach, and arriving at it, did something which greatly exasperated Lord Hervey and Horace Walpole; he knelt down in the dirty street and kissed his mother’s hand!
What a terrible thing for a son to do! What an outrage!
Both Hervey and Horace Walpole try to make out that he did it for effect, and to inspire the people who were looking on; but is it not much more likely that both Hervey and Walpole—and perhaps the people in the street, too, would have had a great deal more to say if he had not done it, for it was the common etiquette of the Court, and remains very much the same to the present day. But there was another interest about this parting, too. It was the last time that mother and son ever met on earth.
In such fashion were the sayings and doings of this Prince, who was not wanted, continually distorted by those around the King and Queen, and yet they never succeeded in shaking his popularity with the people.
Lord Hardwicke, the Lord Chancellor, has left an account behind him of an interview with the Prince about this time, which throws some light on the reason for the secret removal of the Princess from Hampton Court.