“On the fourth day of August,” writes Lord Hardwicke, “the day of proroguing the Parliament, I went to St. James’s in my way to Westminster in order to inquire after the health of the Princess of Wales and the new-born Princess. After I had performed that ceremony, I went away, and was overtaken at the further end of Pall Mall by one of the Prince’s footmen, with a message that His Royal Highness desired to speak with me. Being returned, I was carried into the nursery, whither the Prince came immediately, out of the Princess’s bedchamber, and turned all the ladies out of the room.”
Shade of Earl Cairns! what should we think in these days if we heard of the Lord High Chancellor of England being shown into the nursery at Marlborough House when on a visit of ceremony, and “all the ladies being turned out,” and apparently the baby too, to give the Prince of Wales an opportunity of talking serious State matters with his lordship?
The room, however, being at last clear, the Prince took Lord Hardwicke into his confidence, evidently with the object of persuading him to soften the hearts of the King and Queen and inter alia referring to the removal of the Princess from Hampton Court in much the same terms used in his first letter to his father, but with this significant addition: “What if the King, who was apt sometimes to be pretty quick, should have objected to her going to London, and an altercation should have arisen, what a condition would the poor Princess have been in!”
The two sat and discoursed for some time, and the old Chancellor gave Frederick just the sort of advice an old lawyer would naturally give a young man under the circumstances, urging submission and dutiful behaviour to bring about a union of the family, and adding that it would be the “zealous endeavour of himself with the other servants of the King,” to bring about this end.
“He answered,” continued Hardwicke, “‘My Lord, I don’t doubt you in the least, for I believe you to be a very honest man,’ and as I was rising up embraced me, offering to kiss me. I instantly kneeled down and kissed his hand, whereupon he raised me up and kissed my cheek.
“The scene had something in it moving, and my heart was full of the melancholy prospect that I thought lay before me, which made me almost burst into tears. The Prince observed this, and appeared moved himself, and said: ‘Let us sit down, my Lord, a little, and recollect ourselves, that we may not go out thus.’
“Soon after which I took my leave, and went directly to the House of Lords.”
Minutes of Lord Harrington and Sir Robert Walpole’s conversation with the Prince by his bedside, August 1st, about five in the morning, and taken down in writing about three hours after.
“August 1, 1737.
“The Prince of Wales this morning about five o’clock, when Lord Harrington and Sir Robert Walpole waited upon him at St. James’s, among other things said: he did not know whether the Princess was come before her time or not. That she had felt great pain the Monday before, which it being apprehended might prove her labour, of which opinion Lady Archibald Hamilton and Mrs. Payne declared themselves to be, but the physicians were then of another opinion, he brought her from Hampton Court again. That on the following Friday the Princess’s pains returning, the Prince carried her again to St. James’s, when the physicians, Dr. Hollings and Dr. Broxolme, and Mrs. Cannons, were of opinion it might prove her labour, but those pains likewise going off, they returned again to Hampton Court on Saturday; that he should not have been at Hampton Court on Sunday, but it being public day, he feared it might be liable to some constructions; that the Princess, growing ill again on Sunday, he brought her away immediately, that she might be where proper help and assistance could be had.”