It will be seen that all these ladies bore the name of the Queen, the fourth, Lady Sophia Fermor, daughter of the Earl of Pomfret, bore the name of the King’s mother, whom he had always regarded as Queen of England.
It is said that the King had grumbled at the scarcity of new clothes at his birthday drawing-room, certainly he could not with reason have complained of the display at his son’s wedding.
This is a description of some of them from that excellent journal the Gentleman’s Magazine, and which seems to have fulfilled, and fulfilled well, the double functions of the Queen newspaper and the Court Circular of our day:
“His Majesty was dressed in a gold brocade turned up with silk, embroidered with large flowers in silver and colours, as was the waistcoat; the buttons and stars were diamonds.
“Her Majesty was in plain yellow silk, robed and faced with pearls, diamonds, and other jewels of immense value.
“The Dukes of Grafton, Newcastle and St. Albans, the Earl of Albemarle, Lord Hervey, Colonel Pelham, and many other noblemen were in gold brocades of from three to five hundred pounds a suit. The Duke of Marlborough was in a white velvet and gold brocade, upon which was an exceedingly rich point d’Espagne. The Earl of Euston and many others were in clothes flowered or sprigged with gold; the Duke of Montagu in a gold brocaded tissue.
“The waistcoats were universally brocades with large flowers.
“’Twas observed most of the fine clothes were the manufactures of England, and in honour of our own artists. The few which were French did not come up to these in richness or goodness or fancy, as was seen by the clothes worn by the Royal Family, which were all of British manufacture. The cuffs of the sleeves were universally deep and open, the waists long, and the plaits more sticking out than ever. The ladies were principally in brocades of gold and silver, and wore their sleeves much lower than hath been done for some time.”[35]
One account states that the Prince in his night attire of “silver stuff”—which must have been most uncomfortable—passed gaily among the guests at his bedroom reception, whilst his pretty young wife sat bolt upright in the heavily-draped four-poster. That he exchanged quips and retorts with the ladies and gentlemen of the Court, in the broad style which then was fashionable, and that a general air of levity and frolic prevailed over all without restraint.
One could have wished that those two joyous maids-of-honour, Mary Bellenden and Mollie Lepel, could have been there, with their bosom friend, Mrs. Howard, to add their witty congratulations to the crowd of compliments which floated round the fair young girl wife sitting up in bed; if those good-humoured jokes were perhaps a little stronger than they ought to have been, we may rest assured that judging from their letters which are still extant, that beautiful merry trio, “Bella-dine,” “the Swiss” and “the Schatz” would have been quite equal to the occasion.[36]