[257] Master of the Household to His Royal Highness. His appointment to that office arose from the singular circumstance of the Prince enquiring of Colonel Slade if he knew of any gentleman who played the violoncello? The Colonel replied, that he knew only of Captain Bloomfield of the Artillery. “Bring him here to dinner,” said His Highness, “and tell him to bring his violoncello, and we’ll play something.” The Captain attended, and pleased the Prince, who desired him to call upon him the next day. He attended at the Pavilion accordingly and soon gained such favour as to obtain the confidence of the Prince. He was first made Sir Benjamin, and afterwards Lord Bloomfield.
[260] Appointed to the Regency, February 5th, 1811.
[261a] Lade was in receipt of an annual pension of £100, as driving tutor to His Royal Highness. His wife, Lady Lade, who was born in Luckner’s Lane, St. Giles’s, London, was one of the most abandoned women of the Court. She was for some time the mistress of the notorious malefactor John Rann, known as “Sixteen Stringed Jack,” who expiated his crime upon the scaffold, at Tyburn. The Duke of York then took her under his protection, and he transferred her by marriage, to Sir John Lade. Such was the style of language of this infamous woman, that when the Prince of Wales wanted an object of comparison in the vulgar practice of swearing, he was universally accustomed to say, “He swears like Letitia Lade.” Some of the descendants of Sir John are still living, and reside at Ovingdean.
[261b] The Life, Adventures, and Opinions of Col. George Hanger, written by himself. Two volumes, 8vo. London: Printed for J. Debrett, Piccadilly, 1801.
[264] The Observant Pedestrian Mounted, or a Donkey Tour to Brighton, a Comic Sentimental Novel, in three volumes. London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1816.
[266] Born Mary Anne Smythe (daughter of Walter Smythe, Esq., of Bambridge, in the county of Hants), she was first married to Edward Weld, Esq., of Lulworth Castle, Dorsetshire; secondly to Thomas Fitzherbert, Esq., of Swinnerton, Staffordshire. She was a second time a widow, living on a handsome jointure, and greatly admired in society on account of her beauty and accomplishments.
[271] War at Brighton, or the Battle of The Tar Tub, a short November Tale. By Thomas Herbert. London: John Rowe, Cornhill.
[272a] The dinner took place at the Dolphin, now the Queen’s Hotel.
[272b] Williams, of the Royal Baths, High Constable.
[272c] White, Castle Square.