With thrice three times three cheers.'
In the beginning of January, 1820, the inhabitants of Brighton were allowed, for a fortnight, to visit the Pavilion and view its wonders, as far as it was then completed; on the 29th of the same month the old King died, and Florizel, then in his fifty-ninth year, succeeded him, as George IV. He came to the Pavilion at the end of February, and stayed at Brighton nearly the whole of March.
A satirical print represents him as being at the Pavilion in November of this year. It is called 'Moments of Pain.' The scene is an apartment in the Pavilion, and the surroundings are all Chinese. The King is dressed in full Chinese costume, the great 'Fum' bird being embroidered on his bosom; he is very ill, and a physician is feeling his pulse. On the floor lies a huge roll of a 'List of Addresses presented to Caroline, Queen of England,' and an attendant is trying to prevent the entrance of a messenger, who brings the news of 'The Bill turned out.' This was the Bill of pains and penalties brought into Parliament against her by Lord Liverpool on July 5, 1820; the trial began on August 19, and the Bill was abandoned on November 18.
The King spent his Christmas at Brighton, and as he was a full-fledged monarch, his ideas expanded as to his country residence, and the assembly-room of the Castle Tavern was absorbed into the building, and converted into a chapel. Then also was arranged the alterations which have made the Pavilion the extraordinary conglomeration of buildings it now is. The chapel was consecrated on January 1, 1822.
He left Brighton in April, went to Scotland in August, and returned to Brighton in October. In January, 1823, he had a terrible attack of gout, and he did not leave the Pavilion till April. Naturally, now that he was King, he had to spend much of his time in London; but he spent the Christmas of 1824 at Brighton, and stayed there till the following February. He never made but one more visit to Brighton—from January 23, 1827, to March 7—and Florizel's stupendous Folly knew him no more.
