[131] Walpole: Memoirs of George III.
[132] "The Duke of Gloucester has professed a passion for the Dowager Waldegrave. He is never from her elbow. This flatters Harry Walpole not a little, though he pretends to dislike it."—Gilly Williams to George Selwyn, December, 1764.
[133] Life and Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox.
[134] For years there was a rumour that the Duke of Cumberland had married Olive Wilmot in 1767, and Miss Wilmot's daughter (afterwards Mrs. Serres) called herself Princess Olive of Cumberland. An attempt to prove the authenticity of the alleged marriage was brought before the courts in 1866 by Mrs. Ryves, a daughter of "Princess Olive," but the documents shown in support of the claim were proved to be spurious, and it was dismissed. However, according to Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, the Duke of Kent thought there was "something" in Mrs. Serres's story, "and tried to get some attention paid to her claims. Not having any money of his own, he was said to have asked Robert Owen to make her some advances, whilst he guaranteed." (The Family of George III.) A probable solution is that Olive Wilmot was the Duke s mistress.
[135] Lady Anne Luttrell, daughter of Simon, Earl of Carhampton, and wife of Christopher Horton, of Catton Hall, Derby.
An amusing story is told à propos of Lord Carhampton and the Prince Regent. The Earl was seriously ill in 1812, and the rumour came to Carlton House that he was dead, whereupon the Prince, without waiting to authenticate the news, immediately gave away the colonelcy of the regiment of carabineers which Lord Carhampton held. The report reached the sick man, who instantly sent a friend to Pall Mall to tell his Royal Highness that he hoped to recover, and therefore begged him to dispose of any other regiment in the service except the carabineers. His Royal Highness might rest assured, the Earl added, that he would give special directions to his attendants not to lose a moment, after it was ascertained that he was really dead, in conveying the news to Carlton House.
[136] Memoirs of George III.
[137] Percy Fitzgerald: The Family of George III.
[138] Trevelyan: Early Life of Charles James Fox.
[139] Chatham Correspondence.