Her parting steps still strike the conscious eye:
If you, like her (great prince) must disappear,
Like her, too, leave your bright impression here.
Thy travels o'er, renew this people's joy,
And let thy praises young and old employ;
Admir'd, ador'd—gild Denmark with thy fame,
While all enjoy the honours of thy name."[69]
The king certainly had no cause to complain of the honours and distinctions granted him in London. Artists and sculptors strove to immortalize his memory, and engravings of him might be seen in all the windows. But the ladies of the nobility were the most enthusiastic about the "northern scamp," as the lovely Lady Talbot christened the youthful King of Denmark, and in memory of whom they brought into fashion a head-dress which was christened the "Denmark Fly."
So far we have dealt with the king's public appearance in England. His private amusements, unfortunately, continued of the same scandalous nature as in Copenhagen. Night after night he and Holck passed in the most disgusting debauchery, and these rambles were generally commenced after midnight. The king opened the ball at Sion House with his sister-in-law, the Queen of Great Britain; he danced with the Princess of Saxe-Gotha and the Duchess of Ancaster; and, within an hour after quitting these scenes of royal grandeur, he would throw off his gorgeous dress, disguise himself as a sailor, and haunt the lowest purlieus of St. Giles's. A volume might easily be filled with the frolics and extravagances committed while in England by this dissipated youth, and those servile courtiers, who, to gratify the sovereign, flattered every folly, and sought with lamentable avidity, even in the paths of infamy and vice, the means of making themselves agreeable or useful.[70]
On the other hand, some anecdotes have been preserved, which, while bearing testimony to the king's profuse extravagance, throw a little more agreeable light upon his character. It is true, that he gave without discrimination, and acted on the impulse of the moment; but it is equally true that, whenever he saw an object of real distress, his hand went spontaneously to his pocket, and if that chanced to be empty, his ring, watch, or any other valuables about him, was bestowed instead of money.