FOOTNOTES:
[1] Wraxall's "Historical Memoirs," vol. ii. p. 46, &c.
[2] Or Britain, as the king originally wrote it.
[3] How admirably "Lord Fanny" hits this off, when he says, in his "Memoirs of George II.:" "The king, talking of the people who had governed this country in other times, said: 'King Charles, by his mistresses; King James, by his priests; King William, by his men; and Queen Anne, by her women—favourites. His father, he added, had been by anybody who could get at him.' And at the end of this catalogue the heir of Dettingen asks: 'And who do they say governs us now?' Sporus answers the question to himself and his own satisfaction, by quoting four lines from a current lampoon, which are handed down to posterity, and smash the small king's prestige:—
"You may strut, dapper George, but 'twill all be in vain,
You govern no more than Don Philip of Spain;
Then, if you would have us fall down and adore you,
Lock up your fat wife, as your dad did before you."
[4] At the time when the "Historical Memoirs" were published, the critics fell foul of the king's remark, and denied its authenticity. But, I possess the letter in which Lord G. Sackville stated it. So the invention, be it one, rests with that nobleman, and not with my grandfather.
[5] "Walpole's Letters," vol. ii, p. 248.