The queen continued to doze in a lethargic insensibility, with very short intervals, till the first day of August in the morning, when she expired in the fiftieth year of her age, and in the thirteenth of her reign. Anne Stuart, queen of Great Britain, was in her person of the middle size, well proportioned. Her hair was of the dark brown colour, her complexion ruddy; her features were regular, her countenance was rather round than oval, and her aspect more comely than majestic. Her voice was clear and melodious, and her presence engaging. Her capacity was naturally good, but not much cultivated by learning; nor did she exhibit any marks of extraordinary genius or personal ambition. She was certainly deficient in that vigour of mind by which a prince ought to preserve his independence, and avoid the snares and fetters of sycophants and favourites; but whatever her weakness in this particular might have been, the virtues of her heart were never called in question. She was a pattern of conjugal affection and fidelity, a tender mother, a warm friend, an indulgent mistress, a munificent patron, a mild and merciful princess, during whose reign no subject’s blood was shed for treason. She was zealously attached to the church of England from conviction rather than from prepossession, unaffectedly pious, just, charitable, and compassionate. She felt a mother’s fondness for her people, by whom she was universally beloved with a warmth of affection which even the prejudice of party could not abate. In a word, if she was not the greatest, she was certainly one of the best and most unblemished sovereigns that ever sat upon the throne of England, and well deserved the expressive, though simple epithet, of “The good queen Anne.”
NOTES:
107 ([return])
[ Note P, p. 107. In their hours of debauch, they drank to the health of Sorrel, meaning the horse that fell with the king; and, under the appellation of the little gentleman in velvet, toasted the mole that raised the hill over which the horse had stumbled. As the beast had formerly belonged to sir John Fenwick, they insinuated that William’s fate was a judgment upon him for his cruelty to that gentleman; and a Latin epigram was written on the occasion.]
108 ([return])
[ Note Q, p. 107. Doctor Binkes, in a sermon preached before the convocation, on the thirtieth day of January, drew a parallel between the sufferings of Christ and those of king Charles, to which last he gave the preference, in point of right, character, and station.]
109 ([return])
[ Note R, p. 107. During this short session, the queen gave her assent to an act for laying a duty upon land; to another for encouraging the Greenland trade; to a third for making good the deficiencies and the public credit; to a fourth for continuing the imprisonment of Counter, and other conspirators against king William; to a fifth for the relief of protestant purchasers of the forfeited estates of Ireland; to a sixth, enlarging the time for taking the oath of abjuration; to a seventh, obliging the Jews to maintain and provide for their protestant children.]