“At last the King comes up, the pool finishes, and everybody has their dismission: their Majesties retire to Lady Charlotte and my Lord Lifford; the Princesses to Bilderbec and Lony; my Lord Grantham to Lady Frances and Mr. Clark; some to supper, and some to bed; and thus (to speak in the Scripture phrase) the evening and the morning make the day.”[95]
Lord Hervey may have been prejudiced, but independent testimony comes from Lady Pomfret, who was then in attendance at court. She writes: “All things appear to move in the same manner as usual, and all our actions are as mechanical as the clock which directs them.”[96]
FOOTNOTES TO BOOK III, CHAPTER IX:
[92] One stanza of his poem addressed to Sylvia (the Princess of Wales) ends thus:—
“Peu d’amis, reste d’un naufrage,
Je rassemble autour de moi,
Et me ris d’ l’étalage
Qu’a chez lui toujours un Roi!”
[93] The Hon. Peter Wentworth to Lord Strafford, London, 1734.
[94] Lady Suffolk to Gay, Hampton Court, 29th June, 1731. Suffolk Correspondence.