66

frequently, from gratitude, exaggerate their praises; and as this proceeded from a good motive, it was certainly excusable, as far as error could be excusable." The king inquired what he thought of Dr. Hill. Johnson answered, that he was an ingenious man, but had no veracity; and mentioned an assertion of his, that he had seen objects magnified to a much greater degree, by using three or four microscopes at a time, than by using one. Now," added Johnson, "every one acquainted with microscopes knows, that the more of them he looks through, the less the object will appear." "Why," said the king, "this is not only telling an untruth, but telling it clumsily; for if that be the case, every one who can look through a microscope will be able to detect him." That he might not leave an unfavourable impression against an absent man, Johnson added, "Dr. Hill is, however, a very curious observer, and if he would have been contented to tell the world no more than he knew, he might have been a very considerable man, and needed not to have recourse to such mean expedients to raise his reputation." Some conversation followed on the literary journals of the day, in the course of which Johnson observed, that the Royal Society had now a better method of arranging their materials than formerly. "Ay," said the king, "they are obliged to Dr. Johnson for that." He then expressed a wish to have the literary biography of the country well executed, and proposed such a work to Johnson, with which desire the doctor readily complied, and to this circumstance we probably owe his Lives of the Poets. After the interview, Johnson said to the librarian, "Sir, they may talk of the king as they will, but he is the finest gentleman I have ever seen!" He subsequently declared, that the king's manners were those of as fine a gentleman as one might suppose Louis the Fourteenth or Charles the Second to have been." Not long after this interview, the king said, alluding to the sceptical writers of the day, "I wish Johnson would mount his dray-horse, and ride over them."

Dr. Beattie has left the following circumstantial account of the first interview which he had with the king and queen" Tuesday, the 24th of August,

1773;-set out for Dr. Majendie's, at Kew green. He informed me that the king would see me at twelve. At that hour we went to the king's house. We had been only a few minutes in the hall, when the king and queen came in from an airing; as they passed, the king called me by name, and asked how long it was since I came from town. "I shall see you," says he, " in a little while." We waited for some time, the king being busy, and then we were called into the library, where the king was walking about, and the queen sitting in a chair. I had the honour of a conversation with them for upwards of an hour, on various topics, in which both their majesties joined, with a degree of cheerfulness, affability, and ease, that was to me surprising, and soon relieved my embarrassment. They both complimented me on my Essay, which, they said, they always kept by them; and the king said, he had one copy of it at Kew, and another in town. I never stole a book but one,' said his majesty, 'and that was yours; I stole it from the queen, to give it to Lord Hertford to read.' He had heard that the sale of Hume's Essays had fallen since the publication of my work. He asked me when the second part would be ready for the press; and I told him, if my health was good, I might finish it in two or three years. He asked how long I had been in composing my Essay; praised its cautious tone, and said he did not wonder it had taken five or six years. He asked about my poems, and I said, there was only one poem of mine which I valued (meaning the Minstrel). We talked much on moral subjects, from which their majesties let it appear, that they were warm friends to christianity, and disinclined to believe that any thinking man could be an atheist, unless he imagined he had made himself; a thought which pleased the king exceedingly, and he repeated it several times to the queen. They greatly commended the moderation and mild behaviour of the Quakers. I was asked many questions about the Scots universities. The king inquired what I thought of Lord Dartmouth. I said, his air and manner were not only agreeable, but enchanting, and that he seemed to me one of the best of

men. They say that Lord Dartmouth is an enthusiast,' said the king, but, surely he says nothing on the subject of religion but what evey christian may and ought to say!' He asked whether I did not think the English language on the decline. I answered 'yes' and the king agreed, naming the Spectator as one of the best standards of the language. When I told him, that the Scots' clergy sometimes prayed a quarter, or even half an hour at a time, he asked, whether that did not lead them into repetitions. I said it often did. 'That,' said he, 'I don't like in prayers; and excellent as our liturgy is, I think it somewhat faulty in that respect.' 'Your majesty knows,' said I, that three services are joined in one.' 'True,' he replied, and that circumstance also makes the service too long.' From this he took occasion to commend the composition of the liturgy Observe,' said he, 'how flat those occasional prayers are, that are now composed, in comparison with the old ones." When I mentioned the smallness of the church livings in Scotland, he said, 'He wondered how men of liberal education would choose to become clergymen there;' and asked, 'whether, in the remote parts of the country, the clergy, in general, were not very ignorant?" I answered, 'No, for that education was cheap in Scotland, and that the clergy, in general, were men of good sense and competent learning.' We discoursed on many other topics. The queen bore a large part in the conversation, and both their majesties shewed a great deal of good sense, acuteness, and knowledge, as well as of good nature and affability. At last, the king took out his watch, which Dr. Majendie and I understood as a signal to withdraw; we accordingly bowed to their majesties, and I said, 'I hope, Sir, your majesty will pardon me, if I take this opportunity to return you my humble and most grateful acknowledgements for the honour you have been pleased to confer upon me.' He answered, I think I could do no less for a man who has done so much service to the cause of christianity.' The queen sat all the while, and the king stood, sometimes walking about a little. The queen speaks English with surprising elegance, and little or nothing of a foreign manner, so that if she were

only a private lady, one would notice her as one of the most agreeable women in the world. Her face is much more pleasing than any of her pictures; and in the expression of her eyes, and in her smile, there is something peculiarly engaging." Beattie subsequently had another interview with his majesty, at which, however, nothing worthy of repetition occurred.

It is said that the king, at one time, contemplated the creation of a new order of knighthood, for the reward of literary merit: and that ministers were willing to support his views on the subject, until he proposed that the knights should receive salaries with their ribbons; to which objections were raised, on the score of the large expences in which a long and vigorous war had involved the nation; and the project was ultimately abandoned.

He displayed a strong inclination to encourage painting; although he appears to have been rather deficient in pictorial taste. In 1765, he granted a charter to the society of artists, and knighted its first president, Reynolds; to whom, however, he never gave any commission, apparently preferring the works of Coates and Ramsay, two inferior cotemporary painters, to those of the highly-gifted Sir Joshua. He was even averse to any proposition for the advancement of the art which emanated from the president, to whose idea of gratuitously embellishing Saint Paul's by the combined efforts of all the most eminent living painters in the country, his majesty expressed so great a dislike, that it was necessarily abandoned. But Benjamin West, who succeeded to the president's chair on the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, was a great favourite with the king; for whom, in the course of thirty years, he executed sixtyfour pictures, and received during that period £34,187.

It is related by Angelo, that, on being shown a landscape, which Wilson had painted, by command, for the royal collection, the king exclaimed, "Hey! what! Do you call this painting? Take it away; I call it daubing!-Hey,what!'Tis a mere daub!" inquired what Wilson expected for his performance, and being told one hundred guineas, he declared that it was the dearest picture he ever saw :-" Too

He then

much-too much," added his majesty; "tell him I say so." Opie, the selftaught artist, having painted a picture, which attracted the king's notice, his majesty desired that it might be brought to Buckingham-house, where Opie, accordingly, soon afterwards presented himself with his painting; for which, however, the king gave him only ten guineas, observing that he could not afford any more for it.

George the Third was particularly fond of music, and afforded considerable encouragement to its professors. To Handel's oratorios he was scarcely ever weary of listening. Angelo relates that, during one of the royal concerts, a violent thunder-storm came on, whereupon the king exclaimed, "How sublime!-What an accompaniment !

How this would have delighted Handel!" Soon after hostilities had first commenced between this country and America, at an oratorio which he attended, the following lines in Alexander's Feast are said to have had an extraordinary effect upon him:

The princes applaud with furious joy,

And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy.

He rolled up his book of the performance into the form of a truncheon, which he flourished over his head, and, starting on his feet, exclaimed, "Bravo! bravo! Encore! encore !" His enthusiastic call for the repetition of the words was generally, but, perhaps, very erroneously, attributed to the warmth of his feelings against the refractory colonists.

The king, in many instances, displayed a laudable desire for the advancement of science. He patronized Cook, Byron, and Wallis, the navigators; Herschel, the astronomer; and Ramsden, the celebrated mathematical instrument maker; and placed large sums at the disposal of the Royal Society. During the dispute in 1779, as to the best form for conductors to secure buildings from lightning, which Banks and others, in opposition to Franklin, declared would be of greater efficacy if made with blunt instead of sharp ends, "The king," says Wolcot, being rather partial to blunt conductors, thought to end the matter at once, by avowing his belief in the superiority of nobs. To confirm his

66

opinion, nobs were actually fixed on iron rods at the end of Buckinghamhouse. Nor was this all: he wished the Royal Society to declare that Franklin was wrong; but the president replied, he could not reverse the order of nature."

Ramsden, who was a very dilatory man, on one occasion positively promised to make the king an instrument, which his majesty had ordered, by a particular day. Months, however, elapsed before it was completed; and then Ramsden refused to take it to the palace, unless the king would promise not to reprove him for his want of punctuality. "Well, well," said the king, "let him come; since he is conscious of his fault, it would be hard to reprimand him for it." Soon after, Ramsden went with his instrument to the king, who observed, with a goodnatured smile, "Well done, Ramsden; you have kept your promise, on this occasion, to the very day of the month, and made a trifling mistake only as to the year."

Henry Angelo attributes to the king a considerable knowledge of architecture, and states that his majesty designed the small temple in Kew gardens, engraved in the works of Chambers, and the old gate entrance for St. James's park to Carlton-house gardens. He was fond of the mechanical arts, and is said to have been a good practical turner: at one time, he had a large room in Buckinghamhouse fitted up with lathes, and employed the ingenious Pinchbeck, either to assist or instruct him in working them.

The king rose early, often at six o'clock; and the two following hours he termed exclusively his own. He was so exceedingly fond of riding, that, whenever the weather permitted, during a considerable portion of his life, he passed much of the interval between the hours of breakfast and dinner on horseback. He frequently went from Kew, on his hack, to attend a levee or council at St. James's, in the midst of a heavy shower; and repeatedly rode for several hours at reviews, (in which he took great delight,) with no covering but his ordinary dress, and often without a hat, during the most boisterous weather. For a number

of years, he hunted regularly during the season, and followed the hounds with as much ardour as any of his yeomen prickers. One day, the stag having taken water at Hampton, a number of sportsmen in the royal hunt rode up to the toll-gate on the bridge, shouting, "The king! the king!" They were permitted to pass without paying, but Feltham, the gate-keeper, stopped a second party, who attempted to obtain a free passage by uttering the same cry. "I tell you what," said he, "I give £400 a year for the bridge, and before I open the gate I'll have your money. I've let King George through, -God bless him!-and I know of no other king in England. If you have brought the King of France with you, he sha'n't pass toll free." His majesty, on being made acquainted with the circumstance, ordered the toll to be paid for all his attendants; and, many years afterwards, having occasion to cross the bridge, he said to the gatekeeper, whose name and person he perfectly remembered, "No fear of the King of France coming to-day, Feltham.'

The tenacity of his memory was astonishing: he knew the names, numbers, and uniform, of every regiment in the service; and could at once particularise every sea-worthy vessel in his navy. West, the painter, declared that, during the progress of his paintings at Windsor, he never made an alteration, however minute, in any of them, that was not detected by the king. Garrick asserted that the king was not only perfectly well acquainted with most of the early English dramas, but that he recollected the names of their authors, and the dates of their production respectively. When he was at Weymouth, pending the alterations at Windsor castle, he corresponded regularly with the architect; and, from his vivid remembrance of every part of the building, suggested hints for various improvements, which had escaped the notice of those who were employed on the spot.

It has been asserted that he recognized the persons and remembered the names of individuals many years after they had been introduced to him, although he had never seen or heard of them in the interim. In a conversation

with Lord Amherst relative to a list of commissions, which had been presented for signature, the king found that an officer had been nominated to a company over the head of an old lieutenant, who, as Lord Amherst stated, could not purchase. The king was struck with the old lieutenant's name, and on reference to a large folio, entirely in his own hand writing, found some circumstances recorded which were greatly to the honour of the poor subaltern; who, at the express command of the king, was immediately appointed to the vacant company.

When his majesty visited the exhibition at Somerset House, he delighted in discovering, without the aid of the list, for whom the principal portraits were meant to be nkenesses. "It was highly interesting," Cosway often remarked," to observe the king's quick perception of the person intended by a portrait, if he had ever seen the individual."

He is said to have been greatly amused with caricatures, even with those in which his own person or pursuits were held up to ridicule; and to have heartily enjoyed the satirical effusions of Peter Pindar, which were regularly forwarded to his majesty, on the day of publication. The following instance of his own humour has been recorded: two privates of the lifeguards having gone through the sword exercise before him, Lord Cathcart inquired if his majesty would permit two of the youngest officers to display their skill in the use of their weapons. The king consented, and when the young gentlemen had concluded their exhibition, he requested that the two oldest officers on the ground, (Lord Cathcart and Major Barton) would also give him a specimen of their dexterity in the exercise, which they accordingly did, to his majesty's infinite amusement.

A few anecdotes of his excursions to Worcester, Tewkesbury, and Cheltenham, have been related, which are not, perhaps, unworthy of repetition. On the morning of his arrival at Worcester, he was recognised while walking alone on the bridge, and a crowd soon collected about him. "This, I suppose," said he, "is Worcester new bridge." "Yes, please your majesty," replied a dozen voices. "Then, my boys," exclaimed

the king, "let's have a huzza!" A tremendous shout ensued, in which the sovereign most heartily joined. The next morning he was in the streets by half-past five o'clock: at the residence of Colonel Digby and Colonel Gwynn, he found a female servant cleaning the door-way, whom he requested to shew him where the "fellows" slept, and personally roused them from their slumbers. When he visited the Guild. hall, the mayor offered him a jelly, which, however, the king unexpectedly declined, saying, Although I never yet did take wine in the forenoon; yet, on this pleasant occasion, I will venture on a glass." Some rich old mountain was immediately handed to him, and he drank, "Prosperity to the city of Worcester!"

66

At Cheltenham, he said to the queen, "We must walk about for two or three days to please these good people who wish to see us, and then we may walk about to please ourselves." As he rode into Tewkesbury, observing several persons on the walls of the bridge, he said to them," My good people, I am afraid that some of you may fall; don't run such hazards for the sake of seeing your king; I will ride as slowly as you please, that you may all see him."

While strolling early one morning, he met a countryman walking at a very brisk rate, and thus accosted him:"You seem to be very warm, my good fellow-eh?" "Yes, sir," was the reply, "I have come a long way: I want to see the king." "Friend," said his majesty, "you see him before you: here is half-a-guinea; refresh yourself after your fatigue." On another occasion, perceiving a woman working alone in a field, during harvest, he asked her what had become of her companions. "They are gone," said she," to see the king." Why do you not go?" inquired his majesty. " I would not give a pin to see him," replied the woman; "besides, the fools will lose a day's work, which is more than I can afford, for I have five children to keep.' "Well, then," said his majesty, giving her some money, you may tell your companions, who are gone to see the king, that the king came to see you."

66

During his frequent rambles about Windsor, when he resided at the castle,

George the Third frequently entered into familiar conversation with the persons whom he happened to meet. The following dialogue occurred one day, between his majesty and a young clown:"Who are you, boy?-who are youeh, eh?" "I be a pig-boy." "Where did you come from?-who do you work for here?-eh?" "I be from the low country, out of work at present." "Don't they want lads here?-not want lads, eh?" "I doan't know; all about here belongs to Georgy." "Georgy!who's Georgy?" "He lives at the castle yonder, but he does no good for I." The king immediately gave the lad employment on his farm, and told him, if he were a steady lad, "Georgy" might be a friend to him.

He thus addressed a stable boy whom he met near the castle :-" Well, boy! what do you do?-what do they pay you?" "I help in the stable, but they only give me victuals and clothes," said the lad. "Be content; I have no more," was the king's answer.

Visiting his stable, one morning, he found the grooms disputing so loudly that his arrival was unnoticed. "I don't care what you say, Robert," quoth one, "but everybody else agrees, that the man at the Three Tuns makes the best purl in Windsor." "Purl! purl!" exclaimed the king: "Robert, what's purl?" The manner of making the beverage having been explained to him, the king said, " Very good drink, no doubt; but, grooms, too strong for break fast." Five years afterwards, on entering the stables one morning, he asked a boy, to whom he was unknown, where all the men were.

66