that she looked like an orange peach, half red and half yellow. The coronets of the peers and their robes disguised them strangely. It required all the beauty of the Dukes of Richmond and Marlborough to make them noticed. One there was, though of another species, the noblest figure I ever saw, the high constable of Scotland, Lord Errol: as one saw him in a space capable of containing him, one admired him. At the wedding, dressed in tissue, he looked like one of the giants at Guildhall, new gilt. It added to the energy of his person that one considered him as acting so considerable a part in that very hall where, a few years ago, one saw his father, Lord Kilmarnock, condemned to the block. The champion acted his part admirably, and dashed down his gauntlet with proud defiance. His associates, Lord Effingham, Lord Talbot, and the Duke of Bedford, were woful. Lord Talbot piqued himself on backing his horse down the hall, and not turning its rump towards the King; but he had taken such pains to dress it to that duty that it entered backwards; and, at his retreat, the spectators clapped-a terrible indecorum, but suitable to such Bartholomew Fair doings. He had twenty démélés, and came off none creditably. He had taken away the table of the Knights of the Bath, and was forced to admit two in their old place, and dine the other in the Court of Requests. Sir William Stanhope said, 'We are ill-treated, for some of us are gentlemen.' Beckford told the earl it was hard to refuse a table to the City of London, whom it would cost ten thousand pounds to banquet the King, and that his lordship would repent it if they had not a table in the hall; they had. To the barons of the Cinque Ports, who made the same complaint, he said, 'If you come to me as lord-steward, I tell you it is impossible; if as Lord Talbot, I am a match for any of you;' and then he said to Lord Bute, 'If I were a minister, thus would I talk to France, to Spain, to the Dutch; none of your half-measures.'

There was long a tradition current, that, among the spectators at the great ceremony in the hall, was no less a person than the Young Pretender, who was said to have been there

incognito, and not without some hope of seeing the gauntlet defiantly thrown down by the champion taken up by some bold adherent of his cause. Indeed, it is further reported that preparation had been made for such an attempt, but that (fortunately) it accidentally failed. The Pretender, so runs the legend, was recognised by a nobleman, who, standing near him, whispered in his ear that he was the last person anybody would expect to find there. "I am here simply out of curiosity," was the answer of the wanderer; “but I assure you that the man who is the object of all this pomp and magnificence is the person in the world whom I the least envy." To complete the chain of reports, it may be further noticed that Charles Edward was said to have abjured Romanism, in the new church in the Strand, in the year 1754. But to return to known facts.

There was great gaiety in town generally at this period. The young Queen announced that she would attend the opera once a week-that seemed dissipation enough for her, who had been educated with some strictness in the quietest and smallest of German courts. The weekly attendance of royalty is thus commented upon by Walpole-" It is a fresh disaster to our box, where we have lived so harmoniously for three years. We can get no alternative but that over Miss Chudleigh's; and Lord Strafford and Lady Mary Coke will not subscribe unless we can. The Duke of Devonshire and I are negotiating with all our art to keep our party together. The crowds at the opera and play when the King and Queen go, are a little greater than what I remember. The late royalties went to the Haymarket, when it was the fashion to frequent the other opera in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Lord Chesterfield, one night,

came into the latter, and was asked if he had been at the other house? Yes,' said he, but there was nobody but the King and Queen; and as I thought they might be talking business, I came away.''

The theatres, of course, adopted the usual fashion of reproducing the ceremony of the coronation on the stage. Garrick, considering that he was a man of taste, displayed great taste

lessness in his conduct on this occasion. After "Henry VIII.," in which Branslay played the King; Havard acted Wolsey, and Yates, what was so long played as a comic part, Gardiner; and in which Mrs. Pritchard played the Queen, and Mrs. Yates Anne Boleyn, a strange representation of the ceremonial was presented to the public. Garrick, it is said, knowing that Rich would spare no expense in producing the spectacle at the other house, and fearing the cost of competition with a man than whom the stage never again saw one so clever in getting up scenic effects, till it possessed Farley, contented himself with the old, mean, and dirty dresses which had figured in the stage coronation of George II. and Caroline. The most curious incident of Garrick's show was, that by throwing down the wall behind the stage, he really opened the latter into Drury Lane itself, where a monster bonfire was burning, and a mob huzzaing about it. The police authorities did not interfere, and the absurd representation was continued for six or seven weeks, "till the indignation of the public," says Davis, "put a stop to it, to the great comfort of the performers, who walked in the procession, and who were seized with colds, rheumatism, and swelled faces, from the suffocation of the smoke, and the raw air from the open street." Their Majesties did not witness the representation of the coronation at either house. Their first visit was paid to Drury Lane, when the Queen commanded the piece to be played, and her selection was one that had some wit in it. The young bride chose, "Rule a The royal visit took place on the 26th

wife and have a wife."

of November.

At Covent Garden "Henry the Fifth," with the Coronation, was acted twenty-six times; and "Richard the Third," with the same pageant, was played fourteen times. That exquisite hussey, Mrs. Bellamy, walked in the procession, as the representative of the Queen. Their Majesties paid their first visit in state, on the 7th January, 1762. The King, with some recollection, probably, of his consort's "bespeak" at Drury Lane, commanded the "Merry Wives of Windsor." So that in this respect the new reign commenced merrily enough.

CHAPTER II.

COURT AND CITY.

The levée-The King goes to parliament-The first night of the operaGarrick grievously offended-The King and Queen present on the Lord Mayor's day-Entertained by Robert Barclay the Quaker-Banquet at Guildhall to the King and Queen-Popular enthusiasm for Mr. Pitt― Buckingham House purchased by the King for Queen Charlotte-Defoe's account of it-The Duke of Buckingham's description of it-West and his pictures-The house demolished by George the Fourth-First illness of the King-Domestic life of the King and Queen-Royal carriage— Selwyn's joke on the royal frugality-Prince Charles of Strelitz-Costume -Graceful action of the Queen-Birth of Prince George.

THE entire population seemed surprised at having got a young Queen and King to reign over them; and, except an occasional placard or two, denouncing "petticoat government,' and pronouncing against Scotch ministers, and Lord George Sackville, there seemed no dissatisfied voice in the whole metropolis. The graces of the young Sovereign were sung by pseudo-poets, and Walpole, in graceful prose, told of his surprise at seeing how completely the old levée-room had lost its air of a lion's den. "The Sovereign don't stand in one spot, with his eyes fixed royally on the ground, and dropping bits of German news: he walks about and speaks to everybody. I saw him afterwards on the throne, where he is graceful and genteel; sits with dignity, and reads his answers to addresses well. It was the Cambridge address, carried by the Duke of Newcastle, in his doctor's gown, and looking like the Medecin malgré lui. He had been vehemently solicitous for attendance, for fear my Lord Westmoreland, who vouchsafes himself to bring the address from Oxford, should out-number him. Lord Litchfield and several other Jacobites have kissed hands. George Selwyn says, "They

go to St. James's because now there are so many STUARTS there.'

In allusion to the crowds of nobles, gentle and simple, going up to congratulate the King, or to view the processions flocking to the foot of the throne, or surrounding the King, as it were, when he went to the first parliament, Walpole remarks, “The day the King went to the house I was three quarters of an hour getting through Whitehall. There were subjects enough to set up half a dozen petty kings: the Pretender would be proud to reign over the footmen only; and indeed unless he acquires some of them, he will have no subjects left; all their masters flock to St. James's." In a few words he describes the scene at the theatre on the King's first visit, alone. "The first night the King went to the play, which was civilly on a Friday, not on the opera night, as he used to do, the whole audience sang God save the King in chorus. For the first act the press was so great at the door, that no ladies could go to the boxes, and only the servants appeared there, who kept places. At the end of the second act, the whole mob broke in and seated themselves." The play was "Richard the Third," in which Garrick represented the king. George III. repeated his visit on the 23rd December to see "King John." In both plays the heroes are monarchs who have displaced the rightful heirs to the throne; and if there were Jacobites among the audience, doubtless they made, mentally, application of the fact.

His Majesty grievously offended Garrick on this night, by a manifestation of what the latter considered very bad taste. The King preferred Sheridan in Falconbridge, to Garrick in King John, and when this reached the ears of Garrick, he was excessively hurt, and though the boxes were taken for King John, for several nights, the offended "Roscius" would not allow the play to have its proper run.

But there were other stages, on which more solemn pageants had to be performed. The sovereigns had yet to make their first appearance within the city liberties.

The Queen was introduced to the citizens of London on Lord Mayor's Day; on which occasion they may be said

VOL. II.

D