house to the palace. All I ask," says the cynic in lace ruffles, "all I ask of princes is not to live within five miles of me."

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The royal couple lived quietly, and when they were disposed to be gay and in company, they already exhibited a spirit of economy which may illustrate the saying, that any virtue carried to excess, becomes a vice. Economy is an admirable virtue, and they who commence life with it are less likely to need so strictly to observe it as they proceed; but too much economy is downright parsimony, and we should never think now of leaving our cards at a house, the young married owners of which had invited us to a ball and sent us home without our supper. This was what Queen Charlotte did on the occasion of her first party. On the 26th of November, she and the king saw a few friends," the invitations only included half a dozen strangers, and the entire company consisted of not more than twelve or thirteen couple. The six strangers were Lady Caroline Russell, Lady Jane Stewart, Lord Suffolk, Lord Northampton, Lord Mandeville, and Lord Grey. Besides these, were the court habitués, namely, the Duchess of Ancaster and her Grace of Hamilton, who accompanied the queen on her first arrival. These ladies danced little: but on the other hand, Lady Effingham and Lady Egremont danced much. Then there were the six maids of honor, Lady Bolingbroke, who could not dance because she was in black gloves; and Lady Susan Stewart in attendance upon "Lady Augusta." The latter was that eldest daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales, at whose birth there had been such a commotion, and who was commonly called the Lady Augusta, in obedience to her father's wishes, who was fond of this old-fashioned English style of naming our princesses. The noblemen in waiting were Lords March, Eglintoun, Cantilupe and Huntingdon. There were no sitters-by," except the king's mother, the Duchess of Bedford, and Lady Bute. At this select party, which commenced between half-past six and seven, the king danced the whole time with the queen; and the Lady Augusta, future mother of the next queen of England, with her four younger brothers. The dancing went on uninterruptedly till one in the morning; the hungry guests separated without supper; and so ended the young couple's first and not very hilarious party.

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That young couple certainly began life in a prosaically businesslike way. To suit the king's convenience, one opera night was changed from Tuesdays to Mondays, because the former was "post-day," and his majesty too much engaged to attend; and the queen would not have gone on Tuesdays without him.

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It was perhaps with reference to the queen's first supperless party that Lord Chesterfield uttered a bon mot, when an addition to the peerage was contemplated. When this was mentioned in his presence, some one remarked:-"I suppose there will be no dukes made." "Oh, yes, there will," exclaimed Chesterfield, "there is to be one." "Is? who?" 66 "Lord Talbot; he is to be created Duke Humphrey, and there is to be no table kept at court but his." If there be a young reader ignorant of whence "dining with Duke Humphrey," takes its origin, to such it may be intimated that the tomb of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, stood in Old St. Paul's, and that in front of it was the walk of shabby-genteel people, ashamed to be seen in the street during the common dinner hour. They were popularly said to have dined with Duke Humphrey, that is, not at all; and Queen Charlotte, at her first party, certainly made her guests sup with the same illustrious individual.

The young nobility who had formed great expectations of the splendor and gaiety that were to result, as they thought, from the establishment of a new court with a young couple at the head of it, were miserably disappointed that pleasure alone was not the deity enshrined in the royal dwelling. To the queen's palace they gave the name of Holyrood House, intending to denote thereby that it was the mere abode of chill, gloom, and meanness. But, be this as it may, the English court was now the only court in Europe at which vice was discountenanced, and virtue set as an example, and insisted on in others. With respect to the routine followed there, it certainly lacked excitement, but was hardly the worse for that. The queen passed most of her mornings in receiving instructions from Dr. Majendie in the English tongue. She was an apt scholar, improved rapidly, and though she never spoke or wrote with exceeding elegance, yet she learned to justly appreciate our best authors, and was remarkable for the perfection of taste and manner with which she read aloud. Needle-work followed study, and

exercise followed needle-work. The queen usually rode or walked in company with the king, till dinner-time; and in the evening she played on the harpsichord, or sang aloud,—and this she could do almost en artiste; or she took share in a homely game at cribbage, and closed the innocently spent day with a dance. "And so to bed," as Mr. Pepys would say, without supper.

The routine was something changed when her majesty's brother, Prince Charles of Strelitz, became a visitor at the English court in February, 1762. He was a prince short of stature, but wellmade, had fine eyes and teeth, and a very persuasive way with him. So persuasive indeed, that he at one time contrived to express from the king 30,000l. out of the civil list revenue, to pay the debts the prince had contracted with German creditors.

In the meantime, matters of costume, as connected with court etiquette, were not considered beneath her majesty's notice. Her birth-day was kept on the 18th of January, to make it as distinct as possible from the king's kept in June, and to encourage both winter and summer fashions. For the latter anniversary a dress was instituted of "stiff-bodied gowns and bare shoulders ;" and invented, it was said, " to thin the drawing-room." "It will be warmer, I hope," says Walpole, in March, "by the king's birth-day, or the old ladies will catch their deaths. What dreadful discoveries will be made both on fat and lean! I recommend to you, the idea of Mrs. Cavendish, when half stark!" The queen's drawingrooms however were generally crowded by the ladies, and no wonder, when seventeen English and Scotch, unmarried, dukes might be counted at them. The especial birth-day drawing-room on the anniversary of the king's natal day was, however, ill attended, less on the king's account than on that of his minister, Lord Bute. Meanwhile, court was made to the queen by civilities shown to a second brother who had come over to visit her, allured by affection, and the success which had attended the elder brother. Lady Northumberland's fète to this wandering prince was a "pompous festine;" "not only the whole house, but the garden was illuminated, and was quite a fairy scene. Arches and pyramids of light alternately surrounded the enclosure; a diamond necklace of lamps edged the rails and descent, with a spiral obelisk of candles on each hand;

and dispersed over the lawn with little bands of kettle-drums, clarinets, fifes, &c., and the lovely moon who came without a card.” But the great event of the year was the birth of the heir-appa

rent.

It occurred at St. James's Palace, on the 12th of August. In previous reigns, such events generally took place in the presence of many witnesses, but on the present occasion the Archbishop of Canterbury alone was present in that capacity.

The royal christening will be, however, of more interest than details of the birth of the prince. The ceremony was performed in the grand council chamber, the Archbishop of Canterbury, "the Right Rev. midwife, Thomas Secker," as Walpole calls him, officiating. Walpole, describing the scene, on the day after, says :"Our next monarch was christened last night, George Augustus Frederick. The Princess (Dowager of Wales), the Duke of Cumberland and the Duke of Mecklenburgh, sponsors. The queen's bed, magnificent, and they say, in taste, was placed in the drawingroom; though she is not to see company in form, yet it looks as if they had intended people should have been there, as all who presented themselves were admitted, which were very few, for it had not been notified. I suppose to prevent too great a crowd; all I have heard named, beside those in waiting, were the Duchess of Queensberry, Lady Dalkeith, Mrs. Grenville, and about four other ladies."

It was precisely at the period of the christening of this royal babe, that the marriage of her who was to be the mother of his future wife was first publicly spoken of. In September, Walpole expresses a hope to his friend Conway, that the hereditary Prince of Brunswick is "recovering of the wound in his loins, for they say he is to marry the Princess Augusta."

CHAPTER III.

ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS.

THE life of Charlotte was of so essentially a domestic character as to afford but few materials for the historian. For the less dignified sketch of scenes and personal traits, the salient points in the queen's career furnish more incidents. With these, I have more to do, as being rather a story-teller than a historian, dealing more with anecdotes of persons than with parties and politics; and affording, I humbly hope, not much less amusement to the readers than if I had been twice as ambitious,—and, therewith, perhaps, infinitely more tedious.

In 1761, there was not a more gorgeously attired queen, in presence of the public, than ours. But we learn that in 1762, the first thing of which the queen got positively weary was her jewels. At first seeing herself endowed with them, if such a phrase be admissible, her joy was girlish, natural, and unfeigned. But the gladness was soon over. It was the ecstasy of a week, as she herself said, a quarter of a century later; and there was indifference at the end of a fortnight. "I thought at first," she said, "I should always choose to wear them; but the fatigue and trouble of putting them on, and the care they required, and the fear of losing them ; why, believe me, madam, in a fortnight's time, I longed for my own earlier dress, and wished never to see them more."

This was said to Miss Burney, subsequently her dresser and reader, who adds that the queen informed her that dress and shows had never been things she cared for, even in the bloom of her youth; and that neatness and comfort alone gave her pleasure in herself as in others. If this good taste had been, and indeed if it were now, common in the middle classes of society, how much fewer