not following up this picture with more details of such personages. in accordance with that of his Majesty; and a dish of new peas became part of his The Court of James II. is hardly worth prerogative. William has been thought an mention. It lasted less than four years, unfeeling man, but such was not by any and was as dull as himself. The most re- means the case. He lamented his wife with markable circumstance attending it was the remorse, because he had not been a fond sight of Friars and Confessors, and the brief and faithful husband. His friendships were restoration of Popery. Waller, too, was strong and lasting; and, if he was taciturn once seen there; the fourth court of his vi- and cold in his manner, it was owing to his siting. There was a poetess also, who ap- want of address and ready flow of ideas. pears to have been attached by regard as He was sickly, and was kept in a constant well as office to the court of James-Anne state of irritation by party feuds. When Kingsmill, better known by her subsequent he was in his saddle, even in his latter title of Countess of Winchilsea. The at- days, his eye is said to have lighted up as tachment was most probably one of feeling if with the memory of his campaigns. He only and good nature; for she had no was at that moment on a level with men bigotry of any sort. Dryden, furthermore, who have some imagination. Mr. Jesse rewas laureate to King James; and in a fit of cords an exclamation of this Prince, which politic, perhaps real, regret, turned round he seems to admire. He was once in danupon the late court in his famous compari-ger off the coast of Holland, and the boatson of it with its predecessor: men showing symptoms of apprehension, Misses there were, but modestly conceal'd; the King exclaimed, "What! are you afraid Whitehall the naked Venus first revealed; to die in my company?" This, if true, was Where, standing as at Cyprus in her shrine, a blundering parody on the speech of Cæsar The strumpet was adored with rights divine." on a like occasion. But the Cæsarem vehis The Court of King William III. was duller of the great Roman implied that the boat even than that of James. Queen Mary had was safe. What! it said; can you be afraid her ladies with whom she used to read and when you carry Cæsar" and his prosperi work, but we learn nothing more of them. ty ? We must add, that the lady for whose While she was Princess of Orange, she had sake his Majesty followed the royal fashion a young lady among her attendants, with of having a mistress, was a Villiers of the whom the Prince fell in love, and when he old favorite stock, to which belonged also became King he afflicted his wife with his the Duchess of Cleveland. William made attentions to her; but Mary did not cease her Countess of Orkney, with remainder to to love him. Perhaps a little difficulty and her husband's heirs "whatsoever." She disinclination made her love him the more. wanted the beauty which had become an All the house of Stuart had fond attach-inheritance in the race of Villiers, but ments of some kind or other, in which there appears to have been sensible and kind. appears to have been a strong zest of the Swift calls her "the wisest woman he ever wilful. As to King William, it was in vain knew." Having entertained George II. his new courtiers implored him to try and once at her house at Clifden, and the dinmake himself popular; habit and reserve ner not succeeding to her mind, she made prevailed; and he shut himself up with his the following rare and honest remark-"I Dutchmen to alleviate his cares with the thought I had turned my mind in a philobottle. The two sprightliest anecdotes of sophical way of having done with the the Court, next to his Majesty's single world; but I find I have deceived myself; amour, are told by the Duchess of Marlbo- for I am both vexed and pleased with the rough, whose vindictive recitals, however, honor I have received." (Suffolk Corresare always to be received with suspicion. One is, that when Queen Mary took possession of her father's palace, she ran about the house with a face full of glee, turning over all the bed-clothes and cupboards to see what she had got. The other informs us, that when the Princess Anne was sitting one day at dinner with the King and Queen, his Majesty took the only plate of peas wholly to himself, though the Princess was in a very interesting situation, and could hardly keep her eyes off the dish. The Princess had a will of her own, not usually pondence, Vol. II. p. 352.) The history of Anne's Court is that of a closet containing the Queen and the Duchess of Marlborough-the latter being ultimately displaced by Lady Masham. At one time, the great Whig Duke makes a third in the closet; at another, the Tory Earl of Oxford; at another, his rival Bolingbroke; but all, more or less, by the grace of the reigning favorite. Anne was a quiet, good sort of woman, with the tendency of her race to romantic attachments; and the Duchess of Marlborough, with whom, in childlike earnest, she may be said to have played at friends under the names of "Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Freeman," might have kept her regard for life, had not an imperious temper rendered her insupportable. Masham was humble and more cunning; and contrived to assist at the squabbles of Oxford and Bolingbroke, till death relieved the poor Queen from the troubles of Toryism. The Duchess has left an account of the matter to posterity, which, like all such effusions of self-love, only defeated its object. The most painful part of the picture is the Duke her husband, lamenting his lost "stick" like a child. It has been made a question, whether great Captains would be thought as great as they are, if the sphere of their operations were not on so grand a scale. Great abilities of some sort, it is pretty clear, they must have; but some of the most renowned have certainly not shone much out of their profession. In taking leave of Queen Anne, we may observe, that in the person of George of Denmark she possessed a husband duller than herself; that she was comely, if not handsome; and that she was the mother of nineteen children, not one of whom survived a dozen years, and all the rest died in their infancy. Of thirteen out of the nineteen, there is no mention made of the very names. George's only other mistress was an Englishwoman, Miss Brett, daughter of the Colonel Brett "who married Savage's mother, and bought Cibber's wig." There was a vulgar cant in that day against "foreigners." Germans were not to be considered ladies and gentlemen, because they were not English. But George's foreign mistresses were better gentlewomen than those of Charles and James, and certainly no such "prostitutes." The most vulgar was Miss Brett herself. And as to the King's own manners, we take them to have been as decent and well-bred, after the staider fashion of his country, as the Frenchified style of the later Stuarts. Charles I. was a gentleman, but not a strictly well-bred one; for he had not the art of making people easy in his presence. His father made them easy by making himself contemptible. The aspect of George I., as it impressed itself on the boyish memory of Horace Walpole, was probably that under which he appeared to most people; and had a decorous simplicity about it, which would be favorably regarded at the present day. "I do remember," says Walpole, "something about George I. My father took me to St. James's while I was a very little boy; after waiting some time in an anteroom, a gentleman came in, all dressed in brown, even his stockings, and with a riband and a star. He took me up in his arms, kissed me, and chatted some time." And in another place he says, that the person of the King was that of an elderly man, "rather pale, and exactly like his pictures and coins; not tall;" and "of an aspect rather good than august." The Jameses and Charleses, to use Mr. Jesse's phrase, have so accustomed us to the "adventitious excitement" of improprieties, that after the good conduct of Mary and Anne, our eyes, we fear, brighten up at the prospect of a few more in the succession of the House of Hanover. We can really find no such pleasure, however, as our author does, nor do we think that he finds it either generously or justly after his toleration of the conduct of Charles II.; when he says that George I. had "the folly and wickedness to encumber himself with a seraglio of hideous German prostitutes." The Duchess of Kendal, though not wellfavored, was not "hideous;" both she and the King were upwards of fifty; the attachment had lasted many years; and was understood to have been sanctioned, after a fashion not of the worst kind under such circumstances, by a private marriage. The Countess of Darlington, the other chief of this "repulsive seraglio," though she had grown large, was a woman of very agreeable manners and conversation, and had been handsome when young. The remaining "favorite" was Madame Kilmansegg. It is Walpole, in his wholesale way, who applies the term to the entire German importation.state. George I. did not speak English; but he spoke Latin, which was no ungentlemanlike accomplishment. His minister, Sir Robert Walpole, could speak no German or French, so in Latin they conversed; probably not very like that of Cicero or Erasmus, but good enough to govern a great nation with; and the difficulty on the King's side must have been the greater, owing to the Latinized English words and allusions. He was a sociable good-humored man, very willing to be led by his great Minister in the establishment of liberal principles of government. The worst things to be said of him, (and very painful and perplexing they are,) was his long imprisonment of his wife, and his unfatherly dislike of his son. But we have seen, even in our own time, a wife persecuted by a libertine Prince. So hard it is for the overweening pretensions of the one sex to learn to do justice to the other-especially when mixed up with pretensions of The dislike of the son was probably 66 connected with the prejudice against the liven them, for they seem to have been even wife. As the King lived in one country and more dull than it was reasonable to expect the Queen in another, there was no Court, they should be. She had on one evening a properly so called, in the palace; though of particular engagement that made her wish course there were public days of reception. to be dismissed unusually early; she exIt is true the legitimate ladies in waiting plained her reasons to the Duchess of Kenwere not all at the Court of the Prince and dal, and the Duchess informed the King, Princess; for when the latter went away who, after a few complimentary remonfrom St. James's to live by themselves, the strances, appeared to acquiesce. But, when King retained their three eldest daughters, he saw her about to take leave, he began who remained with him till his death. But, battling the point afresh, declaring it was for obvious reasons, there was no female unfair and perfidious to cheat him in such a parade; though Miss Brett would fain have manner, and saying many other fine things, made one. During the King's last visit in spite of which she at last contrived to abroad, she ordered a door to be broken out escape. At the foot of the stairs she ran of her apartment into the royal garden. against Mr. Secretary Craggs just coming The eldest of the Princesses ordered it to in, who stopped her to inquire what was the be filled up. Miss Brett, says Walpole, as matter? Were the company put off? She imperiously reversed the command." But told him why she went away, and how urthings were for the most part quiet. George, gently the King had pressed her to stay every evening, was in the apartments of the longer; possibly dwelling on that head with Duchess of Kendal, sometimes at cards, some small complacency. Mr. Craggs made sometimes entertained by visitors; or per- no remark; but when he had heard all, -haps he had a bowl of punch with Sir Robert. snatching her up in his arms, as a nurse The best account of his Court, "if Court carries a child, he ran full speed with her it could be called," is given by the interest- up stairs, deposited her within the anteing descendant of Lady Mary Wortley Mon- chamber, kissed both her hands respectfully, tague, who, still living at an advanced age, (still not saying a word,) and vanished. The wrote the "Introductory Anecdotes" to pages seeing her returned, they knew not Lord Wharncliffe's late edition of the "Let-how, hastily threw open the inner doors, ters," with much of the grace and spirit of and before she had recovered her breath, her ancestor; and, it hardly need be added, she found herself again in the King's preswith none of her license. We repeat the ence. "Ah, la revoilà !" cried he and the well-told anecdote it contains, at the hazard Duchess, extremely pleased, and began of its not being new to the reader, in order thanking her for her obliging change of that our pictures of the spirit of the several mind. The motto on all palace gates is Courts may be as complete as we can, within Hush,' as Lady Mary very well knew. She our narrow limits, render them. "In one had not to learn, that mystery and caution respect," says this lady, "the Court, if ever spread their awful wings over the preCourt it could be called, bore some resem- cincts of a court; where nobody knows blance to the old establishment of Ver- what dire mischief may ensue from one unsailles. There was a Madame de Maintenon. lucky syllable about any thing, or about Of the three favorite ladies that accompa- nothing, at a wrong time. But she was benied him from Hanover, viz., Mademoiselle wildered, fluttered, and entirely thrown off de Schulenberg, the Countess Platen, and her guard; so, beginning giddily with 'Oh Madame Kilmansegg, the first alone, whom Lord, sir! I have been so frightened!' she he created Duchess of Kendal, was lodged told his Majesty the whole story exactly as in St. James's Palace, and had such respect she would have done it to any one else. paid her as very much confirmed the rumor He had not done exclaiming, nor his Gerof a left-hand marriage. She presided at mans wondering, when again the door flew the King's evening parties, consisting of the open, and the attendants announced Mr. Germans who formed his familiar society, Secretary Craggs, who, but that moment a few English ladies, and fewer English- arrived, it should seem, entered with the men; among them Mr. Craggs, the secre- usual obeisance, as if nothing had happentary of state, who had been in Hanover in ed. 'Mais comment donc, Monsieur Craggs,' the Queen's time, and by thus having the said the King going up to him, 'est-ce que entrée in private, passed for a sort of favor- c'est l'usage de ce pays de porter des belles ite. Lady Mary's Journal related a ridicu- dames comme un sac de froment?' 'Is it the lous adventure of her own at one of these custom of this country to carry about fair royal parties; which, by the by, stood in ladies like a sack of wheat?' The Minister, great need of some laughing matter to en- I struck dumb by this unexpected attack, stood a minute or two not knowing which She would have made an admirable mother way to look; then, recovering his self- for the heroines of Augustus's novels. She possession, answered, with a low bow. carried herself to the King's mistresses as There is nothing I would not do for your if they had no existence in that character, Majesty's satisfaction.' This was coming but were only well-behaved, prudent wooff tolerably well; but he did not forgive men; and it was lucky for all parties that the telltale culprit, in whose ear, watching such they really were. The amiableness his opportunity when the King turned round of Mrs. Howard (Lady Suffolk) is wellfrom them, he muttered a bitter reproach, known; and Madame de Walmoden (Lady with a round oath to enforce it; which I Yarmouth) is seldom mentioned by her condurst not resent,' continued she, for I had temporaries, says Mr. Jesse," without some drawn it upon myself; and indeed I was tribute to her good-nature and obliging disheartily vexed at my own imprudence."-position." The Queen, therefore, ruled (Letters of Lady M. W. Montague, Vol. I. p. 37.) George I. was a man of a middle height, features somewhat round, and quiet, though pleasant manners; George II. was a little brisk man, with an aquiline nose, prominent eyes, and was restless, though precise. He was so regular in his habits, that Lord Hervey said he seemed to think "his having done a thing to-day an unanswerable reason for doing it to-morrow." He had no taste; was parsimonious, yet could be generous; was a truth-teller, yet destroyed his father's will; loved a joke, especially a practical one on others; did not love his children till they were dead, (he hated, he said, to have them running into his room;) had mistresses, yet was fond of his wife; was a kind of Sir Anthony Absolute in all things; is supposed to have been the original of Fielding's King in "Tom Thumb;" and Lady Mary says, "looked upon all the men and women he saw, as creatures whom he might kick or kiss for his diversion." This overpowering little gentleman had, however, a wife, taller and gentler, who ruled him by her very indulgence, and to whom he had heart enough to be grateful. His mistresses had so little influence, compared with hers, as to put the courtiers on a wrong scent; and many an astonishment and reproach were vented against them, which they were powerless either to prevent or explain. Sir Robert Walpole's own good nature helped him to discover this secret; for a less indulgent man than himself would hardly have been able to conceive it. It has been well said, that "every man's genius pays a tax to his vices." It may be added, that every man's virtues hold a light to his genius. Be this as it may, Sir Robert made the discovery; and in paying his court in the right place, governed King, mistresses, and all, to the astonishment of the nation. Queen Caroline was a comely, intelligent, liberal German woman, of the quiet order; such as Goethe, or Schiller, or Augustus la Fontaine would have liked. VOL. II. No. II. 20 willing subjects on all sides; and her levee presented a curious miscellaneous spectacle. Caroline was a great lover of books; and though the reverse of ascetic or bigot, she did not omit in her studies either philosophy or controversial theology. She received company at her toilet, and among the courtiers and ladies were to be found metaphysicians and clergymen. Mrs. Howard dressed her hair; Dr. Clarke mooted a point about Spinoza; and Lord Hervey enlivened the discussion with a pleasantry: Sir Robert comes, on his way from the King, to bow and say a word, and catch some intimation from a glance;-all make way for him as he enters, and close in again when he goes;-and in the antechamber is heard some small talk with the lady in waiting, or a scornful laugh from Mrs. Campbell (Miss Bellenden.) Mr. Jesse says, that "the Court of George II. was neither more brilliant nor more lively than that of his predecessors." This can hardly be possible, considering that it had more women, and that there was still a remnant of the maids of honor that flourished in his Court when he was Prince of Wales. And who has not read of the Bellendens and Lapells, of the Meadowses and the Diveses, the witty Miss Pitt, and Sophy Howe, who thought she could not be too giddy and too kind till a broken heart undeceived her? Do they not flourish for ever in the verses of Pope and Gay, and the witty recitals of Horace Walpole? Now Mary Bellenden still visited the Court as Mrs. Campbell; Mary Lepell was surely there, too, as Lady Hervey; Mrs. Howard remained there till she was a widow; and thither came the Chesterfields, and Schultzes, and Earles; and Young, (to look after a mitre, the want of which gives him terrible "Night Thoughts.") It must be owned, however, that there is a falling off. The sprightliest thing we hear of is a frolic of the maids of honor at night-time, in Kensington Gardens, rattling people's windows and catching colds. The King hunts as 306 THE FOUNDING OF THE BELL. George II. died at Kensington, aged seventy-eight, after having risen at his usual hour, taken his usual cup of chocolate, and Here done his customary duty, in ascertaining which way stood the weathercock. we shall close our cursory glances at the Courts of England. Mr. Jesse concludes his work with notices of a variety of other people, royal and aulic, but they do not tempt us to say more. ardently as he used to do when he was day in summer he carried that uniform parPrince, taking his whole household with ty, but without his daughters, to dine at him, maids and all, and frightening Lady Richmond; they went in coaches and six in Hervey for the bones of her friend Howard. the middle of the day, with the heavy She had known what it was. Here is a horse-guards kicking up the dust before picture of those days from Pope, answering them-dined, walked an hour in the garden, to both periods:-"I met the Prince with returned in the same dusty parade; and his all his ladies on horseback, coming from Majesty fancied himself the most gallant hunting. Miss Bellenden and Miss Lepell and lively prince in Europe." took me into their protection, contrary to the laws against harboring Papists, and gave me a dinner, with something I liked better, an opportunity of conversation with Mrs. Howard. We all agreed that the life of a maid of honor was of all things the most miserable; and wished that every woman who envied it had a specimen of it. To eat Westphalia ham in a morning; ride over hedges and ditches on borrowed hacks; come home in the heat of the day with a fever, and (what is worse a hundred times) with a red mark on the forehead from an uneasy hat; all this may qualify them to make excellent wives for fox-hunters, and bear abundance of ruddy-complexioned children. As soon as they can wipe off the sweat of the day, they must simper an hour and catch cold in the Princess's apartment; from thence (as Shakspeare has it) to dinner, with what appetite they may; and af ter that, till midnight, work, walk, or think, which they please. I can easily believe no lope house in Wales, with a mountain and rookery, is more contemplative than this court; and as a proof of it, I need only tell you, Miss Lepell walked with me three or four hours by moon-light, and we met no creature of any quality but the King, who gave audience to the vice-chamberlain, all alone, under the garden-wall." Afterwards, when the Prince was King, we read, in the notes to the "Suffolk Correspondence," of pages and princesses being thrown during these "immoderate huntings;" and lords and ladies being overturned in their chaises. To hunt in a chaise was an old custom. Swift describes his meeting Queen Anne hunting in a chaise, which, he says, she drove herself, and drove "furiously, like Jehu; and is a mighty hunter, like Nimrod." The King never lost his passion for making a noise with his horses, neither did his punctuality forsake him. His last years, Walpole tells us, "passed as regularly as clockwork. At nine at night he had cards in the apartments of his daughters, the Princesses Amelia and Caroline, with Lady Yarmouth, two or three of the late Queen's ladies, and as many of the most favored offiEvery Saturcers of his own household. THE FOUNDING OF THE BELL. BY CHARLES MACKAY. From Blackwood's Magazine. HARK! how the furnace pants and roars! It glitters in the sun! Now through the ready mould it flows, Unswathe him now. Take off each stay Let chain and pulley run, The clapper on his giant side A nation's joy alone shall be Borne on the gale, deep-toned and clear, Their mortal race have run; |