cipally at Brussels, until May, 1818, on the 29th of which month he was married at Coburg, according to the Lutheran rites, to her serene highness Victoria Maria Louisa, youngest daughter of the late reigning duke of Saxe Coburg; widow of his late serene highness the prince of Leiningen; and sister of his royal highness the prince of Saxe Coburg, the chosen husband of our much-lamented princess Charlotte. The royal pair shortly after the solemnity, arrived in England, and were re-married, according to the rites of the English church, at Kew palace, on the 11th of July, 1818. Persevering in the economical plan which he had laid down before his marriage, the duke, a few weeks after this secondceremony, returned with his royal bride to Amorbach, the residence of the duke of Leiningen, which the duchess, who was left by the will of her late husband guardian of her son, a minor, and regent of the principality, during his minority, had occupied as her residence from the prince's death. It was during their royal highnesses' retirement at this place, that the duchess proved to be pregnant; and as her royal highness fully concurred in the sentiments entertained by her illustrious consort, as an Englishman, that her child ought to draw its first breath on English ground, they both revisited this country where the duchess gave birth to a daughter named Alexandrina Victoria, who was born at Kensington Palace on the 24th of May, 1819. His royal highness, a very few weeks before his death, took his duchess and their lovely offspring into Devonshire, to give them the benefit of its purer air and milder

climate; but unhappily fell himself a victim to a sudden attack of pulmonary inflammation, so violent as to baffle the utmost efforts of medical skill. His royal highness, in a long walk on Thursday the 13th of January, with captain Conroy, in the beautiful environs of Sidmouth, had his boots soaked through with the wet. On their return to Woodbrook cottage, captain Conroy, finding himself wet in the feet, advised his royal highness to change his boots and stockings; but this he neglected till he dressed for dinner, being attracted by the smiles of his infant princess, with whom he sat for a considerable time in fond parental play. Before night, however, he felt a sensation of cold and hoarseness, when Dr. Wilson prescribed for him a draught composed of calomel and Dr. James's powders. This his royal highness, in his usual confidence in his strength, and dislike of medicine, did not take, saying that he had no doubt but a night's rest would carry_off every uneasy symptom. event proved the contrary. In the morning the symptoms of fever were increased; and though his royal highness lost 120 ounces of blood from the arms and by cupping, he departed this life at ten o'clock, A. M. the 23rd. His royal highness was sensible of his approaching death, and met it with pious resignation. He generously said, that he blamed himself for not yielding to the seasonable advice of Dr. Wilson in the first instance, by which the access of the fever might have been checked. Every attention that skill and affection could supply was rendered to him. Prince Leopold, accompanied by

The

Dr. Stockmar, arrived at Woodbrook Cottage on Saturday, at two o'clock, and never left his royal brother to the last.

His amiable and afflicted duchess was most indefatigable in her attentions, and performed all the offices of his sick bed with the most tender and affectionate anxiety. She did not even take off her clothes for five successive nights, and all the medicines were administered by her own hands. She yet struggled to prevent his seeing the agony of her apprehensions, and never left his bedside but to give vent to her bursting sorrow. The later years of the duke of Kent were distinguished by the exercise of talents and virtues in the highest degree worthy of a beneficent prince and of an enlightened English gentleman. There was no want nor misery which he did not endeavour to relieve to the extreme limits of his embarrassed fortune. There was no public charity to which his purse, his time, his presence, his eloquence, were not willingly devoted, nor to the ends of which they did not powerfully conduce. At the time of his death, besides the offices and dig. nities which we have already enumerated, his royal highness was invested with those of a knight of the Garter, Thistle, and St. Patrick, a knight grand cross of the Bath, keeper and paler of Hampton Court Park, colonel of the Royal Scots regiment of foot, and since the year 1805, a field marshal in the army.

His royal highness was tall in stature, of a manly and noble presence. His manners were affable, condescending, dignified and engaging; his conversation animated; his information varied

and copious; his memory exact and retentive; his intellectual power, quick, strong, and masculine; he resembled the late king in many of his tastes and propensities; he was an early riser, a close economist of his time; temperate in eating; indifferent to wine, although a lover of society; and heedless of slight indisposition, from confidence in the ge neral strength of his constitution; a kind master, a punctual and courteous correspondent, a steady friend, and an affectionate brother.

As soon as it was made known to Prince Leopold that the illness of the duke was dangerous, his royal highness hastened to Sidmouth with the greatest speed possible, where he found the report he had received but too true. After the dissolution of the duke, prince Leopold supported and upheld his afflicted sister with a manly Christian consolation, and relieved her from all responsibility in every respect, and managed every thing for her departure from this scene of woe to Kensington-palace, the duchess travelling with him in his carriage. His royal highness also took every possible care of the infant princess Alexandrina. After their return prince Leopold was unremitting in his attentions to his royal sister and niece: the former his royal highness took out daily for an airing in his carriage. Throughout the whole of this distressing event his royal highness's conduct was indeed most exemplary.

The following interesting sketch of the domestic manners of his royal highness, written by the late George Hardinge, esq. a Welsh judge, is acknowledged by

all who were honored with his familiar acquaintance, as extremely characteristic of the illustrious prince.

"The duke, amongst other peculiarities of habit, bordering upon whim, always recommends the very chair on which you are to sit; I suppose it is a regal usage. He opened a most agreeable and friendly chat, which continued for half an hour tête-à-tête. So far it was like the manner of the king (when he was himself), that it embraced a variety of topics, and was unremitted. He improved at close quarters, even upon his pen; and you know what a pen it is. The manly character of his good sense, and the eloquence of his expression, were striking. But even they were not so enchanting as that grace of manner which distinguishes him. Compared with it, in my honest opinion, lord Chesterfield, whom I am old enough to have heard and seen, was a dancing master. I found the next morning at our table tête-à-tête that he has infinite humour, and even that of making his countenance suit the character he is to personate. One of his Joe Miller's I annex to my narrative; though without his face (which I cannot enclose) it loses more than two-thirds of its effect.

"In about an hour dinner was announced. The duke led the way. I was placed at the head of the table. The duke was on my right; Madame L on my left. The honours were chiefly done by him. The dinner was exquisite. The soup was of a kind that an epicure would have travelled barefoot 300 miles in a deep snow to have been in time for it.

"In my efforts to be irresistible, between my two admirers, I dropped my napkin three or four times in rapid succession. It was recovered each time by the wellbred sentinel whose province it was to be careful of me; but I hated him, for I thought he almost betrayed that he ashamed of the duty and of me.

was

"The natural civility of an amiable habit in both of them appeared in two little traits of it, and which I may as well delineate here, because they occurred at the table, and we are there at present, my reader and I.

"Louis XVIII. was upon the tapis, and Madame, unsolicited by me, desired one of her attendants to ask her maid for his majesty's portrait in miniature. The duke, instead of discouraging this alert galanterie, in good humour improved upon it, by saying, Let her give him poor Louis Seize, and his Queen at the same time.' It was accomplished.

"They accidentally mentioned the famous Dumourier; I said that I loved seeing those whom I admired unseen, upon report alone, and in the mind's view. But I shall never see Dumourier,' said I, for he is the Lord knows where (and I cannot run after him) upon the Continent.'

he is

Not he,' said the duke, in this very island, and he often dines with us here.' I looked, but said nothing; my look was heard. Madame asked the duke (for it is a word and a blow with her) if it could not be managed.

Nothing more practicable,' said he. If the judge will but throw down his glove in the fair spirit of chivalry, Dumourier shall pick it up.'

"The servants, though I could not reconcile myself to the number of them, were models of attention, of prosperity, and of respect; their eyes seemed as if they had been made only for us; their apparel gave the impression of clothes perfectly new; the hair was uncommonly well dressed and powdered. Thereby hangs a tale, which I cannot have a better opportunity of reporting; I had it from the best authority -that of my own servant, who had it from the souterrein of the establishment, which he had confidentially explored. A hair dresser for all the livery servants constitutes one of the efficient characters in this dramatic arrangement. At a certain hour every male servant appears before the duke, to show himself perfectly well dressed, and clean. Besides this law of the Medes,' every man has a niche to fill, so that he is never unoccupied, except at his meals, in some duty or another, and is amenable to a sudden visit into the bargain. I can assure you the result is, that, in this complicated machine of souls and bodies, the genius of attention, of cleanliness, and of smart appearance, is the order of the day.

"When the duke took me the next morning to his master of the horse; instead of dirty coachmen or grooms, they were all as neat as if they never had any thing to do, or as if they were going to church in state.

"The male servants meet in their hall, at an unvaried hour; and round this apartment, as in a convent, are little recesses or cells, with not only beds in them for each, but every accommoda

tion as well as implement for their apparel. Yet all this absolute monarchy of system is consistent with a most obliging manner to the servants on his part, which I attested more than once; and with attachment as well as homage to him, attested by the hermit's inquisitor and spy, who gave me this note of his comments; I mean, of course, my own servant.

"The next morning I could not believe my own sight. It was like a vision before me in the very moon itself. I rose at 7. The lawn before me, surrounded by an amphitheatre or plantation, was covered by leaves, for they will fall even in a garden of state. The head-gardener made his appearance, and with him five or six men, who were under his wing. In much less than a quarter of an hour every dead leaf disappeared; and the turf became a carpet, after mowing, and after a succession of rollers, iron, and stone.

"After this episode we are to go back, and are to be at the table again. A very litle after dinner Madame vanished. I flew to the door, and was in time for it, with aminuet step, not unpractised, or unrehearsed in the Milbourne woods, to the Fauns and the Satyrs there; but whether such an assiduity was etiquette or vulgar, is too deep to be fathomed by so humble a conjecture as mine. In a very little time the summons came for coffee; and as before, he led the way, conducting me to another of the upper apartments in the range before described, and which, as it happened, was close to the bedchamber. They were open to each other. But such a room