Farmer George Volume I Part 13

[208] _Georgiana._

George liked to think himself a patron of art and artists, but it is hinted he was not always inspired by the right motive, as when he found a place for Gibbon as a Lord of Trade:

"King George in a fright, Lest Gibbon should write The Hist'ry of England's disgrace, Thought no way so sure His pen to secure As to give the historian a place."

The royal patronage was certainly not exercised on the heroic scale.

Thus, Richard Paton was commanded to bring to Kew for their Majesties'

inspection naval pictures intended for St. Petersburg, and he obeyed the summons, at a cost of fifty pounds for carriage, for which he was repaid only with thanks; and it was the payment by the King of twenty-five pounds for a picture, the market price of which was four times that amount, painted by a friend of Dr. Wolcot, that brought down upon the monarch the many vigorous onslaughts by that keen though coa.r.s.e satirist.[209]

[209] Papendiek: _Journals_.

On another occasion the Queen was persuaded to sit to young Thomas Lawrence. "The poor young fellow was naturally inexperienced in the ways of a Court, and the manner in which her Majesty treated him was not with her usual kind consideration. She declined to give him a last sitting for the ornaments, as it was too much trouble, but eventually was prevailed upon to allow Mrs. Papendiek to act as her deputy. No money was paid. The King told him to remove it to town, and have it engraved.

When that was done, the portrait was to be sent to Hanover, and then the King proposed to pay. But Lawrence had no money, and could not risk the engraving at his own expense."[210] The picture, therefore, remained in his studio, and was sold with others after his death.

[210] _Ibid._

Even royalty itself was not able to induce the King to put aside his dislike of spending money, for when the Empress of Russia asked for a portrait of himself by Reynolds, the monarch, with "laudable royal economy," as the satirist put it, went, not to Reynolds, but to an inexpensive portrait-painter.

"I'm told, and I believe the story, That a fam'd Queen of Northern brutes, A gentlewoman of _prodigious_ glory, Whom every sort of epithet _well suits_; Whose husband _dear_, just happening to _provoke_ her, Was shov'd to heaven upon a _red-hot poker_!

Sent to a _certain_ King, not King of _France_, Desiring by Sir Joshua's hand his phiz, What did the royal quiz?

Why, _d.a.m.ned genteelly_, sat to Mr. Dance."[211]

[211] Peter Pindar: _Lyric Odes to the Royal Academicians_.

Certainly on no occasion made public did George III ever show a royal generosity. He saved his old master, Goupy, from a debtor's prison, and appointed his fencing master Redman, who had fallen upon evil days, a Poor Knight of Windsor; he released a man who had been imprisoned twelve years in Dorchester Jail for a debt of 100 by paying that amount; and one day, having taken shelter in a cottage where a joint was suspended before the fire by a string, he left two guineas behind him to "buy a jack."

"I never considered the King as munificent," Lord Carlisle remarked; "when he gave the kettledrums costing 1,500 to the Blues, he was deranged. Before his illness he stopped all the hunt to give an old man something for opening a gate at Bray Wick: after a long search for his purse he produced from it a penny and bestowed it on the man. He gave a _fete_ in the Castle to all the Eton school boys. It consisted of a very long concert of sacred music with nothing to eat or drink."[212]

[212] Lord Carlisle: _Reminiscences_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From an old print_

THE KING RELIEVING PRISONERS IN DORCHESTER GAOL]

It was not so much that George III was not good-natured, but that he lacked the imagination that might have a.s.sisted him to a more worthy generosity. He could never divest himself of a care for trifling sums of money, and while he would authorize, nay encourage, the spending of millions to further some matter upon which he had set his heart, he would sit at home and work out the cost of his son's household to a halfpenny,[213] and take great care that his agricultural hobby should show a balance on the right side, which last consideration aroused again and again the ire of Peter Pindar.

[213] "I take this opportunity of enclosing to you a list of the servants that I find absolutely necessary to place about my third and fourth sons; now I put two preceptors to attend them. I have very carefully brought the expense as low as the nature of the thing would permit.

Preceptors {Mr. de Bude 350 {Rev. Mr. Hooke 300

Page of the Back Stairs {Mannorlay,} each, salary 80} 200 {Meller, } for mourning 20} Housekeeper 50 For keeping three housemaids, each 20 60 Porter 30 Watchman 25 Writing Master 100 _____ 1,115 _____

"The King to Lord North, August 22, 1772."

Another example of what Lord Brougham called the King's "very minute economy" is given in the present writer's _The First Gentleman of Europe_, vol. I, p. 105.

"The modern bard, quoth Tom, sublimely sings Of sharp and prudent economic kings, Who rams, and ewes, and lambs, and bullocks feed.

And pigs of every sort of breed:

"Of Kings who pride themselves on fruitful sows; Who sell skim milk, and keep a guard so stout To drive the geese, the thievish rascals, out, That ev'ry morning us'd to suck the cows;

"Of Kings who cabbages and carrots plant For such as wholesome vegetables want; Who feed, too, poultry for the people's sake, Then send it through the villages in carts, To cheer (how wondrous kind!) the hungry hearts Of such as _only pay_ for what they take."[214]

[214] _Ode upon Ode; or, A Peep at St. James's._

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a drawing by Isaac Cruikshank, 1791_

SUMMER AMUs.e.m.e.nTS AT FARMER GEORGE'S]

The reason for the unpopularity of the Court may be traced, not to the King's lack of appreciation of what was best in art and letters, not even to his stupidity, but to the lack of wisdom in the sovereigns who, in their zeal for reform, carried their love of decorum to excess (although the Queen's Puritanism was not so deep but that she could for her own ends aid and abet such a frail, designing baggage as Lady Jersey[215]), and to a parsimony unpardonable when exercised in conjunction with a large Civil List.[216] Their miserly tendencies were noted and commented upon with disgust at the Queen's first party, given on November 26, 1762, a "gingerbread affair," which, including the ladies-and-gentlemen-in-waiting, did not consist of more than a baker's dozen of couples. On this occasion, though dancing began before seven o'clock and went on uninterrupted till long after midnight, there was no supper, an omission that furnished Lord Chesterfield with the opportunity for a _bon-mot_ in a subsequent conversation as to possible additions to the peerage on the King's next birthday. "I suppose," said some one, "there will be no dukes made." "Oh, yes," said Lord Chesterfield, "there is to be _one_. Lord Talbot is to be created Duke Humphrey, and there is to be no table kept at Court but his!" Those who attended the royal functions fully appreciated this reference to "dining with Duke Humphrey"; and Peter Pindar voiced the public feeling in his "Odes to Kien Long":

"The pocket is a very serious matter, _Small beer_ allayeth thirst--nay, _simple water_.

The splendour of a chase, or feast, or ball, Though strong, are pa.s.sing momentary rays-- The l.u.s.tre of a little hour; that's all-- While _guineas_ with _eternal_ splendour blaze."

[215] The "beautiful Miss Twysden" who married in 1770 George Bussy, fourth Earl of Jersey, and was subsequently a mistress of the Prince of Wales.

[216] It was said that the Queen's economy was due partly to the fact that she came from a Court where money was scarce and expenditure consequently strictly regulated, and partly because she felt it her duty, as it was her pleasure, to give financial a.s.sistance to the members of her family. The King helped her in this matter; the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was given a pension on the Irish establishment, her brother Charles was appointed Governor of Zell, and Prince George was given a lucrative command in the Hanoverian army.

The Queen's pin-money was settled by Parliament at 40,000 a year, and, in the event of her surviving her husband, she was to receive 100,000 a year and the use of Richmond Old Park and Somerset House.

The lack of hospitality shown to those who attended at Court was combined with an equal penury in connexion with those who were summoned to amuse the royal circle, and of some disgraceful examples of this unroyal miserliness Peter Pindar again is the historian.

"For, not long since, I heard a forward dame Thus, in a tone of impudence, exclaim, Good G.o.d! how kings and queens a song adore!

With what delight they order an _encore_!

When that same song, _encor'd_, for _nothing_ flows!

This Madam Mara to her sorrow knows!

To Windsor oft, and eke to Kew, The r-y-l mandate Mara drew.

No cheering drop the dame was asked to sip-- No bread was offer'd to her quivering lip: Though faint, she was not suffer'd to sit down-- Such was the _goodness_--grandeur of the crown.

Now tell me, will it ever be believ'd, How much for song and chaise-hire she receiv'd?

How much pray, think ye? Fifty guineas. 'No.'

Most surely forty. 'No, no.' Thirty. 'Poh!

Pray, guess in reason, come again!'-- Alas! you jeer us!--twenty at the least; No man could ever be so great a b--st As not to give her twenty for her pain.-- 'To keep you, then, no longer in suspense, For Mara's chaise-hire and unrivall'd note, Out of their _wonderful_ benevolence, Their bounteous M----ies gave--not a groat.'"[217]

[217] _Ode upon Ode; or, A Peep at St. James's._

The pecuniary treatment accorded to Madame Mara was meted out also to Mrs. Siddons, who, appointed preceptress in English reading to the Princesses, but without salary,[218] was summoned frequently to read or recite at Court, and came out of the palace "as rich as she went in."

[218] Mrs. Delany: _Autobiography and Correspondence_.

"Such are the stories twain! Why, grant the fact, Are _princes_, pray, like _common folks_ to act?

Should Mara call it cruelty, and blame Such r-y-l conduct, I'd cry, Fie upon her!

To Mrs. Siddons freely say the same, Sufficient for _such people_ is the _honour_."[219]

[219] _Ode upon Ode; or, A Peep at St. James's._