Farmer George Volume I Part 15

THE CONSTANT COUPLE]

Nothing could exceed the simplicity of the private life of George and Charlotte, the regularity of which was broken only by the frequent confinements of the Queen and the King's illnesses. During the first years of her married life Charlotte every morning read English with Dr.

Majendie, a task at which George sometimes a.s.sisted. She scarcely knew a word of the language of her adopted country on her arrival, which gave Lady Townshend the opportunity to remark, on hearing that Lady Northumberland had been made a Lady of the Bedchamber, that "it was a very proper appointment, for, as the Queen knew no English, that lady would teach her the vulgar tongue." The first use to which her Majesty put her newly-acquired knowledge was to address poetical effusions to her husband. "I send you verses, _said_ to be the Queen's upon the King, it seems impossible that she should write them so soon, but I fancy she wrote in French," Lady Sarah Bunbury wrote to Lady Susan O'Brien in 1764. "Whitehead or somebody translated them; whoever did, they are bad enough."[237] In spite of their lack of merit, one set of verses may perhaps be given as a curiosity:--

"Genteel is my Damon, engaging his air, His face like the morn is both ruddy and fair, Soft love sits enthroned in the beam of his eyes, He's manly, yet tender, he's fond, and yet wise.

"He's ever good-humour'd, he's generous and gay, His presence can always drive sorrow away, No vanity sways him, no folly is seen, But open his temper, and n.o.ble his mien.

"By virtue illumin'd his actions appear, His pa.s.sions are calm and his reason is clear, An affable sweetness attends on his speech, He's willing to learn, though he's able to teach.

"He has promised to love me--his words I'll believe, For his heart is too honest to let him deceive; Then blame me, ye fair ones, if justly you can, Since the picture I've drawn is exactly the man."

[237] _Life and Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox._

After her English lesson, the Queen devoted an hour or two to needlework, and then walked or rode with the King till dinner. In the evening, if there was no company she would sing to her own accompaniment on the spinet, and play cards with her ladies, while the King amused himself at backgammon, a game to which he was devoted. Nothing could be more genteel and more dull. "The recluse life led here at Richmond--which is carried to such an excess of privacy and economy, that the Queen's _friseur_ waits on them at dinner, and four pounds only of beef are allowed for their soup--disgusts all sorts of persons,"

Walpole wrote to Lord Hertford; but while this is probably an exaggeration, the statement is valuable as showing the spirit in which the Court was regarded. Occasionally, of course, there was a little mild gaiety, which usually took the form of an informal dance, for her Majesty was as fond of dancing as of cards, housekeeping and the theatre. "I prefer plays to all other amus.e.m.e.nts," declared the Queen, who "really looked almost concerned" to learn that Miss Burney had never seen Mrs. Pope, Miss Betterton, or Mr. Murray.[238] When she was at the Queen's House, she went to a theatre once a week, but was careful always to select the piece to be performed, which, as the choice was made presumably after hearing the plot, must have robbed her of much of her enjoyment. This precaution was taken after a visit to see "The Mysterious Husband," when George was so overcome that he turned to his consort, "Charlotte, don't look, it's too much to bear," and commanded it should not be repeated. He, too, was fond of the theatre, liking comedy better than tragedy, and while the Queen's favourites were John Quick and Mrs. Siddons, he preferred Quin and Elliston to all other actors. Both delighted in music, frequently attended the Opera, and gave concerts at St. James's, when the King's band played, when Stanley was organist, Crosdill 'cellist, and Miss Linley sang, until after her marriage, when her place was taken by Madame Bach (_nee_ Galli), and Miss Cantilo. As a rule, however, to the great disgust of the majority of the _suite_, only the works of Handel were performed.

[238] _Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay._

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From an engraving by W. Woollett_

KEW PALACE]

"The Kew life, you will perceive, is different from the Windsor. As there are no early prayers, the Queen rises later; and as there is no form or ceremony here of any sort, her dress is plain, and the hour for the second toilette extremely uncertain," Miss Burney wrote. "The royal family are here always in so very retired a way, that they live as the simplest country gentlefolks. The King has not even an equerry with him, nor the Queen any lady to attend her when she goes her airings."[239]

At Windsor a certain degree of ceremony was observed, and many old customs preserved. "I find it has always belonged to Mrs. Schwellenberg and Mrs. Haggerdorn to receive at tea whatever company the King and Queen invite to the Lodge," Miss Burney noted, "as it is only a very select few that can eat with their Majesties, and those few are only ladies; no man, of what rank soever, being permitted to sit in the Queen's presence."[240] The King, who was an early riser, worked at affairs of state from six until eight o'clock, when a procession for chapel was formed, headed by the King and Queen, the Princesses following in pairs, and after them the ladies and gentlemen in waiting, who usually attended in full strength, for though it was not obligatory on the members of the suite, their absence was resented by the Queen.

"The King rose every morning at six, and had two hours to himself. He thought it effeminate to have a carpet in his bedroom. Shortly before eight, the Queen and the royal family were always ready for him, and they proceeded to the King's chapel in the castle. There were no fires in the pa.s.sages; the chapel was scarcely alight; Princesses, governesses, equerries grumbled and caught cold; but cold or hot, it was their duty to go; and, wet or dry, light or dark, the stout old George was always in his place to say amen to the chaplain."[241]

[239] _Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, June 28, 1786._

[240] When in 1788 the Royal Family went to Cheltenham for the benefit of the King's health, this rule was temporarily abrogated, partly owing to the small s.p.a.ce at the disposal of the Court. "The Queen will dine with her equerries, though at first coming into this country German etiquette prevented her from sitting at her table with much greater personages than either Dr. Digby or Mr. Gwynn."--Anthony Storer to the Earl of Auckland.

[241] Thackeray: _The Four Georges_.

After breakfast, the King would either return to his study, or go riding or hunting, two forms of exercise to which he was very partial. Until his illness prevented him, he never missed going with the whole of his family to the races at Ascot Heath, at which place he gave a plate of a hundred guineas, to be run for on the first day by such horses as had hunted regularly with his own hounds the preceding winter.

While the King had the business of state and hunting with which to occupy himself, his consort was less fortunate, for her husband never mentioned public affairs in her presence, and let her understand from the first that this would always be so. Five years after the Royal marriage, Chesterfield remarked, "The King loves her as a woman, but I verily believe has not yet spoken one word to her about business"; and long after Lord Carlisle stated, "The King never placed any confidence whatever in the Queen as to public affairs, nor had she any power either to injure or serve any one. In this respect he treated her with great severity." However, as time pa.s.sed and children came to her, she found some occupation--as well as much anxiety. "The Queen would have two physicians always on the spot to watch the const.i.tutions of the royal children to eradicate, if possible, or at least to keep under, the dreadful disease, scrofula, inherited from the King," Mrs. Papendiek, a.s.sistant-keeper of the Wardrobe and Reader to her Majesty, has told us.

"She herself saw them bathed at six every morning, attended the schoolroom of her daughters, was present at their dinner, and directed their attire, whenever these plans did not interfere with public duties, or any plans or wishes of the King, whom she neither contradicted nor kept waiting a moment under any circ.u.mstances."[242] As the children grew up, the elder were sometimes allowed to breakfast with their parents, who once a week went with the entire family to Richmond Gardens; but the intercourse was strictly regulated, and the little boys and girls were never allowed to forget that their mother and father were the King and Queen of England. Charlotte tried to find pleasure in her trinkets, and she told Miss Burney how much she liked the jewels at first. "But how soon that was over!" she sighed. "Believe me, Miss Burney, it is the pleasure of a week--a fortnight at most, and to return no more. I thought at first 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, believe me, ma'am, in a fortnight's time I longed again for my earlier dress."[243] The poor woman had not even the satisfaction of being popular with her subjects, for the public, which did not love minor German royalties, had not at the first shown any great enthusiasm for the Queen, and such favour as she had found in their eyes very soon declined.

[242] _Journals._

[243] _Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay._

Indeed, it was not long before there was a very marked feeling against her, and this became obvious to all the world when, within a month of her first _accouchement_, she attended a public installation of the Garter.[244] This early reappearance was thought indelicate, and an ill-advised plea put forward by her friends--that her German training must be taken into consideration--only added fuel to the fire, for foreign customs even to-day find little toleration at the hands of this nation whose creed is liberty.

[244] Even before this, the Queen had made a semi-public appearance, for, on the day of baptism, her bed "magnificently upholstered in crimson velvet," was removed to the great drawing-room. "Though she is not yet to see company in form," Walpole records, "yet it looks as if 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 of, besides those in waiting, were the d.u.c.h.ess of Queensberry, Lady Dalkeith, Mrs. Grenville, and about four more ladies."

"You seem not to know the character of the Queen: here it is--she is a good woman, a good wife, a tender mother, and an unmeddling queen," Lord Chesterfield wrote to his son in 1765; and a loyal rhymester set forth the same view in a "Birthday Ode," in which he played at satire.

"The Queen, they say, Attends her nurs'ry every day; And, like a common mother, shares In all her infant's little cares.

What vulgar unamusing scene, For George's wife and Britain's queen!

'Tis whispered also at the palace, (I hope 'tis but the voice of malice) That (tell it not in foreign lands) She works with her own royal hands; And that our sovereign's sometimes seen, In vest embroidered by his queen.

This might a courtly fashion be In days of old Andromache; But modern ladies, trust my words, Seldom sew tunics for their lords.

What secret next must I unfold?

She hates, I'm confidently told, She hates the manners of the times And all our fashionable crimes, And fondly wishes to restore The golden age and days of yore; When silly simple women thought A breach of chast.i.ty a fault, Esteem'd those modest things, divorces, The very worst of human curses; And deem'd a.s.semblies, cards and dice, The springs of every sort of vice.

Romantic notions! All the fair At such absurdities must stare; And, spite of all her pains, will still Love routs, adultery, and quadrille."

In a Birthday Ode indiscriminate eulogy is expected, and due allowance made for the enthusiasm of the poet, but from a man with the perspicacity of Lord Chesterfield a more critical estimate of the Queen's character might have been antic.i.p.ated. Leigh Hunt said Charlotte was a "plain, penurious, soft-spoken, decorous, bigoted, shrewd, overweening personage,"[245] and the truth of his description cannot be seriously impugned. That she was not fair to look upon was a misfortune more severe to herself than to others, but her domineering spirit was a sore trial to those who came into contact with her, as readers of f.a.n.n.y Burney's Diary know. She was very jealous of her influence with the King, clinging to such power as it gave her with remarkable tenacity, and suspicious of those who were dear to him. Thus, when in 1772 the King's sister, the d.u.c.h.ess of Brunswick, visited England at the suggestion of the Princess Dowager, her mother, the Queen did not offer the d.u.c.h.ess the hospitality of a royal palace, but took for her "a miserable little house" in Pall Mall, and contrived that she should not see the King alone. This strange behaviour became generally known and as generally disapproved, with the result that when at this time the King and Queen visited a theatre they were received in chilling silence, but, to mark its feeling, the house vociferously cheered the d.u.c.h.ess of Brunswick on her entry.

[245] _The Town._

Charlotte's faults, however, were probably mostly due to environment.

"Bred up in the rigid formality of a petty German court, her manners were cold and punctilious: her understanding was dull, her temper jealous and petulant."[246] She seems to have had affection for the husband to whom, with all her faults, she made a good wife, although she but rarely gave any overt sign of her feeling for him. "The Queen had n.o.body but myself with her one morning, when the King hastily entered the room with some letters in his hand, and addressing her in German, which he spoke very fast, and with much apparent interest in what he said, he brought the letters up to her and put them into her hand. She received them with much agitation, but evidently of a much pleased sort, and endeavoured to kiss his hand as he held them. He would not let her, but made an effort, with a countenance of the highest satisfaction, to kiss her. I saw instantly in her eyes a forgetfulness at the moment that any one was present, while drawing away her hand, she presented him her cheek. He accepted her kindness with the same frank affection that she offered it; and the next moment they both spoke English, and talked upon common and general subjects. What they said I am far enough from knowing; but the whole was too rapid to give me time to quit the room; and I could not but see with pleasure that the Queen had received some favour with which she was sensibly delighted, and that the King, in her acknowledgments, was happily and amply paid."[247]

[246] Ma.s.sey: _History of England_.

[247] _Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay._

Charlotte, however, had no endearing qualities, or, if she had in her youth, they soon became atrophied by the spirit that forced her to put her dignity before all else. A certain d.u.c.h.ess begged the Queen to receive her niece, about whom an unfounded scandal had been circulated.

Her request was refused, and, on leaving the royal presence, she made a further appeal, "Oh, Madam! what shall I say to my poor niece?" "Say,"

replied Charlotte, "say you did not dare make such a request to the Queen." The d.u.c.h.ess at once resigned the post she held at Court, and the Queen made half a score of bitter enemies. She was a hard woman, and had no consideration for her _entourage_. Lady Townshend, who was with child, became greatly fatigued at a royal function at which it was, of course, _de rigeur_ to stand, and the Princess of Wales, noticing this, turned to her mother-in-law, and asked, "Will your Majesty command Lady Townshend to sit down?" "She may stand," said Charlotte, petulantly, "she may stand." This was, however, only to be expected in a mother who seldom permitted her offspring to sit in her presence: it is related that when she was playing whist one of her sons fell asleep standing behind her chair. The d.u.c.h.ess of Ancaster suffered by this severe etiquette, but she was a woman of resource, and when in her official capacity she accompanied her royal mistress on a state visit to Oxford, becoming very tired, she drew a small body of troops before her, and, thus sheltered, rested on a convenient bench.

A more favourable picture of Queen Charlotte is drawn by Miss Burney, who thought very highly of her. "For the excellence of her mind I was fully prepared; the testimony of the nation at large could not be unfaithful; but the depth and soundness of her understanding surprised me: good sense I expected; to that alone she could owe the even tenour of her conduct, universally approved, though examined and judged by the watchful eye of mult.i.tudes. But I had not imagined that, shut up within the confined limits of a court, she could have acquired any but the most superficial knowledge of the world, and the most partial insight into character. But I find now, I have only done justice to her disposition, not to her parts, which are truly of that superior order that makes sagacity intuitively supply the place of experience. In the course of this month I spent much time alone with her, and never once quitted her presence without fresh admiration of her talents."[248] That Charlotte had common sense combined with strong will may be admitted, nor can it be denied that she could be kind on occasion. She purchased a house in Bedfordshire as a home for poor gentlewomen, and she became the patroness of the Magdalen Hospital; she was gracious to the Harcourts, and was perhaps seen at her best in her intercourse with Mrs. Delany, to whom, after the death of Margaret, d.u.c.h.ess of Portland, the King presented a furnished house at Windsor and an annuity of 300 out of the Privy Purse, the half-yearly payments of which were taken to her by the Queen in a pocket-book, in order that it might not be docked by the tax-collector. The sovereigns met Mrs. Delany for the first time at Bulstrode Park, when George offered a chair to the old lady, who was much confused by his condescension. "Mrs. Delany, sit, down, sit down,"

said Charlotte, smiling, to set her at her ease, "it is not everybody that has a chair brought her by a King."

[248] _Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, 1786._

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Caricature by Wm. Hogarth_

JOHN WILKES]

CHAPTER XI

"No. XLV"

Lord Bute, to support his policy, had founded two newspapers, "The Auditor," and, under the editorship of Smollett, "The Briton," and these inspired John Wilkes, member of Parliament for Aylesbury, to set up, as a weapon for the Opposition, "The North Briton," the onslaughts in which were so ferocious that "The Auditor" on February 8, 1763, and "The Briton", four days later, died of sheer fright. Wilkes and Charles Churchill,[249] the most valuable contributor to "The North Briton," did indeed fight with the b.u.t.tons off the foils, and, while other papers still retained the custom of referring to persons by their initials, they disdained this foolish method, and gave their enemies the poor comfort of seeing their names in the full glory of print.

[249] Charles Churchill (1731-1764), author of "The Rosciad" and other satires.

When Bute resigned, No. xliv of "The North Briton" had appeared, and the next issue was in preparation. Wilkes, on hearing this important intelligence, delayed the publication to see if George Grenville,[250]

the new Prime Minister, would offer a new policy, or follow in the footsteps of his late leader. Pitt and Lord Temple showed Wilkes an early copy of the King's Speech, and, learning from this that no change would take place, the latter proceeded with the composition of the since historic No. xlv. The King's Speech was read on April 19, 1763, and on April 23 appeared the famous sheet, wherein the terms of the peace, the Cyder tax, and other acts of the Ministry were attacked, and the Address was stigmatised as "the most abandoned instance of ministerial effrontery ever attempted to be imposed upon mankind." In the paper it was stated very clearly that the King's Speech was always regarded, not as the personal address of the sovereign, but as the utterance of ministers. "Every friend of his country," said "The North Briton,"

"must lament that a prince of so many great and amiable qualities, whom England truly reveres, can be brought to give the sanction of his sacred name to the most odious measures and to the most unjustifiable declarations from a throne ever renowned for truth, honour and unsullied virtue."

[250] Grenville, speaking in the House of Commons, on the Cyder Tax, explained that the bill was brought in because funds must be found, and turned to Pitt who had been speaking against the measure. "I call upon the honourable gentleman opposite to me to say _where_ they would wish to have a tax laid? I say, Sir, let them tell me _where_! I repeat it, Sir! I am ent.i.tled to say to them--_tell me where?_" Thereupon Pitt, mimicking the monotonous tones of the speaker, murmured audibly in the words of the then popular ballad: "Gentle Shepherd, tell me where." The House roared with laughter, and the nickname "Gentle Shepherd" clung to Grenville for life.