“The Prince has also given a plate to be sailed for by six or seven yachts, or pleasure boats, to the Nore, and back again.” This last prize was sailed for on Tuesday, 1st August, 1749, and was won by the “Princess Augusta” belonging to George Bellas, Esq., a “register” of Doctor’s Commons. The Prince of Wales attended in his Venetian-Chinese barge (the rowers in Chinese habits) being greatly cheered by the people, “at which he pulled off his hat.” Turning to other matters, there was an accident at Kensington Palace which occurred when Lady Yarmouth--our old acquaintance Madame Walmoden--took up her quarters there, very nearly causing the demolition of the building, which would have been an event much to be regretted from the point of view of picturesqueness. The Walmoden was installed in the same rooms which the King’s former mistress the Countess of Suffolk occupied, and they were exceedingly damp, a drawback which apparently was not heeded by Lady Suffolk. The Walmoden, however, was a chilly person, and contracted ague, which was rather to be wondered at on such a well-known gravel soil. However, to counteract this complaint, she made up such huge fires that the woodwork of the building caught and the palace was nearly burnt down. There were plenty of other less damp rooms, but the King would not allow them to be used, and commenting on this Horace Walpole remarks: “The King hoards all he can, and has locked up half the Palace since the Queen’s death, so he does at St. James’s, and I believe would put the rooms out at interest if he could get a closet a year for them.” But as the King grew older, there were no further signs of a _rapprochement_ between himself and his eldest son, and no doubt the latter’s lavish expenditure--on such things as Venetian barges with Chinese crews--tended to set the father as he grew more avaricious, more against the son. But the riches hoarded by King George did not endure, but were swallowed up in that disastrous Hanoverian campaign, which also swallowed up the military reputation of the Duke of Cumberland, and put a final period to his war experiences. The following extracts from the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, for the year 1750, are pathetic when read by the light of an event which followed but too quickly. They represent the Prince, in fine summer weather, with his wife and children, happily making a “Progress” and visiting certain English country towns. There is a holiday air of peace and relaxation about them all, and the Prince is shown in those circumstances in which he loved best to live, with a devoted and beautiful wife, for whom without doubt he had a tender affection, by his side, and a bevy of loving children surrounding them both. So in the balmy summer air, rent by the plaudits of the people who loved him also, it is better to leave him so depicted in the last public scene in which he appears in these pages, for that happy summer of 1750 was the last he spent on earth.