“He was dressed in a coat of white cloth, faced with blue satin
embroidered with silver, of the same piece with his waistcoat; his
fine hair hung down his back in ringlets below his waist; his hat was
laced with silver and garnished with a white feather; but his person
beggared all description: he was tall and graceful, neither corpulent
nor meagre, his limbs finely proportioned, his countenance open and
majestic, his eyes full of sweetness and vivacity, his teeth regular,
and his pouting lips of the complexion of the damask rose. In short, he
was formed for love and inspired it wherever he appeared; nor was he a
niggard of his talents, but liberally returned it, at least what passed
for such; for he had a flow of gallantry for which many ladies of this
land can vouch from their own experience.”
It must be remembered in reading above description of him, that he
inherited his mother’s beautiful fair hair and complexion.
The Court poets were not behindhand with their fulsome verses
concerning him, of which this is a sample:
“Fresh as a rosebud newly blown and fair
As opening lilies: on whom every eye
With joy and admiration dwells. See, see,
He rides his docile barb with manly grace.
Is it Adonis for the chase arrayed?
Or Britain’s second hope?”
Britain’s first hope apparently was George II.
But probably as regards his appearance when he first came to England,
Lady Bristol was nearest the mark, though there is no doubt that
from this time forward he steadily improved both in stature and in
handsomeness of person. Another description of him which will appear in
due course will give an idea of the dignity and stateliness to which he
attained in his maturer years.
Prince Frederick came from the obscure old town of Hanover with its
narrow streets and tall gabled houses to what was then, as it is
now, one of the great capitals of the world, London. But yet a very
different London to that of our own time. A London of streets narrow
and paved with cobbles, unlit save for a few dim swinging oil lamps
held across the streets by ropes, leaving the intervening spaces in
darkness, so that in winter time a man with a link or torch was an
absolute necessity.
The busy London, the shopping London lay principally between Fleet
Street and the end of Cheapside. Ludgate Hill was an especially
favourite place for dress-buying ladies. As for what we call the “West
End” it did not exist, Westminster being a separate town, and between
it and London City large expanses of waste land.
Mr. Wilkins gives a good account of the Court and its environs. He says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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