“All this was told the Queen the next day, and caused a great laugh,
but poor Mr. W(entworth) upon the thought of soliciting the great Lord
L(ifford) for a sum of £15 he had forgotten to pay him in the South
Sea. When the chase was over, the Prince clapped Mr. W(entworth) upon
the back and wished him joy of his present, and told him now he would
never be without money in his pocket. He replied that if His Highness
had not told him so publicly of it, it might have been so, but now his
creditors would tease every farthing from him.”
From above it will be seen that these letters of Mr. Wentworth were
written during the period of Queen Caroline’s first Regency, when
George the Second was abroad, and consequently the Prince of Wales had
more freedom of action. From what little can be gathered from them the
Prince seems to have been leading a harmless and happy life with his
mother, but unfortunately there is another of Mr. Wentworth’s letters
which tells a different tale.
It has been said that the position imposed on him by his father, the
King, would have tried the most dutiful and virtuous of sons, but then
unfortunately Frederick was neither, certainly not the latter. Mr.
Wentworth’s letter throws a strong light on this part of the Prince’s
life:
“Thursday morning, as the King and Queen were going to their chaise
through the garden, I told them the Prince had got his watch again.
Our farrier’s man had found it at the end of the Mall with the two
seals to ’t. The Queen laughed, and said: ‘I told you before ’twas you
who stole it, and now it is very plain you got it from the woman who
took it from the Prince and you gave it to the farrier’s man, to say
he had found it to get the reward.’ (This was twenty guineas, which
was advertised with the promise of no questions being asked). I took
Her Majesty’s words for a very great compliment, for it looked as if
she thought I could please a woman better than His Highness. Really
his losing his watch and its being brought back in the manner it has
been is very mysterious, and a knotty point to be unravelled at Court,
for the Prince protests he was not out of his coach in the Park on
the Sunday night it was lost. But by accident I think I can give some
account of this affair, though it is not my business to say a word of
it at Court, not even to the Queen, who desired me to tell her all I
knew of it, with a promise that she would not tell the Prince (and I
desire, also, the story may never go out of Wentworth Castle again).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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