The Princess Amelia often went to Bath, then a very gay place, where she played cards and talked scandal to her heart's content. She had a great liking for her little niece, and she asked permission to take her to Bath on one of these visits for a few weeks. Matilda, weary of the dulness and seclusion of Carlton House, pleaded hard to go, but the Princess-Dowager would not hear of it. She disliked her sister-in-law and disapproved of her card-playing proclivities. Matilda was greatly disappointed at her mother's refusal, and said that she had been looking forward to the journey, for she loved to travel. The Princess Amelia tried to cheer her niece, and remarked jocularly: "It will not be long before you will have plenty of travelling". "I know what you mean," said Matilda, "but surely it would be happier for me to stay where I am, than go so far for a Prince I have never seen." [Illustration: THE ELDER CHILDREN OF FREDERICK AND AUGUSTA, PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES, PLAYING IN KEW GARDENS. _From a Painting, temp. 1750._] The Princess found consolation in the thought that her dreaded marriage would not take place for some time (it was to be deferred for two years, until 1767), and in a few months after her betrothal she recovered her spirits, and interested herself once more in her gardening and other simple pleasures, and in little acts of beneficence to the poor families whom she took under her especial protection at Kew. She pursued her studies diligently, the better to qualify herself for the high position she was intended to fill. At the suggestion of the King of Denmark, she began to learn German, the language then most spoken at the Danish court.[24] It is characteristic of the English tendencies of Frederick Prince of Wales, that, though both he and his wife were born in Germany, not one of their children was taught German as a necessary part of his, or her, education, and several of them remained ignorant of it. [24] Letter of the Duke of Grafton to Titley, St. James's, March 14, 1766. We must now give some account of the Princess Matilda's betrothed husband, the Crown Prince Christian, and of the court of Denmark. CHAPTER IV. THE TRAINING OF A KING. 1749-1766. The Crown Prince Christian (afterwards Christian VII. of Denmark and Norway) was born on January 29, 1749, and was therefore two years and six months older than his first cousin and betrothed bride, Princess Matilda.