Shortly after Queen Anne's accession her husband, Prince George, was attacked with asthma, which had such a bad effect on him that change of air was recommended, and their majesties started on a tour through the west of England. Bristol was one of their stopping-places, and while there Prince George started out one morning, {444}_incognito_, with an officer for companion, to view the sights. After walking about for an hour or so, the prince went on the Exchange, and remained there until all the merchants had left excepting one John Duddlestone, a corset-maker. This good man stood off and stared at the prince, and then hesitatingly approached, and with a shy, awkward manner, asked: "Are you, sir, the husband of our Queen Anne, as folks say you are?" "Such is, indeed, the fact," replied the prince. "Then," continued John Duddlestone, "I have seen with great concern that none of the chief merchants on 'Change have invited your highness home; but it is not for want of love or loyalty: it is merely because they are afraid to presume to address so great a man. But _I_ think that the shame to Bristol would be great indeed if the husband of her majesty the queen were obliged, for want of hospitality, to dine at an inn; I therefore beg your royal highness, humble though I am, to accompany me home to dinner and bring your soldier-officer along. I can offer your highness a good piece of roast beef, a plum-pudding, and some ale of my wife's own brewing, if that be good enough." Prince George was charmed with this original style of invitation, and accepted it with gratitude, though his dinner had been ordered at the White Lion. Arriving at his house in Corn street, worthy John Duddlestone called up from the foot of the stairs, "Wife, wife! put on a clean apron and come down, for the queen's husband and a soldier-gentleman have come to dine with us." Dame Duddlestone soon appeared in a clean, blue check apron, neat calico frock, and snowy cap, curtseying and smiling as she entered the room, her full face all aglow with the excitement occasioned by the honor of such visitors. Her table was soon arranged, and the prince did ample justice to the meal, well knowing that he could not {445} [Illustration: 0451] {447}please his host and hostess better than by eating heartily of what they set before him. "Do you ever go up to London?" he asked in the course of the dinner. "Oh, yes," answered the host; "I sometimes go there to buy whalebones for the corsets I manufacture." When the prince took his leave he gave John Duddlestone a card, and told him "the next time he went to London to take his wife along, and to be sure to bring her to court," adding "that if he would present that card at Windsor Castle it would insure his admission."