“There was one Mr. W(entworth) who had a very agreeable present from the Queen. As he went over with her in the ferry boat Saturday s’ennight she gave a purse to Princess Anne, and bade her give it to Mr. W(entworth). Then she told him she wished him good luck, and in order that she might bring it to him, she had given him silver and gold, a sixpence, a shilling, and a half-guinea. He took the purse, and gave her Majesty a great many thanks. ‘What,’ said she, ‘will you not look into’t?’ His answer was: ‘Whatever comes from your Majesty is agreeable to him;’ though if he had not felt in the purse some _paper_, he could not have taken the royal jest with so good a grace. There was a bank bill in’t, which raised such a contention between him and his wife that in a manner he had better never have had it. He was willing to give her half, but the good wife called in worthy Madam Percade to her assistance, and she determined to give a third to her. “All this was told the Queen the next day, and caused a great laugh, but put 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) on the back and wished him joy of his present, and told him now he would never be without money in his pocket. He replied 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.” [Illustration: THE ALTSTADT, HANOVER.] The King who had been at Hanover five months now made ready to return to England.[51] He had greatly enjoyed his visit to the Electorate, and had given several fêtes, including a farewell masquerade in the gardens of Herrenhausen, where the hedges of clipped hornbeam acted as screens and the grass as a carpet; the whole scene was illuminated by coloured lights.[52] The King followed at Hanover the same clockwork rule he had established in England. “Our life is as uniform as that of a monastery,” wrote one of the King’s English retinue who was lodged at the Leine Schloss. “Every morning at eleven and every evening at six we drive in the heat to Herrenhausen through an enormous linden avenue; and twice a day cover our coats and coaches with dust. In the King’s society there is never the least change. At table, and at cards, he sees always the same faces, and at the end of the game retires into his chamber. Twice a week there is a French theatre; the other days there is a play in the gallery. In this way, were the King always to stop in Hanover, one could take a ten years’ calendar of his proceedings, and settle beforehand what his time of business, meals, and pleasure would be.”