Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. — a MemoirBiddulph, Elizabeth Philippa, Baroness
History
Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. — a Memoir
Biddulph, Elizabeth Philippa, Baroness
Hardwicke, Charles Philip Yorke, Earl of, 1799-1873
As illustrating the King's religious feeling I may mention that among
His Majesty's experiences with Lord Hardwicke was a visit they made
together to Newgate, where they were present in the chapel at a service
Elizabeth Fry was holding for the prisoners. The King knelt and was
deeply affected, and my father always described the scene as 'deeply
touching' and said that he left the prison with an ideal memory of that
great and holy woman.
The King of Prussia became much attached to Lord Hardwicke during this
visit to England, and made him promise a return visit to Prussia. This
took place in June of the same year, when my father went to Berlin and
accompanied the King on a visit he made to the Czar Nicholas at St.
Petersburg. My father wrote a series of letters to my mother while upon
this journey, describing much that he saw and did, and as these give
many interesting particulars of the Czar and his Court, and describe
some of the old towns in North Germany in a way which may tempt many a
wanderer to visit some of them even to-day, I here print some extracts
from them.
The first of these is dated June 20, 1842, from Hamburg, where my
father was detained by a short illness, during which he had the help of
Mr. Schetky, the marine painter to Queen Victoria, whose acquaintance
he had made years before at the Naval College at Portsmouth. It gives
some interesting particulars of the great fire which raged in that city
on May 4, 1842, and two days following, and destroyed 2000
dwelling-houses as well as many churches and public buildings.
* * * * *
'I send you some little sketches of parts of the dilapidated town
showing the ruins of the great church of Saint Peter. The history of
the fire is told in a few words; no one knows how it began, the want of
order, power, and a commanding head was the cause of the great
devastation ... the mob said "in a free town we can do what we like."
They pumped spirits from the engines instead of water by mistake, and
thus a scene of devastation and plunder was begun which ceased only
from the exhaustion of the people and a shift of the wind.
'Then came in some troops from Prussia and Denmark, and order was
restored. The number of lives lost is not known, but not above two
hundred it is believed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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