"SUMMER AMUSEMENTS AT FARMER GEORGE'S" " 198 BUCKINGHAM HOUSE " 202 "THE CONSTANT COUPLE" " 220 KEW PALACE " 223 JOHN WILKES " 235 "THE BRUISER" (CHARLES CHURCHILL) " 243 THE KING'S LIFE ATTEMPTED " 258 "THE RECONCILIATION" " 268 THE RIGHT HON. GEORGE GRENVILLE " 270 FARMER GEORGE Vol. I INTRODUCTION This work is an attempt to portray the character of George III and to present him alike in his private life and in his Court. It is, therefore, not essential to the scheme of this book to treat of the political history of the reign, but it is impossible entirely to ignore it, since the King was so frequently instrumental in moulding it.[1] Only those events in which he took a leading part have been introduced, and consequently these volumes contain no account of Irish and Indian affairs, in which, apart from the Catholic Emancipation and East India Bills, the King did not actively interest himself. [1] "So closely is the domestic history of George the Third connected with the political events of his reign, as to render it almost impossible to disassociate the one from the other. Fortunately, however, in the war of party and in the animated struggle for ascendency which he so long carried on with the great Whig aristocracy, there is ample and stirring interest."--J. H. Jesse. This difficulty was not met with by the author when writing a book on the life and times of George IV,[2] because that Prince had little to do with politics. It is true that he threw his influence into the scale of the Opposition as soon as, or even before, he came of age, but this was for strictly personal reasons. Fox and Sheridan were the intimates of the later years of his minority, and his association with them gave him the pleasure of angering his father: it was his protest against George III for refusing him the income to which he considered himself, as Prince of Wales, entitled. He had, however, no interest in politics, as such, either before or after he ascended the throne; and, indeed, as King, the only measure that interested him was the Bill for the emancipation of the Catholics, which he opposed because resistance to it had made his father and his brother Frederick popular. [2] _The First Gentleman of Europe._ 2 vols. 1906.