George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820; Great Britain -- History -- George III, 1760-1820
Lord Harcourt wrote from Strelitz of the bride as "no regular beauty",
but credited her with a charming complexion, very pretty eyes, and a
good figure, summing her up as a very fine girl, and Mrs. Papendiek, who
came over with her, has placed on record a not dissimilar picture, "She
was certainly not a beauty, but her countenance was expressive and
intelligent. She was not tall, but of a slight, rather pretty figure;
her eyes bright and sparkling with good humour and vivacity, her mouth
large, but filled with white and even teeth, and her hair really
beautiful." Walpole has said that within half-an-hour of her arrival in
the metropolis one heard of nothing but proclamations of her beauty, but
his first description of her was not flattering, and his second denies
her all claim to good looks. "Her person was small and very lean, not
well made; her face pale and homely, her nose somewhat flat and mouth
very large. Her hair, however, was of a fine brown, and her countenance
pleasing," he wrote on her arrival; but later remarked: "She had always
been, if not ugly, at least ordinary, but in her later years her want of
personal charms became, of course, less observable, and it used to be
said that she was grown better-looking. I said one day something to this
effect to Colonel Desbrowe, her Chamberlain. 'Yes,' he replied, 'I do
think the _bloom_ of her ugliness is going off!'"
Immediately upon her arrival the King introduced to his bride the
members of his family, and soon after the royal party sat down to
dinner. Later the bridesmaids[140] and the Court were introduced, and
in such numbers that she exclaimed as the long procession passed before
her, "_Mon Dieu, il y en a tout, il y en a tout._" She bore herself with
dignity, but was civil and good-humoured, showed pleasure when she was
told she should kiss the peeresses, and betrayed a pretty reluctance to
give her hand to be kissed by the humbler folk. At ten o'clock all
repaired to the chapel where the marriage ceremony was repeated. The
Queen was, of course, in bridal costume, and Walpole thought she looked
very sensible, cheerful, and remarkably genteel. "Her tiara of diamonds
was very pretty, her stomacher was sumptuous," he commented: "her
violet-velvet mantle so heavy that the spectators know as much of her
upper half as the King himself." This was a trying ordeal after a long
journey, but the Queen forgot or disguised her fatigue, and when the
party returned to the drawing-room, was quite cheerful, played the
spinet and sang while the company was waiting for supper, talked French
with some guests and German with her attentive husband. "It does not
promise," said Walpole, "as if they would be the two most unhappy people
in England."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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