Produced by David McClamrock GLIMPSES OF KING WILLIAM IV. AND QUEEN ADELAIDE IN LETTERS OF THE LATE MISS CLITHEROW, OF BOSTON HOUSE, MIDDLESEX. WITH A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF BOSTON HOUSE AND THE CLITHEROW FAMILY BY REV. G. CECIL WHITE, M.A., F.S.S., RECTOR OF NURSLING, HANTS LONDON. MDCCCCII R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON PREFACE THE following pages are mainly compiled from certain letters by Miss Mary Clitherow, which have come into the editor's possession. They afford glimpses of the Court at that time, with reference not so much to public functions as to their Majesties' more private relations with persons honoured with their friendship. The reader will meet with few, if any, references in them to leaders in political or philanthropic movements or in the realms of literature or fashion; but it is not to be inferred that these were regarded with disfavour or treated with coldness by their Majesties, whose kindly interest in the well-being of their people is notorious. There were in this short reign many commanding personalities whose names must live in our history, and ever be remembered With respect and gratitude. To name only a few: the Duke of Wellington, Lords Grey, Melbourne, Brougham, Palmerston and Shaftesbury, Sir Robert Peel, William Wilberforce, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Southey, Thomas Campbell, S. T. Coleridge, Henry Hallam, Bulwer Lytton and William Thackeray were among the leading spirits of the time. With such, however, these pages have no direct concern. They treat of personal friends whose interests lay neither in the Court nor in the Senate, and whose aims had no taint of self-seeking. The knowledge that William IV.'s intimate friends were high-minded, independent, kind-hearted English gentlefolk assures us that the King's well-known simplicity of taste was joined to a kindliness of heart, a sincerity of character, and a devotion to duty which enabled him to maintain his heritage of royal responsibility, and to hand it on to his successor with its honour restored, its resources enlarged, and its security confirmed. CONTENTS I. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF BOSTON HOUSE AND THE CLITHEROW FAMILY II. DEFEAT OF THE MINISTRY--DINNER AT ST. JAMES's, 1830 III. A WEEK-END VISIT TO WINDSOR, 1831 IV. CHOLERA AT BRENTFORD--FALSE RUMOURS ABOUT THE QUEEN--DISMISSAL OF EARL HOWE--DEATH OF THE PRINCESS LOUISE--AT WINDSOR AGAIN--AN AFTERNOON ON VIRGINIA WATER, 1832 V. THE ROYAL BIRTHDAY FÊTES, 1833 VI. DINNER TO THEIR MAJESTIES AT BOSTON HOUSE, 1834 VII. LUNCHEON AT WINDSOR--VISITS TO WINDSOR AND ST. JAMES'S, 1835 VIII. DINNER AT KEW--FÊTES AT SYON HOUSE--QUEEN ADELAIDE'S FUND IX. DEATH OF THE KING, 1837 X. AN APPRECIATION OF WILLIAM IV. AND HIS REIGN GLIMPSES OF KING WILLIAM IV. AND QUEEN ADELAIDE I A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF BOSTON HOUSE AND THE CLITHEROW FAMILY