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 FamilyClitherow, Mary
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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
Clitherow, Mary
Adelaide, Queen, consort of William IV, King of Great Britain, 1792-1849; William IV, King of Great Britain, 1765-1837
'We had our haymakers the opposite side of the garden, and kept the
people, hay-carts, etc., for effect, and it was cheerful and pretty.
The weather was perfect, and the old place never looked better.
'They arrived at seven, and we sat down to dinner at half-past. During
that half hour the Queen walked about the garden, even down to the
bottom of the wood. The haymakers cheered her, and had a pail of beer,
and when she came round to the house, instead of turning in she most
good-humouredly walked on to the flower-garden, and stood five minutes
chatting to the party, which gave the natives time to get her dress by
heart. It was very simple--all white, little bonnet and feathers.
'The King had a slight touch of hay asthma, the Princess Augusta a
slight cold, and therefore they declined going out, which separated the
party, and was a great disappointment to the people. We had police
about to keep order, the bells rang merrily, and all went well. We
received them in our new-furnished library.
'When dinner was announced the King took Jane, my brother the Queen,
and they sat on opposite sides, the Duchess of Northumberland[*] the
other side of the King, Lord Prudhoe[**] the other side of the Queen,
General Clitherow and General Sir Edward Kerrison top and bottom, and
the rest as they chose--Princess Augusta, Lord and Lady Howe, Lady
Brownlow,[***] Lady Clinton,[****] Lady Isabella Wemyss, Colonel
Wemyss, Miss Clitherow, Miss Wynyard, Mrs. Bullock, and Mr. Holmes.
That makes nineteen. The Duke of Cumberland[*****] was to have been the
twentieth, but Mr. Holmes brought a very polite apology just as we were
going in to dinner. The House of Lords detained him.
[*] Wife of Hugh, third Duke, and daughter of the first Earl Powis. She
was governess to H.R.H. the Princess Victoria, our late gracious Queen.
[**] Algernon Percy, second surviving son of the second Duke of
Northumberland, F.R.S., and Captain R.N.; born 1792. Created Baron
Prudhoe 1816. On the death of his brother he succeeded to the dukedom,
which, on his death in 1865, passed to his cousin, the second Earl of
Beverley.
[***] Emma Sophia, daughter of the second Earl of Mount Edgecumbe; born
1791, married, 1828, the first Earl Brownlow. She was Lady of the
Bedchamber to Queen Adelaide.
[****] Widow of the seventeenth Baron Clinton, Lady of the Bedchamber
to Queen Adelaide. In 1835 she married Sir Horace Beauchamp Seymour,
K.C.H.
[*****] He became King of Hanover on the death of William IV.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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