"The indolent Elector contented himself with showing his resentment by his silence towards him; and this was the situation the family first appeared in when they came into England. This behaviour did not, however, hinder schemes being laid by various persons of gratifying their ambition, or making their fortunes, by particular attachments to each of the Royal Family." CHAPTER VII AT HERRENHAUSEN AND ST. JAMES (1714-1716) The Elector George Lewis not delighted at his accession to the British throne--A greater man in Hanover than in London--Lady Mary modifies her first impression of the King--She is in high favour at Court--An amusing incident at St. James's--The early unpopularity of George I in England generally, and especially in the capital--The Hanoverians in the Royal Household--The Duchess of Kendal--The Countess of Darlington--Lady Mary's description of the Hanoverian ladies--The Duchess of Kendal's passion for money--Her influence with the King in political matters--Count de Broglie--The scandal about Lady Darlington refuted--Lady Mary and the Prince of Wales--The King and the Prince of Wales--The poets and wits of the day--Gay's tribute to Lady Mary--Pope's verses on her--"Court Poems." It is beyond question that the accession to the British throne gave no thrill of pleasure to the King. He was fifty-four years of age, and had no desire to change his state. It was necessary for him, as the present writer has said elsewhere, now to go from a country where he was absolute, to another where, so far from being supreme, when King and people differed on a matter of vital importance, the monarch had to give way--the price of resistance having been fixed, at worst at death, at best exile or civil war. He had to go from a country where he was the wealthiest and most important personage to another where he would be merely regarded as a minor German princeling set up as a figurehead, and where many of the gentry were wealthier than he. This point was appreciated by Lady Mary when she went to Hanover in November, 1716, for she wrote from there to the Countess of Bristol: "I have now made the tour of Germany, and cannot help observing difference between travelling here and in England. One sees none of those fine seats of noblemen that are so common among us, nor anything like a country gentleman's house, though they have many situations perfectly fine. But the whole people are divided into absolute sovereignties, where all the riches and magnificence are at Court, or communities of merchants, such as Nuremberg and Frankfort, where they live always in town for the convenience of trade."