Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Second, Volume 1 (of 3)Walpole, Horace
History
Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Second, Volume 1 (of 3)
Walpole, Horace
Great Britain -- History -- George II, 1727-1760
King George the Second has often, when Mrs. Howard, his mistress,
was dressing the Queen, come into the room, and snatched the
handkerchief off, and cried, “Because you have an ugly neck
yourself, you love to hide the Queen’s!” Her Majesty (all the
while calling her “_My good Howard_,”) took great joy in employing
her in the most servile offices about her person. The King was
so communicative to his wife, that one day Mrs. Selwyn, another
of the Bedchamber Women, told him he should be the last man with
whom she would have an intrigue, because he always told the Queen.
Their letters, whenever he was at Hanover, were so long, that he
has complained when she has written to him but nineteen pages;
and in his, at the beginning of his amour with Lady Yarmouth, he
frequently said, “I know you will love the Walmoden, _because
she loves me_.” Old Blackbourn, the Archbishop of York, told her
one day, “That he had been talking to her Minister Walpole about
the new mistress, and was glad to find that her Majesty was so
sensible a woman as to like her husband should divert himself.” Yet
with the affectation of content, it made her most miserable: she
dreaded Lady Yarmouth’s arrival, and repented not having been able
to resist the temptation of driving away Lady Suffolk the first
instant she had an opportunity, though a rival so powerless, and so
little formidable. The King was the most regular man in his hours:
his time of going down to Lady Suffolk’s apartment was seven in the
evening: he would frequently walk up and down the gallery, looking
at his watch, for a quarter of an hour before seven, but would not
go till the clock struck.
The King had another _passager amour_ (between the disgrace of Lady
Suffolk and the arrival of Lady Yarmouth) with the Governess to the
two youngest Princesses; a pretty idiot, with most of the vices of
her own sex, and the additional one of ours, drinking. Yet this
thing of convenience, on the arrival of Lady Yarmouth, put on all
that dignity of passion, which even revolts real inclination.
F. G. H.
(_Vide page 204._)
_Extracts from Letters of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, during his
Ministry at Berlin._
TO THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.
Berlin, July 11-22nd, 1750.
.... Count Podewils’s behaviour to me has been hitherto very cold,
and when I meet him at third places, he contents himself with
making me a bow, without speaking to me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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