The Greville Memoirs, Part 1 (of 3), Volume 2 (of 3): A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV — John Shaqi
The Greville Memoirs, Part 1 (of 3), Volume 2 (of 3): A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IVGreville, Charles
History
The Greville Memoirs, Part 1 (of 3), Volume 2 (of 3): A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV
Greville, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- George IV, 1820-1830; Great Britain -- History -- William IV, 1830-1837
Still the King; his adventures (for they are nothing else)
furnish matter of continual amusement and astonishment to his
liege subjects. Yesterday morning, or the evening before, he
announced to the Duke of Wellington that he should dine with him
yesterday; accordingly the Duke was obliged, in the midst of
preparations for his breakfast, to get a dinner ready for him. In
the morning he took the King of Wuertemberg to Windsor, and just
at the hour when the Duke expected him to dinner he was driving
through Hyde Park back from Windsor--three barouches-and-four,
the horses dead knocked up, in the front the two Kings, Jersey,
and somebody else, all covered with dust. The whole mob of
carriages and horsemen assembled near Apsley House to see him
pass and to wait till he returned. The Duke, on hearing he was
there, rushed down without his hat and stood in his gate in the
middle of servants, mob, &c., to see him pass. He drove to
Grillon's 'to drop' the King of Wuertemberg, and at a quarter past
eight he arrived at Apsley House. There were about forty-five
men, no women, half the Ministers, most of the foreign Ministers,
and a mixture rather indiscriminate. In the evening I was at Lady
Salisbury's, when arrived the Duke of Sussex, who gave a short
account to Sefton of what had passed, and of the King's speech to
the company. 'You and I,' he said, 'are old Whigs, my Lord, and I
confess I was somewhat astonished to hear his Majesty's speech.'
I went afterwards to Crockford's, where I found Matuscewitz, who
gave me a whole account of the dinner. The two Kings went out to
dinner arm in arm, the Duke followed; the King sat between the
King of Wuertemberg and the Duke. After dinner his health was
drunk, to which he returned thanks, sitting, but briefly, and
promised to say more by-and-by when he should give a toast. In
process of time he desired Douro to go and tell the band to play
the merriest waltz they could for the toast he was about to give.
He then gave 'The Queen of Wuertemberg,' with many eulogiums on
her and on the connubial felicity of her and the King; not a very
agreeable theme for his host, for conjugal fidelity is not his
forte. At length he desired Douro to go again to the band and
order them to play 'See the conquering hero comes,' and then he
rose. All the company rose with him, when he ordered everybody to
sit down. Still standing, he said that he had been so short a
time on the throne that he did not know whether etiquette
required that he should speak sitting or standing, but, however
this might be, he had been long used to speak on his legs, and
should do so now; he then proposed the Duke's health, but
prefaced it with a long speech--instituted a comparison between
him and the Duke of Marlborough; went back to the reign of Queen
Anne, and talked of the great support the Duke of Marlborough had
received from the Crown, and the little support the Duke of
Wellington had had in the outset of his career, though after the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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