The young Princess found it exceedingly hard at first to accommodate herself to all the formalities and restrictions incidental upon her rank at the Hanoverian court. She never quite mastered all the minutiæ of court etiquette in which the Duchess Sophia revelled; she would forget, and in her childish, impulsive way, greet a member of the fourth class as though he were a member of the third, or _vice versa_. She followed her own likes and dislikes too much, she was too friendly with one and not friendly enough with the other, she would sometimes withdraw from the court circle when she was bored, and did not always appear when she was wanted. All this greatly scandalised the Duchess Sophia, who considered court etiquette the very essence of royalty, and she often wrote to the Duchess of Orleans complaining of the bad up-bringing of her daughter-in-law and the way in which her education had been neglected. Of course they both blamed “Madame” of Celle, who, being “a nobody,” could not be expected to teach Sophie Dorothea the customs of a court. Perhaps a little kindness and forbearance on the part of the Duchess Sophia might have taught the young Princess how to carry her dignity even to that female martinet’s satisfaction, for she was very adaptive and quick to learn. But the Duchess Sophia showed her no sympathy, and her daughter-in-law’s little slips were invariably made the occasion of some slighting remark, either on herself or her mother. It is no wonder, under these circumstances, that Sophie Dorothea grew mutinous and careless, and even took a pleasure in showing her contempt for the rules of etiquette at the Hanoverian court by wilfully transgressing them whenever she pleased.