The Norwich Road: An East Anglian HighwayHarper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
The Norwich Road: An East Anglian Highway
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
England -- Description and travel; Norwich Road
Among these figures comes that of the Princess Charlotte of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz, arrived for the first time in England, in 1761,
to marry George the Third. One German princess is very like another
in the pages of history, and the likeness remains even when they
become queens, so that it is not a little difficult to disentangle a
Caroline from a Charlotte. Their virtues are of the same drab domestic
order, and their faces partake of the common fund of unilluminated
dulness distributed between the Mecklenburg-Strelitzes, the
Sonderburg-Augustenburgs, and the dozens of other twopenny-halfpenny
principalities made familiar by German princely marriages and
intermarryings. On their mere merits, these personages would find no
place here, though they travelled all their lives up and down the
road; but in the circumstances of this particular Princess Charlotte's
journey there are some incidents worth mentioning. She landed at
Harwich, and comes into our road at Colchester, September 7, 1761. At
Colchester she was presented with a box of eringo-root, the famous
local production highly valued for the cure of pulmonary diseases,
prepared from the root of the sea holly. Graciously receiving this in a
box "parfumed and guilt," her carriage swept on towards Witham, where
she stayed the night at a seat then owned by Lord Abercorn, supping
with open doors so that all who would might gaze upon their future
Queen. Next day the journey to London was resumed. The King's coach
was in readiness at Romford, and into it she changed. At Mile End a
squadron of Life Guards was in waiting as an escort, and from that
point the procession was viewed by thousands. But by this time the
September day was closing. The Duchess of Hamilton, who accompanied the
Princess, looked at her watch. "We shall hardly have time to dress for
the wedding," she said.
"The wedding?"
"Yes, madam; it is to be at twelve."
On that the Princess fainted, as well she might. It really took place
at 9 p.m., instead of three hours later. The King, it is upon record,
was a little disappointed at the first sight of his bride; but that has
generally been the way with our Royal marriages. The eldest son of this
amiable pair, George the Fourth, similarly saw his bride for the first
time practically on the steps of the altar, and his disappointment
was keen. "No sooner," we read, "had he approached her than, as if to
subdue the qualms of irrepressible disgust, he desired the dignified
envoy to bring him a glass of brandy." The Princess, we are told,
"expressed surprise," which statement requires no credulity for belief.
Henry the Eighth's disappointment when he saw Anne of Cleves was
reflected in the words in which he likened her to a "Flanders mare."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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