Great Britain -- History -- 18th century -- Sources; Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 1708-1778; Walpole, Robert, Earl of Orford, 1676-1745
+Source.+--Hervey's _Memoirs_. Vol. ii., pp. 531-533.
During this time [of the Queen's fatal illness in 1737] the King talked
perpetually to Lord Hervey, the physicians and surgeons, and his
children, who were the only people he ever saw out of the Queen's room,
of the Queen's good qualities, his fondness for her, his anxiety for her
welfare, and the irreparable loss her death would be to him; and
repeated every day, and many times in the day, all her merits in every
capacity with regard to him and every other body she had to do with. He
said she was the best wife, the best mother, the best companion, the
best friend, the best woman that ever was born; that she was the wisest,
the most agreeable, and the most useful body, man or woman, that he had
ever been acquainted with; that he firmly believed she never, since he
first knew her, ever thought of anything she was to do or say, but with
the view of doing or saying it in what manner it would be most agreeable
to his pleasure or most serviceable for his interest; that he had never
seen her out of humour in his life; that he had passed more hours with
her than he believed any other two people in the world had ever passed
together, and that he had never been tired in her company one minute;
and that he was sure he could have been happy with no other woman upon
earth for a wife, and that if she had not been his wife, he had rather
have had her for his mistress than any woman he had ever been acquainted
with; that he believed she never had had a thought of people or things
which she had not communicated to him; that she had the best head, the
best heart, and the best temper that God Almighty had ever given to any
human creature, man or woman; and that she had not only softened all his
leisure hours, but been of more use to him as a minister than any other
body had ever been to him or to any other prince; that with a patience
which he knew _he_ was not master of, she had listened to the nonsense
of all the impertinent fools that wanted to talk to him, and had taken
all that trouble off his hands, reporting nothing to him that was
unnecessary or that would have been tedious for him to hear, and never
forgetting anything that was material, useful, or entertaining for him
to know. He said that, joined to all the softness and delicacy of her
own sex, she had all the personal as well as political courage of the
finest and bravest man; that not only he and her family, but the whole
nation, would feel the loss of her if she died, and that, as to all the
_brillant_ and _enjouement_ of the Court, there would be an end of it
when she was gone; and that there would be no bearing a drawing-room
when the only body that ever enlivened it, and one that always enlivened
it, was no longer there. "Poor woman, how she always found something
obliging, agreeable, and pleasing to say to somebody, and always sent
people away from her better satisfied than they came! _Comme elle
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