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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir of Queen Adelaide, by Dr. John Doran
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Memoir of Queen Adelaide
+       Consort of King William IV.
+
+Author: Dr. John Doran
+
+Release Date: February 6, 2011 [EBook #35182]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIR OF QUEEN ADELAIDE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David McClamrock
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIR OF QUEEN ADELAIDE,
+
+CONSORT OF KING WILLIAM IV.
+
+
+BY DR. DORAN,
+
+AUTHOR OF "LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND OF THE HOUSE OF HANOVER," ETC.
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
+
+1861.
+
+[The right of Translation is reserved.]
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+PRINTED BY G. PHIPPS, 13 & 14, TOTHILL STREET, WESTMINSTER.
+
+
+
+
+ADELAIDE OF SAXE-MEINENGEN.
+
+  Und ich an meinem Abend, wollte,
+  Ich hätte, diesem Weibe gleich,
+  Erfüllt was ich erfüllen sollte
+  In meinen Gränzen und Bereich.
+
+  A. VON CHAMISSO.
+
+
+
+
+The pocket Duchy--Old customs--Early training--The Father of the
+Princess Adelaide--Social life at the ducal court--Training of the
+Princess Adelaide--Marriage preliminaries--English parliament--The Duke
+of Clarence--Arrival in London of the Princess--Quaint royal
+weddings--At home and abroad--Duke and Duchess of Clarence at
+Bushey--"State and Dirt" at St. James's--William IV. and Queen
+Adelaide--Course of life of the new Queen Consort--King's gallantry to
+an old love--Royal simplicity--The Sovereigns and the Sovereign
+people--Court anecdotes--Drawing rooms--Princess Victoria--The
+coronation--Incidents of the day--Coronation finery of George
+IV.--Princess Victoria not present--Revolutionary period--Reform
+question--Unpopularity of the Queen--Attacks against her on the part of
+the press--Violence of party-spirit--Friends and foes--Bearing of the
+King and Queen--Duchess of Augoulême--King a republican--His
+indiscretion--Want of temper--Continental press adverse to the
+Queen--King's declining health--Conduct of Queen Adelaide--King
+William's death--Declining health of the Queen--Her travels in search
+of health--Her last illness--Her will--Death--And funeral.
+
+
+
+
+THE little Duchy of Saxe-Meinengen was once a portion of the
+inheritance of the princely Franconian house of Henneberg. The failure
+of the male line transferred it, in 1583, to the family of reigning
+Saxon princes. In 1680, it fell to the third son of the Saxon Duke,
+Ernest the Pious. The name of this son was Bernard. This Duke is looked
+upon as the founder of the House of Meinengen. He was much devoted to
+the study of Alchemy, and was of a pious turn, like his father, as far,
+as may be judged by the volumes of manuscript notes he left behind
+him--which he had made on the sermons of his various court-preachers.
+
+The law of primogeniture was not yet in force when Duke Bernard died,
+in 1706. One consequence was, that Bernard's three sons, with Bernard's
+brother, ruled the little domain in common. In 1746, the sole surviving
+brother, Antony Ulrich, the luckiest of this ducal Tontine, was monarch
+of all he surveyed, within a limited space. The conglomerate ducal
+sovereigns were plain men, formal, much given to ceremony, and not much
+embarrassed by intellect. There was one man, however, who had enough
+for them all: namely, George Spanginburg, brother of the Moravian
+bishop of the latter name, and who was, for some time, the Secretary of
+State at the court of Saxe-Meinengen.
+
+Antony Ulrich reigned alone from 1746 to 1763. He was of a more
+enlightened character than any of the preceding princes, had a taste
+for the arts, when he could procure pictures cheaply, and strong
+inclination towards pretty living pictures, which led to lively rather
+than pleasant controversies at court. His own marriage with Madame
+Scharmann disgusted the young ladies of princely houses in Germany, and
+especially exasperated the aristocracy of Meinengen. They were scarcely
+pacified by the fact, that the issue of the marriage was declared
+incapable of succeeding to the inheritance.
+
+The latter fell in 1763 to two young brothers, kinsfolk of Antony, and
+sons of the late Duke of Gotha, who reigned for some years together.
+The elder, Charles, died in 1782. From that period till 1803, the other
+brother, George, reigned alone. He had no sooner become sole sovereign,
+than he married the Princess Louisa of Hohenlohe Langenburg. At the end
+of ten years, the first child of this marriage was born, namely
+Adelaide, the future Queen of England.
+
+Eight years later, in the last year of the last century A.D. 1800, a
+male heir to the pocket-duchy was born, and then was introduced into
+Meinengen the law which fixed the succession in the eldest male heir
+only. Saxe-Meinengen was the last country in Europe in which this law
+was established.
+
+The father of the Princess Adelaide, like his brother Charles, was a
+man of no mean powers. Both were condescending enough to visit even the
+burgher families of Saxe-Meinengen; and Charles had so little respect
+for vice in high places, that when a German prince acted contrary to
+the rights of his people, the offender found himself soundly lashed in
+paper and pamphlet, the pseudonymous signature to which could not
+conceal the person of the writer--the hasty Duke Charles. If this
+sometimes made him unpopular over the frontier, he was beloved within
+it. How could the people but love a sovereign Duke who, when a child
+was born to him, asked citizens of good repute rather than of high rank
+to come and be gossips?
+
+In the revolutionary war, Duke George fought like a hero. At home, he
+afforded refuge to bold but honest writers, driven from more mighty
+states. He beautified his city, improved the country; and, without
+being of great mental cultivation himself, he loved to collect around
+him, scholars, philosophers, artists, authors, gentlemen. With these he
+lived on the most familiar terms, and when I say that Schiller and John
+Paul Richter were of the number, I afford some idea of the society
+which Duke George cared chiefly to cultivate. He buried his own mother
+in the common church-yard, because she was worthy, he said, of lying
+among her own subjects. The majority of these were country folk, but
+George esteemed the country folk, and at rustic festivals he was not
+unwilling to share a jug of beer with any of them. Perhaps the rustics
+loved him more truly than the sages, to whom he proved, occasionally,
+something wearisome. But these were often hard to please. All, however,
+felt an honest grief, when, on the Christmas night, of 1803, Duke
+George died, after a brief illness, caused, it is said, by a neglected
+cold, and the rage at an urgent demand from the Kaiser, of 60,000
+florins, fine-money for knightly orders, ducally declined.
+
+The Duke left a young family, Adelaide, Ida, and his son and successor,
+Bernard, then only three years of age. The mother of these fatherless
+children took upon herself the office of guardian, with that of Regent
+of the duchy. The duties of both were performed with rare judgment and
+firmness, during a time of much trouble and peril, especially when the
+French armies were overrunning and devastating Germany.
+
+On the young ladies, gently and wisely reared in this little court,
+Queen Charlotte had begun to look with the foresight of a mother who
+had elderly and wayward sons to marry. When the death of the Princess
+Charlotte of Wales threatened to interrupt the direct succession of the
+crown, the unmatched brothers of the Regent thought of taking unto
+themselves wives. Cumberland had married according to his, but to no
+other person's, liking, hardly even that of his wife. The Dukes of Kent
+and Cambridge made better choice; and there then remained but the
+sailor-prince to be converted into a Benedict. The Queen selected his
+bride for him, and he approved, or acquiesced in the selection. He
+might, as far as age goes, have been her father, but that was of small
+account; and when Adelaide of Saxe-Meinengen was spoken of, men
+conversant with contemporary history, knew her to be the good daughter
+of an accomplished and an exemplary mother.
+
+The preliminaries of the marriage were carried out amid so much
+opposition, that at one moment the accomplishment of the marriage
+itself wore a very doubtful aspect. The difficulty was of a pecuniary
+nature. The Dukes of Kent and Cambridge were content, on the occasion
+of their respective marriages, to accept an addition to their income of
+£6,000. The Duke of Cumberland was compelled to rest content, or
+otherwise, without any addition at all,--save the expenses of a wife.
+With the Duke of Clarence it was different. He already possessed
+£18,000 per annum, and ministers resolved, after a private meeting with
+their supporters, to request the Parliament to allow him an increase of
+£10,000. On the 13th of April, 1818, a message from the Prince Regent
+to that effect, was submitted to either House, by Lord Castlereagh and
+the Earl of Liverpool. In the Commons, the first-named Lord hinted at
+the dependence of our Princes on the liberality of Parliament, since
+the time when the crown had surrendered its long uncontrolled disposal
+of revenues. But the House was not to be "suggested" into a generosity
+which might be beyond justice. Tierney, the gad-fly of his period,
+complained of the previous meeting of the friends of ministers, and the
+communication to them, before it was made to the House, of the amount
+to be applied for. Methuen insisted, that before the Commons would
+grant a farthing, they must be made acquainted with all the sources
+from which the King's sons derived their present revenue, as well as
+the amount of the revenue itself. Finally, Holme Sumner met the
+proposal of an additional £10,000, by a counter-proposal of £6,000.
+This was carried by a narrow majority of one hundred and ninety-three
+to one hundred and eighty-four; and when this sum was offered to the
+Duke, he peremptorily declined to accept it.
+
+Things did not progress more in tune with marriage-bells in the House
+of Lords. There, when Lord Liverpool stated what his royal client would
+be contented to receive, Lord King started to his legs and exclaimed,
+"That the question was not what it might please the Duke of Clarence to
+take, but what it might please the people to give him!" They were not
+willing to give what he expected, and for a time it seemed as if there
+would consequently be no marriage with the Princess of Saxe-Meinengen.
+But only for a time.
+
+"The Duke of Clarence is going to be married, after all," was a common
+phrase launched by the newspapers, and taken up by the people, in 1818.
+If the phrase had but one meaning, it had a double application. In the
+former sense, it had reference to the disinclination of Parliament to
+increase his income, without which he had expressed his determination
+not to marry. It was further applied, however, to the old course of his
+old loves. There were the years spent with Dora Bland, then "Mrs.
+Jordan," the actress,--years of an intercourse which had much of the
+quiet, happy character of a modest English home,--the breaking-up of
+which brought such great grief to the mother in that home, that even
+every service subsequently rendered to her, seemed to partake of the
+quality of offence. It has been registered as such, by those who heard
+more of the wailing of the Ariadne, than they knew of the
+groundlessness of it, when vented in reproaches for leaving her
+unprovided for as well as deserted.
+
+Then the public remembered how this light-of-heart Duke had been a
+suitor to other ladies. He was the rival of Wellesley Pole, for the
+favour and the fortune of the great heiress, Miss Tilney Long. That
+ill-fated lady conferred on this wooer of humbler degree, the office of
+slaying her happiness, sapping her life, and mining her estate. The
+other lady, who declined the Duke's offer of his hand, or petition for
+her own, was Miss Sophia Wykeham, of Thame Park, daughter and sole
+heiress of an Oxfordshire 'squire. Each lady had merits of her own, and
+other attractions besides those which lay in the _beaux yeux de sa
+cassette_; but, perhaps, each remembered the clauses of the royal
+marriage act; however this may have been, Miss Tilney chose between her
+suitors, while Miss Wykeham, after turning from the prayer of the Duke,
+never stooped to listen to a lowlier wooer.
+
+These were the "antecedents" of the lover who, in maturer age, took,
+rather than asked for, the hand of Adelaide of Saxe-Meinengen. Of all
+the actions of his life, it was the one which brought him the most
+happiness; and with that true woman he had better fortune than is
+altogether merited by a man, who, after a long bachelorship of no great
+repute, settles down in middle-life to respectability and content,
+under the influences of a virtuous woman, gifted with an excellent
+degree of common-sense.
+
+In the dusk of a July evening, in the year 1818, this unwooed bride
+quietly arrived, with her mother, at Grillon's Hotel, Albemarle Street.
+She had but cool reception for a lady on such mission as her own. There
+was no one to bid her welcome; the Regent was at Carlton House at
+dinner, and the Duke of Clarence was out of town on a visit. Except the
+worthy Mr. Grillon himself, no person seemed the gladder for her
+coming. In the course of the evening, however, the Regent drove down to
+Albemarle Street; and, at a later hour, the more tardy future-husband
+was carried up to the door in a carriage drawn by four horses, with as
+much rapidity as became a presumed lover of his age, in whom a certain
+show of zeal was becoming.
+
+The strangers became at once acquainted; and acquaintance is said to
+have developed itself speedily into friendship. The family-party
+remained together till near upon the "wee sma'" hours; there was much
+indulgence there, we are told, of good, honest, informal hilarity; and
+when the illustrious and joyous circle broke up, the easy grace,
+frankness, and courtesy of the Regent, and the freedom and
+light-heartedness of the Duke, are said to have left favourable
+impressions on both the mother and the daughter.
+
+Quaintest of royal weddings was that which now took place in old Kew
+Palace. Indeed, there were two, for the Duke of Kent who had gallantly
+fetched his wife from abroad, and had married her there, according to
+Lutheran rites, was now re-married to his bride, according to the forms
+of the Church of England. Early in the day, there was a dinner, at
+which the most important personages in that day's proceedings were
+present. The old house at Kew seemed blushing in its reddest of bricks,
+out of pure enjoyment. The Regent gave the bride away; and, the
+ceremony concluded, the wedded couples paid a visit to the old Queen in
+her private apartment. She was too ill, then, to do more than
+congratulate her sons, and wish happiness to the married. The Duke and
+Duchess of Kent thereupon departed, but the Duke and Duchess of
+Clarence remained,--guests at a joyous tea party, at which the Regent
+presided, and which was prepared alfresco, in the vicinity of the
+Pagoda. It must have been a thousand times a merrier matter than
+wedding state-dinners of the olden times, at which brides were wearied
+into suffering and sulkiness. If the figure about "cups which cheer but
+not inebriate" had not been worn to the finest tenuity, I might at once
+give it, here, application and illustration. Suffice it to say, that a
+more joyous party of noble men and women never met in mirthful
+greenwood; and when the princely pair took their leave, for St.
+James's, the Regent led the hilarious cheer, and sped them on their
+way, with a "hurrah!" worthy of his bright and younger days.
+
+The Regent, undoubtedly, manifested a clearer sense of the fitness of
+things, on this occasion, than either of the managers of the theatres,
+honoured by the presence of the newly-married couple soon after the
+union.
+
+At Drury Lane, was given the "Marriage of Figaro," and Covent Garden
+complimented the Duke and Duchess with the "Provoked Husband."
+
+It cannot be said that the public looked with much enthusiasm on any of
+the royal marriages. Such unions with rare exceptions, are unpleasantly
+free from sentiment or romance; and, in the present instances, there
+was such a matter-of-fact air of mere "business" about these contracts
+and ceremonies, such an absence of youth, and the impulses and the
+dignity of youth, that the indifferent public, even remembering the
+importance of securing a lineal succession to the throne, was slow to
+offer either congratulation or sympathy. The caricaturists, on the
+other hand, were busy with a heavy and not very delicate wit; and
+fashionable papers, uniting implied censure with faint praise, observed
+that "the Duchesses of Kent, Clarence, and Cambridge are very deficient
+in the English language. They can scarcely speak a sentence. They
+possess most amiable dispositions." It may be added, that they also
+possessed true womanly qualities which won for them the esteem of
+husbands, of whom two of the three, at least, had never been remarkable
+for a chivalrous, a gentlemanlike, a manly respect for women. That was
+a sort of homage rarely paid by most of the sons of George III., and I
+am afraid, that our fathers generally are obnoxious to the same remark.
+
+After a brief residence at St. James's, and as brief a sojourn at the
+Duke's residence in Bushey Park, the Duke and Duchess of Clarence
+repaired to Hanover, and remained there about a year,--no incident
+marking the time that is worthy of observation. The issue of this
+marriage scarcely survived the birth. In March 1819, a daughter was
+born, but to survive only a few hours. In December 1820, another
+princess gladdened the hearts of her parents, only to quench the
+newly-raised joy by her death in March of the following year. The loss
+was the keener felt because of the hopes that had been raised; and the
+grief experienced by the Duke and Duchess was tenderly nourished,
+rather than relieved, by the exquisite art of Chantrey, which, at the
+command of the parents, reproduced the lost child, in marble,--sleeping
+for ever where it lay.
+
+The household at Bushey was admirably regulated by the Duchess, who had
+been taught the duties as well as the privileges of greatness. The
+fixed rule was, never to allow expenditure to exceed income. It is a
+golden rule which, when observed, renders men, in good truth, as rich
+as Croesus. It is a rule which, if universally observed, would render
+the world prosperous, and pauperism a legend. It was a rule the more
+required to be honoured in this case, as the Duke had large calls upon
+his income. When those were provided for, old liabilities effaced, and
+current expenses defrayed, the surplus was surrendered to charity.
+There was no saving for the sake of increase of income,--economy was
+practised for justice-sake, and the Duke and Duchess were so just, that
+they found themselves able to be largely generous. With the increased
+means placed at their disposal by the death of the Duke of York, there
+was but trifling increase of expenditure. If something was added to
+their comforts, they benefitted who were employed to procure them; and,
+if there was some little additional luxury in the rural palace of
+Bushey, the neighbouring poor were never forgotten in the selfish
+enjoyment of it.
+
+In 1824, the Duke and Duchess of Clarence had apartments in St. James's
+Palace, where, however, they seem to have been as roughly accommodated,
+considering their condition, as any mediaeval prince and princess in
+the days of stone walls thinly tapestried and stone floors scantily
+strewn with rushes. The Duke cared little about the matter himself, but
+he gallantly supported the claims of his wife. In a letter addressed to
+Sir William Knighton, the King's privy purse, in 1824, he thus
+expresses himself--from St. James's Palace:--
+
+"His Majesty having so graciously pleased to listen to my suggestion
+respecting the alteration for the Hanoverian office, at the palace, I
+venture once more to trouble you on the point of the building intended
+for that purpose. To the accommodation of the Duchess, this additional
+slip at the back of the present apartments, would be most to be wished
+and desired, and never can make a complete Hanoverian office without
+our kitchen, which the King has so kindly allowed us to keep. Under
+this perfect conviction, I venture to apply for this slip of building
+which was intended for the Hanoverian office. I am confident His
+Majesty is fully aware of the inconvenience and unfitness of our
+present apartments here. They were arranged for me in 1809, when I was
+a bachelor, and without an idea at that time of my ever being married,
+since which, now fifteen years, nothing has been done to them, and you
+well know the dirt and unfitness for the Duchess of our present abode.
+Under these circumstances, I earnestly request, for the sake of the
+amiable and excellent Duchess, you will, when the King is quite
+recovered, represent the wretched state and dirt of our apartments, and
+the infinite advantage this slip would produce to the convenience and
+comfort of the Duchess .... God bless the King and yourself, and ever
+believe me, &c.--WILLIAM."
+
+Though often as ungrammatical and inelegant, it was seldom the Duke was
+so explicit in his correspondence as he is in the above letter.
+Generally, he wrote in ambiguous phrases, very puzzling to the
+uninitiated; but when his Duchess Adelaide was in question, and her
+comfort was concerned, he became quite graphic on the "state and dirt"
+in which they passed their London days, in the old, dingy, leper-house
+palace of St. James's.
+
+With the exception of the period during which the Duke held the office
+of Lord High Admiral, 1827-28,--an office which may be said to have
+been conferred on him by Canning, and of which he was deprived by the
+Duke of Wellington,--with the exception above noted, this royal couple
+lived in comparative retirement till the 26th of June, 1830, on which
+day, the demise of George IV. summoned them to ascend the throne.
+
+It is said that when the news of the death of George IV. was announced
+to the Duchess of Clarence, the new Queen burst into tears. The
+prayer-book she held in her hand, at the moment, she conferred on the
+noble messenger, as a memorial of the incident, and of her regret. The
+messenger looked, perhaps, for a more costly guerdon; but she was
+thinking only of her higher and stranger duties. If Queen Adelaide
+really regretted that these now had claims upon her, not less was their
+advent regretted by certain of the labouring poor of Bushey, whose
+harvest-homes had never been so joyous as since the Duke and Duchess of
+Clarence had been living among them.
+
+The course of life of the new Queen was only changed in degree. Her
+income was larger, so also were her charities. Her time had more calls
+upon it, but her cheerfulness was not diminished. Her evenings were
+generally given up to tapestry work, and as she bent over the frame,
+many of the circle around her already sorrowingly remarked, that the
+new Queen, though not old in years, seemed descending into the vale of
+life.
+
+The esteem of her husband for her was equal to her merits. His
+affection and respect were boundless; and when the senate granted her,
+on the motion of Lord Althorpe, £100,000 per annum, with Marlborough
+House and Bushey Park, in case she survived the King, the good old
+monarch was the first to congratulate her, and was pleased to put her
+in office, himself, by appointing her Perpetual Ranger of the Park,
+which was to become her own at his decease.
+
+I shall not anticipate matters very violently, or unjustifiably,
+perhaps, if I notice here, that William IV. was not forgetful of his
+old loves, and that Queen Adelaide was not jealous of such memories.
+She looked more indulgently than the general public did, on the
+ennobling of his children of the Jordan family. If that step could have
+been met by objections, in these later days, it was at least supported
+by that amazingly powerful, but sometimes perilous engine, precedent.
+Though indeed, there was precedent for the contrary; and perhaps the
+husband of Queen Adelaide would have manifested a greater sense of
+propriety on this occasion, had he rather followed the decent example,
+in a like matter, of the scrupulous Richard the Third than that of
+Henry the Eighth or the Second Charles.
+
+There was another ennobling, however, which the public as warmly
+approved as the Queen heartily sanctioned. In 1834, her husband raised
+to the dignity of a Baroness, the lady who had declined to share with
+him whatever of higher or more equivocal honour he could have
+conferred, by marrying her. In that year, Miss Wykeham became, by the
+grateful memory and good taste of her old royal lover, Baroness Wenman
+of Thame Park, Oxon. This testimony of the memory of an old affection
+was an act to be honoured by a Queen, and to it that royal homage was
+freely tendered. Enquirers, on turning over the peerage books, may
+discover many honours conferred on women too ready to listen to the
+suit of a monarch; but, here, for the first time, was a title of
+nobility presented to a lady who had declined to give ear to royal
+suit, paid in honesty and honour.
+
+The fact is that there was something chivalrous in the bearing of the
+King towards ladies; hearty, but a courteous heartiness. This sort of
+tribute he loved to render to his wife; and there was nothing so
+pleasant to hear, in his replies to addresses, after his accession, as
+the gallant allusions to the qualities of the Queen, who stood at his
+side, serenely satisfied. This heartiness was not an affectation in
+him. "It was of his nature; and another phase of his character was
+manifested by King William at the first dinner after he ascended the
+throne, at which his relations only were present. On that pleasant
+occasion, although it was a family dinner, he gave as a toast:--"Family
+peace and affection;" it was the hearty sentiment of a citizen King who
+loved quiet and simple ways, who walked the streets with his intimate
+friends, and often occupied the box-seat of his carriage, turning round
+to converse with the Queen, inside.
+
+When Adelaide became Queen Consort, some persons who would not have
+been ill-pleased to see her fail, affected to fear that the homely
+Duchess should prove to be unequal to the exigencies of the queenly
+character. One person, I remember, hinted that, in this matter, she
+would not do ill, were she to take counsel of the Princess Elizabeth of
+Hesse Homburg, "than whom none could better record to Her Majesty the
+forms, and usages, and _prescriptions_ of the court of Queen
+Charlotte." But Queen Adelaide needed no such instruction as the good
+daughter of George III. could give her. She observed the forms and
+usages that were worthy of observance; and as for _proscriptions_, she
+could proscribe readily enough when duty demanded the service,--as the
+Church felt, with mingled feelings, when she declined to invite
+clergymen to her state balls or to her dancing _soirées_. The dancing
+clergy had their opportunity for censure, when the King and Queen gave
+dinner-parties on the Sunday.
+
+The court was essentially a homely court. The two sovereigns fed
+thousands of the poor in Windsor Park, and looked on at the feasting.
+The Queen went shopping to Brighton Fancy Fairs, and when on one
+occasion she bent to pick up the "reticule" which an infirm old lady
+had dropped, as much was made of it as of the incident of King Francis,
+who picked up (or did not pick up) Titian's pencil, and handed it to
+that sovereign gentleman among artists.
+
+Then the new sovereigns paid more private visits than any pair who had
+hitherto occupied the British throne. While the Queen called on Sir
+David and Lady Scott, at Brighton, her royal husband, with whom she had
+just previously been walking, on the Esplanade, would suddenly appear
+at the door of some happy but disconcerted old Admiral, and invite the
+veteran and his wife to dinner. To the hearty, "Come along, directly,"
+if there was a glance from the lady at her toilet, the Citizen-King
+would encourage her by an intimation, never to mind it, for he and his
+wife were quiet people; "and, indeed," as he once remarked, "the Queen
+does nothing after dinner but embroider flowers." Which, indeed, was
+true enough, and--to tell the truth--very dull, as I am assured, did
+the finer people find it.
+
+The consequence of this familiarity of the sovereigns with their
+humbler friends, was a rather audacious familiarity ventured upon by
+people who left their queer names in the book at the King's door, and
+more than once successfully passed it, and penetrated to the Queen's
+drawing-room. This evil, however, was soon remedied. There were other
+matters Queen Adelaide was bold enough to, at least, attempt to remedy.
+Indecorousness of dress, in a lady, she would censure as sharply as
+Queen Charlotte; and if, when Mrs. Blomfield appeared at her first
+drawing-room, in a "train of rich immortal velvet," as the fashionable
+chroniclers of the day call it, she did not even hint surprise, it was
+perhaps out of respect for the successor of the Apostles, of whom that
+good, but richly velvetted, lady was the honoured wife.
+
+The letter-writers who dealt with court incidents at the period of the
+accession of this domestic couple tell of various illustrations of the
+simplicity of the new sovereigns, When the Duke of Norfolk had an
+interview with William IV. at Bushey,--on the affair which had brought
+him thither being concluded, the King declared he must not leave the
+house without seeing the Queen; and thereupon ringing the bell, he bade
+the official who answered the summons to "tell the Queen I want her."
+
+This lady, at the time when her husband was Duke of Clarence and Lord
+High Admiral, had been accustomed, on her visits to Chatham, to be
+received and entertained by the daughters of the then Commissioner,
+Cunningham. As soon as the Duchess became Queen, among her first
+invited visitors to Bushey were these ladies. At the meeting, they
+offered to kiss Her Majesty's hand, but "No, no," said Queen Adelaide,
+"that is not the way I receive my friends. I am not changed;" and
+therewith ensued a greeting less dignified, but not less sincere.
+
+There are other stories told of incidents at Windsor, which indicate
+the difference of the court going out from that of the court coming in.
+This change required the removal from the palace of a little household,
+the head lady of which reluctantly gave way to the new Queen. These
+incidents, however, belong rather to the _Chronique Scandaleuse_ than
+to mine. I will only add, therefore, that people generally rejoiced in
+seeing a "wife" installed where "queans" used to rule it; and that,
+when William IV. was seen walking arm-in-arm with Watson Taylor, or
+some other happy courtier, they added one incident to the other, and
+comparing the new court with the old, exclaimed, "Here is a change,
+indeed!" No one ever dreamed at that moment that the time would come
+when party-spirit would stir up the "_mobile_" against the sovereigns;
+that the Queen would be accused of plotting with the Duke of Wellington
+against Reform; that stones would be cast at the royal carriage as it
+bore the King and his Consort from the theatre; and "that, when matters
+went adversely to the humour of the ultra-chiefs of the popular
+movement, the first lady in the land should be marked out for vengeance
+by the famous cry, "The Queen has done it all!"
+
+The drawing-room of which I have before spoken, at which good Mrs.
+Blomfield appeared in "immortal velvet," was remarkable, however, for
+another incident, which I will relate in the words of a writer in
+"Frazer's Magazine," John Wilkes, ex-M.P. for Sudbury, who thus relates
+it in his "Regina's Regina"--"The drawing-room of Her Majesty Queen
+Adelaide, held in February 1831, was the most magnificent which had
+been seen since that which had taken place on the presentation of the
+Princess Charlotte of Wales, upon the occasion of her marriage. No
+drawing-room excited such an interest, when compared with that, as the
+one held by Queen Adelaide, at which the Princess Victoria was
+presented on attaining her twelfth year. It was on this occasion that
+the Duchess of Kent and her illustrious daughter arrived in state,
+attended by the Duchess of Northumberland, Lady Charlotte St. Maur,
+Lady Catherine Parkinson, the Hon. Mrs. Cust, Lady Conroy, La Baronne
+Letzen, Sir John Conroy, and General Wetheral. This was the first
+public appearance of the Princess Victoria at court. Her dress was made
+entirely of articles manufactured in the United Kingdom. Victoria wore
+a frock of English blonde, simple, modest, and becoming. She was the
+object of interest and admiration on the part of all assembled, as she
+stood on the left of Her Majesty on the throne. The scene was one of
+the most splendid ever remembered, and the future Queen of England
+contemplated all that passed with much dignity, but with evident
+interest."
+
+Nearly three-quarters of a century had elapsed since a Queen-Consort
+had been crowned in Great Britain. On the present occasion, such small
+pomp as there was, was confined to the religious part of the ceremony.
+The procession, to and from Westminster Hall, the banquet there, and
+the dramatic episode of the entry of the champion, were all dispensed
+with. There was an idea prevalent, that the cost would be too great,
+and that the popular voice would be given to grumble;--as if money
+spent in the country, and made to circulate rapidly through many hands,
+would not have been a public benefit rather than a public injury. The
+ministry, however, would only sanction the maimed rites which were
+actually observed;--the privileged people were deprived of many a
+coveted perquisite, which might have dipped deeply into the public
+purse, and the heir of Marmion and the owner of Scrivelsby, kept his
+horse and his defiance at home in the domain of the Dymokes. The
+public, cheated of their show, called it a "half-crownation."
+
+There was only one incident at this ceremony which is worth narrating.
+The Queen-Consort's crown was a rich little toy, sparkling but small.
+It would hardly fit a baby's head, and, accordingly, Queen Adelaide's
+hair was turned up in a knot, in order that on this knot the little
+crown might safely rest. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in place of
+fitting the crown down upon this knot of hair, only lightly placed the
+glittering toy on the top of it. Had the Queen moved, she would have
+been discrowned in an instant, and all the foolish people whose
+footsteps go wandering on the borders of another world, instead of
+going honestly straightforward in this, would have had a fine
+opportunity of discussing the value of omens. But, in a case of
+adornment, the ladies had their wits about them, and were worth the
+whole episcopal bench when the matter at issue was surmounting a head
+of hair with its supreme adornment of a crown. Some of those in
+attendance stepped forward, saved their embarrassed mistress from an
+annoyance; and Queen Adelaide was crowned in Westminster Abbey, by a
+couple of ladies-in-waiting!
+
+It may be that the Archbishop was not so much to blame on this
+occasion. The little crown was made up at her own expense for the
+occasion, by Rundell, out of her own jewels, and it may not have fitted
+easily. She had a dread of unnecessary outlay, and, perhaps, remembered
+that at George the Fourth's coronation, the sum charged by Rundell
+merely for the hire of jewels by the King, amounted to £16,000, as
+interest on their value. The whole expense of the double coronation of
+William and Adelaide, did not amount to much more than twice that sum.
+
+The Queen herself was not ill-dressed on this occasion, as will be seen
+by the record made by those who have registered the millinery portion
+of the ceremony:--"Her Majesty wore a gold gauze over a white satin
+petticoat, with a diamond stomacher, and a purple velvet train, lined
+with white satin, and a rich border of gold and ermine. The coronet
+worn by Her Majesty, both to and from the Abbey, was most beautiful. It
+was composed entirely of diamonds and pearls, and in shape very similar
+to a mural crown."
+
+It may not be irrelevant to state, that when the modest coronation of
+William and Adelaide was yet a subject of general conversation, the
+expensive finery of that which preceded it was actually in the market,
+and was subsequently sold by public auction. Out of the hundred and
+twenty lots "submitted" by Mr. Phillips, the new King and Queen might
+have been tempted to secure a souvenir of their predecessor; but they
+had no taste for "bargains;" perhaps, small regard for their defunct
+kinsman. Nevertheless, so thrifty a lady as the Queen may have sighed
+at the thought of the coronation ruff of Mecklin lace going "dirt
+cheap" at two pounds; and she may have regretted the crimson velvet
+coronation mantle, with its star and gold embroidery, which originally
+costing five hundred pounds, fetched, when yet as good as new, only a
+poor seven-and-forty guineas. There was the same depreciation in other
+articles of originally costly value. The second coronation mantle of
+purple velvet, fell from three hundred to fifty-five pounds; and the
+green velvet mantle, lined with ermine, which had cost the Czar, who
+presented it to the late King, a thousand guineas, was "knocked down"
+at a trifle over a hundred pounds. Sashes, highland-dresses,
+aigrette-plumes,--rich gifts received, or purchases dearly acquired,
+went for nothing; and, after all, seeing into what base hands
+coronation bravery is apt to fall, the economical King and Queen were
+not without justification in setting an example of prudence, which was
+followed at the next great crowning.
+
+Perhaps not the least remarkable incident in connection with this
+coronation, was the absence of the heiress-presumptive to the crown,
+the Princess Victoria. No place had been assigned to her, nor any
+preparation made in expectation of her gracing or witnessing the
+ceremony. It has been said by some persons that Earl Grey, the prime
+minister, obstinately opposed all idea of inviting the Princess to be
+present. But the grounds for such opposition are so unapparent, that it
+is difficult to give credit to them at all. By others, it has been
+asserted that the Duchess of Northumberland, the governess of the
+Princess, in the exercise of a superior and enlightened judgment, and
+in consideration of the then alleged delicate health of her young
+charge, advised that her pupil should not be present at the coronation
+of King William and Queen Adelaide. This reason seems hardly to account
+for the fact. In the absence of a better, it was accepted by those at
+least who did not throw the blame of that "conspicuous absence" on
+Queen Adelaide herself and her royal consort; but, as an anonymous
+writer remarked,--"Who that knew the good King William and his
+incomparable Queen, would believe that any slight was put by them on
+their well-beloved niece and the heiress-presumptive to the throne?"
+The same enemies also stated that "the Duchess of Northumberland was
+seeking to give a political bias to the education of the Princess; and
+some uneasiness was therefore created at the palace." The "Times"
+asserted, with iteration, that the Duchess of Kent had "refused to
+attend, yes, refused to attend," and reproved Her Royal Highness, in
+the harsh terms which illustrated many of the controversies of the day,
+for the impertinence of the widow of a mediatized German Prince, in
+withholding her daughter from a ceremony at which she could never, at
+one time, have expected to see daughter of hers, as heiress-presumptive
+to the crown of England! Other papers made this alleged refusal rest on
+the course taken by Lord A. Fitzclarence, who, in marshalling the
+coronation procession, on paper, had assigned a place to the Princess
+Victoria, after the other members of the royal family, instead of next
+to the King and Queen. Finally, the "Globe," on authority, declared
+that the Duchess having pleaded the delicate state of her daughter's
+health, had obtained the king's sanction to her absence,--a version of
+the end of a story which began, nevertheless, more like the current
+report of it than would seem here to be indicated. As marked an
+instance of absence as that of the Princess, was that of the whole of
+such members of the preceding administration, as happened to be members
+of the House of Commons. This, however, little affected the King, who,
+at the subsequent dinner at St. James's Palace, gave, as a toast, the
+"Land we live in," and declared that, except as a formality and
+memorial, the coronation was an useless affair, as far as he was
+concerned, for no oath he had there taken could bind him more
+stringently to fulfil his duty towards the people than he felt himself
+to be bound as soon as the responsibility of his position had fallen
+upon him.
+
+The land he lived in now speedily became agitated by that wave of
+revolution which was shaking many of the monarchies of Europe. England
+endured as great revolution as any of them, but with this difference,
+that here it was effected according to law, and albeit not exempt from
+very vast perils, was carried through to its natural consequences, to
+the mutual advantage of the government and the governed.
+
+When the first rumours began to spread of an opposition establishing
+itself at court against the progress of reform, the press manifested
+particular desire to exonerate the Queen from the charge of
+participating in, or heading such a course. The "Times" especially
+interfered to protect that lady from similar aspersions. Papers of less
+influence, but of like principles, had openly named Queen Adelaide, the
+two daughters of George III., Elizabeth, (Princess of Hesse Homburg,)
+and Mary, (Duchess of Gloucester,) as mischievously active in impeding
+the popular will. In answer to such accusations, the "Times" (April 9,
+1831) in a brief, but spirited and courteous leader, denounced the
+falsehood, and showed the improbability and the unfairness of such
+allegations. On a like occasion, that paper fairly urged that whatever
+opinions might be expressed by members of the household, they were not
+to be attributed to the mistress of that household. At the same time,
+on these members and on the fair frequenters of drawing-rooms who there
+gave utterance to sentiments which they carried into action elsewhere,
+against the great consummation sought by the people, the pro-reform
+paper thundered its bolts and showered its sarcasm with unsparing
+hands. On most occasions, however, so much was made of the apparent
+heartiness of the King, that excess of praise in that direction, took
+the form of censure on the lukewarmness if not the hostility of the
+Queen. Contrasts rather than parallels were the favourite medium for
+turning the public attention to the two sovereigns. The Ex-Chancellor
+Eldon was said to have assured Queen Adelaide, that if reform was
+carried, the days of her drawing-rooms were numbered, and that royalty
+would do well to follow a counsel which was given by Earl Grey to the
+bishops,--namely, set its house in order. On the other hand, we hear of
+the new Chancellor Brougham attending the court with his huge official
+purse so full of petitions in favour of parliamentary reform, that as
+he continued to extract and present them, he apologized to King William
+for troubling him with such piles of the public prayers or demands.
+Whereupon the King is said to have remarked, in the hearing of the
+Queen, "My Lord Chancellor, I am willing to receive anything from that
+purse, except the seals!" The wit was small, but the suggestiveness was
+considered important, and gossips, on both sides, jumped to conclusions
+which had questionable affinity with the premises.
+
+While the Queen was thus treated with a certain degree of moderation by
+the press, she is said to have been seriously coerced by the liberal
+ministry of the day. The charge was distinctly made, after the Queen's
+death, in a funeral sermon, preached by the Rev. Mr. Browne, Vicar of
+Atwick. The occasion was so solemn, that an honest man was not likely
+to be led even into exaggeration, much less into deliberate
+misrepresentation. I will therefore quote the preacher's own words:--
+
+"The Queen-Consort had witnessed in her father-land, some of the
+dreadful effects of the French revolutionary movements; and she was
+known to disapprove, out of womanly feeling and fear for her husband's
+safety, of popular tumults and agitations. With the narrow-minded and
+impure, suspicion is proof, and is followed by resentment. This pure
+being was a sufferer by the machinations and exactions of the ephemeral
+favourites of the misguided populace. Her influence over her royal
+husband was too great to be trusted, and she was forbidden,--I speak
+advisedly, and mean nothing less than '_forbidden_'--to have a kindred
+spirit near her during the agitation and intimidation, by which the
+measure called the Reform Bill, was supported and carried."
+
+It was when that bill was in jeopardy, when the King,--who had made so
+many knights that the very pages called them the "Arabians," the
+"Thousand and One,"--hesitated to create a sufficient number of new
+lords to secure the passing of the bill in the Upper House; it was then
+that the press began to admonish the King and to menace the Queen. On
+one occasion, when they attended at the opening of the new Staines
+Bridge, where, by the way, they were so closely pressed upon by the
+mob, that maids of honour and gentlemen in waiting had their pockets
+picked, the Conservative wits remarked, that the King might make new
+bridges, but that he must leave the peers alone. The Whig party at once
+assumed that Queen Adelaide was at the head of a faction, whose object
+was to give reality to such jokes, and thenceforward the Queen was
+little spared. The "Times" asserted that it was by "domestic
+importunity" alone that the free action of the King's mind was impeded.
+The Queen was compared to Queen Amata, in the "Æneid," cajoling or
+raging at her older consort, Latinus, because the latter preferred
+Æneas to Turnus, as a husband for their daughter, Lavinia. There was
+not much alike in the two cases, for Amata was a staunch Conservative,
+who detested the idea of a foreign prince obtaining the hand of her
+daughter, and exercising influence within the limits of Latium. But
+there were strong terms in the original which suited the purpose of the
+hour, and the Queen was pelted with them most unmercifully.
+
+Occasionally, there was a truth mixed up with the harder words, which
+even ultra-Tories could not gainsay, as when the "Times" remarked, that
+"a foreigner was no very competent judge of English liberties, and
+politics are not the proper field for female enterprize or exertion."
+When this strong hint was taken to have failed, and Queen Adelaide was
+still supposed to be conspiring with the daughters of George III. to
+turn King William from his liberal views, this was the tone with which
+the royal lady was lectured by the press:--"There is a lady of high
+rank, who must be taught a salutary, though a very painful, lesson. She
+may be bold as an amazon, be troublesome, importunate, or overbearing,
+but her present course is one from which can follow nought but final
+wretchedness. Why has she so eagerly, within these few hours, bidden
+her gossips not to despair? Why such haste to tell them, all will be
+well! The King will do without the Whigs! Yes, madam, but England will
+not. Still less will England do without the unmutilated Bill."
+
+At another time, Queen Adelaide was reminded that if a female influence
+drove Necker from the court of Louis XVI., one of the consequences was
+the destruction of the most influential lady; another, the ruin of the
+country. The influence being assumed to be still active, allusion was
+made to the "foreign woman whom the nation may have too easily
+adopted." Reports were rife that intrigues were on foot, the object of
+which was to induce liberal peers to betray their party, and then the
+public censor showered imprecations on "blandishments and intreaties,
+urged with a force and pertinacity which, coming from a monarch, are
+difficult to be refused."
+
+On the other hand, the Conservative press drew its own inferences, and
+made its own accusations. When the cholera was raging, during the
+reform fever, Queen Adelaide's drawing-room happened to be very thinly
+attended. The real cause was lost sight of, and Her Majesty was
+respectfully assured that the scanty attendance was entirely owing to
+Lord Grey's revolutionary government, beneath which all old English
+energy, vitality, and spirit, had become so extinct, that it was
+unequal to the exertion of even manifesting respect for an English
+Queen.
+
+These old English qualities did, however, manifest themselves at a
+Conservative festival in Gloucestershire, where the health of "the
+Queen" was "received with great applause." Upon which announcement the
+"Times" significantly asked, "Is that meant as a compliment to Her
+Majesty, or will it sound as such in the ears of the unanimous people?"
+Then, when reiteration was made of the alleged co-operation of the
+sisters of William IV. with Queen Adelaide, in efforts to overthrow the
+Reform Bill, the "Times" stepped forward with the following testimony
+in favour of those ladies and their mother, with the accompanying
+admonition to the Queen:--"No one will be persuaded that any daughter
+of George III. could so mistake their position in this country, or so
+disregard their duty. Queen Charlotte was advised by her mother, before
+she ever touched the shores of England, to make entire and religious
+abstinence from politics the rule of her life, as a British Princess;
+and for twenty-eight years, till the question of the first Regency
+forced Queen Charlotte upon the stage, as a reluctant actress, she had
+satisfied herself with being a modest spectatress, living in strict
+observance of maternal counsel: and what was the consequence? Down to
+the abovementioned period of her wedded life, Her Majesty enjoyed, in a
+degree not experienced by any Queen-Consort for centuries past, the
+respect and good-will of the whole community. Is it then to be supposed
+that the leading maxim of her own mother, was not impressed by that
+judicious and estimable woman, upon the minds of her daughters, the six
+Princesses, two of whom still adorn the court of England with their
+constant presence? The Princess Augusta and the Duchess of Gloucester
+owe little to the gossips who thus abuse the delicacy of their
+illustrious names."
+
+Party-spirit was, doubtless, aggravated on either side by the tone of
+the press. Influential cities announced their refusal to pay taxes, and
+tavern-clubs possessing pictures of King and Queen, turned them heels
+uppermost, with an intimation that they should be righted as soon as
+the originals had made themselves right with the people. If Tories of
+eminence talked of coercing the King, Whigs equally exalted hinted at
+the possibility of sending his Consort to Germany, and of rousing the
+men of the provinces in order to make an impression upon people in high
+places. One well-known "man about town" presiding at a public dinner,
+refused to propose the Queen's health, and, among the lower
+caricature-shops, she might be seen pictured, wending her way, the
+ejected of England, to a dull, dreary, and unwelcoming Germany.
+
+Publicly, however, she had her champions too. Mr. Baring, from his
+place in parliament, protested against the language of the Whig papers,
+generally. His own description of it, as applicable to the Queen, was,
+that it comprised foul slander against the highest personage of a sex,
+from insulting which every manly mind would recoil. The gallant
+champion added, with less discretion, perhaps, that the full measure of
+scornful indifference and silent contempt with which the Queen repaid
+all the insults heaped upon her, had elevated her in the hearts of
+those whose homage was a worthy tribute. Mr. Hume, ultra-reformer as he
+was, exhibited very excellent taste on this occasion, and pointed out
+in a few words marked by good common sense, that the name of the
+exalted lady, in question, should never be dragged into the debates,
+the discussions, and the dissensions of that house.
+
+Less, perhaps, by way of championship, than in the character of
+consolers, did the bishops, or a certain number of them, with the
+Archbishop of Canterbury at their head, address Queen Adelaide. They
+had, previously, "been up" to the King, who was just then being
+counselled in various ways, by everybody, from wary old politicians to
+the 'prentice-boys of Derry. They brought to his Consort the usual
+complimentary phrases,--but, in the present instance, they carried
+weight with the Queen, for amid the din of abuse with which she was
+assailed, a few words of assurance and encouragement, of trust,
+counsel, and consolation, must have fallen pleasantly upon her ear. She
+said as much, at least, in a brief phrase or two, indicative of the
+satisfaction she experienced at hearing such words from such men, at a
+period when she was the object of so much undeserved calumny and insult.
+
+The scene was, undoubtedly, made the most of by those who rejoiced most
+in its occurrence; perhaps, too much was made of it; and this induced
+the ridicule of the opposite side. The "Times" courageously denied its
+existence. The presentation of the prelates was admitted, but the
+Queen's speech was defined as a hoax. There was nobody by, it was said,
+but the knot of diocesans and a body of maids of honour,--and, of
+course, any report emanating from such a source was to be received with
+more than ordinary suspicion.
+
+Long before the press had commenced directing an undesired notice upon
+the Queen, private circles were canvassing her conduct with regard,
+especially, to this matter of reform. "By-the-bye," says Moore in his
+Diary, "the Queen being, as is well known, adverse to the measure which
+is giving such popularity to her royal husband, reminds me a little of
+the story of the King of Sparta, who first gave his assent to the
+establishment of the Ephori. His wife, it is said, reproached him with
+this step, and told him that he was delivering down the royal power to
+his children, less than he had received it. 'Greater,' he answered,
+'because more durable.' This is just such an answer as William the
+Fourth would be likely to give to _his_ wife. But the event proved the
+Spartan Queen to have been right, for the Ephori extinguished the royal
+power; and if Queen Adelaide's bodings are of the same description,
+they are but too likely to be, _in the same manner, realized_,"--a
+curious avowal from Lord Lansdowne's Whig friend.
+
+There are few things which more forcibly strike a student of the
+political literature of this period, than its wide difference from that
+which now generally prevails. It seemed, in those days, as if no public
+writer could command or control his temper. The worst things were
+expressed in the worst forms, and writers had not reached, or did not
+care to practise, the better style by which a man may censure sharply
+without doing undue wrong to the object of his censure, without losing
+his own self-respect or forfeiting that of his readers.
+
+Taken altogether, the year 1832 may be said to have been the most
+eventful, and the least felicitous, in the life of Queen Adelaide. It
+was a year which opened gloomily for the court, both politically and
+personally. At one of the small festivities held at the Pavilion, the
+King's old friend, Mr. Greenwood, of the firm of Cox and Greenwood,
+Army Agents, was playing whist, after dinner, with the Queen for a
+partner, and the King and Sir Herbert Taylor for adversaries. During
+the progress of the game he was taken ill, became insensible, and, on
+being removed from the room by Sir Herbert and Lord Erroll, died in an
+adjoining apartment, within a quarter of an hour. The Queen was very
+much shocked at this incident, and the elder ladies about court who
+thought it ominous of a fatal year,--for already were movements hostile
+to monarchy becoming active,--considered the next month's omen of
+unpleasant significance too, when the fog in London, on the night of
+the anniversary of the Queen's birth-day, was so dense, that not a lump
+of the illuminations was visible through the mist. Then ensued, in the
+subsequent spring, the unpleasant feud with the Sefton family, in which
+Queen Adelaide's name was so prominent.
+
+Soon after the temporary resignation of the Grey ministry, King William
+invited the Jockey Club to dinner at St. James's Palace. Among the
+invited was old Lord Sefton, who was a Whig _and something more_, and
+who was resolved to avenge on the King the wrongs inflicted, as he
+assumed, by that dissembling monarch on his friends of the late
+administration. Lord Sefton, accordingly withdrew from the club, in
+order that he might be able to decline the royal invitation, as a
+member. The unsuspicious King at once invited him as a friend, but Lord
+Sefton was ungracious enough to absent himself, and did not condescend
+to restore the sovereign to favour, till Lord Grey was once more at the
+helm of the national ship,--steersman and captain too. His lordship and
+family appeared at the ball given by the Queen, in May to which, of
+course, they had been all invited. Meanwhile, however, the King had
+learned how he stood in the estimation of the Earl, meeting whom in the
+Queen's ball-room, he turned his royal back upon him, publicly. Thence
+arose embittered feelings on the part of the offended peer. _Vivere
+sat, vincere_, "to conquer, is to live enough," is the Sefton motto,
+and the bearers of it seem to have been determined to have this taste
+of life, by putting down the royal offenders, and appearing before them
+to enjoy their humiliation. "Lord Molyneux" (Lord Sefton's son, says
+Mr. Raikes, in his _Diary_,) "has attended a public meeting at
+Liverpool, where he made a speech, and actuated by his father's
+feelings, alluded very bitterly to the conduct of both the King and
+Queen. He afterwards came to town, and appeared, with his family, at
+the ball. On the following day, the King commanded Mr. W. Ashley, as
+vice-chamberlain to the Queen, to write to Lord Molyneux, and request
+he would not appear at court again. Nothing could be more just. This is
+only a slight instance," adds the Tory Diarist, "of Whig insolence and
+ingratitude. Sefton has been made a peer, and treated with the most
+marked courtesy and attention by the present King."
+
+In the following June, Lord Lichfield, master of the buck hounds,
+prepared a list of guests invited by him to meet the King, at the
+conclusion of Ascot races; at dinner, at Lord Lichfield's house, Fern
+Hill. The King expressly ordered that Lord Sefton should not be
+invited. Considering the offence, it was singular that any one should
+have thought of winning the Queen over to use her interest in
+influencing her husband to withdraw the command. Lady Lichfield,
+however, did so, intimating to Her Majesty, that if the King had been
+moved by what was reported to have passed at the Jockey Club, she was
+enabled to say how that matter had been much misrepresented. The Queen
+confined all reply and comment to the words, coldly uttered, that, she
+hoped it was so.
+
+It certainly was not a period when Queens could expect to be cordial
+with people who insulted them, and whose speeches in public were
+exercising a very unwholesome influence on the more ignorant of the
+lower orders. At the above very Ascot races, the King was grievously
+assaulted, in the Queen's presence, by a ruffian in the crowd. Their
+Majesties had just taken their seats in the grand stand, and the King
+had then risen to salute the people in view, when the ruffian in
+question flung a stone at him, which struck the King on the forehead,
+but did not inflict any serious mischief. The assailant was let cheaply
+off; but Queen Adelaide was much distressed by his act; and the
+impression it made upon her was only increased, a week later, when she
+appeared with the King at the review in Hyde Park. There she was
+treated with such incivility and rudeness, that at the fête, at the
+Duke of Wellington's, in the evening, where they held a little court,
+the Queen wore a spiritless and sorrowing aspect, while King William,
+his buoyant spirits all quenched, looked aged and infirm, weary of his
+vocation and vexations.
+
+The season, certainly, was not one for monarchs to be abroad in, with
+joyous exterior. In the summer of this year, there passed through
+London a princess whose story bore with it a great moral to the wearers
+of crowns. I allude to the Duchess of Angoulême, the daughter of Louis
+XVI. She had experienced the widest extremes of fortune, but had been
+longest and most intimately acquainted with misfortune. She was again a
+fugitive and an exile,--one never destined to behold her country again.
+The Queen visited her at her modest apartments in Charles Street,
+Grosvenor Square; and she took leave of that illustrious victim of many
+revolutions, with evil forebodings of the issue of the spirit of the
+then present time. Her Majesty did not, indeed, lack a certain spirit
+of her own, wherewith to meet the other and revolutionary spirit. Thus,
+when her friend and faithful servant, Lord Howe, was compelled to give
+up his office of chamberlain to the Queen, his mistress would never
+accept the nomination of any other person to the same post. Lord Howe
+remained in attendance upon his mistress unofficially; but he
+positively refused to be reinstated by Lord Grey, to whom his reply
+was, "That he had been wantonly dismissed by him, and would receive no
+favour at his hands." The act of Lord Grey was, probably, far more
+keenly felt at court, than that of the two new radical members (Messrs.
+Wigney and Faithful) returned for the royal borough of Brighton; and
+who, "under the very nose of the court," as it was said, "talked openly
+of reducing the allowance made to the King and Queen." This was a
+foolish speech; but there was an even more indiscrete tongue
+within the Pavilion, than those of the new radical senators without. In
+1833, the King himself declared in favour of a republican form of
+government! What must the feelings of Queen Adelaide have been,--she
+who had a horror of revolutions, and a hatred for republicanism,--on
+that never-to-be-forgotten Sunday evening, the 6th of January, 1833?
+The American Minister was a guest at the dinner table that evening. At
+the dessert, the King, instead of wisely going to sleep, as he was
+accustomed to do after his second glass of wine, _would_ be lively and
+talkative. When he was in this vein, he was addicted to make speeches,
+and on this occasion, before the ladies had retired, he delivered
+himself of a very notable one, considering the times and the speaker,
+in which he expressed his great regret that he had not been born a
+free, independent, American: seeing that he entertained deep respect
+for the United States, and considered Washington to be the greatest man
+that ever lived. Queen Adelaide must have been astounded when listening
+to this profession of political faith, and to this eulogy of a man who
+had struck the brightest jewel out of the crown of his panegyrist's
+royal father!
+
+To old royalists, such a speech as the above savoured of that period
+which is called "the end of the world." Speculative individuals who
+heard of it, were amazed. "The aristocracy are hourly going down in the
+scale; royalty is become a mere cypher." Well might Mr. Raikes make
+this entry in his journal, when a King of England manifested a liking
+for "rowdyism." The influences of these passing events, even on men of
+intellect, are well marked by a contemporary passage in the diary of
+the merchant, whose commercial affairs were going the way he fancied
+the monarchy was tending. "I was walking the other day," he writes, in
+February 1833, "round the Royal Exchange, the _enceinte_ of which is
+adorned with the statues of Kings. Only two niches now remain vacant;
+one is destined to our present ruler, and that reserved for his
+successor is the last. Some people might say it was ominous." So,
+indeed, it proved to be; half-a-year after the accession of Queen
+Victoria, when there were as many niches as there had then been
+sovereigns, and room for no more, destruction ensued, but it was the
+Royal Exchange that fell (by fire), and not the monarchy. That has
+grown stronger. May it ever so flourish!
+
+Meanwhile, it is to be observed, that Queen Adelaide after this time
+began to re-conquer the popular esteem. When, in July 1834, she
+embarked at Woolwich as Countess of Lancaster, on board the royal
+yacht, for Rotterdam, in order to visit her relations in Germany, the
+spectators of the scene received her with demonstrations of great
+respect, and, on her return, in the following month, she landed at the
+same place amid acclamations of loyalty and welcome.
+
+It was after her return that the King began to bear symptoms of
+restlessness and fatigue, which betokened that decay which gradually
+made progress, and was ultimately accelerated in 1837, when his
+daughter, Lady de Lisle, died to the grief of many, but especially to
+the heart of her father.
+
+As the King's health began to give way, so also did his temper more
+easily yield before small provocations, and more freely did he indulge
+in that early acquired habit of using strong expletives which has been
+noted, in her diary, by Fanny Burney. William the Conqueror, it is
+said, used to ungallantly beat his wife, Matilda, of whom he was
+otherwise so fond. William the Fourth was guilty of an offence only
+next to it in criminality,--by swearing in presence of his Consort,
+Adelaide. There is a well-known instance of this told in connection
+with a visit to the Royal Academy, in 1834. The occasion was that of a
+private view, with a very large public attendance, at Somerset House.
+The President of the Royal Academy received the illustrious visitors,
+and accompanied them through the rooms. In the course of their
+progress, he pointed out to the King the portrait of Admiral Napier,
+who had recently been in command of the Portuguese fleet, for Don
+Pedro. The King's political wrath was too strong for his infirmity,
+and, without forgetting the presence of his wife, nay, making such
+presence an excuse for not breaking forth into greater unseemliness, he
+exclaimed:--"Captain Napier may be d----d, sir! and you may be d----d,
+sir! and if the Queen was not here, sir, I would kick you down stairs,
+sir." Such a scene indicated as much infirmity as bad taste on the part
+of the chief actor, and must have sorely tried the patience and shaken
+the dignity of the Queen. She now, perhaps, as much or more than ever,
+required the support of those nearest to her. The old prejudices of the
+reform time against her had not yet died out, and to these was to be
+added certain malignity in foreign papers; a malignity which culminated
+in 1835 in the "Gazette de France," which paper seriously asserted that
+England was endeavouring to revolutionize Spain and Portugal, with
+ulterior purposes of pursuing the same course in Germany and Italy, as
+she had done in Belgium and in Greece;--and that at the head of this
+conspiracy for reconstructing Europe, were William the Fourth, the Duke
+of Wellington, and _Queen Adelaide_! Thus, the lady who had seldom
+during her life desired more than to be permitted to enjoy it
+tranquilly, and who had but little perplexed herself touching the ways
+of others, was held up, after being accused of being a political
+meddler at home, as being a political conspirator abroad.
+
+When her royal Consort's indisposition assumed an appearance of
+increased gravity, Queen Adelaide at once took her place by his couch,
+and never left it but when compelled by gentle restraint put upon her
+by those who loved her, and who feared for her own health. "Les reines"
+(says a French writer) "ont été vues pleurantes comme de simples
+femmes," and she was one of them. Her constancy only gave way, and she
+broke into profuse but silent tears, on the eve of the old King's
+death, as the Archbishop of Canterbury concluded the service of the
+sick, by pronouncing the solemn words of the benediction as contained
+in the Liturgy of the Church. The good old monarch looked with
+affection upon his sorrowing Queen, and with as cheerful a voice as he
+could put on, and almost in nautical phrase, begged her to be of good
+heart and to "bear up! bear up!"
+
+The Rev. Mr. Browne, Vicar of Atwick, rendering testimony to her
+conduct on this occasion, said in a funeral sermon: "She was by the
+King's bedside, a being so full of devoted love and pious resignation:
+of such meekness, gentleness, and goodness, and sweetness; that an
+angel might have beheld her with satisfaction and delight, and, _almost
+with advantage_." She did her duty like a true wife and tender woman;
+and Mr. Browne thought that, altogether, Queen Adelaide might have
+afforded an useful hint or two even to angels! It is more than the good
+Queen ever dreamed of.
+
+I do not know that I can cite a worthier witness to the Queen's conduct
+on this occasion, than the Archbishop of Canterbury. That reverend
+prelate was in close attendance upon the King during the last days of
+his life, in 1837, and in the course of his ministrations, saw more of
+Queen Adelaide than any other individual there present had the
+opportunity of doing. At a meeting of the Metropolitan Churches' Fund
+Society, the primate went fully, but tenderly and sensibly, into this
+solemn matter; and after rendering due, but not over-piled, measure of
+justice to the King, spoke in these words of his Consort:--"For three
+weeks prior to his dissolution, the Queen sat by his bedside,
+performing for him every office which a sick man could require, and
+depriving herself of all manner of rest and refection. She underwent
+labours which I thought no ordinary woman could endure. No language can
+do justice to the meekness and to the calmness of mind which she sought
+to keep up before the King, while sorrow was preying on her heart. Such
+constancy of affection, I think, was one of the most interesting
+spectacles that could be presented to a mind desirous of being
+gratified with the sight of human excellence."
+
+The spectacle at the close was one most touching of all, for old King
+William, threescore and twelve, died at last in a gentle sleep, as he
+sat up on his couch, his head resting, where it had lain undisturbed
+for hours, on the shoulder of the Queen. Such had been her office at
+various times, daily, for the preceding fortnight; and when it shall
+have been a little more hallowed by time, it will be a fitting subject
+to be limned by some future artist, competent to treat it.
+
+Since the death of Charles II., no King of England had died under the
+same roof with his wife; and then there was no such touching scene as
+the above, but only a few words of decent reconciliation before the
+royal pair parted for ever; and the wife, (leaving the husband to die
+at leisure and commend worthless women to his brother's protection)
+went to her chamber to receive the formal news of his death, and
+finally to receive the condolence of visitors, laying the while on a
+state bed of mourning, in a chamber lighted with tapers, the walls,
+floor, and ceiling covered with black cloth. Queen Adelaide stayed by
+her husband to the last, then laid his unconscious head upon the
+pillow, and quietly withdrawing to her chamber, looked for consolation
+to other sources than the visits of courtiers shaping their faces to
+the humour of the hour.
+
+The respect of the royal widow for the deceased King did not cease
+here. On Saturday night, the 8th of July, she attended the funeral
+ceremony, at Windsor, being present in the royal closet during the
+whole ceremony. She is the only Queen of England who saw a King, her
+Consort, deposited in the tomb.
+
+In the following month, the Dowager Queen left Windsor Castle, to which
+the shouts of a joyous people welcomed her successor. From that time,
+she may be said to have commenced her own course of dying. Her story is
+really, henceforward, but the diary of an invalid. The nation, through
+the legislature, condoled with her upon her bereavement, and as she
+descended the steps of the throne to resume her old unostentatious
+privacy, there was not a man in the realm who failed, in some wise, to
+greet her, or who did not acknowledge that she had borne greatness with
+honour, and had won the hearts of a people who had been once forward to
+censure her.
+
+From this period, her life was one of suffering, but it was a suffering
+that never rendered her selfish. In her worst hours of anguish, her ear
+was open, her heart touched, her hand ready to relieve her sisters in
+affliction, and to remedy the distresses of all who really stood in
+need of the royal succour. For nearly twelve years she may be said to
+have been dying. The sunniest and most sheltered spots in this country
+were visited by her, but without resulting in permanent relief. The
+winter of 1837-8 was spent at St. Leonard's. An attack of bronchitis,
+in the autumn of the latter year, drove her for refuge and remedy to
+Malta, where the church raised by her at Valetta,--the cathedral church
+of Gibraltar,--at an expense of £10,000, will long serve to perpetuate
+her memory. On her return in May 1839, she became, for a time, the
+guest of various noble hosts in England. In 1840, she visited the
+lakes, and established her home, subsequently and for a brief period,
+at Sudbury. Her next homes,--the frequent changes indicating increased
+virulence of disease,--were at Canford Hall, Dorset; Witley Court,
+Worcester; and Cashiobury, near Watford: thence she departed on one
+short and last visit to her native home, from which she returned so ill
+that, in 1847, she repaired, as a last resource, to Madeira, whither
+she was conveyed in a royal frigate.
+
+The progress of the sick Queen over the water, was not without its
+stateliness and solemnity, mixed with a certain joyousness, acceptable
+to, though not to be shared in by the royal invalid. Before the
+squadron departed from Spithead, on Sunday, the 10th of October, full
+divine service was celebrated on board the _Howe_, the ship's chaplain
+reading the prayers, the Queen Dowager's preaching the sermon, on a
+text altogether foreign to so rare and interesting an occasion:--"But
+now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
+witnessed by the law and the prophets," (Rom. iii. 21.) After service,
+the squadron stood forth to sea, no incident marking its way till the
+following Tuesday. On that day, a bird winging from the Bay of Biscay,
+fluttered on to the _Howe_, perched on the yards, and then flew from
+one point to another, and back again, as if he had made of the gallant
+steamer a home. A sailor, named Ward, attempted to capture the little
+guest, in pursuing which into the chains, being more eager than
+considerate, he fell headlong over into the waves, while the _Howe_
+pursued her forward way. In an instant after alarm was given, however,
+the life-buoy was floating on the waters, a boat was pulling lustily
+towards the seaman, and the _Howe_ slipped her tow ropes, and made a
+circuit astern to pick up rescued and rescuers. Ward, meanwhile, had by
+skilful swimming, gained fast hold of the buoy, and was brought on
+board little the worse for his plunge and his temporary peril. Queen
+Adelaide was more moved by this accident than the man was himself. On
+the following Sunday, the Queen was better able than she had previously
+been, to turn the accident to some account, for Ward's own benefit. Her
+Majesty had attended the usual service on board, and had listened to
+another sermon from the ship's chaplain, this time on a subject as
+unappropriate as that of the preceding Sunday:--"And almost all things
+are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no
+remission," (Heb. ix. 22),--the ship's company were repairing to their
+respective quarters, when Ward was told that the Queen Dowager
+requested to see him. If this message disconcerted him more than his
+fall into the Bay of Biscay, he soon recovered that self-possession
+which no man loses long, who has a proper feeling of self-respect.
+Besides, the widowed Queen, in her intercourse with persons of humble
+station, wore habitually that air--
+
+"--which sets you at your ease,
+Without implying your perplexities."
+
+She spoke to the listening sailor kindly, on his late peril, and the
+position in which it suddenly placed him near to impending death. A few
+words like these, wisely and tenderly offered, were likely to be more
+beneficial to a man like Ward, than a whole course of the chaplain's
+sermons on doctrinal points in the Epistle to the Hebrews; and I cannot
+but hope that the artists of the next generation, when Time shall have
+poetized the costume of the incident, will not forget this picturesque
+passage in the life of the Queen and the man-of-war's-man.
+
+And now, as they glided by the coast of Portugal, on the evening of
+Monday, the 18th of October, there was dancing on board, and again on
+the Wednesday evening. Princesses waltzed with commanders, the
+Grand-Duchess tripped it on the poop with a knight, and the midshipmen
+went dashingly at it with the maids of honour, while the gun-room
+officers stood by awaiting their turn. On the fore part of the
+quarterdeck, as many of the ship's company as were so minded, got up a
+dance among themselves; and the suffering Queen below heard the echoes
+of the general gladness, and was content.
+
+On the following Friday, the _Howe_ was close to Belem Castle, and was
+towed into the Tagus by the steam-frigate _Terrible_. The King-Consort
+of Portugal came down in a state barge to receive the Queen, whom he
+escorted to the palace of the Necessidades, landing amid a roar of
+artillery and welcomed by loyal demonstrations as the illustrious
+traveller passed on her way to the Queen regnant, Donna Maria.
+
+By such progress did Queen Adelaide make her way towards Madeira, the
+climate of which could not arrest the progress of her malady, and she
+returned to England,--for a time to Bushey, finally, to Bentley Priory,
+near Stanmore, where she occupied herself in preparation for the
+inevitable end. There, on the 8th of May, 1849, the Queen Dowager may
+be said to have "done a foolish thing," in altering her will without
+legal assistance in the method of alteration. On that day, alone and
+unadvised, Her Majesty took out her old and duly attested will, of the
+14th August, 1837, and inscribed on the back thereof this remarkable
+endorsement:--"This will is cancelled, 8th May, 1849. My heirs are my
+brother and sister, and their heirs after them. My executors, Lord Howe
+and the Hon. W. A. Cooper, are requested to pay off all what I directed
+in my codicil, and then to divide my property equally between my
+brother and sister. This is my last will and request."
+
+It was the will of a Queen, but it stood for nothing in the eye of the
+law. The endorsement was brought under notice of the Prerogative Court;
+the Judge, Sir Herbert Jenner Furst, declared it to be of no effect. It
+was a mere unattested memorandum; and he pronounced, as the legal
+phrase is, for the original will. Of greater interest is the subjoined
+document, which pleasantly contrasts with the wills of many of her lady
+predecessors, whose minds were engaged on the disposal of their state
+beds, their mantles, and their jewellery, to the exclusion of all other
+subjects. Thus wrote the dying Queen Adelaide:--
+
+"I die in all humility, knowing well that we are all alike before the
+throne of God; and I request, therefore, that my mortal remains be
+conveyed to the grave without any pomp or state. They are to be removed
+to St. George's Chapel, Windsor, where I request to have as private and
+quiet a funeral as possible. I particularly desire not to be laid out
+in state, and the funeral to take place by daylight; no procession; the
+coffin to be carried by sailors to the chapel. All those of my friends
+and relations, to a limited number, who wish to attend, may do so. My
+nephew, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, Lords Howe and Denbigh, the Hon.
+William Ashley, Mr. Wood, Sir Andrew Barnard, and Sir D. Davies, with
+my dressers, and those of my ladies who may wish to attend. I die in
+peace, and wish to be carried to the tomb in peace, and far from the
+vanities and pomp of this world. I request not to be dissected nor
+embalmed; and desire to give as little trouble as possible. "ADELAIDE
+R."
+
+The end soon come, and it was met with dignity. On the 22nd of
+November, 1849, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited the Dowager
+Queen, for the last time. On the last day of the month she calmly
+passed away. The above document was then produced; and it rendered
+kings-at-arms, heralds, gold sticks, and upholsterers powerless to
+exercise their absurd dignity in connection with death,--when so
+intelligible and sensible a protest as the above was in existence.
+Accordingly, on a fine December morning of 1849, there issued from the
+gates of Bentley Priory, an ordinary hearse with a pall emblazoned with
+the Queen's arms, preceded by three mourning coaches. A scanty escort
+of cavalry accompanied them, more for use than show, their office being
+to see that no obstruction impeded the funeral march from Stanmore to
+Windsor. On its way, the attitude of the spectators exhibited more of
+sympathy than curiosity.
+
+The Harrow boys turned out in testimony of respect, and the country
+people at large looked like mourners, wearing more or less, but wearing
+some outward manifestation of sorrow.
+
+The Queen's body reached the Chapel at Windsor at one o'clock. In the
+south aisle, close to the porch, there had been standing, grouped
+together, silent and motionless, a group of seamen,--grave, bronzed,
+athletic sailors. Their demeanour showed them worthy of the office
+which the now dead Queen had asked at their hands. When all the royal,
+and great, and noble personages were in their respective places,--while
+some indispensable officials effected a little more of their foolish
+calling, in the presence of death, than Queen Adelaide herself would
+have sanctioned;--while princes, peers, and prelates,
+ladies-in-waiting, clergy, and choristers, proceeded passively or
+actively with their parts in the ceremony of the day,--then those ten
+sailors advanced to accomplish the duty assigned them, and standing by
+the platform on which the body was placed, gently propelled it to a
+position over the subterranean passage into which it was lowered, after
+one of the simplest services that was ever said or sung for departed
+Queen, had been accomplished.--Most simple, save when Garter stepped
+forward to announce what all men knew, that it "had pleased Almighty
+God to take out of this life to His divine mercy" the departed Queen;
+and to assert what that royal lady would assuredly have gainsaid, that
+she was a "Most High, Most Mighty, and Most Excellent Princess." With
+this, and one or two other formalities of that pomp and state from
+which she had asked to be spared, Queen Adelaide passed to the tomb,--a
+tomb capacious enough to contain whole generations of kings and queens,
+princes and princesses yet unborn.
+
+This event was followed by an unusual amount of execrable elegiac
+verse, which was powerless, however, to throw ridicule on what it
+affected to solemnize. I have had the pain of reading an inconceivable
+amount of this trash,--a pain only relieved by the occurrence of lines
+which, intended to be serious, were irresistibly comic. Out of the
+reams written in professed honour of a most exemplary Queen, I have not
+met with an appropriate line that is worth citing. One sample of the
+solemnly absurd Pegasuses set restive on this occasion will assuredly
+satisfy curiosity. The writer affects to see at the royal funeral the
+ghosts of departed great ones, who assemble to do visionary homage to
+their new sister in death. Among them is the incautious Bishop, who
+died from the effects of a cold caught at the funeral of the Duke of
+York:--
+
+"Lo! see the shade of a prelate pass by
+Who came to a night-burial to die;
+Standing too long expos'd to the chill air,
+Death aim'd his dart, and struck the mitre there."
+
+Poor Queen Adelaide! A wish could save her from some of the empty pomps
+and vanities that linger about the open grave; but nothing could save
+her from the villainous poetasters. All the rhymers who rung metrical
+knells at her death, deserved the fate, and for like reasons, invoked
+in "Julius Caesar" on the so-called poet who made "bad verses."
+
+The preachers, if honest chronicling is to be observed, did not on this
+occasion very much excel the poets. Very "tolerable" indeed, and not at
+all to be endured, were most of the funeral sermons which have come
+under my notice. One clergyman, who had been the Queen's chaplain too,
+and who had composed a funeral sermon on William the Fourth, reproduced
+not merely the substance, but in many parts, identical passages from
+the discourse on the dead King, and made them do duty in illustrating
+the demise of that sovereign's royal widow. Others were illogical, or
+were painfully simple, or amusingly trite. In one, I find an intimation
+that "after deducting the more needful expenses of her household, she
+gave away _all_ she had, and died _poor_;" which seems an inevitable
+consequence of such liberality. None of these who took a dead Queen for
+the subject of a lesson on vanity, or for an example to be followed,
+wore the mantle of a Bossuet,--grand and instructive when consigning La
+Vallière to the cloister, or Henrietta of Orleans to a tomb. They might
+at least have found something suggestive in the sermon on the latter
+occasion, by the "Eagle of Meaux," where he exclaims, after apt
+reflection on birth, rank, and their responsibilities:--"No! after what
+we have just seen, we must feel that health exists only in name, life
+is a dream, glory a deception, favours and pleasures dangerous
+amusements, everything about us vanity. She was as gentle towards death
+as she had been to all the world.... She will sleep with the great ones
+of the earth, with princes and kings, whose power is at an end, amongst
+whom there is hardly room to be found, so closely do they lie together,
+and so prompt is death to fill the vacant places. _Can we build our
+hopes on ruins such as these_."
+
+From beyond sea there did come echoes something like these; and fitting
+homage to the virtues of the deceased lady was rendered from many a
+church pulpit among a foreign people. Although it be not necessary to
+travel into another hemisphere to find a witness offering voluntary
+evidence to the good qualities of the Queen Dowager, yet I gladly do so
+in one instance, and reproduce a testimony rendered at the Cape of Good
+Hope. In a funeral sermon, preached in St. George's Cathedral, Cape
+Town, on the 24th of February, 1850, by the Rev. W. A. Newman, at that
+time Senior Colonial Chaplain and Rural Dean, that learned and eloquent
+divine rendered a graceful tribute to the memory of the deceased Queen,
+of which the following paragraph is a portion:--"Of this excellent
+lady's large charities I can speak from evidence, and can, therefore,
+speak with a full heart. I have lived near to the neighbourhood where
+her less public bounty diffused itself. I know that the sick room of
+the poor has been visited by her in person; I know that from her own
+table a portion has been sent, to call forth the coy appetite of
+disease; and I know that where ever she went many a heartfelt _God
+bless her_ would follow."
+
+Such was Queen Adelaide, some seven years Queen Consort of Great
+Britain; a lady who will be remembered, if not as a great Queen, yet as
+one of the truly good women who have shared with a King regnant the
+throne of these islands.--One who lived down calumny, and, who, being
+dead, is remembered with respect and affection.
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Memoir of Queen Adelaide, by Dr. John Doran
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIR OF QUEEN ADELAIDE ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir of Queen Adelaide, by Dr. John Doran
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Memoir of Queen Adelaide
+       Consort of King William IV.
+
+Author: Dr. John Doran
+
+Release Date: February 6, 2011 [EBook #35182]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIR OF QUEEN ADELAIDE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David McClamrock
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIR OF QUEEN ADELAIDE,
+
+CONSORT OF KING WILLIAM IV.
+
+
+BY DR. DORAN,
+
+AUTHOR OF "LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND OF THE HOUSE OF HANOVER," ETC.
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
+
+1861.
+
+[The right of Translation is reserved.]
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+PRINTED BY G. PHIPPS, 13 & 14, TOTHILL STREET, WESTMINSTER.
+
+
+
+
+ADELAIDE OF SAXE-MEINENGEN.
+
+  Und ich an meinem Abend, wollte,
+  Ich haette, diesem Weibe gleich,
+  Erfuellt was ich erfuellen sollte
+  In meinen Graenzen und Bereich.
+
+  A. VON CHAMISSO.
+
+
+
+
+The pocket Duchy--Old customs--Early training--The Father of the
+Princess Adelaide--Social life at the ducal court--Training of the
+Princess Adelaide--Marriage preliminaries--English parliament--The Duke
+of Clarence--Arrival in London of the Princess--Quaint royal
+weddings--At home and abroad--Duke and Duchess of Clarence at
+Bushey--"State and Dirt" at St. James's--William IV. and Queen
+Adelaide--Course of life of the new Queen Consort--King's gallantry to
+an old love--Royal simplicity--The Sovereigns and the Sovereign
+people--Court anecdotes--Drawing rooms--Princess Victoria--The
+coronation--Incidents of the day--Coronation finery of George
+IV.--Princess Victoria not present--Revolutionary period--Reform
+question--Unpopularity of the Queen--Attacks against her on the part of
+the press--Violence of party-spirit--Friends and foes--Bearing of the
+King and Queen--Duchess of Augouleme--King a republican--His
+indiscretion--Want of temper--Continental press adverse to the
+Queen--King's declining health--Conduct of Queen Adelaide--King
+William's death--Declining health of the Queen--Her travels in search
+of health--Her last illness--Her will--Death--And funeral.
+
+
+
+
+THE little Duchy of Saxe-Meinengen was once a portion of the
+inheritance of the princely Franconian house of Henneberg. The failure
+of the male line transferred it, in 1583, to the family of reigning
+Saxon princes. In 1680, it fell to the third son of the Saxon Duke,
+Ernest the Pious. The name of this son was Bernard. This Duke is looked
+upon as the founder of the House of Meinengen. He was much devoted to
+the study of Alchemy, and was of a pious turn, like his father, as far,
+as may be judged by the volumes of manuscript notes he left behind
+him--which he had made on the sermons of his various court-preachers.
+
+The law of primogeniture was not yet in force when Duke Bernard died,
+in 1706. One consequence was, that Bernard's three sons, with Bernard's
+brother, ruled the little domain in common. In 1746, the sole surviving
+brother, Antony Ulrich, the luckiest of this ducal Tontine, was monarch
+of all he surveyed, within a limited space. The conglomerate ducal
+sovereigns were plain men, formal, much given to ceremony, and not much
+embarrassed by intellect. There was one man, however, who had enough
+for them all: namely, George Spanginburg, brother of the Moravian
+bishop of the latter name, and who was, for some time, the Secretary of
+State at the court of Saxe-Meinengen.
+
+Antony Ulrich reigned alone from 1746 to 1763. He was of a more
+enlightened character than any of the preceding princes, had a taste
+for the arts, when he could procure pictures cheaply, and strong
+inclination towards pretty living pictures, which led to lively rather
+than pleasant controversies at court. His own marriage with Madame
+Scharmann disgusted the young ladies of princely houses in Germany, and
+especially exasperated the aristocracy of Meinengen. They were scarcely
+pacified by the fact, that the issue of the marriage was declared
+incapable of succeeding to the inheritance.
+
+The latter fell in 1763 to two young brothers, kinsfolk of Antony, and
+sons of the late Duke of Gotha, who reigned for some years together.
+The elder, Charles, died in 1782. From that period till 1803, the other
+brother, George, reigned alone. He had no sooner become sole sovereign,
+than he married the Princess Louisa of Hohenlohe Langenburg. At the end
+of ten years, the first child of this marriage was born, namely
+Adelaide, the future Queen of England.
+
+Eight years later, in the last year of the last century A.D. 1800, a
+male heir to the pocket-duchy was born, and then was introduced into
+Meinengen the law which fixed the succession in the eldest male heir
+only. Saxe-Meinengen was the last country in Europe in which this law
+was established.
+
+The father of the Princess Adelaide, like his brother Charles, was a
+man of no mean powers. Both were condescending enough to visit even the
+burgher families of Saxe-Meinengen; and Charles had so little respect
+for vice in high places, that when a German prince acted contrary to
+the rights of his people, the offender found himself soundly lashed in
+paper and pamphlet, the pseudonymous signature to which could not
+conceal the person of the writer--the hasty Duke Charles. If this
+sometimes made him unpopular over the frontier, he was beloved within
+it. How could the people but love a sovereign Duke who, when a child
+was born to him, asked citizens of good repute rather than of high rank
+to come and be gossips?
+
+In the revolutionary war, Duke George fought like a hero. At home, he
+afforded refuge to bold but honest writers, driven from more mighty
+states. He beautified his city, improved the country; and, without
+being of great mental cultivation himself, he loved to collect around
+him, scholars, philosophers, artists, authors, gentlemen. With these he
+lived on the most familiar terms, and when I say that Schiller and John
+Paul Richter were of the number, I afford some idea of the society
+which Duke George cared chiefly to cultivate. He buried his own mother
+in the common church-yard, because she was worthy, he said, of lying
+among her own subjects. The majority of these were country folk, but
+George esteemed the country folk, and at rustic festivals he was not
+unwilling to share a jug of beer with any of them. Perhaps the rustics
+loved him more truly than the sages, to whom he proved, occasionally,
+something wearisome. But these were often hard to please. All, however,
+felt an honest grief, when, on the Christmas night, of 1803, Duke
+George died, after a brief illness, caused, it is said, by a neglected
+cold, and the rage at an urgent demand from the Kaiser, of 60,000
+florins, fine-money for knightly orders, ducally declined.
+
+The Duke left a young family, Adelaide, Ida, and his son and successor,
+Bernard, then only three years of age. The mother of these fatherless
+children took upon herself the office of guardian, with that of Regent
+of the duchy. The duties of both were performed with rare judgment and
+firmness, during a time of much trouble and peril, especially when the
+French armies were overrunning and devastating Germany.
+
+On the young ladies, gently and wisely reared in this little court,
+Queen Charlotte had begun to look with the foresight of a mother who
+had elderly and wayward sons to marry. When the death of the Princess
+Charlotte of Wales threatened to interrupt the direct succession of the
+crown, the unmatched brothers of the Regent thought of taking unto
+themselves wives. Cumberland had married according to his, but to no
+other person's, liking, hardly even that of his wife. The Dukes of Kent
+and Cambridge made better choice; and there then remained but the
+sailor-prince to be converted into a Benedict. The Queen selected his
+bride for him, and he approved, or acquiesced in the selection. He
+might, as far as age goes, have been her father, but that was of small
+account; and when Adelaide of Saxe-Meinengen was spoken of, men
+conversant with contemporary history, knew her to be the good daughter
+of an accomplished and an exemplary mother.
+
+The preliminaries of the marriage were carried out amid so much
+opposition, that at one moment the accomplishment of the marriage
+itself wore a very doubtful aspect. The difficulty was of a pecuniary
+nature. The Dukes of Kent and Cambridge were content, on the occasion
+of their respective marriages, to accept an addition to their income of
+L6,000. The Duke of Cumberland was compelled to rest content, or
+otherwise, without any addition at all,--save the expenses of a wife.
+With the Duke of Clarence it was different. He already possessed
+L18,000 per annum, and ministers resolved, after a private meeting with
+their supporters, to request the Parliament to allow him an increase of
+L10,000. On the 13th of April, 1818, a message from the Prince Regent
+to that effect, was submitted to either House, by Lord Castlereagh and
+the Earl of Liverpool. In the Commons, the first-named Lord hinted at
+the dependence of our Princes on the liberality of Parliament, since
+the time when the crown had surrendered its long uncontrolled disposal
+of revenues. But the House was not to be "suggested" into a generosity
+which might be beyond justice. Tierney, the gad-fly of his period,
+complained of the previous meeting of the friends of ministers, and the
+communication to them, before it was made to the House, of the amount
+to be applied for. Methuen insisted, that before the Commons would
+grant a farthing, they must be made acquainted with all the sources
+from which the King's sons derived their present revenue, as well as
+the amount of the revenue itself. Finally, Holme Sumner met the
+proposal of an additional L10,000, by a counter-proposal of L6,000.
+This was carried by a narrow majority of one hundred and ninety-three
+to one hundred and eighty-four; and when this sum was offered to the
+Duke, he peremptorily declined to accept it.
+
+Things did not progress more in tune with marriage-bells in the House
+of Lords. There, when Lord Liverpool stated what his royal client would
+be contented to receive, Lord King started to his legs and exclaimed,
+"That the question was not what it might please the Duke of Clarence to
+take, but what it might please the people to give him!" They were not
+willing to give what he expected, and for a time it seemed as if there
+would consequently be no marriage with the Princess of Saxe-Meinengen.
+But only for a time.
+
+"The Duke of Clarence is going to be married, after all," was a common
+phrase launched by the newspapers, and taken up by the people, in 1818.
+If the phrase had but one meaning, it had a double application. In the
+former sense, it had reference to the disinclination of Parliament to
+increase his income, without which he had expressed his determination
+not to marry. It was further applied, however, to the old course of his
+old loves. There were the years spent with Dora Bland, then "Mrs.
+Jordan," the actress,--years of an intercourse which had much of the
+quiet, happy character of a modest English home,--the breaking-up of
+which brought such great grief to the mother in that home, that even
+every service subsequently rendered to her, seemed to partake of the
+quality of offence. It has been registered as such, by those who heard
+more of the wailing of the Ariadne, than they knew of the
+groundlessness of it, when vented in reproaches for leaving her
+unprovided for as well as deserted.
+
+Then the public remembered how this light-of-heart Duke had been a
+suitor to other ladies. He was the rival of Wellesley Pole, for the
+favour and the fortune of the great heiress, Miss Tilney Long. That
+ill-fated lady conferred on this wooer of humbler degree, the office of
+slaying her happiness, sapping her life, and mining her estate. The
+other lady, who declined the Duke's offer of his hand, or petition for
+her own, was Miss Sophia Wykeham, of Thame Park, daughter and sole
+heiress of an Oxfordshire 'squire. Each lady had merits of her own, and
+other attractions besides those which lay in the _beaux yeux de sa
+cassette_; but, perhaps, each remembered the clauses of the royal
+marriage act; however this may have been, Miss Tilney chose between her
+suitors, while Miss Wykeham, after turning from the prayer of the Duke,
+never stooped to listen to a lowlier wooer.
+
+These were the "antecedents" of the lover who, in maturer age, took,
+rather than asked for, the hand of Adelaide of Saxe-Meinengen. Of all
+the actions of his life, it was the one which brought him the most
+happiness; and with that true woman he had better fortune than is
+altogether merited by a man, who, after a long bachelorship of no great
+repute, settles down in middle-life to respectability and content,
+under the influences of a virtuous woman, gifted with an excellent
+degree of common-sense.
+
+In the dusk of a July evening, in the year 1818, this unwooed bride
+quietly arrived, with her mother, at Grillon's Hotel, Albemarle Street.
+She had but cool reception for a lady on such mission as her own. There
+was no one to bid her welcome; the Regent was at Carlton House at
+dinner, and the Duke of Clarence was out of town on a visit. Except the
+worthy Mr. Grillon himself, no person seemed the gladder for her
+coming. In the course of the evening, however, the Regent drove down to
+Albemarle Street; and, at a later hour, the more tardy future-husband
+was carried up to the door in a carriage drawn by four horses, with as
+much rapidity as became a presumed lover of his age, in whom a certain
+show of zeal was becoming.
+
+The strangers became at once acquainted; and acquaintance is said to
+have developed itself speedily into friendship. The family-party
+remained together till near upon the "wee sma'" hours; there was much
+indulgence there, we are told, of good, honest, informal hilarity; and
+when the illustrious and joyous circle broke up, the easy grace,
+frankness, and courtesy of the Regent, and the freedom and
+light-heartedness of the Duke, are said to have left favourable
+impressions on both the mother and the daughter.
+
+Quaintest of royal weddings was that which now took place in old Kew
+Palace. Indeed, there were two, for the Duke of Kent who had gallantly
+fetched his wife from abroad, and had married her there, according to
+Lutheran rites, was now re-married to his bride, according to the forms
+of the Church of England. Early in the day, there was a dinner, at
+which the most important personages in that day's proceedings were
+present. The old house at Kew seemed blushing in its reddest of bricks,
+out of pure enjoyment. The Regent gave the bride away; and, the
+ceremony concluded, the wedded couples paid a visit to the old Queen in
+her private apartment. She was too ill, then, to do more than
+congratulate her sons, and wish happiness to the married. The Duke and
+Duchess of Kent thereupon departed, but the Duke and Duchess of
+Clarence remained,--guests at a joyous tea party, at which the Regent
+presided, and which was prepared alfresco, in the vicinity of the
+Pagoda. It must have been a thousand times a merrier matter than
+wedding state-dinners of the olden times, at which brides were wearied
+into suffering and sulkiness. If the figure about "cups which cheer but
+not inebriate" had not been worn to the finest tenuity, I might at once
+give it, here, application and illustration. Suffice it to say, that a
+more joyous party of noble men and women never met in mirthful
+greenwood; and when the princely pair took their leave, for St.
+James's, the Regent led the hilarious cheer, and sped them on their
+way, with a "hurrah!" worthy of his bright and younger days.
+
+The Regent, undoubtedly, manifested a clearer sense of the fitness of
+things, on this occasion, than either of the managers of the theatres,
+honoured by the presence of the newly-married couple soon after the
+union.
+
+At Drury Lane, was given the "Marriage of Figaro," and Covent Garden
+complimented the Duke and Duchess with the "Provoked Husband."
+
+It cannot be said that the public looked with much enthusiasm on any of
+the royal marriages. Such unions with rare exceptions, are unpleasantly
+free from sentiment or romance; and, in the present instances, there
+was such a matter-of-fact air of mere "business" about these contracts
+and ceremonies, such an absence of youth, and the impulses and the
+dignity of youth, that the indifferent public, even remembering the
+importance of securing a lineal succession to the throne, was slow to
+offer either congratulation or sympathy. The caricaturists, on the
+other hand, were busy with a heavy and not very delicate wit; and
+fashionable papers, uniting implied censure with faint praise, observed
+that "the Duchesses of Kent, Clarence, and Cambridge are very deficient
+in the English language. They can scarcely speak a sentence. They
+possess most amiable dispositions." It may be added, that they also
+possessed true womanly qualities which won for them the esteem of
+husbands, of whom two of the three, at least, had never been remarkable
+for a chivalrous, a gentlemanlike, a manly respect for women. That was
+a sort of homage rarely paid by most of the sons of George III., and I
+am afraid, that our fathers generally are obnoxious to the same remark.
+
+After a brief residence at St. James's, and as brief a sojourn at the
+Duke's residence in Bushey Park, the Duke and Duchess of Clarence
+repaired to Hanover, and remained there about a year,--no incident
+marking the time that is worthy of observation. The issue of this
+marriage scarcely survived the birth. In March 1819, a daughter was
+born, but to survive only a few hours. In December 1820, another
+princess gladdened the hearts of her parents, only to quench the
+newly-raised joy by her death in March of the following year. The loss
+was the keener felt because of the hopes that had been raised; and the
+grief experienced by the Duke and Duchess was tenderly nourished,
+rather than relieved, by the exquisite art of Chantrey, which, at the
+command of the parents, reproduced the lost child, in marble,--sleeping
+for ever where it lay.
+
+The household at Bushey was admirably regulated by the Duchess, who had
+been taught the duties as well as the privileges of greatness. The
+fixed rule was, never to allow expenditure to exceed income. It is a
+golden rule which, when observed, renders men, in good truth, as rich
+as Croesus. It is a rule which, if universally observed, would render
+the world prosperous, and pauperism a legend. It was a rule the more
+required to be honoured in this case, as the Duke had large calls upon
+his income. When those were provided for, old liabilities effaced, and
+current expenses defrayed, the surplus was surrendered to charity.
+There was no saving for the sake of increase of income,--economy was
+practised for justice-sake, and the Duke and Duchess were so just, that
+they found themselves able to be largely generous. With the increased
+means placed at their disposal by the death of the Duke of York, there
+was but trifling increase of expenditure. If something was added to
+their comforts, they benefitted who were employed to procure them; and,
+if there was some little additional luxury in the rural palace of
+Bushey, the neighbouring poor were never forgotten in the selfish
+enjoyment of it.
+
+In 1824, the Duke and Duchess of Clarence had apartments in St. James's
+Palace, where, however, they seem to have been as roughly accommodated,
+considering their condition, as any mediaeval prince and princess in
+the days of stone walls thinly tapestried and stone floors scantily
+strewn with rushes. The Duke cared little about the matter himself, but
+he gallantly supported the claims of his wife. In a letter addressed to
+Sir William Knighton, the King's privy purse, in 1824, he thus
+expresses himself--from St. James's Palace:--
+
+"His Majesty having so graciously pleased to listen to my suggestion
+respecting the alteration for the Hanoverian office, at the palace, I
+venture once more to trouble you on the point of the building intended
+for that purpose. To the accommodation of the Duchess, this additional
+slip at the back of the present apartments, would be most to be wished
+and desired, and never can make a complete Hanoverian office without
+our kitchen, which the King has so kindly allowed us to keep. Under
+this perfect conviction, I venture to apply for this slip of building
+which was intended for the Hanoverian office. I am confident His
+Majesty is fully aware of the inconvenience and unfitness of our
+present apartments here. They were arranged for me in 1809, when I was
+a bachelor, and without an idea at that time of my ever being married,
+since which, now fifteen years, nothing has been done to them, and you
+well know the dirt and unfitness for the Duchess of our present abode.
+Under these circumstances, I earnestly request, for the sake of the
+amiable and excellent Duchess, you will, when the King is quite
+recovered, represent the wretched state and dirt of our apartments, and
+the infinite advantage this slip would produce to the convenience and
+comfort of the Duchess .... God bless the King and yourself, and ever
+believe me, &c.--WILLIAM."
+
+Though often as ungrammatical and inelegant, it was seldom the Duke was
+so explicit in his correspondence as he is in the above letter.
+Generally, he wrote in ambiguous phrases, very puzzling to the
+uninitiated; but when his Duchess Adelaide was in question, and her
+comfort was concerned, he became quite graphic on the "state and dirt"
+in which they passed their London days, in the old, dingy, leper-house
+palace of St. James's.
+
+With the exception of the period during which the Duke held the office
+of Lord High Admiral, 1827-28,--an office which may be said to have
+been conferred on him by Canning, and of which he was deprived by the
+Duke of Wellington,--with the exception above noted, this royal couple
+lived in comparative retirement till the 26th of June, 1830, on which
+day, the demise of George IV. summoned them to ascend the throne.
+
+It is said that when the news of the death of George IV. was announced
+to the Duchess of Clarence, the new Queen burst into tears. The
+prayer-book she held in her hand, at the moment, she conferred on the
+noble messenger, as a memorial of the incident, and of her regret. The
+messenger looked, perhaps, for a more costly guerdon; but she was
+thinking only of her higher and stranger duties. If Queen Adelaide
+really regretted that these now had claims upon her, not less was their
+advent regretted by certain of the labouring poor of Bushey, whose
+harvest-homes had never been so joyous as since the Duke and Duchess of
+Clarence had been living among them.
+
+The course of life of the new Queen was only changed in degree. Her
+income was larger, so also were her charities. Her time had more calls
+upon it, but her cheerfulness was not diminished. Her evenings were
+generally given up to tapestry work, and as she bent over the frame,
+many of the circle around her already sorrowingly remarked, that the
+new Queen, though not old in years, seemed descending into the vale of
+life.
+
+The esteem of her husband for her was equal to her merits. His
+affection and respect were boundless; and when the senate granted her,
+on the motion of Lord Althorpe, L100,000 per annum, with Marlborough
+House and Bushey Park, in case she survived the King, the good old
+monarch was the first to congratulate her, and was pleased to put her
+in office, himself, by appointing her Perpetual Ranger of the Park,
+which was to become her own at his decease.
+
+I shall not anticipate matters very violently, or unjustifiably,
+perhaps, if I notice here, that William IV. was not forgetful of his
+old loves, and that Queen Adelaide was not jealous of such memories.
+She looked more indulgently than the general public did, on the
+ennobling of his children of the Jordan family. If that step could have
+been met by objections, in these later days, it was at least supported
+by that amazingly powerful, but sometimes perilous engine, precedent.
+Though indeed, there was precedent for the contrary; and perhaps the
+husband of Queen Adelaide would have manifested a greater sense of
+propriety on this occasion, had he rather followed the decent example,
+in a like matter, of the scrupulous Richard the Third than that of
+Henry the Eighth or the Second Charles.
+
+There was another ennobling, however, which the public as warmly
+approved as the Queen heartily sanctioned. In 1834, her husband raised
+to the dignity of a Baroness, the lady who had declined to share with
+him whatever of higher or more equivocal honour he could have
+conferred, by marrying her. In that year, Miss Wykeham became, by the
+grateful memory and good taste of her old royal lover, Baroness Wenman
+of Thame Park, Oxon. This testimony of the memory of an old affection
+was an act to be honoured by a Queen, and to it that royal homage was
+freely tendered. Enquirers, on turning over the peerage books, may
+discover many honours conferred on women too ready to listen to the
+suit of a monarch; but, here, for the first time, was a title of
+nobility presented to a lady who had declined to give ear to royal
+suit, paid in honesty and honour.
+
+The fact is that there was something chivalrous in the bearing of the
+King towards ladies; hearty, but a courteous heartiness. This sort of
+tribute he loved to render to his wife; and there was nothing so
+pleasant to hear, in his replies to addresses, after his accession, as
+the gallant allusions to the qualities of the Queen, who stood at his
+side, serenely satisfied. This heartiness was not an affectation in
+him. "It was of his nature; and another phase of his character was
+manifested by King William at the first dinner after he ascended the
+throne, at which his relations only were present. On that pleasant
+occasion, although it was a family dinner, he gave as a toast:--"Family
+peace and affection;" it was the hearty sentiment of a citizen King who
+loved quiet and simple ways, who walked the streets with his intimate
+friends, and often occupied the box-seat of his carriage, turning round
+to converse with the Queen, inside.
+
+When Adelaide became Queen Consort, some persons who would not have
+been ill-pleased to see her fail, affected to fear that the homely
+Duchess should prove to be unequal to the exigencies of the queenly
+character. One person, I remember, hinted that, in this matter, she
+would not do ill, were she to take counsel of the Princess Elizabeth of
+Hesse Homburg, "than whom none could better record to Her Majesty the
+forms, and usages, and _prescriptions_ of the court of Queen
+Charlotte." But Queen Adelaide needed no such instruction as the good
+daughter of George III. could give her. She observed the forms and
+usages that were worthy of observance; and as for _proscriptions_, she
+could proscribe readily enough when duty demanded the service,--as the
+Church felt, with mingled feelings, when she declined to invite
+clergymen to her state balls or to her dancing _soirees_. The dancing
+clergy had their opportunity for censure, when the King and Queen gave
+dinner-parties on the Sunday.
+
+The court was essentially a homely court. The two sovereigns fed
+thousands of the poor in Windsor Park, and looked on at the feasting.
+The Queen went shopping to Brighton Fancy Fairs, and when on one
+occasion she bent to pick up the "reticule" which an infirm old lady
+had dropped, as much was made of it as of the incident of King Francis,
+who picked up (or did not pick up) Titian's pencil, and handed it to
+that sovereign gentleman among artists.
+
+Then the new sovereigns paid more private visits than any pair who had
+hitherto occupied the British throne. While the Queen called on Sir
+David and Lady Scott, at Brighton, her royal husband, with whom she had
+just previously been walking, on the Esplanade, would suddenly appear
+at the door of some happy but disconcerted old Admiral, and invite the
+veteran and his wife to dinner. To the hearty, "Come along, directly,"
+if there was a glance from the lady at her toilet, the Citizen-King
+would encourage her by an intimation, never to mind it, for he and his
+wife were quiet people; "and, indeed," as he once remarked, "the Queen
+does nothing after dinner but embroider flowers." Which, indeed, was
+true enough, and--to tell the truth--very dull, as I am assured, did
+the finer people find it.
+
+The consequence of this familiarity of the sovereigns with their
+humbler friends, was a rather audacious familiarity ventured upon by
+people who left their queer names in the book at the King's door, and
+more than once successfully passed it, and penetrated to the Queen's
+drawing-room. This evil, however, was soon remedied. There were other
+matters Queen Adelaide was bold enough to, at least, attempt to remedy.
+Indecorousness of dress, in a lady, she would censure as sharply as
+Queen Charlotte; and if, when Mrs. Blomfield appeared at her first
+drawing-room, in a "train of rich immortal velvet," as the fashionable
+chroniclers of the day call it, she did not even hint surprise, it was
+perhaps out of respect for the successor of the Apostles, of whom that
+good, but richly velvetted, lady was the honoured wife.
+
+The letter-writers who dealt with court incidents at the period of the
+accession of this domestic couple tell of various illustrations of the
+simplicity of the new sovereigns, When the Duke of Norfolk had an
+interview with William IV. at Bushey,--on the affair which had brought
+him thither being concluded, the King declared he must not leave the
+house without seeing the Queen; and thereupon ringing the bell, he bade
+the official who answered the summons to "tell the Queen I want her."
+
+This lady, at the time when her husband was Duke of Clarence and Lord
+High Admiral, had been accustomed, on her visits to Chatham, to be
+received and entertained by the daughters of the then Commissioner,
+Cunningham. As soon as the Duchess became Queen, among her first
+invited visitors to Bushey were these ladies. At the meeting, they
+offered to kiss Her Majesty's hand, but "No, no," said Queen Adelaide,
+"that is not the way I receive my friends. I am not changed;" and
+therewith ensued a greeting less dignified, but not less sincere.
+
+There are other stories told of incidents at Windsor, which indicate
+the difference of the court going out from that of the court coming in.
+This change required the removal from the palace of a little household,
+the head lady of which reluctantly gave way to the new Queen. These
+incidents, however, belong rather to the _Chronique Scandaleuse_ than
+to mine. I will only add, therefore, that people generally rejoiced in
+seeing a "wife" installed where "queans" used to rule it; and that,
+when William IV. was seen walking arm-in-arm with Watson Taylor, or
+some other happy courtier, they added one incident to the other, and
+comparing the new court with the old, exclaimed, "Here is a change,
+indeed!" No one ever dreamed at that moment that the time would come
+when party-spirit would stir up the "_mobile_" against the sovereigns;
+that the Queen would be accused of plotting with the Duke of Wellington
+against Reform; that stones would be cast at the royal carriage as it
+bore the King and his Consort from the theatre; and "that, when matters
+went adversely to the humour of the ultra-chiefs of the popular
+movement, the first lady in the land should be marked out for vengeance
+by the famous cry, "The Queen has done it all!"
+
+The drawing-room of which I have before spoken, at which good Mrs.
+Blomfield appeared in "immortal velvet," was remarkable, however, for
+another incident, which I will relate in the words of a writer in
+"Frazer's Magazine," John Wilkes, ex-M.P. for Sudbury, who thus relates
+it in his "Regina's Regina"--"The drawing-room of Her Majesty Queen
+Adelaide, held in February 1831, was the most magnificent which had
+been seen since that which had taken place on the presentation of the
+Princess Charlotte of Wales, upon the occasion of her marriage. No
+drawing-room excited such an interest, when compared with that, as the
+one held by Queen Adelaide, at which the Princess Victoria was
+presented on attaining her twelfth year. It was on this occasion that
+the Duchess of Kent and her illustrious daughter arrived in state,
+attended by the Duchess of Northumberland, Lady Charlotte St. Maur,
+Lady Catherine Parkinson, the Hon. Mrs. Cust, Lady Conroy, La Baronne
+Letzen, Sir John Conroy, and General Wetheral. This was the first
+public appearance of the Princess Victoria at court. Her dress was made
+entirely of articles manufactured in the United Kingdom. Victoria wore
+a frock of English blonde, simple, modest, and becoming. She was the
+object of interest and admiration on the part of all assembled, as she
+stood on the left of Her Majesty on the throne. The scene was one of
+the most splendid ever remembered, and the future Queen of England
+contemplated all that passed with much dignity, but with evident
+interest."
+
+Nearly three-quarters of a century had elapsed since a Queen-Consort
+had been crowned in Great Britain. On the present occasion, such small
+pomp as there was, was confined to the religious part of the ceremony.
+The procession, to and from Westminster Hall, the banquet there, and
+the dramatic episode of the entry of the champion, were all dispensed
+with. There was an idea prevalent, that the cost would be too great,
+and that the popular voice would be given to grumble;--as if money
+spent in the country, and made to circulate rapidly through many hands,
+would not have been a public benefit rather than a public injury. The
+ministry, however, would only sanction the maimed rites which were
+actually observed;--the privileged people were deprived of many a
+coveted perquisite, which might have dipped deeply into the public
+purse, and the heir of Marmion and the owner of Scrivelsby, kept his
+horse and his defiance at home in the domain of the Dymokes. The
+public, cheated of their show, called it a "half-crownation."
+
+There was only one incident at this ceremony which is worth narrating.
+The Queen-Consort's crown was a rich little toy, sparkling but small.
+It would hardly fit a baby's head, and, accordingly, Queen Adelaide's
+hair was turned up in a knot, in order that on this knot the little
+crown might safely rest. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in place of
+fitting the crown down upon this knot of hair, only lightly placed the
+glittering toy on the top of it. Had the Queen moved, she would have
+been discrowned in an instant, and all the foolish people whose
+footsteps go wandering on the borders of another world, instead of
+going honestly straightforward in this, would have had a fine
+opportunity of discussing the value of omens. But, in a case of
+adornment, the ladies had their wits about them, and were worth the
+whole episcopal bench when the matter at issue was surmounting a head
+of hair with its supreme adornment of a crown. Some of those in
+attendance stepped forward, saved their embarrassed mistress from an
+annoyance; and Queen Adelaide was crowned in Westminster Abbey, by a
+couple of ladies-in-waiting!
+
+It may be that the Archbishop was not so much to blame on this
+occasion. The little crown was made up at her own expense for the
+occasion, by Rundell, out of her own jewels, and it may not have fitted
+easily. She had a dread of unnecessary outlay, and, perhaps, remembered
+that at George the Fourth's coronation, the sum charged by Rundell
+merely for the hire of jewels by the King, amounted to L16,000, as
+interest on their value. The whole expense of the double coronation of
+William and Adelaide, did not amount to much more than twice that sum.
+
+The Queen herself was not ill-dressed on this occasion, as will be seen
+by the record made by those who have registered the millinery portion
+of the ceremony:--"Her Majesty wore a gold gauze over a white satin
+petticoat, with a diamond stomacher, and a purple velvet train, lined
+with white satin, and a rich border of gold and ermine. The coronet
+worn by Her Majesty, both to and from the Abbey, was most beautiful. It
+was composed entirely of diamonds and pearls, and in shape very similar
+to a mural crown."
+
+It may not be irrelevant to state, that when the modest coronation of
+William and Adelaide was yet a subject of general conversation, the
+expensive finery of that which preceded it was actually in the market,
+and was subsequently sold by public auction. Out of the hundred and
+twenty lots "submitted" by Mr. Phillips, the new King and Queen might
+have been tempted to secure a souvenir of their predecessor; but they
+had no taste for "bargains;" perhaps, small regard for their defunct
+kinsman. Nevertheless, so thrifty a lady as the Queen may have sighed
+at the thought of the coronation ruff of Mecklin lace going "dirt
+cheap" at two pounds; and she may have regretted the crimson velvet
+coronation mantle, with its star and gold embroidery, which originally
+costing five hundred pounds, fetched, when yet as good as new, only a
+poor seven-and-forty guineas. There was the same depreciation in other
+articles of originally costly value. The second coronation mantle of
+purple velvet, fell from three hundred to fifty-five pounds; and the
+green velvet mantle, lined with ermine, which had cost the Czar, who
+presented it to the late King, a thousand guineas, was "knocked down"
+at a trifle over a hundred pounds. Sashes, highland-dresses,
+aigrette-plumes,--rich gifts received, or purchases dearly acquired,
+went for nothing; and, after all, seeing into what base hands
+coronation bravery is apt to fall, the economical King and Queen were
+not without justification in setting an example of prudence, which was
+followed at the next great crowning.
+
+Perhaps not the least remarkable incident in connection with this
+coronation, was the absence of the heiress-presumptive to the crown,
+the Princess Victoria. No place had been assigned to her, nor any
+preparation made in expectation of her gracing or witnessing the
+ceremony. It has been said by some persons that Earl Grey, the prime
+minister, obstinately opposed all idea of inviting the Princess to be
+present. But the grounds for such opposition are so unapparent, that it
+is difficult to give credit to them at all. By others, it has been
+asserted that the Duchess of Northumberland, the governess of the
+Princess, in the exercise of a superior and enlightened judgment, and
+in consideration of the then alleged delicate health of her young
+charge, advised that her pupil should not be present at the coronation
+of King William and Queen Adelaide. This reason seems hardly to account
+for the fact. In the absence of a better, it was accepted by those at
+least who did not throw the blame of that "conspicuous absence" on
+Queen Adelaide herself and her royal consort; but, as an anonymous
+writer remarked,--"Who that knew the good King William and his
+incomparable Queen, would believe that any slight was put by them on
+their well-beloved niece and the heiress-presumptive to the throne?"
+The same enemies also stated that "the Duchess of Northumberland was
+seeking to give a political bias to the education of the Princess; and
+some uneasiness was therefore created at the palace." The "Times"
+asserted, with iteration, that the Duchess of Kent had "refused to
+attend, yes, refused to attend," and reproved Her Royal Highness, in
+the harsh terms which illustrated many of the controversies of the day,
+for the impertinence of the widow of a mediatized German Prince, in
+withholding her daughter from a ceremony at which she could never, at
+one time, have expected to see daughter of hers, as heiress-presumptive
+to the crown of England! Other papers made this alleged refusal rest on
+the course taken by Lord A. Fitzclarence, who, in marshalling the
+coronation procession, on paper, had assigned a place to the Princess
+Victoria, after the other members of the royal family, instead of next
+to the King and Queen. Finally, the "Globe," on authority, declared
+that the Duchess having pleaded the delicate state of her daughter's
+health, had obtained the king's sanction to her absence,--a version of
+the end of a story which began, nevertheless, more like the current
+report of it than would seem here to be indicated. As marked an
+instance of absence as that of the Princess, was that of the whole of
+such members of the preceding administration, as happened to be members
+of the House of Commons. This, however, little affected the King, who,
+at the subsequent dinner at St. James's Palace, gave, as a toast, the
+"Land we live in," and declared that, except as a formality and
+memorial, the coronation was an useless affair, as far as he was
+concerned, for no oath he had there taken could bind him more
+stringently to fulfil his duty towards the people than he felt himself
+to be bound as soon as the responsibility of his position had fallen
+upon him.
+
+The land he lived in now speedily became agitated by that wave of
+revolution which was shaking many of the monarchies of Europe. England
+endured as great revolution as any of them, but with this difference,
+that here it was effected according to law, and albeit not exempt from
+very vast perils, was carried through to its natural consequences, to
+the mutual advantage of the government and the governed.
+
+When the first rumours began to spread of an opposition establishing
+itself at court against the progress of reform, the press manifested
+particular desire to exonerate the Queen from the charge of
+participating in, or heading such a course. The "Times" especially
+interfered to protect that lady from similar aspersions. Papers of less
+influence, but of like principles, had openly named Queen Adelaide, the
+two daughters of George III., Elizabeth, (Princess of Hesse Homburg,)
+and Mary, (Duchess of Gloucester,) as mischievously active in impeding
+the popular will. In answer to such accusations, the "Times" (April 9,
+1831) in a brief, but spirited and courteous leader, denounced the
+falsehood, and showed the improbability and the unfairness of such
+allegations. On a like occasion, that paper fairly urged that whatever
+opinions might be expressed by members of the household, they were not
+to be attributed to the mistress of that household. At the same time,
+on these members and on the fair frequenters of drawing-rooms who there
+gave utterance to sentiments which they carried into action elsewhere,
+against the great consummation sought by the people, the pro-reform
+paper thundered its bolts and showered its sarcasm with unsparing
+hands. On most occasions, however, so much was made of the apparent
+heartiness of the King, that excess of praise in that direction, took
+the form of censure on the lukewarmness if not the hostility of the
+Queen. Contrasts rather than parallels were the favourite medium for
+turning the public attention to the two sovereigns. The Ex-Chancellor
+Eldon was said to have assured Queen Adelaide, that if reform was
+carried, the days of her drawing-rooms were numbered, and that royalty
+would do well to follow a counsel which was given by Earl Grey to the
+bishops,--namely, set its house in order. On the other hand, we hear of
+the new Chancellor Brougham attending the court with his huge official
+purse so full of petitions in favour of parliamentary reform, that as
+he continued to extract and present them, he apologized to King William
+for troubling him with such piles of the public prayers or demands.
+Whereupon the King is said to have remarked, in the hearing of the
+Queen, "My Lord Chancellor, I am willing to receive anything from that
+purse, except the seals!" The wit was small, but the suggestiveness was
+considered important, and gossips, on both sides, jumped to conclusions
+which had questionable affinity with the premises.
+
+While the Queen was thus treated with a certain degree of moderation by
+the press, she is said to have been seriously coerced by the liberal
+ministry of the day. The charge was distinctly made, after the Queen's
+death, in a funeral sermon, preached by the Rev. Mr. Browne, Vicar of
+Atwick. The occasion was so solemn, that an honest man was not likely
+to be led even into exaggeration, much less into deliberate
+misrepresentation. I will therefore quote the preacher's own words:--
+
+"The Queen-Consort had witnessed in her father-land, some of the
+dreadful effects of the French revolutionary movements; and she was
+known to disapprove, out of womanly feeling and fear for her husband's
+safety, of popular tumults and agitations. With the narrow-minded and
+impure, suspicion is proof, and is followed by resentment. This pure
+being was a sufferer by the machinations and exactions of the ephemeral
+favourites of the misguided populace. Her influence over her royal
+husband was too great to be trusted, and she was forbidden,--I speak
+advisedly, and mean nothing less than '_forbidden_'--to have a kindred
+spirit near her during the agitation and intimidation, by which the
+measure called the Reform Bill, was supported and carried."
+
+It was when that bill was in jeopardy, when the King,--who had made so
+many knights that the very pages called them the "Arabians," the
+"Thousand and One,"--hesitated to create a sufficient number of new
+lords to secure the passing of the bill in the Upper House; it was then
+that the press began to admonish the King and to menace the Queen. On
+one occasion, when they attended at the opening of the new Staines
+Bridge, where, by the way, they were so closely pressed upon by the
+mob, that maids of honour and gentlemen in waiting had their pockets
+picked, the Conservative wits remarked, that the King might make new
+bridges, but that he must leave the peers alone. The Whig party at once
+assumed that Queen Adelaide was at the head of a faction, whose object
+was to give reality to such jokes, and thenceforward the Queen was
+little spared. The "Times" asserted that it was by "domestic
+importunity" alone that the free action of the King's mind was impeded.
+The Queen was compared to Queen Amata, in the "AEneid," cajoling or
+raging at her older consort, Latinus, because the latter preferred
+AEneas to Turnus, as a husband for their daughter, Lavinia. There was
+not much alike in the two cases, for Amata was a staunch Conservative,
+who detested the idea of a foreign prince obtaining the hand of her
+daughter, and exercising influence within the limits of Latium. But
+there were strong terms in the original which suited the purpose of the
+hour, and the Queen was pelted with them most unmercifully.
+
+Occasionally, there was a truth mixed up with the harder words, which
+even ultra-Tories could not gainsay, as when the "Times" remarked, that
+"a foreigner was no very competent judge of English liberties, and
+politics are not the proper field for female enterprize or exertion."
+When this strong hint was taken to have failed, and Queen Adelaide was
+still supposed to be conspiring with the daughters of George III. to
+turn King William from his liberal views, this was the tone with which
+the royal lady was lectured by the press:--"There is a lady of high
+rank, who must be taught a salutary, though a very painful, lesson. She
+may be bold as an amazon, be troublesome, importunate, or overbearing,
+but her present course is one from which can follow nought but final
+wretchedness. Why has she so eagerly, within these few hours, bidden
+her gossips not to despair? Why such haste to tell them, all will be
+well! The King will do without the Whigs! Yes, madam, but England will
+not. Still less will England do without the unmutilated Bill."
+
+At another time, Queen Adelaide was reminded that if a female influence
+drove Necker from the court of Louis XVI., one of the consequences was
+the destruction of the most influential lady; another, the ruin of the
+country. The influence being assumed to be still active, allusion was
+made to the "foreign woman whom the nation may have too easily
+adopted." Reports were rife that intrigues were on foot, the object of
+which was to induce liberal peers to betray their party, and then the
+public censor showered imprecations on "blandishments and intreaties,
+urged with a force and pertinacity which, coming from a monarch, are
+difficult to be refused."
+
+On the other hand, the Conservative press drew its own inferences, and
+made its own accusations. When the cholera was raging, during the
+reform fever, Queen Adelaide's drawing-room happened to be very thinly
+attended. The real cause was lost sight of, and Her Majesty was
+respectfully assured that the scanty attendance was entirely owing to
+Lord Grey's revolutionary government, beneath which all old English
+energy, vitality, and spirit, had become so extinct, that it was
+unequal to the exertion of even manifesting respect for an English
+Queen.
+
+These old English qualities did, however, manifest themselves at a
+Conservative festival in Gloucestershire, where the health of "the
+Queen" was "received with great applause." Upon which announcement the
+"Times" significantly asked, "Is that meant as a compliment to Her
+Majesty, or will it sound as such in the ears of the unanimous people?"
+Then, when reiteration was made of the alleged co-operation of the
+sisters of William IV. with Queen Adelaide, in efforts to overthrow the
+Reform Bill, the "Times" stepped forward with the following testimony
+in favour of those ladies and their mother, with the accompanying
+admonition to the Queen:--"No one will be persuaded that any daughter
+of George III. could so mistake their position in this country, or so
+disregard their duty. Queen Charlotte was advised by her mother, before
+she ever touched the shores of England, to make entire and religious
+abstinence from politics the rule of her life, as a British Princess;
+and for twenty-eight years, till the question of the first Regency
+forced Queen Charlotte upon the stage, as a reluctant actress, she had
+satisfied herself with being a modest spectatress, living in strict
+observance of maternal counsel: and what was the consequence? Down to
+the abovementioned period of her wedded life, Her Majesty enjoyed, in a
+degree not experienced by any Queen-Consort for centuries past, the
+respect and good-will of the whole community. Is it then to be supposed
+that the leading maxim of her own mother, was not impressed by that
+judicious and estimable woman, upon the minds of her daughters, the six
+Princesses, two of whom still adorn the court of England with their
+constant presence? The Princess Augusta and the Duchess of Gloucester
+owe little to the gossips who thus abuse the delicacy of their
+illustrious names."
+
+Party-spirit was, doubtless, aggravated on either side by the tone of
+the press. Influential cities announced their refusal to pay taxes, and
+tavern-clubs possessing pictures of King and Queen, turned them heels
+uppermost, with an intimation that they should be righted as soon as
+the originals had made themselves right with the people. If Tories of
+eminence talked of coercing the King, Whigs equally exalted hinted at
+the possibility of sending his Consort to Germany, and of rousing the
+men of the provinces in order to make an impression upon people in high
+places. One well-known "man about town" presiding at a public dinner,
+refused to propose the Queen's health, and, among the lower
+caricature-shops, she might be seen pictured, wending her way, the
+ejected of England, to a dull, dreary, and unwelcoming Germany.
+
+Publicly, however, she had her champions too. Mr. Baring, from his
+place in parliament, protested against the language of the Whig papers,
+generally. His own description of it, as applicable to the Queen, was,
+that it comprised foul slander against the highest personage of a sex,
+from insulting which every manly mind would recoil. The gallant
+champion added, with less discretion, perhaps, that the full measure of
+scornful indifference and silent contempt with which the Queen repaid
+all the insults heaped upon her, had elevated her in the hearts of
+those whose homage was a worthy tribute. Mr. Hume, ultra-reformer as he
+was, exhibited very excellent taste on this occasion, and pointed out
+in a few words marked by good common sense, that the name of the
+exalted lady, in question, should never be dragged into the debates,
+the discussions, and the dissensions of that house.
+
+Less, perhaps, by way of championship, than in the character of
+consolers, did the bishops, or a certain number of them, with the
+Archbishop of Canterbury at their head, address Queen Adelaide. They
+had, previously, "been up" to the King, who was just then being
+counselled in various ways, by everybody, from wary old politicians to
+the 'prentice-boys of Derry. They brought to his Consort the usual
+complimentary phrases,--but, in the present instance, they carried
+weight with the Queen, for amid the din of abuse with which she was
+assailed, a few words of assurance and encouragement, of trust,
+counsel, and consolation, must have fallen pleasantly upon her ear. She
+said as much, at least, in a brief phrase or two, indicative of the
+satisfaction she experienced at hearing such words from such men, at a
+period when she was the object of so much undeserved calumny and insult.
+
+The scene was, undoubtedly, made the most of by those who rejoiced most
+in its occurrence; perhaps, too much was made of it; and this induced
+the ridicule of the opposite side. The "Times" courageously denied its
+existence. The presentation of the prelates was admitted, but the
+Queen's speech was defined as a hoax. There was nobody by, it was said,
+but the knot of diocesans and a body of maids of honour,--and, of
+course, any report emanating from such a source was to be received with
+more than ordinary suspicion.
+
+Long before the press had commenced directing an undesired notice upon
+the Queen, private circles were canvassing her conduct with regard,
+especially, to this matter of reform. "By-the-bye," says Moore in his
+Diary, "the Queen being, as is well known, adverse to the measure which
+is giving such popularity to her royal husband, reminds me a little of
+the story of the King of Sparta, who first gave his assent to the
+establishment of the Ephori. His wife, it is said, reproached him with
+this step, and told him that he was delivering down the royal power to
+his children, less than he had received it. 'Greater,' he answered,
+'because more durable.' This is just such an answer as William the
+Fourth would be likely to give to _his_ wife. But the event proved the
+Spartan Queen to have been right, for the Ephori extinguished the royal
+power; and if Queen Adelaide's bodings are of the same description,
+they are but too likely to be, _in the same manner, realized_,"--a
+curious avowal from Lord Lansdowne's Whig friend.
+
+There are few things which more forcibly strike a student of the
+political literature of this period, than its wide difference from that
+which now generally prevails. It seemed, in those days, as if no public
+writer could command or control his temper. The worst things were
+expressed in the worst forms, and writers had not reached, or did not
+care to practise, the better style by which a man may censure sharply
+without doing undue wrong to the object of his censure, without losing
+his own self-respect or forfeiting that of his readers.
+
+Taken altogether, the year 1832 may be said to have been the most
+eventful, and the least felicitous, in the life of Queen Adelaide. It
+was a year which opened gloomily for the court, both politically and
+personally. At one of the small festivities held at the Pavilion, the
+King's old friend, Mr. Greenwood, of the firm of Cox and Greenwood,
+Army Agents, was playing whist, after dinner, with the Queen for a
+partner, and the King and Sir Herbert Taylor for adversaries. During
+the progress of the game he was taken ill, became insensible, and, on
+being removed from the room by Sir Herbert and Lord Erroll, died in an
+adjoining apartment, within a quarter of an hour. The Queen was very
+much shocked at this incident, and the elder ladies about court who
+thought it ominous of a fatal year,--for already were movements hostile
+to monarchy becoming active,--considered the next month's omen of
+unpleasant significance too, when the fog in London, on the night of
+the anniversary of the Queen's birth-day, was so dense, that not a lump
+of the illuminations was visible through the mist. Then ensued, in the
+subsequent spring, the unpleasant feud with the Sefton family, in which
+Queen Adelaide's name was so prominent.
+
+Soon after the temporary resignation of the Grey ministry, King William
+invited the Jockey Club to dinner at St. James's Palace. Among the
+invited was old Lord Sefton, who was a Whig _and something more_, and
+who was resolved to avenge on the King the wrongs inflicted, as he
+assumed, by that dissembling monarch on his friends of the late
+administration. Lord Sefton, accordingly withdrew from the club, in
+order that he might be able to decline the royal invitation, as a
+member. The unsuspicious King at once invited him as a friend, but Lord
+Sefton was ungracious enough to absent himself, and did not condescend
+to restore the sovereign to favour, till Lord Grey was once more at the
+helm of the national ship,--steersman and captain too. His lordship and
+family appeared at the ball given by the Queen, in May to which, of
+course, they had been all invited. Meanwhile, however, the King had
+learned how he stood in the estimation of the Earl, meeting whom in the
+Queen's ball-room, he turned his royal back upon him, publicly. Thence
+arose embittered feelings on the part of the offended peer. _Vivere
+sat, vincere_, "to conquer, is to live enough," is the Sefton motto,
+and the bearers of it seem to have been determined to have this taste
+of life, by putting down the royal offenders, and appearing before them
+to enjoy their humiliation. "Lord Molyneux" (Lord Sefton's son, says
+Mr. Raikes, in his _Diary_,) "has attended a public meeting at
+Liverpool, where he made a speech, and actuated by his father's
+feelings, alluded very bitterly to the conduct of both the King and
+Queen. He afterwards came to town, and appeared, with his family, at
+the ball. On the following day, the King commanded Mr. W. Ashley, as
+vice-chamberlain to the Queen, to write to Lord Molyneux, and request
+he would not appear at court again. Nothing could be more just. This is
+only a slight instance," adds the Tory Diarist, "of Whig insolence and
+ingratitude. Sefton has been made a peer, and treated with the most
+marked courtesy and attention by the present King."
+
+In the following June, Lord Lichfield, master of the buck hounds,
+prepared a list of guests invited by him to meet the King, at the
+conclusion of Ascot races; at dinner, at Lord Lichfield's house, Fern
+Hill. The King expressly ordered that Lord Sefton should not be
+invited. Considering the offence, it was singular that any one should
+have thought of winning the Queen over to use her interest in
+influencing her husband to withdraw the command. Lady Lichfield,
+however, did so, intimating to Her Majesty, that if the King had been
+moved by what was reported to have passed at the Jockey Club, she was
+enabled to say how that matter had been much misrepresented. The Queen
+confined all reply and comment to the words, coldly uttered, that, she
+hoped it was so.
+
+It certainly was not a period when Queens could expect to be cordial
+with people who insulted them, and whose speeches in public were
+exercising a very unwholesome influence on the more ignorant of the
+lower orders. At the above very Ascot races, the King was grievously
+assaulted, in the Queen's presence, by a ruffian in the crowd. Their
+Majesties had just taken their seats in the grand stand, and the King
+had then risen to salute the people in view, when the ruffian in
+question flung a stone at him, which struck the King on the forehead,
+but did not inflict any serious mischief. The assailant was let cheaply
+off; but Queen Adelaide was much distressed by his act; and the
+impression it made upon her was only increased, a week later, when she
+appeared with the King at the review in Hyde Park. There she was
+treated with such incivility and rudeness, that at the fete, at the
+Duke of Wellington's, in the evening, where they held a little court,
+the Queen wore a spiritless and sorrowing aspect, while King William,
+his buoyant spirits all quenched, looked aged and infirm, weary of his
+vocation and vexations.
+
+The season, certainly, was not one for monarchs to be abroad in, with
+joyous exterior. In the summer of this year, there passed through
+London a princess whose story bore with it a great moral to the wearers
+of crowns. I allude to the Duchess of Angouleme, the daughter of Louis
+XVI. She had experienced the widest extremes of fortune, but had been
+longest and most intimately acquainted with misfortune. She was again a
+fugitive and an exile,--one never destined to behold her country again.
+The Queen visited her at her modest apartments in Charles Street,
+Grosvenor Square; and she took leave of that illustrious victim of many
+revolutions, with evil forebodings of the issue of the spirit of the
+then present time. Her Majesty did not, indeed, lack a certain spirit
+of her own, wherewith to meet the other and revolutionary spirit. Thus,
+when her friend and faithful servant, Lord Howe, was compelled to give
+up his office of chamberlain to the Queen, his mistress would never
+accept the nomination of any other person to the same post. Lord Howe
+remained in attendance upon his mistress unofficially; but he
+positively refused to be reinstated by Lord Grey, to whom his reply
+was, "That he had been wantonly dismissed by him, and would receive no
+favour at his hands." The act of Lord Grey was, probably, far more
+keenly felt at court, than that of the two new radical members (Messrs.
+Wigney and Faithful) returned for the royal borough of Brighton; and
+who, "under the very nose of the court," as it was said, "talked openly
+of reducing the allowance made to the King and Queen." This was a
+foolish speech; but there was an even more indiscrete tongue
+within the Pavilion, than those of the new radical senators without. In
+1833, the King himself declared in favour of a republican form of
+government! What must the feelings of Queen Adelaide have been,--she
+who had a horror of revolutions, and a hatred for republicanism,--on
+that never-to-be-forgotten Sunday evening, the 6th of January, 1833?
+The American Minister was a guest at the dinner table that evening. At
+the dessert, the King, instead of wisely going to sleep, as he was
+accustomed to do after his second glass of wine, _would_ be lively and
+talkative. When he was in this vein, he was addicted to make speeches,
+and on this occasion, before the ladies had retired, he delivered
+himself of a very notable one, considering the times and the speaker,
+in which he expressed his great regret that he had not been born a
+free, independent, American: seeing that he entertained deep respect
+for the United States, and considered Washington to be the greatest man
+that ever lived. Queen Adelaide must have been astounded when listening
+to this profession of political faith, and to this eulogy of a man who
+had struck the brightest jewel out of the crown of his panegyrist's
+royal father!
+
+To old royalists, such a speech as the above savoured of that period
+which is called "the end of the world." Speculative individuals who
+heard of it, were amazed. "The aristocracy are hourly going down in the
+scale; royalty is become a mere cypher." Well might Mr. Raikes make
+this entry in his journal, when a King of England manifested a liking
+for "rowdyism." The influences of these passing events, even on men of
+intellect, are well marked by a contemporary passage in the diary of
+the merchant, whose commercial affairs were going the way he fancied
+the monarchy was tending. "I was walking the other day," he writes, in
+February 1833, "round the Royal Exchange, the _enceinte_ of which is
+adorned with the statues of Kings. Only two niches now remain vacant;
+one is destined to our present ruler, and that reserved for his
+successor is the last. Some people might say it was ominous." So,
+indeed, it proved to be; half-a-year after the accession of Queen
+Victoria, when there were as many niches as there had then been
+sovereigns, and room for no more, destruction ensued, but it was the
+Royal Exchange that fell (by fire), and not the monarchy. That has
+grown stronger. May it ever so flourish!
+
+Meanwhile, it is to be observed, that Queen Adelaide after this time
+began to re-conquer the popular esteem. When, in July 1834, she
+embarked at Woolwich as Countess of Lancaster, on board the royal
+yacht, for Rotterdam, in order to visit her relations in Germany, the
+spectators of the scene received her with demonstrations of great
+respect, and, on her return, in the following month, she landed at the
+same place amid acclamations of loyalty and welcome.
+
+It was after her return that the King began to bear symptoms of
+restlessness and fatigue, which betokened that decay which gradually
+made progress, and was ultimately accelerated in 1837, when his
+daughter, Lady de Lisle, died to the grief of many, but especially to
+the heart of her father.
+
+As the King's health began to give way, so also did his temper more
+easily yield before small provocations, and more freely did he indulge
+in that early acquired habit of using strong expletives which has been
+noted, in her diary, by Fanny Burney. William the Conqueror, it is
+said, used to ungallantly beat his wife, Matilda, of whom he was
+otherwise so fond. William the Fourth was guilty of an offence only
+next to it in criminality,--by swearing in presence of his Consort,
+Adelaide. There is a well-known instance of this told in connection
+with a visit to the Royal Academy, in 1834. The occasion was that of a
+private view, with a very large public attendance, at Somerset House.
+The President of the Royal Academy received the illustrious visitors,
+and accompanied them through the rooms. In the course of their
+progress, he pointed out to the King the portrait of Admiral Napier,
+who had recently been in command of the Portuguese fleet, for Don
+Pedro. The King's political wrath was too strong for his infirmity,
+and, without forgetting the presence of his wife, nay, making such
+presence an excuse for not breaking forth into greater unseemliness, he
+exclaimed:--"Captain Napier may be d----d, sir! and you may be d----d,
+sir! and if the Queen was not here, sir, I would kick you down stairs,
+sir." Such a scene indicated as much infirmity as bad taste on the part
+of the chief actor, and must have sorely tried the patience and shaken
+the dignity of the Queen. She now, perhaps, as much or more than ever,
+required the support of those nearest to her. The old prejudices of the
+reform time against her had not yet died out, and to these was to be
+added certain malignity in foreign papers; a malignity which culminated
+in 1835 in the "Gazette de France," which paper seriously asserted that
+England was endeavouring to revolutionize Spain and Portugal, with
+ulterior purposes of pursuing the same course in Germany and Italy, as
+she had done in Belgium and in Greece;--and that at the head of this
+conspiracy for reconstructing Europe, were William the Fourth, the Duke
+of Wellington, and _Queen Adelaide_! Thus, the lady who had seldom
+during her life desired more than to be permitted to enjoy it
+tranquilly, and who had but little perplexed herself touching the ways
+of others, was held up, after being accused of being a political
+meddler at home, as being a political conspirator abroad.
+
+When her royal Consort's indisposition assumed an appearance of
+increased gravity, Queen Adelaide at once took her place by his couch,
+and never left it but when compelled by gentle restraint put upon her
+by those who loved her, and who feared for her own health. "Les reines"
+(says a French writer) "ont ete vues pleurantes comme de simples
+femmes," and she was one of them. Her constancy only gave way, and she
+broke into profuse but silent tears, on the eve of the old King's
+death, as the Archbishop of Canterbury concluded the service of the
+sick, by pronouncing the solemn words of the benediction as contained
+in the Liturgy of the Church. The good old monarch looked with
+affection upon his sorrowing Queen, and with as cheerful a voice as he
+could put on, and almost in nautical phrase, begged her to be of good
+heart and to "bear up! bear up!"
+
+The Rev. Mr. Browne, Vicar of Atwick, rendering testimony to her
+conduct on this occasion, said in a funeral sermon: "She was by the
+King's bedside, a being so full of devoted love and pious resignation:
+of such meekness, gentleness, and goodness, and sweetness; that an
+angel might have beheld her with satisfaction and delight, and, _almost
+with advantage_." She did her duty like a true wife and tender woman;
+and Mr. Browne thought that, altogether, Queen Adelaide might have
+afforded an useful hint or two even to angels! It is more than the good
+Queen ever dreamed of.
+
+I do not know that I can cite a worthier witness to the Queen's conduct
+on this occasion, than the Archbishop of Canterbury. That reverend
+prelate was in close attendance upon the King during the last days of
+his life, in 1837, and in the course of his ministrations, saw more of
+Queen Adelaide than any other individual there present had the
+opportunity of doing. At a meeting of the Metropolitan Churches' Fund
+Society, the primate went fully, but tenderly and sensibly, into this
+solemn matter; and after rendering due, but not over-piled, measure of
+justice to the King, spoke in these words of his Consort:--"For three
+weeks prior to his dissolution, the Queen sat by his bedside,
+performing for him every office which a sick man could require, and
+depriving herself of all manner of rest and refection. She underwent
+labours which I thought no ordinary woman could endure. No language can
+do justice to the meekness and to the calmness of mind which she sought
+to keep up before the King, while sorrow was preying on her heart. Such
+constancy of affection, I think, was one of the most interesting
+spectacles that could be presented to a mind desirous of being
+gratified with the sight of human excellence."
+
+The spectacle at the close was one most touching of all, for old King
+William, threescore and twelve, died at last in a gentle sleep, as he
+sat up on his couch, his head resting, where it had lain undisturbed
+for hours, on the shoulder of the Queen. Such had been her office at
+various times, daily, for the preceding fortnight; and when it shall
+have been a little more hallowed by time, it will be a fitting subject
+to be limned by some future artist, competent to treat it.
+
+Since the death of Charles II., no King of England had died under the
+same roof with his wife; and then there was no such touching scene as
+the above, but only a few words of decent reconciliation before the
+royal pair parted for ever; and the wife, (leaving the husband to die
+at leisure and commend worthless women to his brother's protection)
+went to her chamber to receive the formal news of his death, and
+finally to receive the condolence of visitors, laying the while on a
+state bed of mourning, in a chamber lighted with tapers, the walls,
+floor, and ceiling covered with black cloth. Queen Adelaide stayed by
+her husband to the last, then laid his unconscious head upon the
+pillow, and quietly withdrawing to her chamber, looked for consolation
+to other sources than the visits of courtiers shaping their faces to
+the humour of the hour.
+
+The respect of the royal widow for the deceased King did not cease
+here. On Saturday night, the 8th of July, she attended the funeral
+ceremony, at Windsor, being present in the royal closet during the
+whole ceremony. She is the only Queen of England who saw a King, her
+Consort, deposited in the tomb.
+
+In the following month, the Dowager Queen left Windsor Castle, to which
+the shouts of a joyous people welcomed her successor. From that time,
+she may be said to have commenced her own course of dying. Her story is
+really, henceforward, but the diary of an invalid. The nation, through
+the legislature, condoled with her upon her bereavement, and as she
+descended the steps of the throne to resume her old unostentatious
+privacy, there was not a man in the realm who failed, in some wise, to
+greet her, or who did not acknowledge that she had borne greatness with
+honour, and had won the hearts of a people who had been once forward to
+censure her.
+
+From this period, her life was one of suffering, but it was a suffering
+that never rendered her selfish. In her worst hours of anguish, her ear
+was open, her heart touched, her hand ready to relieve her sisters in
+affliction, and to remedy the distresses of all who really stood in
+need of the royal succour. For nearly twelve years she may be said to
+have been dying. The sunniest and most sheltered spots in this country
+were visited by her, but without resulting in permanent relief. The
+winter of 1837-8 was spent at St. Leonard's. An attack of bronchitis,
+in the autumn of the latter year, drove her for refuge and remedy to
+Malta, where the church raised by her at Valetta,--the cathedral church
+of Gibraltar,--at an expense of L10,000, will long serve to perpetuate
+her memory. On her return in May 1839, she became, for a time, the
+guest of various noble hosts in England. In 1840, she visited the
+lakes, and established her home, subsequently and for a brief period,
+at Sudbury. Her next homes,--the frequent changes indicating increased
+virulence of disease,--were at Canford Hall, Dorset; Witley Court,
+Worcester; and Cashiobury, near Watford: thence she departed on one
+short and last visit to her native home, from which she returned so ill
+that, in 1847, she repaired, as a last resource, to Madeira, whither
+she was conveyed in a royal frigate.
+
+The progress of the sick Queen over the water, was not without its
+stateliness and solemnity, mixed with a certain joyousness, acceptable
+to, though not to be shared in by the royal invalid. Before the
+squadron departed from Spithead, on Sunday, the 10th of October, full
+divine service was celebrated on board the _Howe_, the ship's chaplain
+reading the prayers, the Queen Dowager's preaching the sermon, on a
+text altogether foreign to so rare and interesting an occasion:--"But
+now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
+witnessed by the law and the prophets," (Rom. iii. 21.) After service,
+the squadron stood forth to sea, no incident marking its way till the
+following Tuesday. On that day, a bird winging from the Bay of Biscay,
+fluttered on to the _Howe_, perched on the yards, and then flew from
+one point to another, and back again, as if he had made of the gallant
+steamer a home. A sailor, named Ward, attempted to capture the little
+guest, in pursuing which into the chains, being more eager than
+considerate, he fell headlong over into the waves, while the _Howe_
+pursued her forward way. In an instant after alarm was given, however,
+the life-buoy was floating on the waters, a boat was pulling lustily
+towards the seaman, and the _Howe_ slipped her tow ropes, and made a
+circuit astern to pick up rescued and rescuers. Ward, meanwhile, had by
+skilful swimming, gained fast hold of the buoy, and was brought on
+board little the worse for his plunge and his temporary peril. Queen
+Adelaide was more moved by this accident than the man was himself. On
+the following Sunday, the Queen was better able than she had previously
+been, to turn the accident to some account, for Ward's own benefit. Her
+Majesty had attended the usual service on board, and had listened to
+another sermon from the ship's chaplain, this time on a subject as
+unappropriate as that of the preceding Sunday:--"And almost all things
+are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no
+remission," (Heb. ix. 22),--the ship's company were repairing to their
+respective quarters, when Ward was told that the Queen Dowager
+requested to see him. If this message disconcerted him more than his
+fall into the Bay of Biscay, he soon recovered that self-possession
+which no man loses long, who has a proper feeling of self-respect.
+Besides, the widowed Queen, in her intercourse with persons of humble
+station, wore habitually that air--
+
+"--which sets you at your ease,
+Without implying your perplexities."
+
+She spoke to the listening sailor kindly, on his late peril, and the
+position in which it suddenly placed him near to impending death. A few
+words like these, wisely and tenderly offered, were likely to be more
+beneficial to a man like Ward, than a whole course of the chaplain's
+sermons on doctrinal points in the Epistle to the Hebrews; and I cannot
+but hope that the artists of the next generation, when Time shall have
+poetized the costume of the incident, will not forget this picturesque
+passage in the life of the Queen and the man-of-war's-man.
+
+And now, as they glided by the coast of Portugal, on the evening of
+Monday, the 18th of October, there was dancing on board, and again on
+the Wednesday evening. Princesses waltzed with commanders, the
+Grand-Duchess tripped it on the poop with a knight, and the midshipmen
+went dashingly at it with the maids of honour, while the gun-room
+officers stood by awaiting their turn. On the fore part of the
+quarterdeck, as many of the ship's company as were so minded, got up a
+dance among themselves; and the suffering Queen below heard the echoes
+of the general gladness, and was content.
+
+On the following Friday, the _Howe_ was close to Belem Castle, and was
+towed into the Tagus by the steam-frigate _Terrible_. The King-Consort
+of Portugal came down in a state barge to receive the Queen, whom he
+escorted to the palace of the Necessidades, landing amid a roar of
+artillery and welcomed by loyal demonstrations as the illustrious
+traveller passed on her way to the Queen regnant, Donna Maria.
+
+By such progress did Queen Adelaide make her way towards Madeira, the
+climate of which could not arrest the progress of her malady, and she
+returned to England,--for a time to Bushey, finally, to Bentley Priory,
+near Stanmore, where she occupied herself in preparation for the
+inevitable end. There, on the 8th of May, 1849, the Queen Dowager may
+be said to have "done a foolish thing," in altering her will without
+legal assistance in the method of alteration. On that day, alone and
+unadvised, Her Majesty took out her old and duly attested will, of the
+14th August, 1837, and inscribed on the back thereof this remarkable
+endorsement:--"This will is cancelled, 8th May, 1849. My heirs are my
+brother and sister, and their heirs after them. My executors, Lord Howe
+and the Hon. W. A. Cooper, are requested to pay off all what I directed
+in my codicil, and then to divide my property equally between my
+brother and sister. This is my last will and request."
+
+It was the will of a Queen, but it stood for nothing in the eye of the
+law. The endorsement was brought under notice of the Prerogative Court;
+the Judge, Sir Herbert Jenner Furst, declared it to be of no effect. It
+was a mere unattested memorandum; and he pronounced, as the legal
+phrase is, for the original will. Of greater interest is the subjoined
+document, which pleasantly contrasts with the wills of many of her lady
+predecessors, whose minds were engaged on the disposal of their state
+beds, their mantles, and their jewellery, to the exclusion of all other
+subjects. Thus wrote the dying Queen Adelaide:--
+
+"I die in all humility, knowing well that we are all alike before the
+throne of God; and I request, therefore, that my mortal remains be
+conveyed to the grave without any pomp or state. They are to be removed
+to St. George's Chapel, Windsor, where I request to have as private and
+quiet a funeral as possible. I particularly desire not to be laid out
+in state, and the funeral to take place by daylight; no procession; the
+coffin to be carried by sailors to the chapel. All those of my friends
+and relations, to a limited number, who wish to attend, may do so. My
+nephew, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, Lords Howe and Denbigh, the Hon.
+William Ashley, Mr. Wood, Sir Andrew Barnard, and Sir D. Davies, with
+my dressers, and those of my ladies who may wish to attend. I die in
+peace, and wish to be carried to the tomb in peace, and far from the
+vanities and pomp of this world. I request not to be dissected nor
+embalmed; and desire to give as little trouble as possible. "ADELAIDE
+R."
+
+The end soon come, and it was met with dignity. On the 22nd of
+November, 1849, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited the Dowager
+Queen, for the last time. On the last day of the month she calmly
+passed away. The above document was then produced; and it rendered
+kings-at-arms, heralds, gold sticks, and upholsterers powerless to
+exercise their absurd dignity in connection with death,--when so
+intelligible and sensible a protest as the above was in existence.
+Accordingly, on a fine December morning of 1849, there issued from the
+gates of Bentley Priory, an ordinary hearse with a pall emblazoned with
+the Queen's arms, preceded by three mourning coaches. A scanty escort
+of cavalry accompanied them, more for use than show, their office being
+to see that no obstruction impeded the funeral march from Stanmore to
+Windsor. On its way, the attitude of the spectators exhibited more of
+sympathy than curiosity.
+
+The Harrow boys turned out in testimony of respect, and the country
+people at large looked like mourners, wearing more or less, but wearing
+some outward manifestation of sorrow.
+
+The Queen's body reached the Chapel at Windsor at one o'clock. In the
+south aisle, close to the porch, there had been standing, grouped
+together, silent and motionless, a group of seamen,--grave, bronzed,
+athletic sailors. Their demeanour showed them worthy of the office
+which the now dead Queen had asked at their hands. When all the royal,
+and great, and noble personages were in their respective places,--while
+some indispensable officials effected a little more of their foolish
+calling, in the presence of death, than Queen Adelaide herself would
+have sanctioned;--while princes, peers, and prelates,
+ladies-in-waiting, clergy, and choristers, proceeded passively or
+actively with their parts in the ceremony of the day,--then those ten
+sailors advanced to accomplish the duty assigned them, and standing by
+the platform on which the body was placed, gently propelled it to a
+position over the subterranean passage into which it was lowered, after
+one of the simplest services that was ever said or sung for departed
+Queen, had been accomplished.--Most simple, save when Garter stepped
+forward to announce what all men knew, that it "had pleased Almighty
+God to take out of this life to His divine mercy" the departed Queen;
+and to assert what that royal lady would assuredly have gainsaid, that
+she was a "Most High, Most Mighty, and Most Excellent Princess." With
+this, and one or two other formalities of that pomp and state from
+which she had asked to be spared, Queen Adelaide passed to the tomb,--a
+tomb capacious enough to contain whole generations of kings and queens,
+princes and princesses yet unborn.
+
+This event was followed by an unusual amount of execrable elegiac
+verse, which was powerless, however, to throw ridicule on what it
+affected to solemnize. I have had the pain of reading an inconceivable
+amount of this trash,--a pain only relieved by the occurrence of lines
+which, intended to be serious, were irresistibly comic. Out of the
+reams written in professed honour of a most exemplary Queen, I have not
+met with an appropriate line that is worth citing. One sample of the
+solemnly absurd Pegasuses set restive on this occasion will assuredly
+satisfy curiosity. The writer affects to see at the royal funeral the
+ghosts of departed great ones, who assemble to do visionary homage to
+their new sister in death. Among them is the incautious Bishop, who
+died from the effects of a cold caught at the funeral of the Duke of
+York:--
+
+"Lo! see the shade of a prelate pass by
+Who came to a night-burial to die;
+Standing too long expos'd to the chill air,
+Death aim'd his dart, and struck the mitre there."
+
+Poor Queen Adelaide! A wish could save her from some of the empty pomps
+and vanities that linger about the open grave; but nothing could save
+her from the villainous poetasters. All the rhymers who rung metrical
+knells at her death, deserved the fate, and for like reasons, invoked
+in "Julius Caesar" on the so-called poet who made "bad verses."
+
+The preachers, if honest chronicling is to be observed, did not on this
+occasion very much excel the poets. Very "tolerable" indeed, and not at
+all to be endured, were most of the funeral sermons which have come
+under my notice. One clergyman, who had been the Queen's chaplain too,
+and who had composed a funeral sermon on William the Fourth, reproduced
+not merely the substance, but in many parts, identical passages from
+the discourse on the dead King, and made them do duty in illustrating
+the demise of that sovereign's royal widow. Others were illogical, or
+were painfully simple, or amusingly trite. In one, I find an intimation
+that "after deducting the more needful expenses of her household, she
+gave away _all_ she had, and died _poor_;" which seems an inevitable
+consequence of such liberality. None of these who took a dead Queen for
+the subject of a lesson on vanity, or for an example to be followed,
+wore the mantle of a Bossuet,--grand and instructive when consigning La
+Valliere to the cloister, or Henrietta of Orleans to a tomb. They might
+at least have found something suggestive in the sermon on the latter
+occasion, by the "Eagle of Meaux," where he exclaims, after apt
+reflection on birth, rank, and their responsibilities:--"No! after what
+we have just seen, we must feel that health exists only in name, life
+is a dream, glory a deception, favours and pleasures dangerous
+amusements, everything about us vanity. She was as gentle towards death
+as she had been to all the world.... She will sleep with the great ones
+of the earth, with princes and kings, whose power is at an end, amongst
+whom there is hardly room to be found, so closely do they lie together,
+and so prompt is death to fill the vacant places. _Can we build our
+hopes on ruins such as these_."
+
+From beyond sea there did come echoes something like these; and fitting
+homage to the virtues of the deceased lady was rendered from many a
+church pulpit among a foreign people. Although it be not necessary to
+travel into another hemisphere to find a witness offering voluntary
+evidence to the good qualities of the Queen Dowager, yet I gladly do so
+in one instance, and reproduce a testimony rendered at the Cape of Good
+Hope. In a funeral sermon, preached in St. George's Cathedral, Cape
+Town, on the 24th of February, 1850, by the Rev. W. A. Newman, at that
+time Senior Colonial Chaplain and Rural Dean, that learned and eloquent
+divine rendered a graceful tribute to the memory of the deceased Queen,
+of which the following paragraph is a portion:--"Of this excellent
+lady's large charities I can speak from evidence, and can, therefore,
+speak with a full heart. I have lived near to the neighbourhood where
+her less public bounty diffused itself. I know that the sick room of
+the poor has been visited by her in person; I know that from her own
+table a portion has been sent, to call forth the coy appetite of
+disease; and I know that where ever she went many a heartfelt _God
+bless her_ would follow."
+
+Such was Queen Adelaide, some seven years Queen Consort of Great
+Britain; a lady who will be remembered, if not as a great Queen, yet as
+one of the truly good women who have shared with a King regnant the
+throne of these islands.--One who lived down calumny, and, who, being
+dead, is remembered with respect and affection.
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Memoir of Queen Adelaide, by Dr. John Doran
+
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