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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35182-8.txt b/35182-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8302378 --- /dev/null +++ b/35182-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1842 @@ +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 *** + +***** This file should be named 35182-8.txt or 35182-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/1/8/35182/ + +Produced by David McClamrock + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/35182-8.zip b/35182-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..174f8cc --- /dev/null +++ b/35182-8.zip diff --git a/35182.txt b/35182.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..387ed01 --- /dev/null +++ b/35182.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1842 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIR OF QUEEN ADELAIDE *** + +***** This file should be named 35182.txt or 35182.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/1/8/35182/ + +Produced by David McClamrock + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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