In some observations which I made upon two or three pictures in Hampton
Court Palace, in Vol. viii., p. 538., I specified two worthy of notice on
the above subject, and which are the first instances of such ceremony I
have met with. It has been supposed to have been a foreign custom but I do
not find any traces of it upon record.[1] {121} One can easily imagine that
the _fastueux_ Louis XIV. would have no objection to such display, and that
his mistresses, as well as queen, would be of the party, when we read, that
in the royal progresses two of the former were scandalously paraded in the
same carriage with his queen. To this immoral exhibition, indeed, public
opinion seemed to give no check, as we read, that "les peuples accouraient
'pour voir,' disaient-ils, 'les trois reines,'" wherever they appeared
together. Of these three _queens_, the true one was Marie-Thérèse: the two
others were La Marquise de Montespan and Mme. de la Vallière. But to return
to my subject. I find by the _London Gazette_, No. 6091. of Sept. 4, 1722,
that Geo. I., in his progress to the west of England, supped in public at
the Bishop's (Dr. Richard Willis) palace at Salisbury on Wednesday, Aug.
29, 1722; and slept there that night.
The papers of the period of George II. say:
"There was such a resort to Hampton Court on Sunday, July 14, 1728, to
see their Majesties dine, that the rail surrounding the table broke;
and causing some to fall, made a terrible scramble for hats, &c., at
which their Majesties laughed heartily."