"On Thursday, the 25th of the same month, it is stated, the concourse
to see their Majesties dine in public at Hampton Court was exceedingly
great. A gang of robbers (the swell-mob of that day?) had mixed
themselves among the nobility and gentry; several gold watches being
lost, besides the ladies' gown tails and laced lappets cut off in
number."
And again:
"On Sunday, 15th September, 1728, their Majesties dined together in
public at Windsor (as they will continue to do every Sunday and
Thursday during their stay there), when all the country people, whether
in or out of mourning, were permitted to see them."
Besides those three occasions of George II. and Queen Caroline dining in
public, we have another recorded attended with some peculiar circumstances,
as mentioned in the _London Gazette_, No. 7623. of Tuesday, Aug. 2, 1737:
"The 31st ult. being Sunday, their Majesties, the Prince and Princess
of Wales, and the Princesses Amelia and Caroline, went to chapel at
Hampton Court, and heard a sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Blomer.
Their Majesties, and the rest of the royal family, dined afterwards in
public as usual before a great number of spectators. About seven
o'clock that evening, the Princess of Wales was taken with some slight
symptoms of approaching labour, and was removed to St. James's; where,
a little after eleven, she was delivered of a princess."
This was the Princess Augusta, who was married to the Prince of Brunswick
Wolfenbüttel.
[Phi].
Richmond.
[Footnote 1: [The custom was observed at a much earlier period; for we find
that King Edward II. and his queen Isabella of France kept their court at
Westminster during the Whitsuntide festival of 1317; and on one occasion,
as they were _dining in public_ in the great banqueting-hall, a woman in a
mask entered on horseback, and riding up to the royal table, delivered a
letter to King Edward, who, imagining that it contained some pleasant
conceit or elegant compliment; ordered it to be opened and read aloud for
the amusement of his courtiers; but, to his great mortification, it was a
cutting satire on his unkingly propensities, setting forth in no measured
terms all the calamities which his misgovernment had brought upon England.
The woman was immediately taken into custody, and confessed that she had
been employed by a certain knight. The knight boldly acknowledged what he
had done, and said, "That, supposing the King would read the letter in
private, he took that method of apprising him of the complaints of his
subjects."--Strickland's _Queens of England_, vol. i. p. 487.--ED.]]
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