LIFE AT WARWICK HOUSE—A ROYAL DINNER-PARTY—PRINCESS CHARLOTTE’S
COMPANIONS—DINNER AT THE DUKE OF YORK’S—BALL AT CARLTON
HOUSE—TREATMENT OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.
WARWICK HOUSE,[117] in which Princess Charlotte and I, with an excellent
family of old servants, were now the only residents, was an old
moderate-sized dwelling, at that time miserably out of repair, and
almost falling to ruins. It was situated at the extremity of a narrow
lane with a small court-yard and gates, at which two sentinels were
placed. On the ground floor was a hall, dining-room, library,
comptroller’s-room, and two very small rooms, with a good staircase, and
two back staircases much the reverse. Above was what was called the
waiting-room, of very moderate dimensions, where Princess Charlotte took
her lessons in the morning; a good drawing-room, her Royal Highness’s
bedroom and dressing-room, or closet off it for a maid; my sitting-room
adjoining, and my bedroom, both small, the latter particularly so. Yet,
for a private family, it was far from being uncomfortable, though
anything rather than royal. The drawing-room and Princess Charlotte’s
bedroom, with bay-windows, looked on a small garden with a wall, and a
road which divided it from the gardens of Carlton House, to which there
was a door of communication.
Nothing could more perfectly resemble a convent than this residence; but
it was a seat of happiness to Princess Charlotte compared with the Lower
Lodge at Windsor, and she was anxiously desirous to remain in Town as
much as possible. It was announced to us that we were to be one week in
Town and one at Windsor; that when in Town we were to dine at Carlton
House, to go to the Play and Opera, and to have a party at Warwick
House, besides balls and great parties at Carlton House. Invitations
were already sent out for a ball, which was to take place on the 9th of
February, previous to which there was to be a Drawing-room.
On the 24th, which was Sunday, we went to the Chapel Royal, the Duchess
of Leeds and I attending her Royal Highness; and we found the Duke of
Cambridge there. We were told that the Prince would come in the course
of the morning to Warwick House, and dressed early to receive him. He
came not; the Duchess dined with us; and Sir Henry Halford came in the
evening with a message from the Prince, to say that we were to dine with
him next day. On the 25th we went at seven, and I was presented to the
Regent in form. There was no lady to meet us but Miss Goldsworthy.[118]
The Dukes of York, Cumberland, and Cambridge were there; Lord Yarmouth,
the Chancellor, Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, and Colonel Bloomfield. The royal
Dukes were all very gracious, and promised their support, which I asked;
the Duke of Cumberland only saying, I wanted no support but that of my
own talents and merits. The Princes showed off; learning and information
were the order of the day. Lord Yarmouth was very attentive, and
sarcastically answered the Chancellor’s exaggerated delight in the
sufferings of Bonaparte’s army, and the cruelties of the Russians. At
ten we were ordered into the next room to take coffee, and then went
home.
The lower apartments of Carlton House, in which we dined, were close,
and too warm. They were fitted up with great splendour and elegance, and
contained some good pictures, and much ornamental decoration of bronze
and china. The Prince’s table was well served in every sense of the
word, and he did the honours of his house well, though not with
sufficient ease, and rather with assumed than real self-possession. He
talked but little to Princess Charlotte, and not with the manner or
voice of affection. His greatest attentions were for Miss Goldsworthy,
which, in one point of view, was amiable, but which, from subsequent
circumstances and conduct, proves what were the ideas and intentions of
the Prince at that early period of the new arrangements. Every
consideration was to be sacrificed to the plan of keeping the Princess
Charlotte as long as possible _a child_; and, consequently, whoever
belonged to her was to be thought a nurse or a preceptress, inferior, of
course, to the nurses and preceptresses of the Princesses her aunts.
On the 27th we returned to Windsor, which was at that time considered as
the _chef-lieu_; but Princess Charlotte had a very troublesome cold, and
the Lower Lodge was so damp, that Sir Henry Halford seemed disposed to
listen to her remonstrances, and willing to persuade the Prince to let
her remain in Town when she next went thither (which was to be on the
following Monday, 1st of February), at least until her cold should be
perfectly removed. She was indeed by no means well; for, besides her
cold, she had a little nervous fever, occasioned by all she had gone
through, and particularly the scene with the Chancellor.
At Windsor we found Lady Catherine Osborne and her governess, who were
allowed to live in the house with us. The good Duchess of Leeds was a
Miss Anguish,[119] daughter of a Norfolk lawyer, and, with her sisters,
had been noticed for singing agreeably Handel’s music. The late Duke of
Leeds married her, when Lord Carmarthen, having been divorced from his
first wife, by whom he had the present Duke and other children, one of
whom was married to Lord Chichester, a friend of the Regent, and
employed by him to negotiate with his stepmother the present
arrangements, though Sir Henry Halford was the principal agent. The
Duchess had two children of her own, Lord Sidney Osborne, who has the
Beaulieu estate; and Lady Catherine, an elegant little girl of
fifteen,[120] who danced well, could play a little on the pianoforte,
and speak a little French. She was to be a companion to Princess
Charlotte, and it was proposed she should have, when in Town, parties of
young ladies not presented—that is to say, children’s balls.
All this was evidently pursuing the plan of protracted infancy, and was
to be grafted on the education of a schoolboy, which had been the King’s
plan, to a certain degree, and to which the Prince had added lessons of
politics from Mr. Fox’s school, and had ordered that Mr. Adam and Dr.
Short should give her instruction in the laws of England, of which she
was to make an abstract. But when the Prince’s politics changed, and
Princess Charlotte, in understanding, penetration, and stature, was
become a woman, desirous to acquire more knowledge of public affairs and
general society, alive to everything, and capable of forming a judgment
for herself, the new plan of sending her back to the nursery was
adopted, and everything was done to promote it.
Such was the situation of affairs into which I perhaps heedlessly had
plunged myself, and I was romantic enough to think I could be of use;
and when Lord Moira was endeavouring to persuade me to accept the place
offered me, I told him my sole motive then was to assist in rescuing a
noble young creature from surrounding persecution, to give her room to
show what she really was, misunderstood as she appeared to be, and
certainly capable of becoming a blessing to her country, or the reverse.
For her character was such, I said, as not to promise mediocrity, and
much must depend upon the discipline of the next year or two. Measures
such as had recently been pursued with her must drive her, I urged, to
despair, and spoil her disposition, if not counteracted by affection and
tenderness. Talents and genius must be encouraged to become useful. If
endeavours are made to lower or extinguish them, what must be the
result? As I spoke, I saw the tears roll down the cheeks of Lord Moira,
and he said, “This is what I felt for her father; he _was_ everything
that was amiable, and _still_ I cannot help loving him.”[121]
It was necessary that I should be presented to the Queen in my new
capacity, but the Duchess of Leeds was ill. Lady Harcourt, the Queen’s
lady in waiting, was also not well, and it was not till Sunday, the
31st, that it was decided Lady Isabella Thynne, in waiting on the
Princesses, should present me. This was necessary, as we were to dine
next day with the Princess of Wales, on our way to Town, and it was
right I should first pay that respect to the Queen.
Nothing could be more disagreeable. Her Majesty, however, spoke to me,
for she inquired after Princess Charlotte, but added, she did not
believe she was very ill. I was soon dismissed, and went round to all
the Princesses, who received me very kindly, and lamented the coldness
with which I was treated.
Soon after I returned to the Lodge, the Queen and Princesses came to
visit Princess Charlotte.
The Duchess being in her room, not ready, I received them at the door,
and followed them up-stairs. The Queen did not command me to be seated,
and as soon as the Duchess made her appearance I left the room. Princess
Elizabeth afterwards said, that when Miss Goldsworthy was their
sub-governess the Queen never let her sit down when talking to them as
children. I said that that was not a case in point, for that I was not a
sub-governess, nor was Princess Charlotte a child; that as I was always
accustomed to sit in her Majesty’s presence, it was evident she resented
my leaving her, but that whatever the Queen chose to do I should never
lose the respect and attachment I had for her. I found, however, from
general conversation, that the object was to consider me as a
sub-governess, and a paragraph of that nature was put in the
papers,[122] which I insisted on Sir H. Halford mentioning to the
Prince, and getting it contradicted in the same paper, which was
done—the Prince remarking they might as well call me Lord
Chancellor.[123]
On the 1st of February we went to dine with the Princess of Wales at
Kensington Palace, and I was presented to her. She would not let me kiss
her hand, but embraced me. She was civil, but rather cool, to the
Duchess of Leeds. The Duke of Brunswick[124] dined with us. Lady
Charlotte Campbell and Miss Hayman were in waiting, and Lady Carnarvon
also dined. The Duke of Kent’s band was in attendance. The Duke of
Brunswick appeared grave and reserved, but very civil. The Princess
talked much to me about Princess Charlotte, seemed anxious for her
welfare, and expressed great satisfaction at my appointment.
On the 3rd of February, Princess Charlotte was invited to dine at the
Duke of York’s, to meet the Queen and Princesses, and I was asked for
the evening, with the very fair excuse that the dining-room was so small
that it would not hold even the Princesses’ or Duchess’s ladies. I dined
at Lord Moira’s, who, with Lady Loudon, was also asked to the evening
party. The apartments were, indeed, all very small, and very unfit for a
royal Duke or Commander-in-Chief. Lady Anne Cullen Smith (sister of Lord
Wellesley, and formerly married to a brother of Lord Southampton, by
whom she has two daughters, the Miss Fitzroys) was the Duchess’s only
lady in waiting. Her manners were elegant, and her daughters
accomplished and agreeable. I had seen them one morning at Warwick
House, for they had formed an intimacy with Princess Charlotte at
Oatlands.[125] The Prince, when he came up to shake hands with me,
whispered to me that he supposed Mary had said something to me which I
would remember. I asked Princess Mary, in the course of the evening,
what the Prince meant, and she answered, “Oh, nothing; he is only afraid
lest Charlotte should like the Duke of Gloucester; and there is no
danger. He wanted me to set you on your guard.”[126]
While I was talking to the Miss Fitzroys and others, the Chancellor[127]
came up to me, and began to shake me violently by the hand, which rather
surprised me, as we had never been introduced to each other. He was not
quite sober. He said he hoped I did not believe all the nonsense about
his ill-treatment of Princess Charlotte, of which no doubt I had heard a
lamentable story; and was going on, when I stopped him by saying that
Princess Charlotte had not conversed with me at all on the subject, and
that if any one had mentioned it to me it was the Queen. Not content
with this, he came up to me in the same manner after the Royal Family
had gone down to supper, and entered again on the subject, in a very
confused tone. I put him off by saying that really it was not my
business to interfere in the Princess Charlotte’s concerns, that I had
only the honour of attending her, and that the Duchess of Leeds was the
person who had the responsibility. This I said in a good-humoured way,
and got rid of him at last.
On the 4th I went with Princess Charlotte to the Duke of Cumberland’s
apartments at St. James’s, where she was to meet the Queen and
Princesses, previous to the drawing-room, to which she was not to go. I
left her there, and went to the drawing-room.[128] As soon as I had been
_seen_ by the Queen, for I was not spoken to, I returned to her Royal
Highness, who in the mean while was left with the Duchess of Leeds, and
she took her turn of going into the drawing-room. Princess Charlotte was
greatly hurt by being thus treated as a child, but made no complaints,
and was good natured with her family.
She met them that day at dinner at the Duke of Cambridge’s, and I was
asked for the evening party there. His house,[129] though not very
large, is handsome and comfortable. There was a little music in the
evening, and everything passed in tolerable good humour. Next day, the
5th, we dined quietly tête-à-tête to prepare for the ball in the
evening. Princess Charlotte’s spirits were worn out with anxiety
respecting her mother. She had heard that her visits at Kensington were
to be less frequent in future, and her mind was harassed by various
things. She felt nervous when the hour of dressing approached, but came
out looking beautiful, and with proper self-possession. Her dress was
white and silver, and she wore feathers for the first time. The Duchess
and I[130] were in white and gold. When we arrived at Carlton House, her
Royal Highness, with the Duchess of Leeds, went into the room where the
Royal Family were assembled, and I joined the Princess’s and Princess
Sophia of Gloucester’s ladies till the company was assembled, when we
all entered the ball-room.
The state apartments at Carlton House were certainly magnificent, and
everything well regulated. They were well lighted, and were superior to
anything I had seen in England; but the classical taste and sober
dignity of Italy, with the grandeur of its spacious habitations, eclipse
in my mind all I have seen elsewhere, and render Carlton House nothing
more than a nobleman’s dwelling expensively furnished. The best part of
the fête appeared to me the respect paid to the Royal Family of France.
Indeed, the Regent, ever since he came into power, has invariably shown
the most independent and honourable feeling. Princess Mary opened the
ball, and danced with the Duke d’Angoulême. Princess Charlotte stood
next her with the Duke of Clarence.[131] The dresses were splendid, and
the supper, in the apartments below, all that it should be. The Queen
seemed to enjoy it, and retired, apparently unfatigued, at five or six
in the morning.
That day Princess Charlotte dined at Carlton House, and I went in the
evening. I found her looking very unhappy, and she told me there was
something going on to vex her—that she had overheard a conversation
about the Duchess of York, who had invited herself to dine with her on
the following day—and that she was sure something had gone wrong. I
comforted her as well as I could; but I soon found from Princess Mary
that she was blamed for “having invited” the Duchess, and asked whether
she chose to have Lady Anne and the Miss Fitzroys to meet her. Princess
Mary said that it was wrong to do this without consulting the Duchess of
Leeds, and also that the Duchess of York did not wish to meet Lady Anne,
for that, though she was her lady, she did not like her, and that it
would be better to get rid of this dinner party.
The Prince took me aside this evening, and talked to me for a long while
against the Princess of Wales, and the little regard she had shown for
Princess Charlotte when a child, and how by her negligence there was a
mark of the small-pox on Princess Charlotte’s nose, having left her
hands at liberty; whereas _he_ used continually to watch beside her
cradle. He said very severe things of the Princess of Wales in every
way, and even accused her of threatening to declare that Princess
Charlotte was not his daughter. I really had not remarked this little
blemish on the smooth and beautiful skin of my young Princess, and
should have had great difficulty in forbearing to smile at the
seriousness with which that important misfortune was mentioned, if I had
not been horrified by the rest of the conversation. The Prince also
warned me against Lady Jersey, whom he had observed talking to Princess
Charlotte the night before at the ball, and said he did not choose she
should be too intimate at Warwick House, but did not give any particular
reasons for it.
All this appeared to me the more extraordinary, as really the Regent can
speak well, rationally, and with eloquence—or, at least, with great
plausibility. What could I think of such a mixture of serious and
frivolous complaint, when I might have expected discrimination of
character to guide me in what advice I was to give the Princess—views
for the future and regulations for the present, which the important
station she was one day to fill, and the very delicate situation in
which she was placed for the time present, seemed to render essentially
requisite? I really knew not what to answer, and could only assent to
his wishes or remarks in general terms.
When we returned home, Princess Charlotte was greatly agitated, and
insisted on knowing the whole of Princess Mary’s conversation with me.
She had heard most of it, and I concealed nothing from her in that
respect; but I was less communicative with respect to my lesson from the
Regent. I told her what he said about Lady Jersey, and I hinted that he
had expressed his regard for her in preference to her mother, because he
had insisted on my so doing. Princess Charlotte said she had of late
received much more kindness from her mother than from the Prince, but
that their unfortunate quarrels with each other rendered their
testimonies of affection to her at all times very precarious. As to Lady
Jersey, she said she knew not what the Prince had against her. He had
been the first to urge her visiting his daughter, and Lady Jersey
declared she would come unless she heard from his own lips a positive
revocation of the order. Lady Jersey was now going out of town, so that
all difficulties on that subject were suspended.
The affair of the Duchess of York and Lady Anne Smith hurt Princess
Charlotte exceedingly; she had a great regard for the Miss Fitzroys, and
she thought the Duke and Duchess of York two of her best friends. She
therefore resolved to clear up the point with the Duchess, and therefore
wrote her a note on the subject, desiring her to put off the party if
she thought it more prudent so to do. What the Duchess had or had not
said I cannot determine, but that trifling circumstance made a
“tracasserie” of long duration. The Duchess wanted to exculpate herself
with Lady Anne, who, scandal said, was jealous of her. Lady Anne wrote
to Colonel Taylor at Windsor, he told it to Princess Mary, and she wrote
me a letter, complaining I had betrayed confidence, after a friendship
of so many years.
At last, however, the Duke of Cambridge called on me, and, I believe,
set all to rights as far as I was concerned; for I not only told him
that I could not deceive Princess Charlotte, whose ears were very quick,
and who insisted on knowing the whole, but that I had promised never to
deceive her; and that also I had not the slightest idea that Princess
Mary wished what she said to me on the subject of the Duchess and Lady
Anne to be a secret kept from Princess Charlotte; that I had rather
considered it as a warning which it was my duty to repeat; and that the
whole would have ended quietly if the Duchess had left it where it was.
The Duke said that it had better have rested with the Princess
Charlotte’s being to blame in not consulting the Duchess of Leeds.
_That_, I said, had no effect; for her Royal Highness would not be
persuaded to consider her as more than a nominal governess, and I had
some difficulty in making things go on as well as they did in that
quarter.
Sir Henry Halford, however, who was the person always employed at that
time, settled the business of putting off the dinner party, by coming to
say from the Queen, that as the Princess Charlotte was not well enough
to go back to Windsor, she could not be well enough to see company at
dinner, and the Duchess of York prudently declined it. The Prince Regent
was supposed not to know anything of this affair, and perhaps really did
not. I feel almost ashamed of spending ink and paper on such trifles,
but they show the style of treatment adopted towards the future Queen of
England.
------------------------------------------------------------------------