The King’s Health—Royal Visit to Cheltenham—Excursions—Robert Raikes—
Colonel Digby—The Duke of York—The Court attends the Musical Festival
at Worcester—Return to Windsor—M. de Lalande, the Astronomer—His
Compliments—His Volubility—Illness of the King—The King grows worse—
‘The Queen is my Physician’—Alarm and Agitation—Grief of the Queen—The
King Insane—Arrival of the Prince of Wales—Paroxysm of the King at
Dinner—The Queen Ill—The Physicians—The Royal Pair separated—The
Prince takes the Government at the Palace—Prayers for the King’s
Recovery—The King and his Equerries—Sir Lucas Pepys—A Privy Council—
Preparations for leaving Windsor—Departure for Kew—Mournful Spectacle—
Mrs. Schwellenberg arrives.
For many years George III. had enjoyed unbroken good health. ‘The King,’
wrote a well-informed gossipper[85] in January, 1788, ‘walks twelve
miles on his way from Windsor to London, which is more than the Prince
of Wales can do.’ Early in June, however, his Majesty was disturbed by
passing symptoms, which proved to be fore-runners of an illness famous
in English history. The complaint, in its first stage, was called a
bilious attack; and when the patient appeared to have thrown it off, he
was advised by his physician to drink the waters at Cheltenham for a
month, in order to complete his recovery. On June 8, the King sent his
old friend Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, a letter, in which he
announced his intended journey into Gloucestershire; and, at the same
time, proposed to enlarge his excursion by paying a visit to Hartlebury,
and afterwards attending the Festival of the Three Choirs, which that
year was to be held at Worcester. His Majesty went on to say that, as
feeding the hungry was a Christian duty, he should expect his
correspondent, while welcoming the sovereign to his cathedral city, to
provide some cold meat for his refreshment.
The hearty old English gentleman, in fact, was minded to enjoy his
holiday in the homely way that pleased him best. On July 12, the Court
travelled from Windsor to Cheltenham, where Bays Hill Lodge, a seat of
the Earl of Fauconberg, situated just outside the town, had been engaged
for the royal party. The Lodge was so small that their Majesties, with
the three eldest Princesses who accompanied them, could only be housed
there at a considerable sacrifice of state and ceremony. No bed could be
provided within its walls for any male person but the King. The female
attendants on the Queen and her daughters were limited to one
lady-in-waiting, Miss Burney, Miss Planta, and the wardrobe women.
‘Is _this_ little room for your Majesty?’ exclaimed Fanny, in
astonishment.
‘Stay till you see your own,’ retorted the Queen, laughing, ‘before you
call this little.’
Colonel Gwynn, the King’s equerry, and Colonel Digby, the Queen’s
vice-chamberlain, slept in a house at some distance. The Queen consented
to dine with these officers, though until then the German etiquette in
which she was trained had prevented her from sitting at table with men
of much higher rank.
During his stay at Cheltenham, the King drank the waters at six o’clock
every morning, and afterwards took exercise in the ‘Walks.’ This parade
was conducted in the same manner as the terracing at Windsor. The King
led the way, with the Queen leaning on his arm; the Princesses followed
them; and the equerry brought up the rear. The unaccustomed spectacle
drew crowds from the town and the country round, causing at first a good
deal of inconvenience, which the King bore with his usual good-nature.
In the course of July, he made excursions with his family to several
places of interest in the neighbourhood: to Oakley Grove, the seat of
Lord Bathurst, patron of Pope and Prior, and friend of Bolingbroke and
Atterbury; to the Abbey Church of Tewkesbury; to Gloucester Cathedral;
to Croome Court, the abode of Lord Coventry and his beautiful Countess.
Miss Burney and Miss Planta were not of the suite on these expeditions,
and altogether enjoyed much more liberty than fell to their lot at
Windsor or Kew. Sometimes they amused themselves by making little
excursions on their own account. On the day of the royal visit to Oakley
Grove, they went over to Gloucester, where Miss Planta had an
acquaintance in the person of the philanthropic printer, Robert Raikes,
still remembered as the originator of Sunday-schools. Mr. Raikes felt
himself a man of importance; he had been invited to Windsor, and had had
the honour of a long conversation with the Queen. Apparently the notice
taken of him had left traces on his manner. ‘He is somewhat too
flourishing,’ Fanny whispered to her Diary, ‘somewhat too forward,
somewhat too voluble; but he is worthy, benevolent, good-natured, and
good-hearted, and therefore the over-flowings of successful spirits and
delighted vanity must meet with some allowance.’ Bating this little
self-complacency, the good man proved himself a capital host and guide,
entertaining the royal attendants in a handsome and painstaking manner,
which obtained their warm acknowledgments.
But Miss Burney beguiled her leisure principally in improving her
acquaintance with Colonel Digby, who paid her marked attention during
their attendance at the Gloucestershire watering-place. This courteous,
insinuating colonel suited her taste far better than the more
soldier-like equerries whom she met at Court. She had conceived a
decided inclination for him from the moment of his first introduction to
her. ‘He is a man,’ she then wrote, ‘of the most scrupulous
good-breeding; diffident, gentle, and sentimental in his conversation,
and assiduously attentive in his manners.’ He had now the additional
recommendation that belongs to a widower grieving over joys departed,
yet not despairing of consolation. In this state of mind, he neglected
no opportunity of making himself agreeable to a lady whose disposition
was so congenial to his own. Even a fit of the gout, which detained him
from his official duties, could not prevent him from limping over to the
Lodge to sit with Miss Burney. They talked of many things, but chiefly
of books, of the affections, of happiness, and of religion. The famous
authoress astonished her admirer not a little by the discovery she was
fain to make of the many books she had never yet read. Her candour
encouraged him to produce his own stores of literature, which were much
more extensive than hers. This pensive gentleman, we need scarcely say,
was addicted to reciting poetry and passages of pious sentiment. One
line especially, which was often in his mouth, about ‘the chastity of
silent woe,’ Fanny found peculiarly beautiful, though it might have
reminded her of the Irish Commissary whom she had met at Brighton. Very
soon quotations were succeeded by readings. The pair studied together
Akenside’s poems, Falconer’s ‘Shipwreck,’ Carr’s Sermons, and a work[86]
entitled ‘Original Love-Letters,’ with which we own ourselves
unacquainted. Presently, however, as the air of Cheltenham did not
appear to suit the Colonel’s gout, he began to think of taking leave of
absence.
A visit from the Duke of York was expected while the Court was at
Cheltenham. So eager was the King for the society of this his favourite
son, that he caused a portable wooden house to be moved from the further
end of the town, and joined on to Bays Hill Lodge, for the reception of
the Prince and his attendants. The work consumed much time and money,
but the fond father was bent on lodging his Frederick close to himself.
All this care and affection met with the too familiar return. The Duke
arrived on August 1, according to his appointment; and Miss Burney
describes the King’s joy as only less extreme than the transport he had
shown when, a year before, she had seen the darling appear at Windsor
after long absence in Germany. But the Prince, so much looked for, would
remain no more than a single night. Military business, he declared,
required him to be in London by the next day but one, which was Sunday;
however, he would travel all Saturday night that he might be able to
spend a second evening with his parents. ‘I wonder,’ cried Colonel
Digby, with the sententious propriety which charmed our Fanny, ‘how
these Princes, who are thus forced to steal even their travelling from
their sleep, find time to say their prayers!’
On August 5 the Court visited Worcester for the purpose of attending the
Musical Festival. When the royal _cortége_ stopped at the Bishop’s
palace, “the King had an huzza that seemed to vibrate through the whole
town, the Princess Royal’s carriage had a second, and the equerries a
third. The mob then,” proceeds the Diary, “as ours drew on in
succession, seemed to deliberate whether or not we also should have a
cheer; but one of them soon decided the matter by calling out, ‘These
are the maids of honour!’ and immediately gave us an huzza that made us
quite ashamed.” The opening performance of the Festival next morning did
not much gratify the historian. ‘It was very long and intolerably
tedious, consisting of Handel’s gravest pieces and fullest choruses, and
concluding with a sermon, concerning the institution of the charity,
preached by Dr. Langhorne.’[87] A second morning performance to which
she went did not strike her more favourably. One of the evening concerts
she liked better. Of another she observes that it ‘was very Handelian,
though not exclusively so.’
At the close of the Festival the royal party and their suite returned to
Cheltenham. On the same evening Colonel Digby took his departure,
‘leaving me,’ says Fanny, ‘firmly impressed with a belief that I shall
find in him a true, an honourable, and even an affectionate friend for
life.’ Next day an express came from him with a letter for Miss Burney,
begging her to inform the Queen that the Mastership of St. Katharine’s
Hospital, which was in her Majesty’s gift, had just become void by the
death of the occupant. In a few more days it was announced that the
vacant appointment had been conferred on Mr. Digby.
By August 16, the Court was again established at Windsor, and a rumour
began to circulate of the Colonel’s gallantry at Cheltenham, mingled
with a second rumour of his being then confined by gout at a house where
lived Miss Gunning, for whom he had been supposed to have an admiration.
Both reports were disregarded by Mrs. Schwellenberg’s assistant, who
could think of nothing but the change from the pleasant society which
she had lately enjoyed to the arrogance, the contentiousness, the
presuming ignorance, that assailed her in the hated dining-room at the
Queen’s Lodge. ‘What scales,’ she wrote, ‘could have held and weighed
the heart of F. B. as she drove past the door of her revered lost
comforter, to enter the apartment inhabited by such qualities!’
One strange visitor, however, she had at starting, who provided her with
some little amusement:
“AUGUST 18TH.—Well, now I have a new personage to introduce to you,
and no small one; ask else the stars, moon and planets! While I was
surrounded with band-boxes, and unpacking, Dr. Shepherd[88] was
announced. Eager to make his compliments on the safe return, he forced
a passage through the back avenues and stairs, for he told me he did
not like being seen coming to me at the front door, as it might create
some jealousies amongst the other Canons! A very commendable
circumspection! but whether for my sake or his own he did not
particularize.
“M. de Lalande, he said, the famous astronomer, was just arrived in
England, and now at Windsor, and he had expressed a desire to be
introduced to me....
“His business was to settle bringing M. de Lalande to see me in the
evening. I told him I was much honoured, and so forth, but that I
received no evening company, as I was officially engaged. He had made
the appointment, he said, and could not break it, without affronting
him; besides, he gave me to understand it would be an honour to me for
ever to be visited by so great an astronomer....
“In the midst of tea, with a room full of people, I was called out to
Dr. Shepherd!... I hurried into the next room, where I found him with
his friend, M. de Lalande. What a reception awaited me! how unexpected
a one from a famed and great astronomer! M. de Lalande advanced to
meet me—I will not be quite positive it was on tiptoe, but certainly
with a mixture of jerk and strut that could not be quite flat-footed.
He kissed his hand with the air of a _petit maître_, and then broke
forth into such an harangue of Eloges, so solemn with regard to its
own weight and importance, and so _fade_ with respect to the little
personage addressed, that I could not help thinking it lucky for the
planets, stars, and sun, they were not bound to hear his comments,
though obliged to undergo his calculations.
“On my part sundry profound reverences with now and then an ‘_Oh,
monsieur!_’ or ‘_c’est trop d’honneur_,’ acquitted me so well, that
the first harangue being finished, on the score of general and grand
reputation, Eloge the second began, on the excellence with which
‘_cette célèbre demoiselle_’ spoke French!
“This may surprise you, my dear friends; but you must consider M. de
Lalande is a great _discoverer_.
“Well, but had you seen Dr. Shepherd! he looked lost in sleek delight
and wonder, that a person to whom he had introduced M. de Lalande
should be an object for such fine speeches.
“This gentleman’s figure, meanwhile, corresponds no better with his
discourse than his scientific profession, for he is an ugly little
wrinkled old man, with a fine showy waistcoat, rich lace ruffles, and
the grimaces of a dentist. I believe he chose to display that a
Frenchman of science could be also a man of gallantry.
“I was seated between them, but the good doctor made no greater
interruption to the florid professor than I did myself: he only
grinned applause, with placid, but ineffable satisfaction.
“Nothing therefore intervening, _Eloge_ the third followed, after a
pause no longer than might be necessary for due admiration of _Eloge_
the second. This had for _sujet_ the fair female sex; how the ladies
were now all improved; how they could write, and read, and spell; how
a man nowadays might talk with them and be understood, and how
delightful it was to see such pretty creatures turned rational!
“And all this, of course, interspersed with particular observations
and most pointed applications; nor was there in the whole string of
compliments which made up the three _bouquets_, one single one amongst
them that might have disgraced any _petit maître_ to utter, or any
_petite maîtresse_ to hear.
“The third being ended, a rather longer pause ensued. I believe he was
dry, but I offered him no tea. I would not voluntarily be accessory to
detaining such great personages from higher avocations. I wished him
next to go and study the stars; from the moon he seemed so lately
arrived there was little occasion for another journey.
“I flatter myself he was of the same opinion, for the fourth _Eloge_
was all upon his unhappiness in tearing himself away from so much
merit, and ended in as many bows as had accompanied his entrance.
“I suppose, in going, he said, with a shrug, to the Canon, ‘_M. le
Docteur, c’est bien gênant, mais il faut dire des jolies choses aux
dames!_’
“He was going the next day to see Dr. Maskelyne’s[89] Observatory.
Well! I have had him first in mine!”
The King, at his return to Windsor, appeared to be restored to his usual
health. In less than two months, however, he was again out of order. We
give the most noteworthy passage in Miss Burney’s account of his
subsequent illness as it fell under her observation. She was doing
double duty at this time, in the absence of Mrs. Schwellenberg, who had
gone to Weymouth for her health. The Court was at Kew when the first
apprehensions arose:
“OCTOBER 17TH.—Our return to Windsor is postponed till to-morrow. The
King is not well; he has not been quite well some time, yet nothing I
hope alarming, though there is an uncertainty as to his complaint not
very satisfactory.
“19TH.—The Windsor journey is again postponed, and the King is but
very indifferent. Heaven preserve him! there is something unspeakably
alarming in his smallest indisposition. I am very much with the Queen,
who, I see, is very uneasy, but she talks not of it.
“20TH.—The King was taken very ill in the night, and we have all been
cruelly frightened; but it went off, and, thank Heaven! he is now
better.
“25TH.—The King was so much better, that our Windsor journey at length
took place, with permission of Sir George Baker,[90] the only
physician his Majesty will admit.
“I had a sort of conference with his Majesty, or rather I was the
object to whom he spoke, with a manner so uncommon, that a high fever
alone could account for it; a rapidity, a hoarseness of voice, a
volubility, an earnestness—a vehemence, rather—it startled me
inexpressibly, yet with a graciousness exceeding all I ever met with
before—it was almost kindness! Heaven—Heaven preserve him! The Queen
grows more and more uneasy. She alarms me sometimes for herself; at
other times she has a sedateness that wonders me still more.
“SUNDAY, OCT. 26TH.—The King was prevailed upon not to go to chapel
this morning. I met him in the passage from the Queen’s room; he
stopped me, and conversed upon his health near half an hour, still
with that extreme quickness of speech and manner that belongs to
fever; and he hardly sleeps, he tells me, one minute all night;
indeed, if he recovers not his rest, a most delirious fever seems to
threaten him. He is all agitation, all emotion, yet all benevolence
and goodness, even to a degree that makes it touching to hear him
speak. He assures everybody of his health; he seems only fearful to
give uneasiness to others, yet certainly he is better than last night.
Nobody speaks of his illness, nor what they think of it.
“NOVEMBER 1ST.—Our King does not advance in amendment; he grows so
weak that he walks like a gouty man, yet has such spirits that he has
talked away his voice, and is so hoarse it is painful to hear him. The
Queen is evidently in great uneasiness. God send him better!...
“During the reading this morning, twice, at pathetic passages, my poor
Queen shed tears. ‘How nervous I am!’ she cried; ‘I am quite a fool!
Don’t you think so?’
“‘No, ma’am!’ was all I dared answer.
“The King was hunting. Her anxiety for his return was greater than
ever. The moment he arrived he sent a page to desire to have coffee
and take his bark in the Queen’s dressing-room. She said she would
pour it out herself, and sent to inquire how he drank it.
“The King is very sensible of the great change there is in himself,
and of her disturbance at it. It seems, but Heaven avert it! a threat
of a total breaking up of the constitution. This, too, seems his own
idea. I was present at his first seeing Lady Effingham on his return
to Windsor this last time. ‘My dear Effy,’ he cried, ‘you see me, all
at once, an old man.’
“I was so much affected by this exclamation, that I wished to run out
of the room. Yet I could not but recover when Lady Effingham, in her
well-meaning but literal way, composedly answered, ‘We must all grow
old, sir; I am sure I do.’
“He then produced a walking-stick which he had just ordered. ‘He could
not,’ he said, ‘get on without it; his strength seemed diminishing
hourly.’
“He took the bark, he said; ‘but the _Queen_’ he cried, ‘is my
physician, and no man need have a better; she is my _Friend_, and no
man _can_ have a better.’
“How the Queen commanded herself I cannot conceive.... Nor can I ever
forget him in what passed this night. When I came to the Queen’s
dressing-room he was still with her. He constantly conducts her to it
before he retires to his own. He was begging her not to speak to him
when he got to his room, that he might fall asleep, as he felt great
want of that refreshment. He repeated this desire, I believe, at least
a hundred times, though, far enough from needing it, the poor Queen
never uttered one syllable; He then applied to me, saying he was
really very well, except in that one particular, that he could not
sleep....
“3RD.—We are all here in a most uneasy state. The King is better and
worse so frequently, and changes so, daily, backwards and forwards,
that everything is to be apprehended, if his nerves are not some way
quieted. I dreadfully fear he is on the eve of some severe fever. The
Queen is almost overpowered with some secret terror. I am affected
beyond all expression in her presence, to see what struggles she makes
to support serenity. To-day she gave up the conflict when I was alone
with her, and burst into a violent fit of tears. It was very, very
terrible to see!...
“5TH.—I found my poor Royal Mistress, in the morning, sad and sadder
still; something horrible seemed impending....
“I was still wholly unsuspicious of the greatness of the cause she had
for dread. Illness, a breaking up of the constitution, the payment of
sudden infirmity and premature old age for the waste of unguarded
health and strength—these seemed to me the threats awaiting her; and
great and grievous enough, yet how short of the fact!...
“At noon the King went out in his chaise, with the Princess Royal, for
an airing. I looked from my window to see him; he was all smiling
benignity, but gave so many orders to the postilions, and got in and
out of the carriage twice, with such agitation, that again my fear of
a great fever hanging over him grew more and more powerful. Alas! how
little did I imagine I should see him no more for so long—so black a
period!
“When I went to my poor Queen, still worse and worse I found her
spirits....
“The Princess Royal soon returned. She came in cheerfully, and gave,
in German, a history of the airing, and one that seemed comforting.
“Soon after, suddenly arrived the Prince of Wales. He came into the
room. He had just quitted Brighthelmstone. Something passing within
seemed to render this meeting awfully distant on both sides. She asked
if he should not return to Brighthelmstone? He answered yes, the next
day. He desired to speak with her; they retired together....
“Only Miss Planta dined with me. We were both nearly silent: I was
shocked at I scarcely knew what, and she seemed to know too much for
speech. She stayed with me till six o’clock, but nothing passed,
beyond general solicitude that the King might get better.
“Meanwhile, a stillness the most uncommon reigned over the whole
house. Nobody stirred; not a voice was heard; not a motion. I could do
nothing but watch, without knowing for what: there seemed a
strangeness in the house most extraordinary.
“At seven o’clock Columb came to tell me that the music was all
forbid, and the musicians ordered away!
“This was the last step to be expected, so fond as his Majesty is of
his concert, and I thought it might have rather soothed him: I could
not understand the prohibition; all seemed stranger and stranger.”
One after another, the usual evening visitors made their appearance.
First the equerries, and then Colonel Digby, who had reached the palace
that afternoon, came in to tea. “Various small speeches now dropped, by
which I found the house was all in disturbance, and the King in some
strange way worse, and the Queen taken ill!” Presently the whole truth
was divulged. “The King, at dinner, had broken forth into positive
delirium, which long had been menacing all who saw him most closely; and
the Queen was so overpowered as to fall into violent hysterics. All the
Princesses were in misery, and the Prince of Wales had burst into tears.
No one knew what was to follow—no one could conjecture the event.”
At ten o’clock, Miss Burney went to her own room to be in readiness for
her usual summons to the Queen:
“Two long hours I waited—alone, in silence, in ignorance, in dread! I
thought they would never be over; at twelve o’clock I seemed to have
spent two whole days in waiting.... I then opened my door, to listen,
in the passage, if anything seemed stirring. Not a sound could I hear.
My apartment seemed wholly separated from life and motion. Whoever was
in the house kept at the other end, and not even a servant crossed the
stairs or passage by my rooms.
“I would fain have crept on myself, anywhere in the world, for some
inquiry, or to see but a face, and hear a voice, but I did not dare
risk losing a sudden summons.
“I re-entered my room, and there passed another endless hour, in
conjectures too horrible to relate.
“A little after one, I heard a step—my door opened—and a page said I
must come to the Queen.
“I could hardly get along—hardly force myself into the room; dizzy I
felt, almost to falling. But the first shock passed, I became more
collected. Useful, indeed, proved the previous lesson of the evening:
it had stilled, if not mortified my mind, which had else, in a scene
such as this, been all tumult and emotion.
“My poor Royal Mistress! never can I forget her countenance—pale,
ghastly pale she looked; she was seated to be undressed, and attended
by Lady Elizabeth Waldegrave and Miss Goldsworthy; her whole frame was
disordered, yet she was still and quiet.
“These two ladies assisted me to undress her, or rather I assisted
them, for they were firmer, from being longer present; my shaking
hands and blinded eyes could scarce be of any use.
“I gave her some camphor julep, which had been ordered her by Sir
George Baker. ‘How cold I am!’ she cried, and put her hand on mine;
marble it felt! and went to my heart’s core!
“The King, at the instance of Sir George Baker, had consented to sleep
in the next apartment, as the Queen was ill. For himself, he would
listen to nothing. Accordingly, a bed was put up for him, by his own
order, in the Queen’s second dressing-room, immediately adjoining to
the bedroom. He would not be further removed. Miss Goldsworthy was to
sit up with her, by the King’s direction.
“I would fain have remained in the little dressing-room, on the other
side the bedroom, but she would not permit it.... I went to bed,
determined to preserve my strength to the utmost of my ability, for
the service of my unhappy mistress. I could not, however, sleep. I do
not suppose an eye was closed in the house all night.
“6TH.—I rose at six, dressed in haste by candle-light, and unable to
wait for my summons in a suspense so awful, I stole along the passage
in the dark, a thick fog intercepting all faint light, to see if I
could meet with Sandys,[91] or anyone, to tell me how the night had
passed.
“When I came to the little dressing-room, I stopped, irresolute what
to do. I heard men’s voices; I was seized with the most cruel alarm at
such a sound in her Majesty’s dressing-room. I waited some time, and
then the door opened, and I saw Colonel Goldsworthy and Mr.
Batterscomb. I was relieved from my first apprehension, yet shocked
enough to see them there at this early hour. They had both sat up
there all night, as well as Sandys. Every page, both of the King and
Queen, had also sat up, dispersed in the passages and ante-rooms; and
oh, what horror in every face I met!
“I waited here, amongst them, till Sandys was ordered by the Queen to
carry her a pair of gloves. I could not resist the opportunity to
venture myself before her. I glided into the room, but stopped at the
door: she was in bed, sitting up; Miss Goldsworthy was on a stool by
her side!
“I feared approaching without permission, yet could not prevail with
myself to retreat. She was looking down, and did not see me. Miss
Goldsworthy, turning round, said, ‘’Tis Miss Burney, ma’am.’
“She leaned her head forward, and in a most soft manner, said, ‘Miss
Burney, how are you?’
“Deeply affected, I hastened up to her; but, in trying to speak, burst
into an irresistible torrent of tears.
“My dearest friends, I do it at this moment again, and can hardly
write for them; yet I wish you to know all this piercing history
right.
“She looked like death—colourless and wan; but nature is infectious;
the tears gushed from her own eyes, and a perfect agony of weeping
ensued, which, once begun, she could not stop; she did not, indeed,
try; for when it subsided, and she wiped her eyes, she said, ‘I thank
you, Miss Burney—you have made me cry; it is a great relief to me—I
had not been able to cry before, all this night long.’
“Oh, what a scene followed! what a scene was related! The King, in the
middle of the night, had insisted upon seeing if his Queen was not
removed from the house; and he had come into her room, with a candle
in his hand, opened the bed-curtains, and satisfied himself she was
there, and Miss Goldsworthy by her side. This observance of his
directions had much soothed him; but he stayed a full half-hour, and
the depth of terror during that time no words can paint. The fear of
such another entrance was now so strongly upon the nerves of the poor
Queen that she could hardly support herself.
“The King—the royal sufferer—was still in the next room, attended by
Sir George Baker and Dr. Heberden,[92] and his pages, with Colonel
Goldsworthy occasionally, and as he called for him. He kept talking
unceasingly; his voice was so lost in hoarseness and weakness, it was
rendered almost inarticulate; but its tone was still all benevolence—
all kindness—all touching graciousness.
“It was thought advisable the Queen should not rise, lest the King
should be offended that she did not go to him; at present he was
content, because he conceived her to be nursing for her illness.
“But what a situation for her! She would not let me leave her now; she
... frequently bid me listen, to hear what the King was saying or
doing. I did, and carried the best accounts I could manage, without
deviating from truth, except by some omissions. Nothing could be so
afflicting as this task; even now, it brings fresh to my ear his poor
exhausted voice. ‘I am nervous,’ he cried; ‘I am not ill, but I am
nervous: if you would know what is the matter with me, I am nervous.
But I love you both very well; if you would tell me truth: I love Dr.
Heberden best, for he has not told me a lie: Sir George has told me a
lie—a white lie, he says, but I hate a white lie! If you will tell me
a lie, let it be a black lie!’
“This was what he kept saying almost constantly, mixed in with other
matter, but always returning, and in a voice that truly will never
cease vibrating in my recollection.”
In the course of the morning, a third physician—Dr. Warren[93]—arrived.
His opinion was eagerly awaited by the Queen; but he did not come to
her, though repeatedly summoned. At length, Lady Elizabeth brought news
that he and the other two physicians were gone over to the Castle to the
Prince of Wales.
“I think a deeper blow I had never witnessed. Already to become but
second, even for the King! The tears were now wiped: indignation
arose, with pain, the severest pain, of every species.
“In about a quarter of an hour Colonel Goldsworthy sent in to beg an
audience. It was granted, a long cloak only being thrown over the
Queen.
“He now brought the opinion of all the physicians in consultation,
‘That her Majesty would remove to a more distant apartment, since the
King would undoubtedly be worse from the agitation of seeing her, and
there could be no possibility to prevent it while she remained so
near.’
“She instantly agreed, but with what bitter anguish! Lady Elizabeth,
Miss Goldsworthy, and myself attended her; she went to an apartment in
the same row, but to which there was no entrance except by its own
door. It consisted of only two rooms, a bedchamber, and a
dressing-room. They are appropriated to the lady-in-waiting when she
is here.
“At the entrance into this new habitation the poor wretched Queen once
more gave way to a perfect agony of grief and affliction; while the
words, ‘What will become of me! What will become of me!’ uttered with
the most piercing lamentation, struck deep and hard into all our
hearts. Never can I forget their desponding sound; they implied such
complicated apprehension.”
Of the scene in the King’s rooms that night, Miss Burney had only a
momentary glimpse. Being sent on some commission for the Queen, “When I
gently opened,” she writes, “the door of the apartment to which I was
directed, I found it quite filled with gentlemen and attendants,
arranged round it on chairs and sofas, in dead silence. It was a
dreadful start with which I retreated; for anything more alarming and
shocking could not be conceived—the poor King within another door,
unconscious anyone was near him, and thus watched, by dread necessity,
at such an hour of the night!” How the hours passed she heard the next
day.
“7TH.—While I was yet with my poor royal sufferer this morning the
Prince of Wales came hastily into the room. He apologized for his
intrusion, and then gave a very energetic history of the preceding
night. It had been indeed most affectingly dreadful! The King had
risen in the middle of the night, and would take no denial to walking
into the next room. There he saw the large congress I have mentioned:
amazed and in consternation, he demanded what they did there? Much
followed that I have heard since, particularly the warmest eloge on
his dear son Frederick, his favourite, his friend. ‘Yes,’ he cried,
‘Frederick is my friend!’—and this son was then present amongst the
rest, but not seen!
“Sir George Baker was there, and was privately exhorted by the
gentlemen to lead the King back to his room; but he had not courage:
he attempted only to speak, and the King penned him in a corner, told
him he was a mere old woman—that he wondered he had ever followed his
advice, for he knew nothing of his complaint, which was only nervous!
“The Prince of Wales, by signs and whispers, would have urged others
to have drawn him away, but no one dared approach him, and he remained
there a considerable time, ‘Nor do I know when he would have been got
back,’ continued the Prince, ‘if at last Mr. Digby[94] had not
undertaken him. I am extremely obliged to Mr. Digby indeed.’ He came
boldly up to him, and took him by the arm, and begged him to go to
bed, and then drew him along, and said he must go. Then he said he
would not, and cried, ‘Who are you?’ ‘I am Mr. Digby, sir,’ he
answered, ‘and your Majesty has been very good to me often, and now I
am going to be very good to you, for you must come to bed, sir: it is
necessary to your life. And then he was so surprised that he let
himself be drawn along just like a child; and so they got him to bed.
I believe else he would have stayed all night!’”
On the following morning, an incident occurred which showed the
revolution that had taken place in the palace. Mr. Smelt had travelled
post from York on hearing of the King’s illness, but had not yet been
able to see either him or the Queen. Accidentally meeting with the
Prince of Wales, he was received by his old pupil with much apparent
kindness of manner, and invited to remain at Windsor till he could be
admitted to the Queen’s presence. Not small, then, was his surprise
when, on returning shortly afterwards to the Upper Lodge, the porter
handed him his great-coat, saying that he had express orders from the
Prince to refuse him re-admission.[95] ‘From this time,’ continues Miss
Burney, ‘as the poor King grew worse, general hope seemed universally to
abate; and the Prince of Wales now took the government of the house into
his own hands. Nothing was done but by his orders, and he was applied to
in every difficulty. The Queen interfered not in anything; she lived
entirely in her two new rooms, and spent the whole day in patient sorrow
and retirement with her daughters.’
The next news which reached the suite was that the Prince had issued
commands to the porter to admit only four persons into the house on any
pretence whatever; and these were ordered to repair immediately to the
equerry-room below stairs, while no one whatsoever was to be allowed to
go to any other apartment. ‘From this time,’ adds the Diary, ‘commenced
a total banishment from all intercourse out of the house, and an
unremitting confinement within its walls.’ The situation was rendered
even more intolerable by the sudden return of Mrs. Schwellenberg from
Weymouth. On the 10th, Miss Burney writes: ‘This was a most dismal day.
The dear and most suffering King was extremely ill, the Queen very
wretched, poor Mrs. Schwellenberg all spasm and horror, Miss Planta all
restlessness, the house all mystery, and my only informant and comforter
[Colonel Digby] distanced.’
Then began a series of tantalizing fluctuations. From November 12 to the
15th, the King showed some signs of amendment; but on Sunday, the 16th,
all was dark again in the Upper Lodge. ‘The King was worse. His night
had been very bad; all the fair promise of amendment was shaken; he had
now some symptoms even dangerous to his life. Oh, good heaven! what a
day did this prove! I saw not a human face, save at dinner; and then
what faces! gloom and despair in all, and silence to every species of
intelligence.’ The special prayer for the King’s recovery was used this
day for the first time in St. George’s Chapel. Evidences of the general
distress were apparent on all sides. ‘Every prayer in the service in
which he was mentioned brought torrents of tears from all the suppliants
that joined in them.’ Fanny ran away after the service to avoid
inquiries.
Of the afternoon she writes: ‘It was melancholy to see the crowds of
former welcome visitors who were now denied access. The Prince
reiterated his former orders; and I perceived from my window those who
had ventured to the door returning back in tears.’ She received letters
of inquiry, but was not at liberty to write a word. The night of the
19th was no better than that of the 16th. ‘Mr. Charles Hawkins came,’
proceeds the Diary. ‘He had sat up. Oh, how terrible a narrative did he
drily give of the night!—short, abrupt, peremptorily bad, and
indubitably hopeless. I did not dare alter, but I greatly softened this
relation, in giving it to my poor Queen.’ On this day Dr. Warren told
Mr. Pitt that there was now every reason to believe that the King’s
disorder was no other than actual lunacy.
All the equerries, except one who was ill, were now on duty. The King,
in his rambling talk, reproached them with want of attention. They lost
their whole time at table, he said, by sitting so long over their
bottle; ‘and Mr. Digby,’ he added on one occasion, ‘is as bad as any of
them; not that he stays so long at table, or is so fond of wine, but yet
he’s just as late as the rest; for he’s so fond of the company of
learned ladies, that he gets to the tea-table with Miss Burney, and
there he stays and spends his whole time.’ Colonel Digby, in repeating
this speech to the lady interested, was good enough to explain to her
that what the King had in his head was—Miss Gunning. The Colonel went on
to mention Miss Gunning’s learning and accomplishments with great
praise, yet ‘with that sort of general commendation that disclaims all
peculiar interest;’ touched, in a tone of displeasure, on the report
that had been spread concerning him and her; lightly added something
about its utter falsehood; and concluded by saying that this, in the
then confused state of the King’s mind, was what his Majesty meant by
‘learned ladies.’ More puzzled than enlightened by this explanation,
Fanny, with some hesitation, assented to the insinuating Chamberlain’s
suggestion that she should think no more of what the King had said, but
allow the Colonel ‘to come and drink tea with her very often.’
From the 20th to the 28th there was no improvement in the condition of
the sick monarch. Nearly all who saw him, whether physicians or members
of the suite, began to abandon hope of his recovery; only Sir Lucas
Pepys, an old friend of the Burneys, who was now added to the medical
attendants, inclined to a more encouraging view. The proceedings of the
28th are entered in the Diary, as follows:
“Sir Lucas made me a visit, and informed me of all the medical
proceedings; and told me, in confidence, we were to go to Kew
to-morrow, though the Queen herself had not yet concurred in the
measure; but the physicians joined to desire it, and they were
supported by the Princes. The difficulty how to get the King away from
his favourite abode was all that rested. If they even attempted force,
they had not a doubt but his smallest resistance would call up the
whole country to his fancied rescue! Yet how, at such a time, prevail
by persuasion?
“He moved me even to tears, by telling me that none of their own lives
would be safe if the King did not recover, so prodigiously high ran
the tide of affection and loyalty. All the physicians received
threatening letters daily, to answer for the safety of their monarch
with their lives! Sir George Baker had already been stopped in his
carriage by the mob, to give an account of the King; and when he said
it was a bad one, they had furiously exclaimed, ‘The more shame for
you!’
“After he left me, a Privy Council was held at the Castle, with the
Prince of Wales; the Chancellor, Mr. Pitt, and all the officers of
state were summoned, to sign a permission for the King’s removal. The
poor Queen gave an audience to the Chancellor—it was necessary to
sanctify their proceedings. The Princess Royal and Lady Courtown
attended her. It was a tragedy the most dismal!
“The Queen’s knowledge of the King’s aversion to Kew made her consent
to this measure with the extremest reluctance; yet it was not to be
opposed: it was stated as much the best for him, on account of the
garden: as here there is none but what is public to spectators from
the terrace, or tops of houses. I believe they were perfectly right,
though the removal was so tremendous.
“The physicians were summoned to the Privy Council, to give their
opinions, upon oath, that this step was necessary.
“Inexpressible was the alarm of everyone, lest the King, if he
recovered, should bear a lasting resentment against the authors and
promoters of this journey. To give it, therefore, every possible
sanction, it was decreed that he should be seen both by the Chancellor
and Mr. Pitt.
“The Chancellor went into his presence with a tremor such as, before,
he had been only accustomed to inspire; and when he came out, he was
so extremely affected by the state in which he saw his Royal master
and patron that the tears ran down his cheeks, and his feet had
difficulty to support him.
“Mr. Pitt was more composed, but expressed his grief with so much
respect and attachment, that it added new weight to the universal
admiration with which he is here beheld.
“All these circumstances, with various others of equal sadness which I
must not relate, came to my knowledge through Sir Lucas, Mr. de Luc,
and my noon attendance upon her Majesty, who was compelled to dress
for her audience of the Chancellor.
“SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29TH.—Shall I ever forget the varied emotions of
this dreadful day!
“I rose with the heaviest of hearts, and found my poor Royal Mistress
in the deepest dejection: she told me now of our intended expedition
to Kew. Lady Elizabeth hastened away to dress, and I was alone with
her for some time.
“Her mind, she said, quite misgave her about Kew: the King’s dislike
was terrible to think of, and she could not foresee in what it might
end. She would have resisted the measure herself, but that she had
determined not to have upon her own mind any opposition to the opinion
of the physicians.
“The account of the night was still more and more discouraging: it was
related to me by one of the pages, Mr. Brawan; and though a little I
softened or omitted particulars, I yet most sorrowfully conveyed it to
the Queen.
“Terrible was the morning!—uninterruptedly terrible! all spent in
hasty packing up, preparing for we knew not what, nor for how long,
nor with what circumstances, nor scarcely with what view! We seemed
preparing for captivity, without having committed any offence; and for
banishment, without the least conjecture when we might be recalled
from it.
“The poor Queen was to get off in private: the plan settled between
the Princes and the physicians was that her Majesty and the Princesses
should go away quietly, and then that the King should be told that
they were gone, which was the sole method they could devise to prevail
with him to follow. He was then to be allured by a promise of seeing
them at Kew; and, as they knew he would doubt their assertion, he was
to go through the rooms and examine the house himself.
“I believe it was about ten o’clock when her Majesty departed: drowned
in tears, she glided along the passage, and got softly into her
carriage, with two weeping Princesses, and Lady Courtown, who was to
be her Lady-in-waiting during this dreadful residence.
“Then followed the third Princess, with Lady Charlotte Finch. They
went off without any state or parade, and a more melancholy scene
cannot be imagined. There was not a dry eye in the house. The footmen,
the housemaids, the porter, the sentinels—all cried even bitterly as
they looked on....
“It was settled the King was to be attended by three of his gentlemen
in the carriage, and to be followed by the physicians, and preceded by
his pages. But all were to depart on his arrival at Kew, except his
own Equerry-in-waiting....
“Miss Planta and I were to go as soon as the packages could be ready,
with some of the Queen’s things. Mrs. Schwellenberg was to remain
behind, for one day, in order to make arrangements about the
jewels....
“In what confusion was the house! Princes, Equerries, physicians,
pages—all conferring, whispering, plotting, and caballing, how to
induce the King to set off!
“At length we found an opportunity to glide through the passage to the
coach; Miss Planta and myself, with her maid and Goter....
“We were almost wholly silent all the way.
“When we arrived at Kew, we found the suspense with which the King was
awaited truly terrible. Her Majesty had determined to return to
Windsor at night, if he came not. We were all to forbear unpacking in
the meanwhile....
“Dinner went on, and still no King. We now began to grow very anxious,
when Miss Planta exclaimed that she thought she heard a carriage. We
all listened. ‘I hope!’ I cried.... The sound came nearer, and
presently a carriage drove into the front court. I could see nothing,
it was so dark; but I presently heard the much-respected voice of the
dear unhappy King, speaking rapidly to the porter, as he alighted from
the coach....
“The poor King had been prevailed upon to quit Windsor with the utmost
difficulty: he was accompanied by General Harcourt, his aide-de-camp,
and Colonels Goldsworthy and Welbred—no one else! He had passed all
the rest with apparent composure, to come to his carriage, for they
lined the passage, eager to see him once more! and almost all Windsor
was collected round the rails, etc., to witness the mournful spectacle
of his departure, which left them in the deepest despondence, with
scarce a ray of hope ever to see him again.
“The bribery, however, which brought, was denied him!—he was by no
means to see the Queen!...
“I could not sleep all night—I thought I heard the poor King. He was
under the same range of apartments, though far distant, but his
indignant disappointment haunted me. The Queen, too, was very angry at
having promises made in her name which could not be kept. What a day
altogether was this!
“SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30TH.—Here, in all its dread colours, dark as its
darkest prognostics, began the Kew campaign. I went to my poor Queen
at seven o’clock: the Princess Augusta arose and went away to dress,
and I received her Majesty’s commands to go down for inquiries. She
had herself passed a wretched night, and already lamented leaving
Windsor.
“I waited very long in the cold dark passages below, before I could
find anyone of whom to ask intelligence. The parlours were without
fires, and washing. I gave directions afterwards to have a fire in one
of them by seven o’clock every morning.
“At length I procured the speech of one of the pages, and heard that
the night had been the most violently bad of any yet passed!—and no
wonder!
“I hardly knew how to creep upstairs, frozen both within and without,
to tell such news; but it was not received as if unexpected, and I
omitted whatever was not essential to be known.
“Afterwards arrived Mrs. Schwellenberg, so oppressed between her
spasms and the house’s horrors, that the oppression she inflicted
ought perhaps to be pardoned. It was, however, difficult enough to
bear! Harshness, tyranny, dissension, and even insult, seemed
personified. I cut short details upon this subject—they would but make
you sick.”
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Footnote 85:
Mr. Storer, the friend of George Selwyn.
Footnote 86:
By William Combe [1741-1823
Footnote 87:
The writer and translator, 1735-1799.
Footnote 88:
One of the Canons of Windsor.
Footnote 89:
Dr. Maskelyne (1732-1811) was Astronomer Royal at the time.
Footnote 90:
Physician in Ordinary to the King: born 1722; died 1809.
Footnote 91:
Wardrobe-woman to the Queen.
Footnote 92:
William Heberden. Born in 1710; Fellow of St. John’s College,
Cambridge; practised medicine at Cambridge; removed to London in
1748; wrote ‘Medical Commentaries;’ passed the later years of his
life at Windsor, where he died in 1801.
Footnote 93:
Richard Warren. Born about 1732; Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian
Societies; Physician in Ordinary to George III. and the Prince of
Wales; died in 1797.
Footnote 94:
We have substituted the real name here for the ‘Mr. Fairly’ of the
printed Diary.
Footnote 95:
It is fair to mention that the Prince afterwards apologized to his old
sub-governor on meeting him at Kew.—Diary, iii. 117. Even Walpole,
chary as he usually is of praise, has done justice to the “singular
virtues and character,” the “ignorance of the world as well as its
depravity,” of this estimable person. “Happy for the Prince,” adds
Walpole, “had he had no other governor; at least no other director of
his morals and opinions of government.”—See Walpole’s ‘Reign of George
III.,’ vol. iv., pp. 312, 313.
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