THE BEST HATED WOMAN. 167 say you got your riches from the same quarter as you got your books.' The princess had been the best hated woman in her son's kingdom, and public rancour was kept up till the tomb closed over her remains. But a few days before her death a paragraph went the round of the papers which stated that 'fifty guineas were yesterday offered and refused to insure one hundred pounds on the life of a certain great lady in Pall Mall, for two months only; and five offered at the same time and refused to underwrite her for three days.' Nor was this all. As the funeral procession moved through the streets from Carlton House to Westminster Abbey, the mob huzzaed for delight, and forcibly stripped the black cloth from the platform at the abbey, before half the procession had passed across. It is more extraordinary yet to record that the soldiers on guard, lest they should lose their share in the plunder, followed the felonious example of the crowd, and secured for themselves as much of the cloth as they could. Her income went to the king, and her jewels, plate, and trinkets to her remaining children, who could not agree as to the adequate division of these precious mementoes, and therefore sent them down to Christie's in Pall Mall, where they were sold by public auction for the benefit of their joint owners. CHAPTER V. The King's Brother, Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland---Remarkable Intrigue-Lord Grosvenor's Courtship-The Royal Lover and his Amorous LettersThe Countess's Reply-Royal Marriage Bill-The King and Queen at Kew-The Prince and Perdita Robinson-The Meeting at Old Kew by Moonlight -The Duchess of Cumberland courts Popularity— Midnight Revelry at Lord Chesterfield's-Charles Fox-The Charming Duchess of Devonshire and the Westminster Election-Mrs. Crouch and Mrs. Bellington. HE king's third brother, Henry Frederick, THE created Duke of Cumberland a short time after the demise of his grand-uncle, Billy the Butcher,' was destined to give his royal mother more trouble, and the nation more scandal, than either the Dukes of York or Gloucester. In appearance, he had the advantage of his brothers; in intellect he did not surpass their dull level; in stature he was small; and in habits, degraded. This is the prince concerning whom a writer in the daily press declared he would not say any more just then; 'for to reproach a man with being an idiot is an insult to God,' said this religious scribe. From the strict confinement in which he had been kept until he had obtained his majority, he sallied forth to satiate himself with reckless vice, and bring ridicule and disgrace upon his name and family. The morals and manners of the age, and the proverbial frailty of princes would not perhaps have rendered his coarse amours in any way notorious, had he not engaged in an intrigue with the wife of the first Earl Grosvenor, then young and beautiful, witty and accomplished. My Lord Grosvenor was a gay courtier, and a man of pleasure, who had married Henrietta, daughter of Henry Vernon, of Hilton, in the county of Stafford, esquire. The circumstances under which they met were not without romance, and the manner of his brief wooing was certainly characteristic of the age. My lord was walking one day in Kensington Gar MY LORD GROSVENOR IN LOVE. 171 dens, whilst his coach waited for him at the gate, when, a sudden summer shower coming on, he took refuge in an alcove, where Miss Vernon and her sister likewise sought refuge. My lord was gallant by nature, and addressed the ladies; they were most courteously inclined, and made reply, and their conversation ended by his lordship requesting them to do him the honour of sharing his carriage, as the rain continued, which they, nothing loath, consented to do. In riding back to town, his lordship became attentive to the elder of the ladies, and she, not to be behindhand in paying him a compliment, after the fashion of the day, said his lordship's coach was the easiest she ever rode in, to which he replied he was vastly happy at its meeting with her approbation, and that she might be the mistress of it whenever she pleased.' The lady blushed, the lord became more amorous of her beauty, and next day called on her parents, and made proposals for her hand, when the pair were duly married. My lady bore my lord four children; and all went well until Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, came upon |