verted on the coronation day. I saw the procession much at my ease, in a house which I filled with my own company, and then got into Westminster Hall without trouble, where it was very entertaining to observe the variety of airs that all meant the same thing. The business of every walker there was to conceal vanity and gain admiration. For these purposes some languished and others strutted; but a visible satisfaction was diffused over every countenance, as soon as the coronet was clapped on the head. But she that drew the greatest number of eyes was, indisputably, Lady Orkney. She exposed behind, a mixture of fat and wrinkles; and before, a very considerable protuberance which preceded her. Add to this, the inimitable roll of her eyes, and her grey hairs, which by good fortune stood directly upright, and 'tis impossible to imagine a more delightful spectacle. She had embellished all this with considerable magnificence, which made her look as big again as usual; and I should have thought her one of the largest things of God's making, if my Lady St. John had not displayed all her charms in honour of the day."

The equivocal position of Lady Orkney at the court of King William, proved no bar to her being received at the courts of subsequent sovereigns. On the 6th of September, 1724, we find her entertaining George the First with great magnificence at her seat of Clifden, near Maidenhead; and

66

again, on the 30th of July, 1729, George the Second and his Queen appear to have been partakers of her hospitality. On the latter occasion, the clumsiness of her servants and her own over-zeal, seem to have rendered the entertainment a failure, and it is evidently in "the anguish of her mind," to use her own expression, that she writes Mrs. Howard an account of the terrible mismanagements and mistakes of her domestics. They kept back the dinner,” she says, " too long for her Majesty, after it was dished, and was set before the fire, and made it look not well dressed; the Duke of Grafton saying there wanted a maitre d'hotel. All this vexed my Lord Orkney so, he tells me he hopes I will never meddle more, if he could ever hope for the same honour; which I own I did too much, as I see by the success."*

It would be unfair to close our memoir of Lady Orkney without inserting another brief specimen of her correspondence, which appears to do credit to her heart. The letter in question is addressed to Mrs. Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk, and the well known mistress of George the Second.

66

Madam,

"Clifton (Clifden), July 22 [1725].

"The unhappy find time long. I am truly concerned for my poor Lady Lovat. She

* Letters to and from Henrietta Countess of Suffolk, vol. i. p. 351.

248 ELIZABETH VILLIERS, COUNTESS OF ORKNEY.

stays in London for no other end but in hopes to get something to carry her to Scotland; and every day she is detained she is less able to live or to go. I did do as you desired; but I fear the petition has not been read, or not spoken of, as you expected. Your humanity has drawn this great trouble upon you; but what is life worth without it? I shall be at Court some day next week, where I shall wait on you; and I hope then to have a successful answer to this. This, and a thousand other things I have heard of you, engages me to be with truth your ladyship's

"Faithful humble servant,

"E. ORKNEY.”*

Lady Orkney died, apparently at an advanced age, in 1733. By her husband she was the mother of three daughters, of whom the eldest, Lady Mary, married William O'Brian, Earl of Inchiquin, in Ireland.

* Letters to and from Henrietta Countess of Suffolk, vol. i. p. 189.

249

QUEEN ANNE.

CHAPTER I.

Anne, second daughter of James the Second, by Anne Hyde, daughter of the celebrated Lord Clarendon.-Her birth in 1665.-Is attached early in life to the son of Ernest, Duke of Brunswick, afterwards George the First.-Announcement of her marriage in 1683 to Prince George of Denmark.—Her desertion of her father.-His anguish in consequence.-Extracts from Clarendon's Diary, and Duchess of Marlborough's Memoirs.-Lord Dartmouth's account of Anne's flight. Her entry into Oxford.-And strong bias in favour of Protestantism. Her letter to Mary of Modena.-And to the Prince of Orange.-Anecdotes of Anne.-Origin of her misunderstanding with her sister, Queen Mary.-Grant made to her by Parliament.-King William's neglect of her. Her endeavours to effect a reconciliation with King James.-Her letter to him. He pardons her on his death-bed.—Anne's favourable disposition towards the claims of her exiled brother. The Pretender writes her an affecting letter.Anecdote of the Duke of Ormond.-And of the Bishop of London. Interesting letter of the Earl of Oxford respecting the Hanoverian succession.-Death of Anne's son, the young Duke of Gloucester. His promising character.-Anne's grief for the loss of her son.-Shippen's verses on the subject.

ANNE, the last of the House of Stuart who held the sceptre of these realms, was the second daughter of James the Second by Anne Hyde, Duchess of York, daughter of the celebrated Lord Clarendon. She was born in St. James's

Palace on the 6th of February, 1665. Little is known of her early history but that her nature was gentle, and her health delicate. The latter circumstance led to her being sent, when a child, to France, where she continued till the disorder with which she was afflicted took a favourable turn.

The first lover of the Princess Anne was George, son of Ernest Duke of Brunswick, who afterwards ascended the throne of this country as King George the First. He arrived in England, as the professed suitor of the Princess, in 1681, but had proceeded to no great lengths in the negotiation, when he received orders to return to his own country; his father having changed his intentions respecting him, and determined on his marriage with the unfortunate Sophia Dorothea, daughter of the Duke of Zell. Whether Anne suffered any disappointment at the defection of her German lover cannot now be ascertained: however, two years afterwards, she accepted the offer of Prince George of Denmark, younger brother of Christian the Fifth, King of Denmark, to whom she was married, in the Chapel Royal at St. James's, on the 28th of July, 1683. The event was thus announced to the public "by authority:"

"Whitehall, July 28:- His Majesty having been pleased, upon instance made unto him, in the name of the King of Denmark, to consent