Princess of Wales

“ We must all appreciate the comprehensive principle which regulates, without regard to social or religious distinction, the admission of all classes of our fellow-creatures suffering under an affliction which reduces them to one common level. Finally, I have to assure you, gentlemen, how sincerely I feel your expressions of devotion and attachment towards the Queen, the Princess of Wales, and the Royal family. I am persuaded they, equally with myself, will watch with increasing interest the success of an institution this day enlarged under such hopeful circumstances. ”

“ The 27th was the Thanksgiving Day for the Prince of Wales's recovery. No public sight throughout her Majesty's reign was more moving than her progress with the Prince and Princess of Wales and Princess Beatrice to and from St. Paul's. The departure from Buckingham Palace was witnessed by the Emperor and Empress of the French, who stood on a balcony. The decorated streets were packed with incredible masses of people, the cheering was continuous. The Queen wore white flowers in her bonnet and looked happy. The Prince insisted on lifting his hat in return for the people's cheers. ”

“ The Duke of Manchester, in proposing the health of "The Princess of Wales and the rest of the Royal Family," said: "We have for the first time among us as Most Worshipful Grand Master, the eldest son of Her Majesty, and his brother, the Duke of Connaught, whom we all highly esteem and love as the sons of a father whose memory we all so fondly cherish, and whom we so much regret." ”

“ If so, she is likely to be an illustration,—unhappily but too new,—of the possibility that the lot of a Princess of Wales may be as happy as it is brilliant. May her life so grow before the eyes of the rising generation, and so stand in the picture-roll of History! ”

“ Laseron, Ladies, and Gentlemen,—The Princess of Wales desires me to express her sincerest thanks for the address which has just been read to her, and to express to all who take an interest in this institution the great pleasure and gratification it affords her to take part in to-day's proceedings. There can be, I am sure, nothing more noble or more praiseworthy than an institution like this, in which women give up their lives to the object of philanthropy in order to heal and mitigate the sufferings of the sick. ”

“ The King had no princess in view for him; but was ready to sanction any choice he might think proper to make, and the sooner the better. As if the thing were already settled, the Queen, on her side, talked publicly of the coming marriage of the heir-apparent; but not a word was breathed as to the person of the bride. Caroline, moreover, to give the matter a greater air of reality, purchased clothes for the wedding of her son with the yet ‘invisible lady,’ and sent perpetually263 to jewellers to get presents for the ideal future Princess of Wales. ”

“ The cultivation of the fine arts, in itself so powerful an auxiliary in the civilization and refinement of the human race, has been an important object in these Exhibitions, and seems already to have produced most satisfactory results. Believe me very sensible of your kind wishes on behalf of the Princess of Wales. Her regret at being unable to accompany me equals my own, and you may rely upon her anxiety to come among you, assured of the welcome she will receive. ”

“ It is impossible to say how much the Princess of Wales may not do towards either preserving or breaking up the family confidence on which the whole of the sovereign’s happiness, and much of that of the people, will henceforth depend. She may not be able to do everything ”

“ Here and in several other places it is supposed that the next heir apparent of the crown was Prince of Wales. The heir apparent of the crown is indeed prince, but not, strictly speaking, of Wales, unless he has it given him by creation; and it is said that there is nothing on record to prove that any of Henry's children were ever created Prince of Wales. There are indeed some hints of the Lady Mary's being styled Princess of Wales; for when a family was appointed for her, 1525, Veysey, bishop of Exeter, her tutor, was made president of Wales. ”

“ The envoy well knew that no amount of advice or training could fit a young, innocent woman to conform to the habits of the prince whom he represented. The princess thought his conversation very serious for a masquerade, and told him so, whereupon he gayly defended himself; but he 213took another opportunity to say that, "in the order of society those of a very high rank have a price to pay for it. The life of a Princess of Wales is not to be one of pleasure, dissipation, and enjoyment. The advantages belonging to it must be purchased by sacrifices, which must be constantly repeated." ”

“ Our royal informant went on to state, that these impositions were practised upon the public to give time for selecting proper persons to be despatched to Milan, or elsewhere, to gain intelligence what the Princess of Wales intended upon the demise of the king, as, in that event occurring, her royal highness would become queen consort. ”

“ The Princess of Wales was, undoubtedly, fast losing the small remnant of popularity among the higher classes which had hitherto sustained her. As her more noble272 friends silently cast her off she filled the void left by them with persons of inferior birth, and sometimes of indifferent reputation. Her own immediate attendants laughed at her, her ways, her pronunciation, and her opinions. She was indeed a puzzle to them. Sometimes they found in her a tone of exalted sentiment ”

“ One makes 3 curtseys; one on entering the room, one half way and a third as one gets close to the Princess. We followed quickly, I with my ladies coming directly behind the Russians. The Court was small—Princess of Wales, Princess Beatrice, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge. The Princess, a charming graceful figure dressed in dark velvet with coloured embroideries and jewels and orders; Princess Beatrice in mauve, and the two Princes in uniform of English Field Marshal. The Princesses shook hands with us chefesses and bowed to the young ladies—the Princes the same. ”

“ The Prince and Princess of Wales are anxious to express to Her Majesty’s subjects, whether in the United Kingdom, in the Colonies, or in India, the sense of their deep gratitude for the universal feeling of sympathy manifested towards them at a time when they are overwhelmed by the terrible calamity which they have sustained in the loss of their beloved eldest son. ”

“ It is doubtless to her mother’s careful and practical training that the Princess of Wales owes her lovely character, and that she in turn has made such a good and devoted mother, and is to-day the most popular lady in England. ”

“ I accept the comparison which you draw, though all too flattering, between me and Queen Elizabeth as a good omen. Like Elizabeth, the Electress’s rights are denied her by a jealous sister with a bad temper [4] , and she will never be sure of the English crown until her accession to the throne. God be praised that our Princess of Wales [5] is better than ever, and by her good health confounds all the machinations of her enemies.”
Poor young Princess Caroline, “the Pure, the Great, the Illustrious,” as Mr. ”

“ Poor child! It was a cheerless beginning to the [Pg 133] festivities of a marriage, coming alone without father or mother or relative of any sort to a strange land to wed with a man she had never seen, and who did not love her.
The etiquette of King George’s Court did not admit of a Prince of Wales going to woo a Princess of such an inferior state as Saxe-Gotha; on the contrary, she had to come to him, but it is said that the young Princess came joyfully, dazzled by the prospect of becoming Queen of England. ”

“ There was a grand ball at the Pavilion, attended by “all the families of rank and fashion” at Brighton.
60. Mr. Ward, afterwards Lord Dudley, was a great favourite with the Princess of Wales. “How melancholy are all the recollections attached to his name! A person endowed with such supremacy of talent and situation, and yet so blasted by an invisible hand, that none of the former availed to his happiness. ”

“ She was destined to bear the auspicious name of Elizabeth, in memory of her grandmother, that heiress of the house of York whose marriage with the earl of Richmond, then Henry VII., had united the roses, and given lasting peace to a country so long rent by civil discord. The unfortunate Mary, now in her sixteenth year, was stripped of the title of princess of Wales, which she had borne from her childhood, that it might adorn a younger sister; one too whose birth her interest, her religion, and her filial affection for an injured mother, alike taught her to regard as base and infamous. ”

“ Thoroughly to appreciate the nest into which this unfortunate little Prince was born and christened, it is necessary to turn for a moment to the habits and customs of his father and grandfather.
Taking the latter first, the Elector and future King of England was in the habit of retaining without any concealment whatever a minimum of three mistresses. These ladies, this considerate old father-in-law expected his son’s wife to receive and treat with civility, and strange to say Caroline the Princess Electoral did it. Poor soul! ”