CHAPTER XXIX.The Final Scene.
Under this date of March 20th, Doddington continues his entry in his diary:—
“I suppose the mortification was forming, for he died this evening a quarter before ten o’clock, as I found by a letter from Mr. Breton at six o’clock the following morning.”
Doddington continues on the 21st:—
“I came immediately to town,” he lived at Hammersmith, “and learned from Mr. Breton, who was at Leicester House when the Prince died, that for half an hour before he was very cheerful, asked to see some of his friends, ate some bread and butter, and drank coffee; he had spit for some days, and was at once seized with a fit of coughing and spitting, which last was so violent that it suffocated him. Lord North was sent to the King. This morning the King ordered the body to be opened—an abscess was found in his side, the breaking of which destroyed him.
“His physicians, Wilmot and Lee, knew nothing of his distemper, as they declared half an hour before he died ‘that his pulse was like a man’s in perfect health.’ They either would not see or did not know the consequences of the black thrushwhich appeared in his mouth and quite down into his throat. Their ignorance, or their knowledge of his disorder, renders them equally inexcusable for not calling in other assistance.”
Augusta, his wife, remained by his corpse for four hours, steadfastly refusing to believe that he was dead. Her position was pitiable, as she was about to become the mother of her ninth child, and felt all the desolation of a woman in her condition at being left to battle with her trouble alone.
“It was six in the morning before her ladies could persuade her to go to bed, and even then she remained there but two hours. Some long ago exacted promise given to her dead husband seems to have disturbed her mind; she rose and went back into Frederick’s chamber, and there burnt the whole of the Prince’s papers.
“So it was given out, but it is possible that she retained some, and that they had a bearing upon certain events which occurred later, and which will be spoken of in their place.”
Doran comments on this fact as follows:—
“By this action the world lost some rare supplementary chapters to aChronique Scandaleuse.”
That might have been so, or not.
“When Lord North arrived at Kensington Palace with the news of the death of the Prince, hefound the King looking over a card table at which sat his daughter, the Princess Amelia, the Duchess of Dorset, the Duke of Grafton, and the Countess of Yarmouth—the Walmoden; the Georges seemed fond of giving Norfolk titles to their improper belongings—videWalsingham. Lord North entered quietly and stood beside the King; in a whisper he told him of his son’s death.
“‘Dead, is he?’ he remarked turning to the messenger, ‘why, they told me he was better.’ Then he went round and leant over his mistress’s shoulder:
“‘Countess,’ he said very casually, ‘Fred is gone.’
That was all!
“Father of Mercy! Thy hand that wounds alone can save!” wails poor Doddington in his diary, on the 21st; and he appears to have been genuinely grief-stricken at the death of his patron.
“I went to Leicester House,” he continues on the 22nd. “The Princess afflicted, but well. Went to Council at night, which was very full. The common prayer altered, but Prince George left as he now stands. The physicians made a report and delivered a paper, being an account of the body when opened—I have a copy of it—ordered the bowels to be put into a box covered with red velvet, and carried in one of the Prince’s coaches by such attendants as his Groom of the Stole should appoint, and buried in Henry the Seventh’s Chapel. Ordereda Committee to settle the ceremonies of the funeral.”
On the 27th he made another entry concerning his dead master:—
“Went to Council. Orders to the Lord Steward and Chamberlain to issue orders for black cloth, wax lights, etc., for the rooms at Westminster where the body is to be laid, etc. To the Groom of the Stole and master of the horse to his late Royal Highness to regulate the march of the servants, etc. Orders to the Earl Marshal to direct the Heralds to prepare, for the consideration of the Council, a ceremonial for the funeral of his Royal Highness, upon the plan of those of the Duke of Gloucester and of Prince George of Denmark, which were formed upon the plan of the funeral of Charles the Second.”
April 3rd:—
“At Council about the funeral, ceremonial from the Heralds read—their orders were to form it on the plan of the Duke of Gloucester’s and Prince George’s of Denmark. But they had different orders privately, which then I did not know. I thought there was very little ceremony, and therefore said that I supposed that they had complied with the orders which their lordships gave about the plans on which the funeral was to be formed. The lords said: ‘To be sure’; and none seemed to have any doubts, or concerned themselves about it; so I said no more, though I am satisfiedthat it is far short of any funeral of any son of a King. After the Council was up, I asked the Lord Chancellor about it, who said that he supposed the Heralds had complied with their orders, but he knew nothing of it, and had never seen any of the plans. I told him that I mentioned it, because if it should appear that any mark of respect to the deceased should be wanting in this funeral, it would certainly give great distaste. I think the plan must be altered.”
Doddington was not aware of the meanness of the King and Court party towards the Prince’s memory, but he had a good opportunity of realising it a little later on.
April 4th:
“The King was at Leicester House”
George seems to have shown some kindness to the widowed Princess, and to have done what he could to comfort her as far as it was in his nature, but no doubt her greatest comfort was in her children, especially the eldest boy.
When George heard of the death of his father—to whom he was devoted—he very naturally turned white and sick.
“I am afraid, sir, you are not well,” pompously remarked his tutor, Ayscough, who was present when the news was broken, instead of comforting the boy.
“I feel,” answered George, with his hand on his heart, “I feel something here, just as I did when Isaw the two workmen fall from the scaffold at Kew.”
And no doubt the poor fellow did feel a pain at his heartstrings, for he loved his father.
Doddington’s diary is almost a chronicle of the events which followed:
April 13th. “Lord Limerick consulted with me about walking at the funeral. By the Earl Marshal’s order, published in the common newspaper of the day (which with the ceremonial not published till ten o’clock I keep by me), neither he as an Irish peer nor I as a Privy Councillor, could walk. He expressed a strong resolution to pay his last duty to his royal friend, if practicable. I begged him to stay till I could get the ceremonial; he did, and we there found in a note that we might walk. Which note, published seven or eight hours before, the attendance required was all the notice that lords, their sons, and Privy Councillors had (except those appointed to particular functions) that they would be admitted to walk.”
April 13th. “At seven o’clock I went, according to the order, to the House of Lords. The many slights that the poor remains of a much-loved master and friend had met with, and was now preparing the last trouble he could give his enemies, sunk me so low, that for the first hour I was incapable of making any observation.
“The procession began, and (except the lords appointed to hold the pall and attend the chiefmourner, and those of his own domestics) when the attendants were called in their ranks, there was not one English lord, notonebishop, and only one Irish lord (Limerick), two sons of dukes (Earl of Drumlanrig and Lord Robert Bertie), one Baron’s son (Mr. Edgecumbe), and two Privy Councillors (Sir John Rushout and myself), out of these great bodies to make a show of duty to a prince, so great in rank and expectation.
“While we were in the House of Lords it rained very hard, as it has done all the season; when we came into Palace Yard, the way to the Abbey was lined with soldiers, but the managers had not afforded the slightest covering over our heads; but, by good fortune, while we were from under cover, it held up. We went into the south-east door, and turned short into Henry the Seventh’s Chapel. The service was performed without either anthem or organ. So ended the sad day.Quem semper acerbum—semper honoratum.
“The corpse and bowels were removed last night to the Prince’s lodgings at the House of Lords; the whole Bedchamber were ordered to attend them from ten in the morning till theenterrement. There was not the attention to order the Green-Cloth to provide them a bit of bread; and these gentlemen, of the first rank and distinction, in discharge of their last sad duty to a loved and a loving master, were forced to bespeak a great cold dinner from a common tavern in the neighbourhood. At three o’clock,indeed, they vouchsafed to think of a dinner, and ordered one—but the disgrace was complete; the tavern dinner was paid for and given to the poor.
BUBB DODDINGTON
BUBB DODDINGTON.Lord Melcombe.
“N.B.—The Duke of Somerset was Chief Mourner, notwithstanding the flourishing state of the Royal Family.”
So ends Bubb Doddington’s account of the Prince’s illness, death and burial, and it will be seen from his description of the latter that King George the Second’s hatred for his eldest son did not cease with death, but that his petty animosity went beyond it to the grave, and touched those who stood around it.
On such a nature it would be vain to waste good English words, his own reflections on the events of this year are the best comment and explanation of it, and it is a sort of pleasure to think that these words suggest some ring of sorrow in them for his actions past.
Touched by the death of his daughter, the Queen of Denmark, George the Second made the following soliloquy.
“This (1751) has been a fatal year to my family,” he said “I have lost my eldest son,but I was glad of it. Then the Prince of Orange died and left everything in confusion. Poor little Edward has been cut open for an imposthume in his side, and now the Queen of Denmark is gone! I know I did not love my children when they were young. I hated to have them coming into theroom. But now I love them as well as most fathers.”[74]
After a long description of the sepulture of thevisceraof the Prince, which appears to have been attended with almost as much ceremony as his funeral, and seems to have attracted a ghoulish interest, theGentleman’s Magazinefor April, 1751, proceeds as follows, with an account of the latter function.
The procession began half-an-hour after eight at night, and passed through the old Palace Yard to the south-west door of Westminster Abbey, and so directly to the steps leading to Henry the Seventh’s Chapel.
The Ceremonial was as follows:
Knight Marshals, men, with black staves, two and two.Gentlemen Servants to his Royal Highness.two and two, viz.:—Pages of the Preference.Gentlemen ushers, quarter waiters, two and two.Pages of Honour.Gentlemen ushers, daily waiters.Physicians: Dr. Wilmot and Dr. Lee.Household Chaplains.Clerk of the Closet: Rev. Dr. Ayscough.Equerries, two and two.Clerk of the Household or Green Cloth:James Douglas, Esq., and Sir John Cust, Bart.Master of the Household: Lord Gage.Solicitor-General: Auditor: and Attorney General:Paul Joddrel, Esq., Charles Montague, Esq.,the Hon. Henry Bathurst.Secretary: Henry Drax, Esq.Comptroller and Treasurer to his Royal Highness:Robert Nugent, Esq., and the Earl of Scarborough,with their white staves.Steward and Chamberlain to his Royal Highnesswith their white staves.Chancellor to H.R.H. Sir Thomas Bootle:An Officer of Arms.The Master of the Horse to his Royal Highness:The Earl of Middlesex.Clarencieux King-at-Arms:
escutcheons and under a canopy of black velvet,borne by Eight of hisRoyal Highness’s Gentlemen.
Assistants to the Chief Mourner.Marquis of Tweeddale, Marquis of Lothian, Earls ofBerkeley, Peterborough, Northampton, Cardigan,Winchester, Carlisle, Murray and Norton.The Gentleman Usher of his Royal Highness’sPrivate Chamber: Edmund Bramston, Esquire.The Groom of the Stole to His Royal Highness:Duke of Chandos.The Lords of the Bedchamber to His Royal Highness:Lord North and Guildford, Duke of Queensberry, Earl ofInchiquin, Earl of Egmont, Lord Robert Sutton,Earl of Bute, two and two.The Master of the Robes to His Royal Highness:John Schütz, Esq.The Grooms of the Bedchamber to His Royal Highness:John Evelyn, Esq., Samuel Masham, Esq., ThomasBludworth, Esq., Sir Edmund Thomas, Bart., DanielBoone, Esq., William Bretton, Esq., Martin Madden,Esq., William Trevanion, Esq., Colonel Powlet,two and two.Yeomen of the Guard to close the Procession.
The corpse of His Royal Highness was met at the Church door by the Dean and Prebendaries attended by the gentlemen of the Choir and King’s Scholars, who fell into the Procession immediately before the Officer of Arms, with wax tapers in their hands and properly habited, and began the Common Burial Service (no Anthem being composed on this occasion) two drums beating a Dead March during the service.
Upon entering the Chapel, the Royal body was placed on trestles, the crown and cushion at the head, and the canopy held over, the supporters of the pall standing by; the chief mourner and his two supporters seated in chairs at the head of the corpse; the Lords Assistants, Master of the Horse,Groom of the Stole, and Lords of the Bedchamber on both sides; the four white staff officers at the feet, the others seating themselves in the stalls on each side the chapel.
The Bishop of Rochester, Dean of Westminster, then read the first part of the Burial Service, after which the corpse was carried to the vault, preceded by the white staff Officers, the Master of the Horse, Chief Mourner, his supporters and Assistants, Garter King of Arms going before them.
When they had placed themselves near the vault, the corpse being laid upon a machine even with the pavement of the Chapel, was by degrees let down into the vault when the Bishop of Rochester went on with the service; which being ended, Garter proclaimed his late Royal Highness’s titles in the following:—
“Thus it hath pleased Almighty God to take out of this transitory life to His Divine Mercy, the illustrious Frederick, Prince of Wales,” etc., etc.
The nobility and attendants returned in the same order as they proceeded, at half-an-hour after nine; so that the whole ceremony lasted an hour.
There was the utmost decorum observed, and, what is remarkable, though the populace were extremely noisy before the procession began, there was during the whole a silence that, if possible, added to the solemnity of so awful a sight.
The Guards, who each of them held two lighted flambeaux during the whole time, behaved so well,that we do not hear of any accident happening among the spectators that are remarkable. As soon as the procession began to move, two rockets were fired off in Old Palace Yard, as a signal to the guns in the Park to fire, which was followed by those of the Tower, during which time the great bells of Westminster and St. Paul’s Cathedral tolled, as did those of most of the churches in London.
The soldiers were kept on guard all Saturday night, and on Sunday, at the South Door of the Abbey, and on the scaffolding in Palace Yard. And yesterday the workmen began to take down the scaffolding.
The following inscription was engraved on a silver plate, and affixed to the coffin of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
Depositum.
Illustrissimi Principis Frederici Indovici Principes Walliæ,Principis Electoralis Hereditarii Brunvici et Lunenbergi,Ducis Cornubiæ Rothsaye et Edinburgu, Marchionis Insulæde Ely, Comitis Cestriæ Carrick et Eltham Voce ComitisLaunceston, Baronis Renfrew et Snowdon, Domini Insularum,Senechalli Scotiæ, Nobillimini Ordinis Pericelidis Equites,et a Sanctoribus Conciliis Majistati Regiæ, AcademiæDubliencis Cancellarii Filii primogeniti Cessissimi Polentissimiet Excellentissimi Monarchæ Georgii Secundi, Dei GratiaMagnii Britanniæ Franciæ et Hiberniæ Britanniæ RegisFidei Defensoris obiit Vicessimod ie Martu Anno. MDCCL.Eatatis suæ XLV.
So was poor Frederick borne into that Church in which his little son by Anne Vane already lay.
The following rough sketch of the arrangements for the Prince’s funeral was found in the State Paper Office and differs somewhat from the actual ceremony.
It was probably curtailed by George the Second.
State Papers—1751. Bundle 116. No. 34.
Thus it hath pleased Almighty God to take out of this transitory life unto His Divine mercy, the Most High, Most Mighty and Most Illustrious Prince Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, Prince Electoral and Hereditary Prince of Brunswick and Lunenberg, Duke of Cornwall, Rothsay and Edingburg, Marquis of the Isle of Ely, Earl of Chester, Carrick and Eltham, Viscount Launceston, Baron Renfrew and Snaudon, Lord of the Isles, Steward of Scotland, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, one of His Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council, Chancellor of the University of Dublin, Eldest Son of the Most High, Most Mighty and Most Excellent Monarch George the Second, by the grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, whom God bless and preserve with long life, health and honour and all worldly happiness.
Thus it hath pleased Almighty God to take out of this transitory life unto His Divine mercy, the Most High, Most Mighty and Most Illustrious Prince Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, Prince Electoral and Hereditary Prince of Brunswick and Lunenberg, Duke of Cornwall, Rothsay and Edingburg, Marquis of the Isle of Ely, Earl of Chester, Carrick and Eltham, Viscount Launceston, Baron Renfrew and Snaudon, Lord of the Isles, Steward of Scotland, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, one of His Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council, Chancellor of the University of Dublin, Eldest Son of the Most High, Most Mighty and Most Excellent Monarch George the Second, by the grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, whom God bless and preserve with long life, health and honour and all worldly happiness.
Supporters of the Pall:Right side—to carry the Canopy,Mr. Scott, Mr. Ridley, Mr. Pennant, Hon. Mr. Cornwallis, Mr. Hawley.Left Side—to carry the Canopy,Mr. Palmer, Mr. Legrand, Mr. Durell, Mr. Philpot.Supporters of the Pall:Earl Fitzwilliam.Earl of Macclesfield.Earl Stanhope.BODY.Earl of Bristol.Earl of Portmore.Early of Moray.Mr. Wentworth. Garter.Supporter: Duke of Rutland.Chief Mourner: Duke of Somerset.Supporter: Duke of Devonshire.Bart. to support the Train.Ten Assistants:Marquis of Lothian.Marquis of Tweeddale.Earl of Peterborough.Earl of Northampton.Earl of Cardigan.Earl of Winchelsea.Earl of Berkeley.Earl of Carlisle.Earl of Moretown.Earl of Jersey.Gent. Usher of the Privy Chamber:Mr. Bramston.Groom of the Stole:Duke of Chandos.Lords of the Bedchamber:Duke of Queensberry.Lord North and Guildford.Earl of Egmont.Earl of Inchiquin.Earl of Bute.Lord Robert Sutton.Master of the Robes:Coll. Schütz.Grooms of the Bedchamber:Mr. Evelyn (alone).Mr. Bludworth.Mr. Masham.Mr. Boone.Mr. Edmund Thomas.Mr. Madden.Mr. Bretton.Coll. Powlett.Mr. Trevanion.Yeomen of the Guard to close the Ceremony.Knights of the Bath:Sir John Savill.Sir John Mordaunt.Sir Charles Powlett.Sir Charles Howard.Sir Ed. Hawke.Sir Peter Warren.Sir Chas. Williams.Sir Wm. Morden HarbordSir H. Calthorpe.Sir Thomas Whitmore.Lord Fitzwilliam.Sir John Ligonier, P.C.Sir John Cape.Sir Ph. Honywood.P.C. Sir Tho. Robinson.Visc. Tyrconnell.P.C. Sir Wm. Younge.Sir R. Clifton.P.C. Sir P. Methuen.P.C. Sir Conyers Darcy are to go before.Privy Councillors not Peers:Arthur Onslow, Esq.Henry Legg.Sir Conyers Darcy.Sir Tho. Robinson.Wm. Finch.Hen. Pelham, Esq.Sir Wm. Lee, Chief Justice.Judges before.Sir John Strange, M. of R.Knights of the Bath.Sir John Willia, Ch. J.C.P.C.Sir Paul Methuen.Horatio Walpole.Sir Wm. Younge.Sir John Rushout.George Doddington.Wm. Pitt, Esq., Paymaster-General.Henry Fox, Secretary of War.Sir John Ligonier. General of Companie (?).
FOOTNOTES:[74]Doran’s Queens of the House of Hanover.
[74]Doran’s Queens of the House of Hanover.
[74]Doran’s Queens of the House of Hanover.