led his Majesty into, some nights ago, when about nine or ten at night he was going to this Mlle., who has a house in St. James Street next door to Lady Renelow, where this confidant knocked. The chair was carried in and opened, but the King saw the mistake, set himself down (again) and ordered it to the next house. Whether it proved a jest to him I don't hear, but a very good one it has bin to the Town, and this lady withal is very ugly."1

It is an error calling the lady "Mlle. Kilmansegge." She was the wife of the baron of that name, Master of the Horse to the King. Apartments were found for him at Somerset House, a good many pensioners there being turned out to make room for George's suite.

The Princess of Wales, Caroline of Anspach, and her daughters arrived in the beginning of October, and on the 20th the King was crowned, one month from the day of his entering London. There were great rejoicings, although not wholly free from rioting, which was attributed to the rejected Tories.

At the first drawing-room the princess held, all were charmed with her conversation. She spoke English fluently, addressed herself to each lady in turn, and was never at a loss for words or subject. Her dress, very different from the fashion in England, was worn high. She had abundance of fair hair, loaded with flakes of powder. The princess was a good deal taller than her husband.

During these rejoicings, no one thought of George I.'s poor neglected and imprisoned Queen, Sophia Dorothea, who was languishing in a German fortress, the innocent victim of a vile conspiracy. Her place was taken by 1 H.M.C., Coke MSS.

two inferior and unattractive persons, one of whom had a great influence over the King. These two ladies were nicknamed "The May Pole" and "The Elephant and Castle," as they were a complete contrast to one another. Madame Schulenberg was ridiculously thin, while the other, Madame de Kilmansegge, spoken of in the preceding letter, was absurdly fat, and both were ugly and old. In 1716 Madame Schulenberg became Duchess of Kendal, and her daughter by the King, who passed as her niece, was created Countess of Walsingham, and afterwards married the Earl of Chesterfield.

Both ladies were given apartments in St. James's Palace. The King spent his leisure hours, generally between five and eight, in their company. He amused himself cutting out figures in paper, and varied this employment by smoking a pipe. Count Broglio, the French ambassador, wrote to his royal master: "The King has no predilection for the English nation, and never receives in private any English of either sex; none even of his principal officers are admitted to his chamber in the morning to dress him, or in the evening to undress him. These offices are performed by the Turks, who are his valets de chambre, and who give him everything he wants in private."

These Turks, named Mustapha and Mahomet, had been taken prisoners of war some years before, and had ever since been attached to the Hanoverian court. Madame de Kilmansegge wrote from Hanover in December 1716 to Vice-Chamberlain Coke, thanking him for many civilities, saying she did not expect the King would be over before the middle of January; nor did she know whether he would go to Kensington or to St. James's. If the latter place, she desired her rooms left as they were. In regard to the furniture at Ken

sington, the simplest would suffice, as the apartment was not good enough to be worth decorating; and besides, she preferred not to cause trouble and expense. She wished "the house" to be divided into three rooms, with a bed in each, and as many beds for servants as at St. James's.

Madame de Kilmansegge sent her compliments, and apolgised for "the trouble she is giving," and "hopes soon to thank the Vice-Chamberlain by word of mouth, and to embrace Mrs. Coke."

In the new reign economy, not to say parsimony, seemed to have been practised; one reads in the correspondence with Vice-Chamberlain Coke, who seems to have borne the brunt of all complaints, that some of the household were given little better to eat than " garniture as cold fish, Salamon Gundy, and the like, so that really more than once we have had much ado to make a dinner."

The writer, one C. Dalton, says that never in either William III.'s or Queen Anne's time were they so treated. He also says that the number of candles allowed was so limited that, one council night, "the lords coming out ran their noses against the hangings. Nay," he continues, "the Duke of Kent refuses to give us a candle to light the King, which is my Lord Chamberlain's own candle, saying he goes in always privately." He ends by asking that all this may be represented to the Lord Chamberlain (Duke of Bolton), and begs that they may not be governed by the Board of Green Cloth.1

As soon as the first Parliament met, the Whigs began to call the late ministers to account for the part they took in the Treaty of Utrecht, which so alarmed Lord Bolingbroke, who had taken his seat,

1 Coke MSS.