tily afflicted;"* and henceforth we find her concluding her letters to her celebrated favourite, the Duchess of Marlborough, as "your poor, unfortunate, faithful Morley:" it is scarcely necessary to mention, that Anne and the Duchess were in the habit of corresponding under the familiar and feigned names of Morley and Freeman. We may conclude our notice of the Duke of Gloucester with the following lines, written by Shippen, upon his death : So by the course of the revolving spheres, They find their heaven's enlarged, and wait from thence But suddenly, alas! the fleeting light, Retiring, leaves their hopes involved in endless night. * Carstares' State Papers, p. 611. 282 CHAPTER II. Bishop Burnet congratulates Anne on her accession to the Throne. Lord Dartmouth's letter on the subject of the Bishop's officiousness.-Anne's character. Her attachment to "ceremonies and customs."-Her love of flattery.-Lampoons on her supposed love of dram-drinking.-Denial of the charge by the Duchess of Marlborough.-Anne's economical habits, and occasional distress for money.- Description of her person.-Anecdote of Lord Bolingbroke. — Remarkable sweetness of Anne's voice. Her love of the chase.-Death of Prince George of Denmark.-Curious narrative of the Duchess of Marlborough respecting Anne's behaviour on the occasion. Cursory sketch of the state of parties at the commencement of the eighteenth century.-Rise of Harley, Earl of Oxford.-Anne's prepossession in favour of the Tory and High-Church party.-Downfall of the Whigs.— Violent altercations between Harley and Bolingbroke.Their effect on the Queen's health.-Interesting details respecting Anne's indisposition.-Character of Dr. Radcliffe.His letter to a friend on the subject of Anne's state of health. Her death in 1714.-The Duke of Marlborough's pithy character of her.-Literary and military glories of her reign. Enumeration of her children. By the death of King William, Anne, on the 8th of March, 1702, succeeded as sovereign of England. The first person from whom she learnt the important tidings was Bishop Burnet; that meddling prelate having immediately quitted the corpse of his benefactor to offer his homage to the rising sun. "As soon," says Lord Dartmouth, "as the breath was out of King William, (by which all expectations from him were at an end,) the Bishop of Salisbury drove hard to bring the first tidings to St. James's, where he prostrated himself at the new Queen's feet, full of joy and duty, but obtained no advantage over the Earl of Essex, Lord of the Bedchamber in waiting, whose proper office it was, besides being universally laughed at for his officiousness."* Spring Macky also observes,-"On the Queen's accession to the throne, he was the first who brought the news to her of King William's death; yet was turned out of his lodgings at Court, and met with several affronts." At the period of her accession, Anne was in the thirty-eighth year of her age. She was immediately proclaimed Queen of Great Britain; and on the 23rd of April following, was crowned at Westminster with the usual solemnities. The harmless and inoffensive character of Anne; the fact of her being of the weaker sex ; the strong sense of religion which she was known to entertain; the benevolence and goodhumour deservedly attributed to her; and, more especially, the entire want of personal ambition, which was one of her principal characteristics, * Burnet, vol. v. p. 1, note. were circumstances that in no slight degree effected the peaceable acknowledgment of her rights; while, whatever probability there had hitherto been of a disputed succession, it was evident that the nation was ranged too numerously on her side, to hold out the least hopes to the exiled court that opposition to the existing government would be either politic or safe. The Court of Anne was scarcely more splendid or more lively than that of her predecessor; indeed, neither her conversation nor her tastes were such as to gather round her a splendid circle, or to disturb the monotony of an uninteresting Court. In trifling ceremonies, and in matters of precedence, she appears indeed to have taken the interest which distinguishes a weak mind. The Duchess of Marlborough, after dwelling on the Queen's extraordinary memory, observes,-"She chose to retain it in very little besides ceremonies and customs of courts, and such like insignificant trifles; so that her conversation, which otherwise might have been enlivened by so great a memory, was only made the more empty and trifling by its chiefly turning upon fashions, and rules of precedence, or observations upon the weather, or some such poor topics, without any variety or entertainment. Upon which account it was a sort of unhappiness to her that she naturally loved to have a great crowd come to her; for when they were come to Court, she never cared to have them come in to her, nor to go out herself to them, having little to say to them, but that it was either hot or cold; and little to inquire of them, but how long they had been in town, or the like weighty matters.* She never discovered any readiness of parts, either in asking questions, or in giving answers. In matters of ordinary moment, her discourse had nothing of brightness or wit; and in weightier matters, she never spoke but in a hurry, and had a certain knack of sticking to what had been dictated to her, to a degree often very disagreeable, and without the least sign of understanding or judgment." The Duchess elsewhere observes sarcastically of her old mistress, that she was "ignorant of every thing but what the parsons had taught her when a child."+ In regard to the Queen's attachment to "ceremonies and customs," we are induced to lay before the reader a curious picture of the process of the royal toilet, on the authority of * The manner in which the Queen conducted herself at a drawing-room is thus described by Swift, in his Journal to Stella:-"She looked at us round with her fan in her mouth, and once a minute said about three words to some that were nearest her; and then she was told dinner was ready, and went out." August 8, 1711. + Private Correspondence of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, vol. ii. pp. 119, 146. |