ring about a marriage, which
was not then obstructed by the law. Henry Fox, one of the most
ambitious men of that time or of any time, was Lady Sarah's
brother-in-law, and he did his best to promote the marriage. On the
other hand, the {10} party which followed the lead of the Princess
Dowager and Lord Bute fought uncompromisingly against the scheme. The
Princess Dowager had everything to lose, Lord Bute had everything to
lose, by such an alliance. The power of the Princess Dowager over the
young King would vanish, and the influence of Lord Bute over the
Princess Dowager would cease to have any political importance. Lord
Bute did all he could to keep the lovers apart. Henry Fox did all he
could to bring the lovers together. For lovers they undoubtedly were.
George again and again made it plain to those who were in his
confidence that he was in love with Lady Sarah, and was anxious to make
her his queen; and Lady Sarah, though her heart is said to have been
given to Lord Newbottle, was quite ready to yield to the wishes of her
family when those wishes were for the crown of England. On the meadows
of Holland House the beautiful girl, loveliest of Arcadian rustics,
would play at making hay till her royal lover came riding by to greet
her.

But the idyll did not end in the marriage for which Fox and the
Lennoxes hoped. It is said that the King was jealous of Lord
Newbottle; it is said that a sense of duty to his place and to his
people made him resolve to subdue and sacrifice his own personal
feelings. He offered his hand and his crown to the Princess of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Lady Sarah lost both her lovers, the King and
Lord Newbottle, who, in the words of Grenville, "complained as much of
her as she did of the King." But she did not remain long unmarried.
In 1762 she accepted as husband the famous sporting Baronet Sir Thomas
Charles Bunbury, and nineteen years later she married the Hon. George
Napier, and became the mother of an illustrious pair of soldier
brothers, Sir Charles Napier, the hero of Scinde, and Sir William
Napier, perhaps the best military historian since Julius Caesar. Lady
Sarah died in 1826, in her eighty-second year. In her later years she
had become totally blind, and she bore her affliction with a sweet
patience. At her death she is described by the chroniclers of the time
as "probably the last surviving {11} great-grand-daughter of King
Charles the Second." A barren honor, surely.