ry Fox, a young lady of remarkable beauty. His attentions to her
were continued after his accession. Fox and his wife, Lady Caroline,
took care that he should have every opportunity of seeing her; and
George, as he rode through Kensington, was charmed to find her in a
fancy dress playing at hay-making in front of Fox's residence, Holland
House. He went so far as to signify plainly to her that he meant to make
her a formal offer of marriage.[34] Most inopportunely Lady Sarah broke
her leg, and while she was laid up, the princess-dowager and Bute
persuaded George to change his mind. They at once arranged a marriage
for him with the Princess Charlotte, a daughter of the Duke of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and the marriage took place on September 8. The
queen did not meddle in affairs of state; she bore fifteen children, and
had many domestic virtues. On the 22nd the king and queen were crowned.

George's popularity was impaired by the influence exercised over him by
his mother and Bute, which excited the ridicule of the higher class of
society and the bitter feelings of the London populace. Bystanders
sneered when they saw him on his way to visit his mother, and it is said
that on one occasion he was insulted with a coarse jest. In Bute's case
the idea that he was the royal favourite would alone have sufficed to
make him hated. The term was generally applied to him. Yet he was not a
favourite in the more odious sense of the word, for though the king
showed him signal favour, their relations were rather political than
personal. His nationality strengthened the dislike with which he was
regarded. The jacobite troubles had increased the prejudices of the
English against the Scots; they looked down upon them as a
half-barbarous people, poor, and greedy to enrich themselves with the
wealth of England. Scorn and indignation were aroused by the grants of
honours and employments made to Bute's Scottish followers who came in
great numbers to the court under his patronage. Bills were posted in
London with the words: "No petticoat government! No Scotch minister! No
Lord George Sackville!" Any unpopular measure was set down to Bute's
advice. The beer-tax was believed to have been suggested by him, and
provoked a disturbance in the theatre in the king's presence, which
caused Bute much annoyance. He was yet to rise higher in the state, and
to arouse more violent feelings of hatred and contempt.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Mahan, _The Influence of Sea