y, Earl of Carrick,
Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Great Steward of Scotland, Prince
of Wales and Earl of Chester.

All the people at his birth thronged to see this lovely child; and behind
a gilt china-screen railing in St. James's Palace, in a cradle surmounted
by the three princely ostrich feathers, the royal infant was laid to
delight the eyes of the lieges. Among the earliest instances of homage
paid to him, I read that "a curious Indian bow and arrows were sent to the
prince from his father's faithful subjects in New York". He was fond of
playing with these toys: an old statesman, orator, and wit of his
grandfather's and great-grandfather's time, never tired of his business,
still eager in his old age to be well at Court, used to play with the
little prince, and pretend to fall down dead when the prince shot at him
with his toy bow and arrows--and get up and fall down dead over and over
again--to the increased delight of the child. So that he was flattered from
his cradle upwards; and before his little feet could walk, statesmen and
courtiers were busy kissing them.

There is a pretty picture of the royal infant--a beautiful buxom
child--asleep in his mother's lap; who turns round and holds a finger to
her lip, as if she would bid the courtiers around respect the baby's
slumbers. From that day until his decease, sixty-eight years after, I
suppose there were more pictures taken of that personage than of any other
human being who ever was born and died--in every kind of uniform and every
possible Court dress--in long fair hair, with powder, with and without a
pigtail--in every conceivable cocked-hat--in dragoon uniform--in Windsor
uniform--in a field-marshal's clothes--in a Scotch kilt and tartans, with
dirk and claymore (a stupendous figure)--in a frogged frock-coat with a fur
collar and tight breeches and silk stockings--in wigs of every colour,
fair, brown, and black--in his famous coronation robes finally, with which
performance he was so much in love that he distributed copies of the
picture to all the Courts and British embassies in Europe, and to
numberless clubs, town-halls, and private friends. I remember as a young
man how almost every dining-room had his portrait.

[Illustration]

There is plenty of biographical tattle about the prince's boyhood. It is
told with what astonishing rapidity he learned all languages, ancient and
modern; how he rode beautifully, sang