ry Stuart--divided
in their youth the title of first gentleman of Europe. We in England of
course gave the prize to _our_ gentleman. Until George's death the
propriety of that award was scarce questioned or the doubters voted rebels
and traitors. Only the other day I was reading in the reprint of the
delightful _Noctes_ of Christopher North. The health of THE KING is drunk
in large capitals by the loyal Scotsman. You would fancy him a hero, a
sage, a statesman, a pattern for kings and men. It was Walter Scott who
had that accident with the broken glass I spoke of anon. He was the king's
Scottish champion, rallied all Scotland to him, made loyalty the fashion,
and laid about him fiercely with his claymore upon all the prince's
enemies. The Brunswicks had no such defenders as those two Jacobite
commoners, old Sam Johnson the Lichfield chapman's son, and Walter Scott,
the Edinburgh lawyer's.

Nature and circumstance had done their utmost to prepare the prince for
being spoiled: the dreadful dullness of papa's Court, its stupid
amusements, its dreary occupations, the maddening humdrum, the stifling
sobriety of its routine, would have made a scapegrace of a much less
lively prince. All the big princes bolted from that castle of ennui where
old King George sat, posting up his books and droning over his Handel; and
old Queen Charlotte over her snuff and her tambour-frame. Most of the
sturdy, gallant sons settled down after sowing their wild oats, and became
sober subjects of their father and brother--not ill liked by the nation,
which pardons youthful irregularities readily enough, for the sake of
pluck, and unaffectedness, and good humour.

The boy is father of the man. Our prince signalized his entrance into the
world by a feat worthy of his future life. He invented a new shoebuckle.
It was an inch long and five inches broad. "It covered almost the whole
instep, reaching down to the ground on either side of the foot." A sweet
invention! lovely and useful as the prince on whose foot it sparkled. At
his first appearance at a Court ball, we read that "his coat was pink
silk, with white cuffs; his waistcoat white silk, embroidered with
various-coloured foil, and adorned with a profusion of French paste. And
his hat was ornamented with two rows of steel beads, five thousand in
number, with a button and loop of the same metal, and cocked in a new
military style". What a Florizel! Do these details seem trivial? They are
the grave