e subject is
doubtless an interesting one. And I for one am grateful to Queen
Anne--or rather to the architects of her reign. Those stately red brick
houses of her time, though they are far less graceful than Elizabethan
mansions, and less romantic than the French chateaux of the same period
with their high roofs, and charming tourelles with extinguisher tops,
are among the most comfortable, homelike, lovable dwelling-places we can
find in England.

The plate too of Queen Anne's reign is justly esteemed as the handsomest
and richest that can be found. As I write a bit of veritable Queen Anne
plate stands beside me on the table--a graceful little candlestick five
inches high, of plain, solid silver. No need to look at its Hall-mark,
or puzzle over its history; for the only ornament on its foot is an
open-work pattern formed of roughly cut letters, "Queen Anne. 1702"; and
on the rim above is engraved "His Highness Prince George. S.^{L}S. Anno
Dom. 1702."

The candlestick was a present from Queen Anne on her coronation, to a
certain old ancestress of ours, who had been one of the ladies in
attendance on the Queen's young son, William Henry, Duke of
Gloucester--the only one of her numerous children who lived beyond his
babyhood.

This little boy, the last of our children of Westminster Abbey, was born
on July 24, 1689. It was a memorable year in the history of England, for
it had seen the great and bloodless revolution by which James the Second
had been driven from Great Britain, and William the Third put on the
throne. The misgovernment of James had become unbearable; and William,
Prince of Orange, who had married the king's eldest daughter Mary, was
invited "by a small party of ardent Whigs to assist in preserving the
civil and religious liberties of the nation." William and Mary accepted
the Declaration of Right, and were crowned as joint sovereigns on April
11, 1689. They had no children. So when Princess Anne, the Queen's
sister, and wife of Prince George of Denmark, gave birth to her little
boy in the following July, he was welcomed as the future King of
England.

King William and the King of Denmark were the baby's godfathers. The
marchioness of Halifax was his godmother. Queen Mary adopted him as her
heir; and the king conferred upon him the title of Duke of Gloucester:
but he was not created Duke "because his mother considered that title
dreadfully unlucky."

But at first it seemed highly improbable that the