ifferences
between him and his son, then Prince of Wales, adopted that measure
rather as showing his authority than from any affection to the young
princesses. It was, in truth, difficult to say which of these royal
ladies was the most unfortunate.

Anne, the eldest, had shown her spirit early in life whilst residing
with George I.; she had a proud, imperious nature, and her temper was,
it must be owned, put to a severe test. The only time that George I. did
the English the _honour_ of choosing one of the beauties of the nation
for his mistress, was during the last year of his reign. The object of
his choice was Anne Brett, the eldest daughter of the infamous Countess
of Macclesfield by her second husband. The neglect of Savage, the poet,
her son, was merely one passage in the iniquitous life of Lady
Macclesfield. Endowed with singular taste and judgment, consulted by
Colley Cibber on every new play he produced, the mother of Savage was
not only wholly destitute of all virtue, but of all shame. One day,
looking out of the window, she perceived a very handsome man assaulted
by some bailiffs who were going to arrest him: she paid his debt,
released, and married him. The hero of this story was Colonel Brett, the
father of Anne Brett.

The child of such a mother was not likely to be even
decently-respectable; and Anne was proud of her disgraceful preeminence
and of her disgusting and royal lover. She was dark, and her flashing
black eyes resembled those of a Spanish beauty. Ten years after the
death of George I., she found a husband in Sir William Leman, of
Northall, and was announced, on that occasion, as the half-sister of
Richard Savage.

To the society of this woman, when at St. James's, as 'Mistress Brett,'
the three princesses were subjected: at the same time the Duchess of
Kendal, the king's German mistress, occupied other lodgings at St.
James's.

Miss Brett was to be rewarded with the coronet of a countess for her
degradation, the king being absent on the occasion at Hanover; elated by
her expectations, she took the liberty, during his majesty's absence, of
ordering a door to be broken out of her apartment into the royal garden,
where the princesses walked. The Princess Anne, not deigning to
associate with her, commanded that it should be forthwith closed. Miss
Brett imperiously reversed that order. In the midst of the affair, the
king died suddenly, and Anne Brett's reign was over, and her influence
soon as