layed the inferior parts; and,
as it were, only tumble, whilst the others dance upon the high ropes of
gallantry.' Scarborough was full of Jacobites: the popular feeling was
then all rife against Sir Robert Walpole's excise scheme. Lord
Chesterfield thus wittily satirized that famous measure:--

'The people of this town are, at present, in great consternation upon a
report they have heard from London, which, if true, they think will ruin
them. They are informed, that considering the vast consumption of these
waters, there is a design laid of _excising_ them next session; and,
moreover, that as bathing in the sea is become the general practice of
both sexes, and as the kings of England have always been allowed to be
masters of the seas, every person so bathing shall be gauged, and pay so
much per foot square, as their cubical bulk amounts to.'

In 1733, Lord Chesterfield married Melusina, the supposed niece, but, in
fact, the daughter of the Duchess of Kendal, the mistress of George I.
This lady was presumed to be a great heiress, from the dominion which
her mother had over the king. Melusina had been created (for life)
Baroness of Aldborough, county Suffolk, and Countess of Walsingham,
county Norfolk, nine years previous to her marriage.

Her father being George I., as Horace Walpole terms him, 'rather a good
sort of man than a shining king,' and her mother 'being no genius,'
there was probably no great attraction about Lady Walsingham, except her
expected dowry.

During her girlhood Melusina resided in the apartments at St.
James's--opening into the garden; and here Horace Walpole describes his
seeing George I., in the rooms appropriated to the Duchess of Kendal,
next to those of Melusina Schulemberg, or, as she was then called, the
Countess of Walsingham. The Duchess of Kendal was then very 'lean and
ill-favoured.' 'Just before her,' says Horace, 'stood a tall, elderly
man, rather pale, of an aspect rather good-natured than august: in a
dark tie-wig, a plain coat, waistcoat, and breeches of snuff-coloured
cloth, with stockings of the same colour, and a blue riband over all.
That was George I.'

[Illustration: A ROYAL ROBBER.]

The Duchess of Kendal had been maid of honour to the Electress
Sophia, the mother of George I. and the daughter of Elizabeth of
Bohemia. The duchess was always frightful; so much so that one night the
electress, who had acquired a little English, said to Mrs. Howard,
afterwards Lady Suffo