which led to his abandoning
the pencil for the pen.

[Sidenote: 1772-1834--The impositions of Princess Olivia]

Towards the close of the reign died one of the most audacious and
astonishing impostors known to modern times. Even the Tichborne claimant
of the reign that followed makes but a poor show for inventiveness and
enterprise when compared with the woman who described herself as the
Princess Olivia of Cumberland, and who claimed to be the daughter of King
William's brother. This woman was the daughter of a house painter named
Wilmot, and was educated under the care of her uncle, the Rector of a
parish in Warwickshire. She received a good education, and even in her
young days seemed to have a desire to exhibit herself as the heroine of
strange adventures. At an early age she was married to John Serres, a
man distinguished in his art, who obtained the position of painter to the
King and the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William the Fourth, and it was
probably this association with the surroundings of greater personages
that inspired {287} her with some of her bold conceptions. Her husband
and she did not get on very well together, and a separation took place;
after which for a while Mrs. Serres appeared on the stage, and then took
to the art of painting on her own account, and actually succeeded in
getting herself appointed landscape painter to the Prince of Wales. Her
next attempt was at novel-writing, and she also published a volume of
poems and even ventured on the composition of an opera. Later still she
made herself conspicuous by writing a volume to prove that her uncle, the
Rev. James Wilmot, was the actual author of the letters of Junius. That
was only a beginning, for she soon after proclaimed herself the
legitimate daughter, by a secret marriage, of the Duke of Cumberland.
She made her claims known to the Prince Regent and all the other members
of the royal family, and demanded a formal hearing in order that she
might prove her right to rank as one of them. She was so far successful
that her claim was actually taken up by a member of the House of Commons,
who moved for the appointment of a Committee of the House to give it a
full investigation. Sir Robert Peel promptly settled the question, so
far as regarded the appointment of a committee, by announcing that he
held in his hand a manifesto of the Princess Olivia, addressed to the
high powers of the kingdom of Poland, in which she claimed to be the