"down on your knee, and you shall have the honour to kiss the Queen's hand;" to which the boy boldly replied "No! but I won't though; because I shall dirt my new breeches!"

This extempore but uncourtly repartee had such an effect upon their majesties, that they made the child a handsome present; and repeated the story afterwards as an excellent joke.

The King, Queen, and royal family, had gone to Newnham, in Oxfordshire, on a visit to Lord Harcourt, proposing to return to Windsor the same evening; but the weather proving favourable, the royal pair determined to take that opportunity of paying a private visit to Oxford; and accordingly slept that night at Newnham, from whence they drove to Oxford the next morning, on the twelfth of October; and arriving at Christ Church just at prayer time, they proceeded without ceremony to the cathedral, and took their seats during the service.

After prayers they visited all the colleges, and held a sort of levee in the theatre, where the principals and students were assembled; and then proceeded to the council chamber, to receive the civic compliments. During the whole of this visit their majesties mingled most familiarly with the crowd, displaying great affability and condescension, and cheerfully affording every opportunity to the inhabitants for the gratification of their earnest wishes. of seeing so many branches of the royal family.

In return, the decency of the populace, and great attention of all other classes of the inhabitants, were highly pleasing, whilst the dignity and grandeur of such a display of superb structures added much to the effect of the scene.

The bells were incessantly ringing during the whole of the visit. At five o'clock the royal party set off for Newnham; but the good people of Oxford illuminated their city at night notwithstanding, whilst a general joy and satisfaction appeared in every countenance.

The familiarity with which those friendly visits were paid, whether in the immediate vicinity of the royal residence, or even at considerable distances, prevented them from being at all oppressive to the parties so honoured. That familiarity is well sketched in several of Mrs. Delany's letters; and about this time, or rather previous, she relates that on one occasion, whilst sitting in the long gallery at Bulstrode, with the Duchess of Portland, His Majesty walked up to their work-table unperceived and unknown, until he was close to them. Their surprise was instantly got over, by his courteous and affable manner, which rendered him even a welcome guest; and he informed them that he had called with the intelligence of the Queen's perfect recovery, after her recent lying-in. The breakfast was then ordered in, of which the King partook without ceremony, stopping for a couple

of hours with all the ease of a morning call amongst intimate friends. Shortly afterwards, their majesties arrived together at Bulstrode, accompanied only by Lady Courtown, and took breakfast in the same friendly way; the Queen herself expressly waving the etiquette of a respectful call on the ensuing day, saying she was going to town for a few days. In a week or two the whole royal family went to Bulstrode, in two coaches and six, except His Majesty on horseback, and attended by a great retinue: on which occasion more state was assumed: yet the visit was itself of the most friendly style, for the Queen brought to the venerable Mrs. Delany a very elegant machine for knotting fringe, to which His Majesty added a gold knotting shuttle of most exquisite workmanship and taste. When this visit was returned in form at Windsor, the same amiable condescension was displayed, a concert being executed in the adjoining apartment, His Majesty himself expressly directing the band to play such productions of Handel and Geminiani, as he said he knew to be pleasing to the venerable lady whom they thus honoured by their notice.

When the concert was over, directions were given to bring in the young Princess Amelia, then only nine weeks old. This was done with all due form ; but the happy parent disregarding all courtly etiquette, took the lovely infant in his arms, arms, and presented her to the visitors with all the delight that

could possibly mark the domesticity of private life. We record these facts as peculiarly illustrative of character, and in direct contradiction to the unhandsome slanders of that period.

Indeed, there was such simplicity in His Majesty's manners, that he has even borrowed musicbooks, of which an instance is mentioned by the venerable lady already referred to, to whom the King sent a friendly note, in the most gracious and condescending style, in acknowledgment of some of Handel's music lent to him by her nephew, part of which was new to him, and which he had copied out for performance in a private concert at the Queen's House. In this year, also, took place a most kind instance of friendly condescension to the amiable Mrs. Delany, who had experienced a severe loss by the death of her friend the Duchess Dowager of Portland, not in a pecuniary point of view, but from the severing the ties of early intimacy. The whole circumstance is so illustrative of royal goodness, that we must claim permission to relate it more fully.

On the death of the Duchess, in July, the enquiries of their majesties, as to Mrs. Delany's bodily and mental health, were frequent and consolatory; and immediately afterwards, the King himself presented her with a summer residence, completely furnished, in St. Alban's Street, Windsor, in the immediate vicinity of the Castle; and he was so consi

grant of a

derate as to guard against her feeling any inconvenience from keeping two houses, by the pension of three hundred pounds a-year.

So personally did the King interest himself in this affair, that when Mrs. Delany sent her servant to Windsor, to see what conveniencies might be requisite, previous to residence there, His Majesty sent back a message, that she was only to bring herself, niece, clothes, and attendants, as stores of every kind would be provided.

Shortly afterwards, the Queen wrote her a most condescending note, expressly by the King's desire, to call her to Windsor, where every thing was prepared for her comfort; and, on her arrival there, she found the King himself waiting to receive her, and personally to put her in possession of his favours; he, at the same time, behaving to her as if he was the obliged person, and she the mistress of the house. To copy the whole of this affair would be invidious in regard to the correspondence itself. We can only recommend its perusal to every loyal heart.

The inclement winter of 1785 will long be recorded, as having been a season of the most intense and continued severity ever known in Europe, affording to the sons and daughters of opulence the most frequent opportunities of revelling in the luxury inseparable from the exercise of the god-like virtues of charity and benevolence.