of the Journal, being sentenced to imprisonment and fine. The Court of George the First was, in fact, a foreign family, consisting of German mistresses and German favourites. 66 Coming from a poor Electorate," says Archdeacon Coxe, "they considered England as a kind of land of promise, and, at the same time, so precarious a possession that they endeavoured to enrich themselves with all possible speed." In regard to the female part of the establishment, the two principal ladies were not only honoured with peerages, and loaded with pensions, but, according to Etough, they notoriously disposed of state appointments through their brokers.* So grasping was their avarice, that, on the Duke of Somerset resigning the post of Master of the Horse, the King was prevailed upon, instead of nominating a successor, to confer the salary on the Duchess of Kendal, and to leave the place vacant. It may be remarked, that the profits, also, arising from the post of Master of the Buck-hounds, was conferred on another German. The King's principal male favourites, were Baron Bothmar, Count Bernsdorf, and Robethon, of whom the two former are said to have aimed at a seat in the House of Lords, while the latter humbly contented himself with aspiring at a baronetcy. These individuals, not satisfied with enriching themselves at the expense of the Eng * Letter to Dr. Birch, Add. MSS. Brit. Mus. 4326. B. lish nation, chose to interfere in every political transaction, and not only jostled and thwarted the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, whenever an opportunity offered, but, on more than one occasion, treated him with insufferable insolence. Among the persons who constituted the foreign Court of George the First, there were two individuals who must not be passed over in silence. These two were Turks, known by the names of Mustapha and Mahomet, who had been taken prisoners at the period when the King was serving in the Imperial army, and, for some reason, were admitted by him into his service. They had since served him with so much fidelity, that they were selected to accompany him from Hanover, on his accession to the English throne, and had since received the appointments of Pages of the Back-stairs. Apparently, the insignificance of these individuals renders any notice of them unnecessary; but even the King's Turkish menials were not without their share of influence under the new rule. Instead of confining themselves to the duties of their situations, and contenting themselves with their legitimate perquisites, they closely imitated the example set them by the rapacious Germans, and not only derived large sums by the sale of minor offices, but in a letter from Count Broglio to the King of France, they are mentioned as exercising considerable political influence over their royal master. as a suitor for the hand of Queen Anne, whom he now succeeded. On his return, he added, he was riding a common post-horse from London to Gravesend, from which latter place he intended to take shipping for Holland, when, the roads and the horse being equally indifferent, he met with a severe fall, and arrived at Gravesend covered with mud. While relating this circumstance, the King suddenly recognized the spot where the accident happened, and pointed it out to Lord Dorset. George the First made his public entry into the metropolis on the 20th of the month, and on the 20th of October was crowned at Westminster with the usual solemnities. It must have required all the adventitious aid of sovereign dignity, and all the importance which is commonly attached to the name and office of a King, to have prevented the German Elector, not only from becoming extremely unpopular with his new subjects, but from figuring in a very ridiculous light in their estimation. A foreigner, as he was, in all his tastes and habits; ignorant, debauched, and illiterate; inelegant in his person, and ungraceful in his manners; he had never condescended to acquaint himself with the laws or customs of the English, and was, indeed, utterly unacquainted with their language. In addition to these drawbacks, though he was now in his fifty-fifth year, he had the folly and wickedness to encumber himself with a seraglio of hideous German prostitutes, who rendered him equally ludicrous by their absurdities, and unpopular by their rapacity. Horace Walpole, after drawing a ridiculous picture of the King's German mistresses, observes," No wonder that the mob of London were highly diverted at the importation of so uncommon a seraglio. They were food for all the venom of the Jacobites; and, indeed, nothing could be grosser than the ribaldry that was vomited out in lampoons, libels, and every channel of abuse, against the sovereign and the new court. One of the German ladies being abused by the mob, was said to have put her head out of the coach, and cried in bad English, Good people, why you abuse us?-we come for all your goods.' -'Yes, damn ye,' answered a fellow in the crowd, 'and for all our chattels too."" The two principal ladies of this repulsive seraglio, the Duchess of Kendal and the Countess of Darlington, are said to have been usually designated, in reference to a marked contrast in their personal appearance, as the "Maypole," and the " Elephant and Castle." In a letter in Mist's Journal, May 27, 1721, an anonymous writer observes,-“ We are ruined by trulls; nay, what is more vexatious, by old ugly trulls, such as could not find entertainment in the most hospitable hundreds of Old Drury." It is remarkable that this passage was made the subject of Parliamentary debate. The House of Commons were very properly offended at the liberty taken with the sovereign, and the debate terminated by Mist, the printer of the Journal, being sentenced to imprisonment and fine. 66 The Court of George the First was, in fact, a foreign family, consisting of German mistresses and German favourites. Coming from a poor Electorate," says Archdeacon Coxe, "they considered England as a kind of land of promise, and, at the same time, so precarious a possession that they endeavoured to enrich themselves with all possible speed." In regard to the female part of the establishment, the two principal ladies' were not only honoured with peerages, and loaded with pensions, but, according to Etough, they notoriously disposed of state appointments through their brokers.* So grasping was their avarice, that, on the Duke of Somerset resigning the post of Master of the Horse, the King was prevailed upon, instead of nominating a successor, to confer the salary on the Duchess of Kendal, and to leave the place vacant. It may be remarked, that the profits, also, arising from the post of Master of the Buck-hounds, was conferred on another German. The King's principal male favourites, were Baron Bothmar, Count Bernsdorf, and Robethon, of whom the two former are said to have aimed at a seat in the House of Lords, while the latter humbly contented himself with aspiring at a baronetcy. These individuals, not satisfied with enriching themselves at the expense of the Eng * Letter to Dr. Birch, Add. MSS. Brit. Mus. 4326. B. |