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time or another; but we think it will be admitted that this hypothesis respecting Voltaire has every probability on its side. And full as much may be assumed respecting the most of the French painters of that time (though he was a Fleming), Watteau-the glorifier of gardens par excellence, that is to say, of artificial gardens; of well-bred groves and glades, where the trimmer had been with his shears, and ladies and gentlemen assembled to play at shepherd and shepherdess in groups full of silk and embroidery-a Golden Age, after the pattern of the Regent, Duke of Orleans. Watteau, however, had a great deal of merit as an artist; was a companionable man; and painted the ideal of an actual state of things, such as it was-pleasant, on canvass, at all events, and not to be omitted in comprehen

sive galleries. Watteau came to England in order to consult Dr. Mead on the state of his health; and he remained here a twelvemonth; but died on his return, still young. Kensington Gardens most unquestionably saw him.

CHAPTER VI.

PALACE AND GARDENS CONTINUED GEORGE THE SECOND AND QUEEN CAROLINE-SERIES OF REIGNING BELLES

-MASON

AND RICHARDSON-PHASES

OF MALE AND

FEMALE COSTUME- "PHILOSOPHY" OF THE HOOP-ITS PRAISES BY THOMPSON PRAISE OF PATCHES, BY ALLAN RAMSAY-A SQUADRON OF HOOPS IN THE GREAT

KENSINGTON ROADSTEAD.

GEORGE THE FIRST would seldom be visible in these promenades. George the Second, a man shorter than his short father, but smart, strutting, decided-looking, with higher fea

tures, and an underhanging jaw, was fond of being seen; and in all probability not seldom paraded the gardens, amidst avenues of bows and curtseys. Though by no means the conjuror for which he took himself, he was a less dull, though hardly better informed man than his father; had the same instinctive wisdom of self-security, which led to the putting and maintaining the government in the hands of Sir Robert Walpole; was nevertheless the same petty German autocrat, ruling, as far as he ruled at all, like a martinet and a barrack-master; thought men and women (according to the report of Lady Mary) born for nothing else, but to be "kicked or kissed for his diversion ;" and whenever one of the ladies gave him to understand that she differed with him on that point, he fancied that she only wanted an

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LOVE-MAKING AND "DIGNITY." 145

excuse for getting out of him a little of what he valued above all things-money. He one day counted his guineas so often for this purpose, in the presence of Miss Bellenden, that she told him "if he did it again, she should go out of the room." He appears, on a subsequent occasion, to have done it again; upon which, the disgusted beauty gave a jerk to the rouleau that scattered the guineas about the floor, and ran off while he was picking them up.

George's strutting airs of dignity were but disguises of the want of it. Lady Deloraine, who was governess of his children, and at the same time supposed to be one of his mistresses, had her chair pulled from under her one evening at Kensington by the Princess Emily, as she was going to sit down

to cards. Her ladyship sprawled on the

VOL. II.

H

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