The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-05 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Book of the Princes of Wales. By Dr.
Doran, F.F.A., author of -" Lives of the Queens
of England of the House of Hanover," &c., &c.
Bentleyi
Dr. Doran's brilliant and versatile pen has
selected a new and interesting theme. The early
promise of the' heirs to thrones has unfortunately
often been contradicted by their subsequent prac-
tice from the days of Nero downwards, hut the.
record of the events of their youth and the influences
which surrounded their most impressionable years
might sometimes assist the historian in his study of
their reign. The lives of our English Princes have
been somewhat remarkable, extending from the
unfortunate Edward of Caernarvon, the first who
bore the name of the Principality, to George Au-
gustus Frederick, more prosperous if not more
meritorious. Two of them are favourite heroes of
drama and tradition, and associated with some of
the brightest pages in our military annals. Edward
of Woodstock, the celebrated .Black Prince, the
conqueror of Cressy and Poictiers; and Henry of
Monmouth afterwards Henry V., the victor of
Agincourt. Many of them never came to the
throne they anticipated, such as the three unfortu•
nate Edwards of the stormy times of the Wars of
the Roses; Edwar'l of Westminster, only son of
Henry VI:, and Margaret of Anjou, slain after the
battle of Tewkesbury ; Edward of the Sanctuary,
bearing the title of King, though his brief reign
was spent in the Tower; and Edward of Middle-
ham, son of the cruel Richard 111., who died the
year before his father's fall at Bosworth. Two of
these chapters tell: us of brother Princes, who suc-
cessively wore the dignity of heir apparent, namely,
Arthur and Henry, sons of Henry VII., and Henry
and Charles, sons of James the First. Dr. Doran
writes in his usual pleasant and lively strain, full of
incident and anecdote. The lives of the Princes of
the House of Hanover are perhaps written with
Most sparkle and finish. It is an agreeable volume
and will furnish plenty of entertainment to the
general reader, while conveying a good idea of the
position of state affairs and the customs of the times
described. The following extracts afford a fair
sample of the author's manner. They are taken
from the first memoir in the volume, and from the
sketch of George Augustus of Hanover, son of
George I. :
Twenty miserable years with a few brief days of extra-
vagant joy, and a few, very few, of calm felicity, inter-
vened between the accession of he first Prince of 'Wales
to the Throne and his death, 1307-1327. There was a
brilliant marriage with Isabelle
.; a prodigality of luxury
with a poor treasury to meet the cost, and a revolt of the
barons, which soon dispersed all thoughts of inglorious
ease. To be the King's favourite was but to inherit death,
though the fate of one brought with it no experience to
his successor Despenser perishing as miserably as
Gaveston. The military reputation of England was
humiliated at Bannockburn; famine followed upon defeat;
sickness attended famine; and the children of Edward
were born when particular calamity was pressing upon
England or the King. The end of all was that dreadful
scene at Berkley -Castle, the horrors of which contrast so
strongly with the joyous shouts that welcomed Edward's
birth at Caernarvon. Around his cradle, gay and gallant
group of ladies, priests, and nobles ; around his death-bed,
a couple of murderers and their assistants. Cries of joy
hailed his birth, his own shrieks heralded his death ; but
they were heard far over the village near the castle, and the
startled inhabitants there listened in terror, and prayed for
the poor soul that was passing away in such unutterable
torture. Thus the first English Prince of Wales was the
first King of England who was deposed and murdered.

London was but a dull metropolis under good Queen
Anne. Gaiety, dissipation, and intrigue, came in with
the new reigning family. Even during the troubled
year 1715, the Prince and Princess of Wales had esta-
blished a brilliant court, and led a sort of joyous revelry
of which St. James's had long been unconscious. The
Prince loved pleasure, for the sake of the enjoyment, the
Princess favoured it out of policy, and the fashionable
world gratefully hailed them as public benefactors. For
a season, the gay career of that section of the world was
checked by the ejection of the heir-apparent and his family
from St. James's ; but when that household was established
at Leicester House, the fashionable world breathed again,
and resumed its hilarious race. The King's house was a
dull house, that of the Prince was laughingly astir from
morning till half through the night. There fashion fixed
her head quarters, and people of quality risked being re-
pulsed from the levees at St. James's for the dear•delights
of a night of it in Leicester Fields.
Amid the mails, love, true and false, found its way,
especially when the Prince was not near, monopolising the
fair train; for he would sofnetimes take the whole bevy
with him, on horseback, to Hampton Court, and there treat
them or fatigue them with a whole day's hunting. Away
they went, after a breakfast at which Westphalia ham
largely figured, on hired hacks, leaping hedges and ditches,
and acquiring thereby a complexion that made them loOk
like Philises of the dairy, and a constitution improved to
a degree that rendered them eligible to be the wives of fox-
hunting squires. When the Prince led his maidens back,
and these had effaced the marks and got rid of the conse-
quences of their morning's fatiguing pleasure, then came
the time for the lovers, who plied their vocation while the
Princess looked more or less concernedly on, as she was
interested in the swains, of whom her husband is one.
With the mental eye we may see him whispering to
Mary Bellenden, or counting his gold before her eyes, till
she contrives to knock the money out of his hand, and
moves away to hold discourse with a likely young soldier,
one Colonel John Campbell, whose earnestness to further
the young lady's immediate object is warrant of a wedding
to come.
Meanwhile, who is that handsome but effeminate young
gentleman by the side of Mary Lepel ? He is one of the
Prince's Gentlemen of the Bedchamber, and is fresh from
Clare Hall, Cambridge. They are the prettiest pair of
philosophic infidels within the limits of this easy court ; ,
and no one doubts that Lord John Harvey can foil in any
suit to the nymph whose ear—nay, whose cheek—is so near
to his eloquent lips.
With what a swagger does Nanty Lowther, Lord Lcns-
dale's brother, swing himself from the presence of the
Prince, to pass over to the bold and beautiful Sophy Howe,
who has displayed. her telegraphic fan. lam not sure that
she has not winked her eye to bring him to her site. Of
that pair came much love, much trusting, on th:3 part of the
lady; much promise, much treachery, on the part of the
wooer; and then followed despair and death to close the
tumultuous life of this dazzling beauty.
At present., however, they look happy 'enough, and the
general aspect of things might lead us to doubt the asser-
tion of Pope, on the alleged authority of some of these
giddy girls themselves, who had given him a dinner in their
rooms, and walked withl him by moonlight in the gardens
at Hampton Court, that the life of a maid of honour was of
all things the most miserable ; that every one who envied
it should try it in her own person ; and that the worst por- •
tion of it all was at night, when they had to simper and
catch cold in the Princess's apartment, and then walked,
worked, or thought, till midnight.

ODD FELLOWSIIIP.