The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-10-02 00:00:00

ANECDOTES OF GEORGE 111.

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It is well known that his majesty was a regular attendant at
church, and that he repeated the responses in a very distinct
manner. About the fiftieth year of his reign he was, on some
public occasion, much hooted at by a mob. When at chapel
the next day, he not only repeated the following verse in a
voice sufficiently loud to be heard by every one in the chapel,
but laid a peculiar strong emphasis on the last part of it, putting
his head at the same time out of tht closet window—" Forty
years long have. I been grieved with this generation, and said,
it is a people that do err in their hearts, fior they hare nut lgtown
my ways."
When I was last at Kew Palace, I was shown over it by
Betty Snosling, one of 'the last of the breed of old fashioned
housemaids. Betty was a neat, trim, short old woman, some-
what antiquated in her attire, but the very picture of tidiness.
She was, moreover, somewhat loquacious • but then her anec-
dotes were interesting, for they chiefly related to those whom
she had faithfully and, honestly served in that palace some sixty
years ago. She was a great favourite with their late majesties,
and talked of their goodness and kindness to her with the
utmost delight and affection. She spoke also of the princesses
in the same grateful manner: one, she said, had sent her last
Christmas a handsome thick shawl to keep her warm; another,
a fine turkey and chine, and a third, I forget what. These
little tokens of regard to an old servant show a kindness of
heart which it is pleasant to record; and I question much whe-
ther Betty did not receive more pleasure from them than she
would from any sum of money which could have been given
her.

" Here." said Betty, "is his majesty's walking-stick, and
thare is his backgammon board; this is the chair he sat upon,
and in that small room he every morning and evening said his
prayers. I used to hear him when I was in the next room, and
he prayed very earnestly. Do you know, sir," said she, "that
in his own private prayer-book he had scratched out 'our most
religious and gracious king,' and had written instead, 'a miser-
able sinner.' " The old housemaid showed me a harpsichord
which had belonged to Handel, on which the king sometimes
Played. His fondness for Handel's music never left him, and
it was an instance of his fine taste. Among other anecdotes of
the good old monarch, which were related to me, the following
affords a proof of his kind consideration for his old servants.
Sitting by himself one day in the library, the king rang the
bell for some coals; it was answered by a page, who, on being
told what was wanted, rang the bell hivaself. On being asked
his reason for doing so, he said it was for some one (naming an
old footman), whose duty it was to bring the coals. The king
immediately got up, and desired the page to show him where
the coals were kept. On coming to it, he took up a coal-
skuttle, carried it himself to the library, and threw some coals
on the fire. " There, sir," said the king, giving the page the
coal-scuttle, "never ask an old man to do what you are so
much better able to do yourself."—Jesse's Gleanings in Natural
History.