Waterbury Democrat., 1903-01-02
AN UNTIDY PRINCESS.
Caroline, Afterwnrd the Queen o2
 George IV. of England, Was Slow "a enIy in the Extreme.

To be delicately clean in clothes and person is as much a matter Of course to-day as is the habit of wear ing garments or shaking hands. That Modern Society, vP were reminded d day or two sin < when perusing a letter of the first earl of Malmes- bury, written when that astute dip lomatist was sent to escort the Prin- cess Caroline of Brunswick to Eng land to be the bride of the prince of Wales, afterward George 1V The way was long in those days, and hostile armies lay between Bruns wick and England. The princess, with her mother, the duchess (sister to King George III.), and escorted by Lord Malmesbury and a large retinue. set out on December 30. It was April before she was safely landed on British soil! Poor Lord Malmcs- bury did his best with his eccentric charge, and used the time in trying to fit the ill-educated, unregulated girl, who even then took rank as the princess of Wales. for the perilouS PoSlt1On 1nLO WIllcn SHe was UO ne thrust as>
 He was distressed to find that Princess Caroline boasted that she could jump out of bed and appear en grande toilette in the course of f6 minutes. Remembering what toilet meant in the. days of hoops and pow der,. this seemed to him only about time enough to get dairymaid ready for filling the milking pail. He writes to his confidential friend. the then duke of Portland, in pathetic dis may: <-.- <. ~. ;,. q have had two conversations with Princess Caroline on cleanliness and on delicacy of speaking. On these points I endeavored, as far as was possible for a man, to inculcate the necessity of great, and nice attention to every part of dress-as we'll as to what was hid as to what was to be seen. know she wears coarse petit coats and coarse linen and thick 1 stockings-and these never well washed nor changed often enough! gave her credit for her boast of Q 1 short toilet. What I could not say further on this point got said 1 through women. through Mme. l Busche and afterwards through Mrs. l Harcourt. It is remarkable how amazingly her education has been neglected on this point, and how
 much her mother, although an Eng | lish woman, was inattentive to it.'' The earl was little bit mistaken in that last remark. The duchess Of | Brunswick, although the sister of l King George III, was as utterly Ger man in training and in ideas as she I could possibly be. She inherited all | the regrettable' qualities of the first 1 two Hanover kings, and she early married one of the most despicabic of the petty potentates that swarmed I in Germany under the somber shadow 1 of Frederick the Great. a&r 4a
 [" It appears as if no woman ever born could have been fitted to be the l wife of the proiigate prince-it would have needed the nature of an ! angel and the patience of thousand Jobs to have put up with him as a | husband 8 But in all Europe there l could not have been creature less \ suited to reform Carlton house than l Princess Caroline. It is on record l that her father wished a certain l Mme., Rosenzweit to accompany her to England as her reader" and l whens the request was refused the 1 duke took Lord Malmesbury aside and explained that the lady was quite 1 insignificant and unimportant, but | that he much wished her to accom- l pany the princess, fortaf" Caroline writes i'll, and spells ill, so is accus. toned r0 trust to Mime. Rosenzweit I on all occasions" And this at a time when letter writing was a fine art I and the most fippantF person prided l himself on the turning of neat phrases and the graceful expression
 of pretty conceits. s..
 | The earl sums up the character oi
 the unfortunate Caroline in these
 words:
 l .'She has quick parts, without dis
 tinguishing understanding; ready
 conception, but no judgment; caught
 by the first impression, led by the
 first impulse Talkative, prone te
 confide in missish friendships that
 last 24 hours. Some natural moral
 ity, but no strong notions of i:s
 value nor of it's necessity. Without
 a grain of dignity or an idea of de
 corum." .- ... -
 Was it much wonder that pool
 Caroline wrecked herself, and tha
 she and her precious husband 'betwix
 them nearly wrecked the Englisi
 monarchy?
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