ten by some disappointed milliner or angry
servant-maid, and deserving no attention: I am surprised the Duke
afforded it any. Aimed at Lady ----; its object to frighten the
Princess with the idea that she would lead her into an affair of
gallantry, and be ready to be convenient on such an occasion. This
did _not_ frighten the Princess, although it did the Duke and
Duchess; and on my perceiving this, I told her Lady ---- would be
more cautious than to risk such an audacious measure; and that,
besides, it was _death_ to presume to approach a Princess of Wales,
and no man would be daring enough to think of it. _She asked me
whether I was in earnest._ I said such was our law; that any body who
presumed to _love_ her, was guilty of _high_ treason, and punished
with _death_, if she was weak enough to listen to him; so also would
_she_. _This startled her._"

The following is Lord Malmesbury's own summary of her character, sketched
at a favourable moment:--

"If her education had been _what it ought_, she might have turned out
excellent; but it was that very nonsensical one that most women
receive--one of privation, injunction, and menace; to believe no man,
and never to express what they feel, or say what they think, _for
all_ men are inclined to entrap them, and all feelings are improper;
this vitiates or _abrutis_ all women--few escape." (Surely this
censure is too sweeping.) "On summing up Princess Caroline's
character to-day, it came out to my mind to be, that she has quick
parts, without a sound or distinguishing understanding; that she has
a ready conception, but no judgment; caught by the first impression;
led by the first impulse; hurried away by appearances or
_enjouement_; loving to talk, and prone to make missish friendships
that last twenty-four hours. Some natural, but no acquired morality,
and no strong innate notions of its value and necessity; warm
feelings, and nothing to counteract them; great good humour, and much
good nature--no appearance of caprice--rather quick and _vive_, but
not a grain of rancour. From her habits, from the life she was
allowed and even compelled to live, forced to dissemble; fond of
gossiping, and this strengthened greatly by the example of her good
mother, who is all curiosity and inquisitiveness, and who has no
no