, and well fitted to be the cradle and the home
of a decaying Hanoverian dynasty. In its galleries one may spend many
an hour, not unprofitably, in studying the faces of all the men and
women who are famous, notorious, or infamous in connection with the
history of Hanover. The story of that dynasty has more than one
episode not unlike that of the unfortunate Sophia Dorothea and
Koenigsmark, her lover. A good many grim legends haunt the place and
give interest to some of the faces, otherwise insipid enough, which
look out of the heavy frames and the formal court-dresses of the
picture-gallery.

[Sidenote: 1714--The entry into London]

On the evening of August 5, 1714, four days after Queen Anne's death,
Lord Clarendon, the lately appointed English Minister at the Court of
Hanover, set out for the palace of Herrenhausen to bear to the new King
of Great Britain the tidings of Queen Anne's death. About two o'clock
in the morning he entered the royal apartments of the ungenial and
sleepy George, and, kneeling, did homage to him as King of Great
Britain. George took the announcement of his new rank without even a
semblance of gratification. He had made up his mind to endure it, and
that was all. He was too stolid, or lazy, or sincere to affect the
slightest personal interest in the news. He lingered in Hanover as
long as he decently could, and sauntered for many a day through the
prim, dull, and orderly walks of Herrenhausen. He behaved very much in
the fashion of the convict in Prior's poem, who, when the cart was
ready and the halter adjusted,

Often took leave but seemed loath to depart.

August 31st had arrived before George began his journey to England.
But he did one or two good-natured things {57} before leaving Hanover;
he ordered the abolition of certain duties on provisions, and he had
the insolvent debtors throughout the Electorate discharged from
custody. On September 5th he reached the Hague, and here another
stoppage took place. The exertion of travelling from Hanover to the
Hague had been so great that George apparently required a respite from
September 5th until the 16th. On the 16th he embarked, and reached
Greenwich two days after. He was accompanied to England by his two
leading favorites--the ladies whose charms we have already described.
For many days after his arrival in London the King did little but
lament his exile from his beloved Herrenhausen, and tell every one he
met how cord