plain, 'very
yellow,' as her contemporaries affirm, with a head full of Greek and
Latin, and devoted to music and painting; it seems strange that
Frederick should have been attracted to one far inferior to his own
princess both in mind and person. But so it was, for in those days every
man liked his neighbour's wife better than his own. Imitating the
forbearance of her royal mother-in-law, the princess tolerated such of
her husband's mistresses as did not interfere in politics: Lady
Middlesex was the 'my good Mrs. Howard,' of Leicester House. She was
made Mistress of the Robes: her favour soon 'grew,' as the shrewd Horace
remarks, 'to be rather more than Platonic.' She lived with the royal
pair constantly, and sat up till five o'clock in the morning at their
suppers; and Lord Middlesex saw and submitted to all that was going on
with the loyalty and patience of a _Georgian_ courtier. Lady Middlesex
was a docile politician, and on that account, retained her position
probably long after she had lost her influence.

Her name appears constantly in the 'Diary,' out of which everything
amusing has been carefully expunged.

'Lady Middlesex, Lord Bathurst, Mr. Breton, and I, waited on their Royal
Highnesses to Spitalfields, to see the manufacture of silk.' In the
afternoon off went the same party to Norwood Forest, in private coaches,
to see a 'settlement of gypsies.' Then returning, went to find out
Bettesworth, the conjuror; but not discovering him, went in search of
the little Dutchman. Were disappointed in that; but 'concluded,' relates
Bubb Dodington, 'the peculiarities of this day by supping with Mrs.
Cannon, the princess's _midwife_.'

All these elegant modes of passing the time were not only for the sake
of Lady Middlesex, but, it was said, of her friend, Mrs. Granville, one
of the Maids of Honour, daughter of the first Lord Lansdown, the poet.
This young lady, Eliza Granville, was scarcely pretty: a far, red-haired
girl.

All this thoughtless, if not culpable, gallantry was abruptly checked by
the rude hand of death. During the month of March, Frederick was
attacked with illness, having caught cold. Very little apprehension was
expressed at first, but, about eleven days after his first attack, he
expired. Half an hour before his death, he had asked to see some
friends, and had called for coffee and bread and butter: a fit of
coughing came on, and he died instantly from suffocation. An abscess,
which had been formin