stol: "I have now made the
tour of Germany, and cannot help observing difference between
travelling here and in England. One sees none of those fine seats of
noblemen that are so common among us, nor anything like a country
gentleman's house, though they have many situations perfectly fine. But
the whole people are divided into absolute sovereignties, where all the
riches and magnificence are at Court, or communities of merchants, such
as Nuremberg and Frankfort, where they live always in town for the
convenience of trade."

Worse than all George must set forth by no means sure of his reception,
and with no love, nor even liking, for the people over whom he was
called to reign. That he did go at all is greatly to his credit, for he
was doubtful if he would be allowed to remain, and he never revisited
Hanover without some suspicion that he might not be able to return to
England. He would have been a much happier man if he could have remained
at his beloved Herrenhausen. He never felt he owed Britain anything, and
indeed he did not: the throne had been settled on his mother, not for
love of her, but simply because she was the only alternative to the
succession of the dreaded Roman Catholic heirs. So George came as a
visitor, rather submitting to be King of England, than anxious for the
honour, prepared to be forced by circumstances to return, little
dreaming that two hundred years later his descendants would be firmly
seated upon his throne.

It may be mentioned that Lady Mary, as she became better acquainted with
the King, grew to like him. In the letter from Hanover just quoted, she
says: "His Majesty dines and sups constantly in public. The Court is
very numerous, and his affability and goodness make it one of the most
agreeable places in the world to me." The King was indeed at his best
when in residence at Herrenhausen. Lord Peterborough said that George
was so happy there that he believed he had forgot _the accident that
occurred to him and his family on the 1st of August_, 1714.

It may be that, the King having taken a great fancy to Lady Mary,
modified that lady's earlier impression. When she and her husband went
to Hanover, the King, as she mentioned in one of her letters to Lady
Bristol, "has had the goodness to appoint us a lodging in one part of
the Palace, without which we should be very ill accommodated; for the
vast number of English crowds the town so much, it is very good luck to
be able to get one sor