DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0251
MISS BAGOT.
213
as first Princess of the Bood, and wife of the heir-presumptive.*
She was allowed a truly royal establishment ; consisting' of a
Chamberlain, Master of Horse, the usual retinue of lords in wait-
ing' and pages; and, though last not least, four Maids of Honour :
the choice of the latter being left entirely to herself.
Her first selection, it should seem, was not either brilliant or for-
tunate. The four young ladies who formed her retinue were soon
dispersed different ways; some married, and some—as the Scotch
say—“ did worse.”
For example; there was that laughter-loving, frolic-seeking-
gipsy Miss Price, who was suspected, even before her appoint-
ment, of having- forfeited all claims to the title, if not to the office,
of Maid of Honour. She was soon dismissed: the very mal-a-
propos death of a lover having brought to light a certain casket of
billets doux, all in the hand-writing of the fair Price, and the
duchess having- unluckily and inadvertently read aloud the two first
before witnesses, found herself under the necessity of burning the
remainder; and for the sake of example, and as a warning to all
young- ladies in the same predicament not to be found out in future,
Miss Price was ordered to go and weep her lover elsewhere than
in the royal ante-chamber. In spite of this dismissal, Miss Price
appears to have maintained her ground in society, since we fre-
* Anne Hyde was married in 1659. Without the slightest pretensions to
beauty, she had a presence so noble, and an air at once so gracious and so com-
manding, that Nature seems to have intended her for the- rank she afterwards
attained. On her elevation to the second dignity of the kingdom, she “ took
state upon her” as if accustomed to it from her cradle; and, as Grammont
observes, held out her hand to be kissed “ avec autant de grandeur et de majeste,
que si de sa vie elle n’eut fait autre chose.”
By her spirited conduct she obliged the Duke of York to acknowledge his mar-
riage with her, contrary to his own intentions and the wishes of the King, and in
defiance of the Queen-mother, who vowed in a rage, that whenever “ that woman
was brought into Whitehall by one door, she would go out of it by the other.”
Yet she was afterwards reconciled to the match, and acknowledged the duchess
as her daughter.
213
as first Princess of the Bood, and wife of the heir-presumptive.*
She was allowed a truly royal establishment ; consisting' of a
Chamberlain, Master of Horse, the usual retinue of lords in wait-
ing' and pages; and, though last not least, four Maids of Honour :
the choice of the latter being left entirely to herself.
Her first selection, it should seem, was not either brilliant or for-
tunate. The four young ladies who formed her retinue were soon
dispersed different ways; some married, and some—as the Scotch
say—“ did worse.”
For example; there was that laughter-loving, frolic-seeking-
gipsy Miss Price, who was suspected, even before her appoint-
ment, of having- forfeited all claims to the title, if not to the office,
of Maid of Honour. She was soon dismissed: the very mal-a-
propos death of a lover having brought to light a certain casket of
billets doux, all in the hand-writing of the fair Price, and the
duchess having- unluckily and inadvertently read aloud the two first
before witnesses, found herself under the necessity of burning the
remainder; and for the sake of example, and as a warning to all
young- ladies in the same predicament not to be found out in future,
Miss Price was ordered to go and weep her lover elsewhere than
in the royal ante-chamber. In spite of this dismissal, Miss Price
appears to have maintained her ground in society, since we fre-
* Anne Hyde was married in 1659. Without the slightest pretensions to
beauty, she had a presence so noble, and an air at once so gracious and so com-
manding, that Nature seems to have intended her for the- rank she afterwards
attained. On her elevation to the second dignity of the kingdom, she “ took
state upon her” as if accustomed to it from her cradle; and, as Grammont
observes, held out her hand to be kissed “ avec autant de grandeur et de majeste,
que si de sa vie elle n’eut fait autre chose.”
By her spirited conduct she obliged the Duke of York to acknowledge his mar-
riage with her, contrary to his own intentions and the wishes of the King, and in
defiance of the Queen-mother, who vowed in a rage, that whenever “ that woman
was brought into Whitehall by one door, she would go out of it by the other.”
Yet she was afterwards reconciled to the match, and acknowledged the duchess
as her daughter.