Royal Palaces

On July 17, 1786, Fanny joined the Royal household as 2nd Keeper of the Robes for Queen Charlotte. She was reluctant about this role, not just because she didn’t know if she would be good at finding the right clothes and dressing the Queen but also because she dreaded losing her autonomy. However, her worst problem came from her superior, the Mistress of the Wardrobe, Mrs Schwellenberg, a German from Hanover. She and the Queen could speak the same language and did so, excluding Fanny when she was in the room. But we can learn a lot from Fanny’s letters at this time. There has been much written about it, so I will not repeat what is in all the books. I will follow Fanny from Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, to Kew Palace, and to St. James’s Palace which was more frequent than was desired.

Windsor had originally been intended just as a weekend, country escape. London was where their formal activities took place. There were regular Family and formal meetings at St. James’s Palace. Kew Palace they went to because the King loved the place and the gardens. While in London, Fanny was sent to the Palace of Westminster to hear and watch the trial of Warren Hastings. She reported on these occasions immediately to the King and Queen, and, of course, wrote about them in her diary.

Queen’s Lodge 1786

Windsor

When Fanny arrived at the Queen’s Lodge, she wrote to her sister:

“I am married, my dearest Susan, – I look upon it in that light. – I was averse to forming the Union, and I endeavoured to escape it; but my friends interfered, – they prevailed – and the knot is tied. What, then, now remains, but to make the best Wife in my power? I am bound to do it in Duty, and I will strain every nerve to succeed.”

On the 18, she describes her accommodation:

“My Windsor apartment is extremely comfortable. I have a large Drawing Room, as they call it, which is on the Ground Floor as are all the Queen’s rooms and which faces the Castle, and the venerable round Tower…My bedroom is small, but neat and comfortable. It is next the Drawing Room, and looks to the Garden. These two Rooms are delightfully independent of the rest of the House, and contain every thing I can desire for my convenience and comfort.”

The children of King George and Queen Charlotte – Windsor Castle and Queen’s Lodge in the background

A few weeks later she describes the

“general method of passing the Day. I rise at 6 o’clock, Dress in a morning Gown and Cap, and wait my first summons… The Queen never sends for me till her Hair is Dressed. This, in a morning is always done by her Wardrobe Woman, Mrs Thielky, A German, but who speaks English perfectly well… The Queen’s Dress is finished by Mrs Thielky and myself. No Maid ever enters the Room while the Queen is in it. Mrs Thielky hands the things to me, and I put them on. …

By 8 o’clock, ..she is dressed. She then goes out, to join the King, and be joined by the Princesses and they all proceed to the King’s Chapel in the Castle, to Prayers…
A quarter before one is the usual time for the Queen to begin Dressing for the Day. Mrs Schwellenberg then constantly attends, so do I. Mrs Thielky of course at all times. We help her off with her Gown, and on with her powdering things, and then the hairdresser is admitted. She generally reads the news-papers during that operation… At 5 we have Dinner. Mrs Schwellenberg and I meet in the Eating Room. We are commonly Tete a Tete..

When we have dined we go upstairs to her Apartment…have Coffee….Here we sit …till about 8 o’clock…and we come downstairs again to the Eating Room…when the Tea is over…to the Concert Room. This is commonly about 9 o’clock…I come to my little Supper at near Eleven. Between Eleven and 12 my last summons usually takes place. Twenty minutes is the customary time then spent with the Queen”.

Kew Palace

On Tuesday, July 25, they go to Kew.

“I have two Rooms there; both small, and up two pair of stairs; but tidy and comfortable, enough. Indeed all the apartments but the King’s and Queen’s, and one of Mrs Schwellenberg’s are small, dark and old fashioned. There are stair-Cases in every passage, and Passages to every Closet.”

There were several different Houses or Palaces. This one that Fanny describes was known as Kew House or the White House (because of its plastered exterior) where the King and Queen and their family lived. It was demolished in 1802. The Dutch House was quite close and was the Princes’ schoolhouse. The Dutch House and Queen Charlotte’s cottage were transferred to Kew by Queen Victoria and it was restored and opened to the public in 2006.

An engraving after a 1771–72 watercolour by Paul Sandby,[22] of the Princes’ House or Dutch House

Attack on the King outside St James’ Palace

St. James’s Palace Thursday, July 27.

‘This being a Court Day, we went to Town (St James’s Palace)…Mine are two small Rooms, newly and handsomely furnished, one of which has a view of the Park over the stable yard, and the other only of the passage to the Park from St. James’s Street.’

However, on August 2 while at St. James’s Palace an attempt was made on the life of the King. A woman stabbed him twice.

“While the guards and his own people now surrounded the King, the Assassin was seized by the populace, who were tearing her away, no doubt to fall the instant sacrifice of her murtherous purpose, when the King, the only calm and moderate person then present, called aloud to the Mob “The poor Creature is mad! – do not hurt her! She has not hurt me!”…
In the Evening, just as usual, the King had his Concert: but it was an Evening of grief and horror to his family: nothing was listened to, scarce a word was spoken; the Princesses wept continually; – the Queen, still more deeply struck, could only, from time to time, hold out her hand to the King and say ‘I have you yet!’

Changing of the Guard at St. James’s Palace 1790

Drawing Room in St James's Palace from Ackerman's Microcosm of London 1808

Trial of Warren Hastings

February 1788 to April 23 1795. Held in Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster before members of the House of Lords.

Warren Hastings had been Governor General of India. He was being tried on charges of maladministration and abuse of power following impeachment by the House of Commons. Hastings had personal enemies in the East India Company and they, together with the Parliamentary opposition led by Charles James Fox brought this case to trial. Fox, Edmund Burke and Sheridan were the principal managers of the impeachment proceedings. The trial lasted seven years when Hastings was completely acquitted by the 29 members of the House of Lords still in a position to pronounce judgment (one third of those who had attended the opening had since died and others had not sat through enough of the evidence to pronounce judgment).

February 13 1788

‘The Trial, so long impending, of Mr. Hastings, opened today. The Queen, yesterday, asked me if I wished to be present at the beginning, or had rather take another Day. I…preferred the opening. I thought it would give me a general view of the Court, and the manner of proceeding, and that I might read, hereafter, the speeches and evidence. We (Fanny and brother Charles and Miss Gomme) got to Westminster Hall between 9 and 10 o’clock; …The Grand Chamberlain’s Box is in the centre of the upper end of the Hall; there we sat…to the left, on the same level, were the Green Benches for the House of Commons, which occupied a third of the upper end of the Hall, and the whole of the left side; – to the right of us, on the same level, was the Grand Chamberlain’s Gallery. The left side opposite to the Green Benches for the Commons, was appropriated to the Peeresses, and Peer’s Daughters.’

Lady Clermont joined Fanny’s party and was fully informed about the arrangement of the Hall and all the Company. She said “All those Creatures that filled the Green Benches, looking so little like Gentlemen, and so much like Hair-Dressers,” These were the Commons.

The opening to the whole then took place by the entrance of the Managers of the Prosecution; Mr Burke…Mr. Fox followed next – Mr Sheridan, Mr Wyndham…
When the Committee Box was filled, the House of Commons at large took their seats on their Green Benches, which stretched…the whole left side of the Hall, and a third of the upper End… Then began the Procession – the Clerks entering first, then the Lawyers…, and the Peers, Bishops, and officers all in the Coronation Robes – concluding with the Princes of the Blood, …and the whole ending by the Chancellor with his train borne.
They then all took their seats. What a brilliant spectacle it must have been. But Fanny trembled when Warren Hastings was led forward with an officer calling out “Warren Hastings Esquire, come forth! – Answer to the Charges brought against you”

“What an awful moment this for such a man! – a man fallen from such height of power, to a situation so humiliating, – from the almost unlimited command of so large a part of the Eastern World, to be cast at the feet of his Enemies – of the great Tribunal of his Country…”

-Fanny’s Journal

She attends the proceedings four times in the first month and writes in detail in the Journal to her sister of the speeches and her own emotions. She also reported to the Queen on all that had gone on during the days she was there. On May 18 1790 she wrote to her sister and Mrs Locke:

“This morning I again went to the Trial of poor Mr. Hastings. Heavens! Who can see him sit there unmoved! – not even those who think him guilty, – if they are human!…I had the pleasure to deliver this myself to their Majesties and the Princesses; and as I was called upon while it was fresh in my memory, I believe but little of the general energy was forgotten…The Queen eagerly declared I should go again the next sitting.”

She went again on June 2 1791 for the first day of Mr Hasting’s defence –

“The Hall was more crowded than on any Day the trial commenced, to hear the defence …after 73 days of Accusation!… I was just behind some of those unfeeling Enemies, who have not even the decorum due to themselves of appearing to listen to what is offered against their own side…I could only make out that this great and persecuted man,…was formally making his own Defence, not with retaliating Declamation, but by a simple, concise and most interesting statement of facts…”

Kew - Meeting with the King who was being treated for fits of delirium thought to be porphyria.

Monday February 2 1789 Journal letter to Susanna:

‘What an adventure had I this morning! One that has occasioned me the severest personal terror I ever experienced in my life…I strolled into the Garden ; I had proceeded nearly half the round when I suddenly perceived two or three figures….I thought I saw the Person of his Majesty!

Alarmed past all possible expression, ..ran off with all my might – but what was my terror to hear myself pursued! – to hear the voice of the King himself, loudly and hoarsely calling after me ‘Miss Burney! Miss Burney! –‘…Nevertheless, on I ran, – too terrified to stop…the steps still pursued me, and still the poor hoarse and altered voice rang in my Ears…when they were within a few yards of me, the King called out ‘Why did you run away?-‘…a little reassured by the mild tone of his voice, I looked up and met all his benignity of Countenance, though something still of wildness in his Eyes. Think, however, of my surprise, to feel him put both his Hands round my two shoulders and then kiss my cheek…He now spoke in such terms of his pleasure in seeing me…and the joy …in my conviction of his recovery, made me ready to throw myself at his feet to express it.'

What a Conversation followed – when he saw me fearless, he grew more and more alive, and made me walk, close by his side, away, from the Attendants…everything that came uppermost in his mind he mentioned – He opened his whole Heart to me, – expounded all his sentiments, and acquainted me with all his intentions…he asked how I went on and whether I was more comfortable. – he asked after the Coadjutrix, (Mrs Schwellenberg) laughing and saying ‘Never mind her! –don’t be oppressed, – I am your Friend! – don’t let her cast you down! – I know you have a hard time of it, – but don’t mind her! Then presently he added “Stick to your Father – stick to your own family, – let them be your object’ –

This brought him to his favourite theme, Handel; and he told me innumerable anecdotes of him, and particularly that celebrated tale of Handel’s saying of himself, when a Boy, ‘While that Boy lives, my music will never want a protector…
Then he ran over most of his Oratorios, attempting to sing the subjects of several airs and choruses, but so dreadfully hoarse, that the sound was terrible….

He began on Mrs Delany – and he spoke of her with such warmth, such kindness – ‘She was my Friend! He cried ‘and I loved her as a Friend…’ the Tears stood in his Eyes…’ (Mrs Delany had died the previous year)

King’s Recovery

March 1789

This morning the Queen gave me the Prayer of Thanksgiving upon the King’s Recovery….

Saturday March 14th

This morning we returned to Windsor. With what different sensations to those with which we left it! All illness over, all fears removed, all sorrows lightened…All Windsor came out to meet the King

On Thursday 19 their Majesties went to Kew to receive addresses from the City on the King’s Recovery. Andrew Roberts, in his excellent biography of King George III, says that it is now believed that he did not suffer from porphyria, but manic depression. In all of Fanny’s quotations of the King he seems to be intelligent, curious, kind and thoughtful.

The Weymouth Guide Exhibiting the Ancient an Present State of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis... Weymouth (1789).

Lyndhurst and Weymouth

June 25-30 1789, Fanny and the Royal Family went to Lyndhurst, a village in the New Forest. On July 13 1789, Fanny wrote to her father from Gloucester House, the residence of the Duke of Gloucester on the seafront at Weymouth.

“The Bay here is most beautiful; the Sea never rough, generally calm and gentle, and the sands perfectly smooth and pleasant…His Majesty is in delightful Health and much improved spirits…The loyalty of all this place is excessive; they have dressed out every street with Labels of God Save the King…the first time of his bathing, he had no sooner popt his Royal Head under water, than a Band of Music concealed in a neighbouring Machine, struck up God Save Great George our King!”

Between June and September 1789, George III, Queen Charlotte and their three eldest daughters made the first of several summer trips to Weymouth. The town was quickly becoming a popular resort for sea bathing and the arrival of the King further enhanced its reputation. The Royal Family regularly visited the subscription library and toy shop run by Peter Delamotte and his wife Sarah. This copy of their guide to the town was likely acquired by the King on one of these visits.

July 14 1789 French Revolution – fall of the Bastille. Not mentioned by Fanny until October 27 when she is writing to her father from Windsor. First of all she mentions the anniversary of the King’s first bout of insanity but then she goes on to say

“Nor is it possible to think more of our escape, than of the sudden adversity of the French. – Truly terrible and tremendous are revolutions such as these …”

Fanny’s Resignation

At a performance of Handel’s Messiah at Westminster Abbey, Fanny was able to lay out her unhappiness to her father:

“I spoke my high and constant veneration for my Royal Mistress, her merits, her virtues, her condescension, and her even peculiar kindness towards me: but I owned the species of life distasteful to me, – I was lost to all private comfort, dead to all domestic endearment – I was worn with want of rest, and fatigued with laborious watchfulness and attendance. My time was devoted to official duties, and all that in life was dearest to me – my friends – my chosen society – my best affections – lived now in my mind only by recollection…the silence of my dearest Father now silencing myself – I turned to look at him -his eyes were filled with Tears and he said ‘I have long been uneasy – though I have not spoken,… but…if you wish to resign – my House – my Purse – my Arms – shall be open to receive you back! – …”

Back in Windsor, Fanny writes to her sister and Mrs Locke on October 1790:

The beautiful Chapel of St George, repaired and finished by the best Artists at an immense expence, which was now opened after a very long shutting up for its preparations, brought innumerable strangers to Windsor, and, among others, Mr Boswell. They met and Mr Boswell said:

‘I am extremely glad to see you, indeed, but very sorry to see you here! My dear ma’am, why do you stay? – it won’t do! Ma’am – you must resign…”

On July 7 1791, she wrote to her sister and Mrs Locke from Kew:

“This my last Day of office was big and busy …I then took leave of Kew Palace; the same party again accompanying me, for the last time, in a Royal Vehicle going by the name of Miss Burney’s Coach…”

She went to her father’s rooms in Chelsea College.

St. George’s Chapel, Windsor by Charles Wild (1781-1835) Royal Collection Trust

The Royal Palaces Today

Windsor

Windsor, I described in my last post. When Fanny was there, they lived in Queen’s Lodge; the Castle was not restored until after Fanny left.

Kew Palace

Tapestry done by my mother

Kew

The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew is a most wonderful place to visit. I have been many times but my latest visit was in winter so that the Palace and the Pagoda (which had been built by King George’s mother Princess Augusta) and Queen Charlotte’s cottage were closed.

Picnic room in Queen Charlotte’s cottage

St James’ Palace

St. James’s Palace is the most senior royal palace in the United Kingdom, having been built by order of King Henry VIII in the 1530s. It remains the official residence of the sovereign but no monarch lives in it today. It is used by some members of the Royal Family as their London residence. The state rooms are used for official receptions, such as those of visiting heads of state, and charities of which members of the royal family are patrons. It forms part of a sprawling complex of buildings housing Court offices and officials’ apartments at the end of St. James’s Street beside Green Park. Joined to it but closer to the Mall is Clarence House where the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall live.

Looking towards St. James’s Palace from the corner of St. James’s Place where Mrs Delany lived and St. James’s Street

Looking up St James's Place from St James's Palace