was, otherwise, in good health; and, owing to a combination of lucky circumstances, he was one of the most prosperous monarchs that ever sat on the British throne. But prosperity, perhaps, had aggravated the selfwill in which it is the misfortune of most princes to be too much indulged; contradictoin becomes unbearable to them; the heart is rendered diseased by agitation at every little annoyance; and a small trouble may give it the mortal blow.

The peril is not

even to common

confined to kings, or understandings. John Hunter, the celebrated surgeon, died of a paroxysm of this disease, merely because he was opposed by some professional brethren in his recommendation of a man whom he patronized. George the Second, after all, had had his way, for the most part, so pleasantly to

himself, that he lived to be near eighty. Men of more patient callings, therefore, may look to live still longer, diseases of heart notwithstanding, especially if they have the wisdom to abide by the recommendation of a great man (painter and poet combined) who lived to be older than George, and who advises us, when we cannot do what we will, to will what we can do.

"Chi non può quel che vuol, quel che può voglia."

Leonardo da Vinci.

Never, perhaps, was a line of verse written that was at once fuller of matter, stronger, better put, or, altogether, more complete, than that. It is worth inscribing on the most precious rings, and wearing as a talisman for life.

CHAPTER IX.

KENSINGTON

PALACE

IGNORED BY GEORGE III.

GEORGE IV. AND WILLIAM IV.-THE DUKES OF

KENT AND SUSSEX THERE-QUEEN VICTORIA BORN

AND BRED THERE-PROMENADES IN THE GARDENS

TILL THE TIME OF THE REGENCY, WITH GLANCES

AT THE PROMENADERS-THE BAND OF MUSIC IN

SUMMER-TIME-THE FLOWER-GARDEN, THE FounTAIN, THE TREES, BIRDS, SERPENTINE, AND BASIN GARDENS IN GENERAL, AND THEIR FRE

THE

QUENTERS CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.

WITH the decease of George the Second,

glory departed from Kensington, as far as Courts were concerned. No reigning sovereign has resided there since. George the Third, who inheriting, perhaps, a dislike of the place from his father, the Prince of Wales, appears to have taken no notice of it, except in appointing the clever, but impudent, quack, Sir John Hill, its gardener, at the recommendation of Sir John's then omnipotent brother botanist, the Earl of Bute.

George the Fourth probably regarded the place as a homely concern, quite out of his line. It might suit well enough the bookcollecting inclinations of his brother, the Duke of Sussex, with which he had no sympathy; was not amiss as a means of affording a lodging to his brother, the Duke of Kent, with whose habits of regu

larity, and pardonable amount of debt, his sympathies were as little; and, lastly, he was well content to think, that the staid-looking house and formal gardens rendered the spot a good out-of-the-way sort of place enough, for obscuring the growth and breeding of his niece, and probable heiress, the Princess Victoria, whose life, under the guidance of a wise mother, promised to furnish so estimable a contrast to his own. As to his brother, King William the Fourth, though he too was a brother, in most respects, very different from himself, we never heard his name mentioned in any way whatever in connection with Kensington.

Adieu then, for the present, and for we know not how long a time hereafter, to Court-holdings in the Palace;

to Court