Before the optical apparatus was finished, many
visitors took a pleasure in walking through it,--among the rest, on one
occasion, King George III. and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The latter
following the king, and finding it difficult to proceed, his majesty
turned and gave him his hand, saying, "Come, my Lord Bishop; I will show
you the way to heaven!"
Then, with that astonishing memory of hers, which kept its greenness
until the very last, she notes that this occurred on August 17, 1787,
when the King and Queen, the Duke of York, and some of the princesses
were of the company.
* * * * *
From another letter we take a lively little picture of a Christmas in
Hanover:--
She had been told that keeping Christmas in the German sense was coming
to be very general in England; but her shrewd, practical turn of mind
induced her to hope that the English would never go "such lengths in
foolery." At Hanover, she wrote, the tradespeople had been for many
weeks in full employ, framing and mounting the embroideries of the
ladies and girls of all classes; of _all_ classes, for not a folly or
extravagancy existed among the great but it was imitated by the little.
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