Glimpses of King William IV. and Queen Adelaide: In Letters of the Late Miss Clitherow, of Boston House, Middlesex. With a Brief Account of Boston House and the Clitherow Family

By Mary Clitherow

The following book is a collection of letters that showcased impressions of William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen who were King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as well as Hanover from 26 June 1830 until William's death in 1837. William's marriage, which lasted almost twenty years until his death, was a happy one. Adelaide took both William and his finances in hand. For their first year of marriage, the couple lived in economical fashion in Germany. William's debts were soon on the way to being paid, especially since Parliament had voted him an increased allowance, which he reluctantly accepted after his requests to have it increased further were refused. William is not known to have had mistresses after his marriage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Dec 23, 2019
• ISBN: 4064066129866

Book preview

Mary Clitherow

Glimpses of King William IV. and Queen Adelaide

In Letters of the Late Miss Clitherow, of Boston House, Middlesex. With a Brief Account of Boston House and the Clitherow Family

Published by Good Press, 2022

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EAN 4064066129866

Table of Contents

PREFACE

GLIMPSES OF KING WILLIAM IV. AND QUEEN ADELAIDE

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

PREFACE

Table of Contents

THE following pages are mainly compiled from certain letters by Miss Mary Clitherow, which have come into the editor's possession. They afford glimpses of the Court at that time, with reference not so much to public functions as to their Majesties' more private relations with persons honoured with their friendship. The reader will meet with few, if any, references in them to leaders in political or philanthropic movements or in the realms of literature or fashion; but it is not to be inferred that these were regarded with disfavour or treated with coldness by their Majesties, whose kindly interest in the well-being of their people is notorious. There were in this short reign many commanding personalities whose names must live in our history, and ever be remembered With respect and gratitude. To name only a few: the Duke of Wellington, Lords Grey, Melbourne, Brougham, Palmerston and Shaftesbury, Sir Robert Peel, William Wilberforce, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Southey, Thomas Campbell, S. T. Coleridge, Henry Hallam, Bulwer Lytton and William Thackeray were among the leading spirits of the time.

With such, however, these pages have no direct concern. They treat of personal friends whose interests lay neither in the Court nor in the Senate, and whose aims had no taint of self-seeking. The knowledge that William IV.'s intimate friends were high-minded, independent, kind-hearted English gentlefolk assures us that the King's well-known simplicity of taste was joined to a kindliness of heart, a sincerity of character, and a devotion to duty which enabled him to maintain his heritage of royal responsibility, and to hand it on to his successor with its honour restored, its resources enlarged, and its security confirmed.

I. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF BOSTON HOUSE AND THE CLITHEROW FAMILY

II. DEFEAT OF THE MINISTRY—DINNER AT ST. JAMES's, 1830

III. A WEEK-END VISIT TO WINDSOR, 1831

IV. CHOLERA AT BRENTFORD—FALSE RUMOURS ABOUT THE QUEEN—DISMISSAL OF EARL HOWE—DEATH OF THE PRINCESS LOUISE—AT WINDSOR AGAIN—AN AFTERNOON ON VIRGINIA WATER, 1832

V. THE ROYAL BIRTHDAY FÊTES, 1833

VI. DINNER TO THEIR MAJESTIES AT BOSTON HOUSE, 1834

VII. LUNCHEON AT WINDSOR—VISITS TO WINDSOR AND ST. JAMES'S, 1835

VIII. DINNER AT KEW—FÊTES AT SYON HOUSE—QUEEN ADELAIDE'S FUND

IX. DEATH OF THE KING, 1837

X. AN APPRECIATION OF WILLIAM IV. AND HIS REIGN

GLIMPSES OF KING WILLIAM IV. AND QUEEN ADELAIDE

I

Table of Contents

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF BOSTON HOUSE AND THE CLITHEROW FAMILY

IT seems almost incredible that in the twentieth century a station on the Metropolitan Railway should stand amidst quite rural surroundings. About Brentford,[*] however, there are still several fine properties which have hitherto escaped the grip of the speculative builder—e.g., Osterley Park, the seat of the Earl of Jersey, and Syon Hill, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland—and the immediate neighbourhood of Boston Road is not yet covered with semi-detached villas, or sordid streets of jerry-built cottages. It is nearly a quarter of a mile's walk along the road leading from Hanwell to Brentford before one comes to the first house on the right. Though not a mansion of the first rank, it is of sufficient size and antiquity to arrest attention. This is Boston House. It stands a little back from the high road, and the handsome iron gates allow the passer-by a glimpse of its quaint gables and narrow stone porch. It was built in 1622, and is a brick house of three stories, with three gables in front, and a long range of offices, etc., stretching from it on the north side.

[*] In a paper reprinted from Home Counties Magazine for October, 1901, occur the following remarks in 'Royalty in the Parish': 'Edmund the