Page:The Ancestor Number 1.djvu/42

 i8 THE ANCESTOR The more interesting scenes of the Harris family life, as far as the general reader is concerned, are laid in the gay metro- polis, but their letters contain many a charming account of country festivities, when county neighbours combined for the mutual entertainment and happiness of one another. A feature too which deserves attention is the very important part that places now reckoned among the suburbs of our great capital, such as Richmond, Kew and Twickenham, played in the social history of London as late as the last fifty years of the eighteenth century. A letter of Mrs. Harris, written to her son at Oxford in June, 1763, tells him of a visit to Court, and at the same time serves to remind us of the popularity which these places once enjoyed in the eyes of the principal members of the Royal Family when George III. was king. It is as follows :^ — I was at St. James' yesterday ; it was not full. Their Majesties were gra- cious to me ; the Queen spoke English to Lady Henley, but French to me, who came next. . . . This morning we went to Richmond ; found nobody at home, but had a pleasant drive. The Duke of York and Princes William and Henry were just going from the Princesses as we got back to Kew. I had some difficulty to prevail on Thomas not to drive against the Duke of York, who was driving himself in a curricle ; his brothers were on horseback. It was at Kew moreover that George III. first learnt the news of his grandfather's death and of his own succession, which event is duly chronicled in the Harris letters, and for the account of which Mr. Hooper, M.P., of Heron Court, first cousin to James Harris, is responsible.^ It runs as fol- lows : — . . . One striking instance of the King's prudence and presence of mind is much talked of. He was riding out from Kew when a page delivered him a ticket importing that something had happened to the (late) King. He very calmly despatched the page and rode on a little way ; then, saying to his attendants that he found his horse was either lame or ill-shod, he turned back and con- cealed from those about him even the suspicion of what had happened until the news of the King's death was brought to him at Kew. Other references to George III. in the Harris Papers contain eulogies on his conduct in the 'Wilkes' affair,' as also on another occasion of popular demonstrations. ' Almacks ' (afterwards known as Willis's Rooms), Vauxhall and Ranelagh were all favourite resorts for the Harris family, and many are the descriptions of the fashionable world given in their letters after visits to these places of amusement. ^ Malmesbury Letters (Bentley). ^ Ibid.