Sunday, January 29, 2012

George III Passes


‘The long reign of George the Third was brought to a close on the 29th of January, 1820.  The chief interest of the people in this event, seemed to consist in its depriving them of their sixty years holiday on the 4th of June.  On the following Sunday Sir Harry Moncreiff not satisfied with merely praying for the new sovereign generally, said in plain terms, giving the very date, that there might be no mistake about it, “And oh Lord, stablish his heart in righteousness, and in the principles of the glorious revolution of sixteen hunder and ecthy echt”…’

The text above comes from Lord Henry Cockburn’s “Memorials of his Time”.  Concerning this Hanoverian monarch, Sir Walter Scott wrote: ‘George the Third labored under some disadvantages, which for a long time obscured his highly estimable qualities.  Notwithstanding what we have said of his personal qualities, his education had been narrow and confined in an unusual degree, and no adequate pains had been taken either to form his external manners, or to cultivate his mind in classical or polite literature…’  

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