witness the cruel diversion of cock-fighting. Such low amusements, however, not being congenial to the taste of Prince Leopold, and as skittlegrounds were considered by the Princess Charlotte as rather out of character, on a demesne where taste and elegance only were to be [exhibited, they were, at her express desire, removed; and little clumps of rose-trees, intermixed with other shrubs and flowers were to decorate the spot. Two large mounds of earth now appear, where the skittle-grounds formerly stood; but neither the rose-trees nor the shrubs are yet planted. Recollection leads us from these lovely spots, absorbed in grief! their presiding Genius is gone, and they therefore only appear to us as the mementos of a transitory bliss. But the most beautiful of all objects in the grounds at Claremont, is the Gothic temple, an account of which has been slightly touched upon in a preceding part of these Memoirs. This may almost be called a hallowed spot; the genius of all that is affectionate, of all that is tender, of all that is lovely, hovers around it! It was destined not to be dedicated to any earthly saint,-but to the spirit of love, in its most heavenly form. It was intended to commemorate the union of this illustrious pair, and to be the witness of their private happiness. Hither they intended to retire from the dull round of fashionable life and courtly etiquette; and in the grand view of Nature's works, spread so lavishly before them, to feel their minds exalted to Nature's God. The coo of the distant ringdove was the emblem of their connubial love; and as they beheld the parent bird carrying the food to its neighbouring nest, a smile came over the countenance of the happy pair, but no language could tell its meaning. In one dread moment rushed from the cave of Death, the infuriate spoiler. He tampered with his victim for awhile; and then, with one fell blow, levelled this beauteous scene of human happiness! I know not if I could have borne The night that followed such a morn The day without a cloud had past, As stars that shoot along the sky, Shine brightest as they fall from high. BYRON. Her Royal Highness was particularly anxious about the completion of this temple, and one day she visited it in company with Prince Leopold; and putting her head through the door-way, she inquired of the labourers who were working above, when they thought it would be finished. They answered, they supposed it would be rather more than two months. "There," said her Royal Highness, "I thought it would not be finished before." This was the last time her Royal Highness visited the spot previously to her confinement; and the view of it, after her decease, excited so many mournful reflections in the mind of Prince Leopold, that it was long before he could be induced to visit it. When completed, it is the intention of his Serene Highness to erect a pedestal in the middle, on which is to be placed a full length statue of the Princess. Charlotte. The secluded mode of life which the Princess Charlotte adopted at Claremont, and the steady and determined manner with which she resisted every attempt to induce her to become a party to any of the designs of the leading political factions of the day, could not fail in a certain degree to draw down upon her the resentment and private pique of the disappointed individuals, who hoped to make her influence the stepping-stone to the attainment of their own ambitious views. Hence at this time, the great and important discovery was made by certain individuals, that a life of seclusion was incompatible with the exalted rank which the Princess Charlotte filled, and that the nation had not voted to her an income of 60,000l. a year, to expend in books and flowers and erecting gewgaws in her park; on the contrary, that income had been granted to her to enable her to maintain a degree of splendor suitable to the heiress presumptive to the crown, and to live in the midst of the people over whom she was one day destined to reign; and by way of fully |