top of the long walk. The king, while engaged in fishing, caused the same rigid exclusion from his grotesque building at Virginia-water to be enforced; and also when visiting the various temples which he had erected on the grounds. A great deal of money was laid out on these edifices; but it was only by stealth and the connivance of servants that they were at any time to be seen.

His majesty was so little aware that the fatal result of his indisposition was near at hand, that up to a very late period of his sufferings he occupied himself considerably with the progress of some additions which he was making to the royal lodge. He was particularly anxious to have a new dining-room finished by his birth-day, on the 12th of August; not thinking that a month before that day his remains would be gathered into their tomb. He was also, up to the same late period, occupied by the improvements in Windsor Castle, and used to have himself rolled through the apartments in a chair, which was constructed for his majesty's use. Notwithstanding these anticipations, it is known that the king's health had been declining for nearly two years. His old sufferings from the gout had given way to an occasional " embarrassment of breathing," (the expressive phrase of the bulletins,) and at times to great depression of spirits. His majesty was often found apparently lost in abstraction, and relieved only by shedding tears. At other times, however, the king took a great interest in the works which were carrying on in the lodge and the castle of Windsor, particularly those which he intended for his private use; and spoke of a long enjoyment of them.

It is said that for some time before Sir Henry Halford and Sir M. Tierney were last called in, his late majesty was under the domestic medical treatment of two gentlemen who were of his household. His majesty had for a

long time evinced a great indisposition to exercise of any kind-the least exertion was attended with faintness, and his majesty's usual remedy was a glass of some liqueur. He had a particular kind of cherry brandy, which he thought to be of medical use, when he felt these symptoms of debility, and to which he resorted up to a late period of his life. Until the bursting of the blood-vessel on the day before his death, the king did not think his case absolutely hopeless, even then, the slight refreshment of sleep rallied his spirits a little.

His majesty for many years had been scarcely ever free from some symptom which indicated the presence, more or less severe, of gout in the extremities; but in January, during the existence of the catarrhal affection, the extremities were entirely free from every sign of gout. At the latter end of February, and even in the beginning of March, his majesty was well enough to take his customary rides in an open carriage, and occasionally visited the different parts of the royal demesne in which his various improvements and alterations were going forward. On Monday, the 12th of April, he rode in the parks for the last time, and passed an hour in the menagerie, a place in which he took great delight. While there, he complained of pain and faintness, and inquired of the keeper if he had any brandy in the house. The man, an old servant of the Duke of York, said he had something which he thought his majesty would like better than brandy. "What is that?" said his majesty. "Cherry gin," was the reply: "it was made by my old woman, sir." The king seemed much pleased by this mark of attention, and expressed a wish to taste "the old girl's cordial." On its being handed to his majesty, he appeared to relish exceedingly the (to him novel) compound, and finished the remainder of the bottle.

The harassing dry cough and wheezing respiration still continued, notwithstanding the remedies that were employed. It was on the 28th of the month (March), that Mr. Wardrop, on visiting the king, first called the attention of Sir W. Knighton to the existence of an alarming disease going on in his majesty's heart. From the examination of the circulating and respiratory organs, which Mr. Wardrop then made by means of the stethoscope, it was quite evident that the "embarrassment" in the king's breathing arose from a disordered state of the heart's action, the blood not being propelled with its natural regularity and velocity through the lungs.

The rûle, or wheezing sound, was attributed to an injected suffused state of the mucous membrane lining the air-cells, and was independent of that disturbance of the respiration produced by the irregularity in the action of the heart. The circumstance of the extremities, which had been so long affected by gout, being now entirely. free from every symptom of that disease, and the wellknown strongly-marked gouty constitution of his majesty, indicated the precise character of the disease which existed in the cavity of the thorax, and led to the hope that, by an effort of nature, or by the aid of art, a revulsion or translation of the gout from the chest to the extremities might remove the more dangerous inflammatory affection of the vital organs. Time, however, has shewn that this salutary termination of his majesty's disorder was not to be realised. Like many persons subject to gout, his majesty had occasionally, and more particularly before a paroxysm, an intermittent pulse and a corresponding irregularity of the heart's action.

ROYAL AMATEURS.

His late majesty inherited a musical temperament on the side of both father and mother. George III., as is well known, possessed a German taste for the organ, and was, it is said, a good performer; his queen (who had doubtless profited by one of the family of the Bachs, long a music-master at court,) was a singer, had been accompanied by Mozart, and favourably mentioned as a player on the harpsichord in the diary of Haydn. The testimony of the old composer may be relied on: it came to light among other private memoranda years after his death, but when every thing connected with Haydn had become matter of public interest, and his opinions upon art the property of posterity. Haydn's note is, "the queen played pretty well;" a cautious phrase, but one more complimentary to her acquirements than the loose epithets of praise which are generally dealt out upon any exhibition of royal cleverness. The patronage which George III. bestowed upon the solid style of the ancient masters, grew out of his early intimacy and admiration of the works of Handel; and the particular favour which he testified towards this author's compositions was in part the conscientious fulfilment of a promise. Our authority for the following anecdote is good, and the circumstance is not too romantic to be true.

After one of the concerts at court, at which George III., then a child, had been an auditor, Handel patted the little boy on the head, saying, "You will take care of my music when I am dead." This pathetic injunction of the composer, the king, to his honour, never forgot. How it may be in other arts we know not, but in music it is seldom that the taste changes after an individual has arrived at manhood in the admiration of a certain beau

APPENDIX.

idéal. This is particularly the case where people have strong feeling, with little science; it is knowledge alone which, in opening to us the possible advantages of new discoveries, renders music progressive. Although the great revolution in music which had been anticipated by C. P. E. Bach, and which was carried through by Haydn and Mozart, took place during the reign of George III., and although the king was visited by both the latter composers, and was partly sensible of their merits, he still preferred Handel. With his late majesty, music was less a passion than with George III., but he possessed refinement of taste. Though a dilettante performer on the violoncello, for which instrument he was the pupil of Crosdill, he was more celebrated for his encouragement of clever professors than for admiration of his own successes, or desire to enchant the lords and ladies in waiting by the royal tours de force. A youth, son of one of the persons of his household, having manifested an inclination for music, the king despatched him to Vienna, to receive the best cultivation which the care of Mozart could bestow upon his talent: the object of this right princely patronage was Mr. Attwood. He ever manifested a particular regard for Lindley and J. B. Cramer; and we have heard it mentioned, that one of the finest exhibitions of piano-forte playing was given by the latter at the Pavilion at Brighton, a few years back. So well known among professors was the partiality of the late king to Lindley, that he was named as the most probable successor of Shield in the mastership of the royal band of musicians. This post was, however, otherwise disposed of.

The first score of the opera, La Clemenza di Tito, known in this country, was obtained from the library at Carlton-house, and, as a signal favour from the prince to Mrs. Billington, was lent for her benefit. How worthy