The Diaries of Robert Fulke Greville
Many of these extracts from the hitherto unpublished Diaries of Robert Fulke Greville, shortly to be brought out in their entirety by Messrs. John Lane under the Editorship of Mr. Y. McKno Bladon, and now appearing from week to week in the SPECTATORi are of peculiar interest. Of the same blood as the famous Victorian go.ssip-in,onger, Robert Greville reveals a mind which makes a complete contrast to that of his illustrious kinsman.
Though he was the favourite equeriy of George III he remained essentially a country gentleman, whose almost religious loyalty to the Crown did not apparently preclude complete indifference to the scandals of court life. His devotion to the person of the King was intense, no detail of his illness is too small to chronicle, and none of the simple pleasures of hie sane life appears childish in his eyes. He himself is pleased with simple things.
Our extracts thit week concern the' convalescence of George III after his first attack of mania at Kew Palace, and his complete restitution to sanity. at Weymouth—Greville throws flashlight after flashlight upon the King, surrounded by a narrow circle of friends and relations and free of the trammels of State. The simplicity, kindliness and coarseness 'of the royal and aristocratic group stand out in strange conjunction.
TEE JOYOUS TIDINGS.
The Bulletin of this Morning has been by much the most favorable of any which has yet been sent from hence. It announced that yesterday had been passed with composure that H:My. had a very good night, & that He had more recollection than usual this Morning. I joined heartily in the general satisfaction which this good Account diffused around, & the more so as I was informed by Sir George Baker & Dr. Reynolds that they had found Him decidedly better, & that He had both received & dismissed Them in a much better manner than ever He had since his Illness.
I rode to Town this Morning, & found the joyous tidings were spreading fast in every quarter, & many were ready to think the recovery compleat, & among the flying reports of the day in Town, I was told that a Brother Equerry of Mine had said that The King was actually well enough to proclaim Himself fit to govern again tomorrow !-
Dr. Willis' observation, as now mentioned by Lord Onslow was, " That until these few days The King had never spoke sense, but by Accident, but that now this statement was reversed, & He spoke nonsense but by accident—"
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