GEORGE IV. 107 



CHAPTER VII. 



GEORGE IV. 



" Let the song that is borne on the echoes of June, 



Whether sung by the Jones's or Coxes, 

 Still have this loyal burden, whatever the tune, 

 A good King ; Fleur-de-lis ; and good foxes*" 



t is not our intention to give more than an outline 

 of the frivolous, unsatisfactory scenes amid which 

 the lot of " George Guelph" was cast, and which he 

 only too readily sanctioned. The historian will take 

 him as their reflex, and deal out a full and bitter 

 measure to him, for all that vice, heartlessness, and 

 flippancy which earned him his title of " Florizell." 

 Still, to give him his due, we are bound to mention, 

 that the one man who had the best means of know- 

 ing, steadily maintained the belief, that the public 

 sadly maligned a titled beauty, with whom his name 

 has been so studiously connected ; and that what- 

 ever might have been the pride he felt in seeing her 

 grace his court, the two were never even alone to- 

 gether. We have now simply to deal with him in 

 the one character, in which he pre-eminently shone, 

 that of an English sportsman, and only regret that 

 he had not ridden at least ten stone lighter. The 

 Turf will always reckon him amongst its most devoted 

 lovers, although it would be remarkably difficult to 

 say from whom he inherited the taste. His father 

 never did much more for it than give 100 guineas, to 

 be run for annually by horses that had been hunted 



