194 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



they were never dull, for which saving grace many 

 sins may be excused him. 



Thackeray, in his " Four Georges," has little that 

 is pleasant to say of any one of them, but is astonishingly 

 severe upon this last, both as Prince and King. For a 

 thorough-going condemnation, commend me to that 

 book. To the faults of George the Fourth the author 

 is very wide-awake, nor will he allow him any virtues 

 whatsoever. He will not even concede him to be a 

 man, as witness this passage : "To make a portrait 

 of him at sight seemed a matter of small difficulty. 

 There is his coat, his star, his wig, his countenance 

 simpering under it : with a slate and a piece of chalk, 

 I could at this very desk perform a recognisable 

 likeness of him. And yet, after reading of him in 

 scores of volumes, hunting him through old magazines 

 and newspapers, having him here at a ball, there at a 

 public dinner, there at races, and so forth, you find 

 you have nothing, nothing but a coat and a wig, and 

 a mask smiling below it ; nothing but a great simula- 

 crum." 



Poor fat Adonis ! 



But Thackeray was obliged reluctantly to acknow- 

 ledge the grace and charm of the Fourth George, and 

 to chronicle some of the kind acts he performed, 

 although at these last he sneered consumedly, because, 

 forsooth, those thus benefited were quite humble 

 persons. It was not without reason that Thackeray 

 wrote so intimately of snobs : in those unworthy 

 sneers speaks one of the race. 



One curious little item of praise the author of the 



Four Georges " was constrained to allow the Regent : 



Where my Prince did actually distinguish himself was 



in driving. He drove once in four hours and a half 



from Brighton to Carlton House — fifty-six miles." * 



So the altogether British love of sport compelled 

 this little interlude in the abuse levelled at the 

 " simulacrum." 



* He really drove the other way ; from Carlton House to Brighton. 





