ROYAL RESIDENCES 15 



Pope is remembered by the couplet inscribed on 

 its collar : 



I am His Highness's dog at Kew, 

 Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you ? 



This poet -neighbour boasted himself not a 

 follower but a friend of His Highness, who did 

 not want for two-legged dogs wagging their tails 

 to him in town and country, on the speculation 

 that his father's death might any day change 

 the tap of honour and profit. But all such 

 expectations were nipped short In March 

 1751 the Prince caught cold at Kew, and had 

 symptoms of pleurisy. Supposed to be out of 

 danger, he went back to Kew, where he walked 

 about like a convalescent ; but the same night, 

 after returning to town, showed signs of a fresh 

 chill. Again he seemed to be on the mend, then 

 suddenly one evening was seized with a violent fit 

 of coughing. " Je sens la mort ! " he exclaimed, 

 and these were his last words. It proved that 

 a tumour had burst, produced either by a fall 

 or by a blow from a tennis ball three years 

 before. 



"Thus," says Horace Walpole, "died 

 Frederick, Prince of Wales, having resembled 

 his pattern the Black Prince in nothing but in 



