22 KEW GARDENS 



took to him. Lord Waldegrave, by his own 

 account, became no favourite with his most 

 important pupil, and had a poor opinion of him. 

 His Memoirs scout the Princess's professions 

 that she did not interfere in the boys' education. 

 The preceptors had little influence, he says ; 

 "the mother and the nursery always prevailed." 

 The Prince he sets down as obstinate, sulky, 

 too stingy and too self-righteous for his years. 

 George, for his part, is afterwards found recalling 

 this Governor as a " depraved, worthless man." 



What seems most certain as to George III.'s 

 education is that he learned very little from 

 books, not even to spell, but that he came to 

 speak French and German, and that he allowed 

 his mother and her friend, if not his tutors, to 

 stamp the theory that a king of England should 

 not only reign but govern, upon a nature that 

 proved wax to receive and marble to retain such 

 impressions. The mother spoke of George as a 

 good, dutiful boy, rather serious in his disposition 

 than otherwise, but a little wanting in spirit. 

 Whether at her apron-string he grew up sly as 

 well as shy and sleepy, is a question raised by 

 the story of his youthful amour with a Quakeress 

 named Hannah Lightfoot, which makes the plot 



