ROYAL RESIDENCES 27 



her disappointed ambition, marrying twice and 

 dying at a good old age as mother of the famous 

 soldier - brothers Napier. It is a touching 

 coincidence that her old age was afflicted by 

 blindness, like her royal sweetheart's, who in his 

 last days appears to have recalled or imagined 

 an earlier passion for Lady Elizabeth Spencer, 

 afterwards Countess of Pembroke. 



The royal bride chosen was Princess Charlotte 

 of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a girl of seventeen, who 

 for more than half a century gave a new tone 

 to English society. After a little flutter of 

 gaiety natural in her position, she entered upon 

 a life of dignified propriety and domesticity with 

 a husband who won her heart as well as her 

 hand, and George, whatever wild oats he may 

 or may not have sown, made a constant husband 

 to his rather plain bride. This model couple 

 agreed in the simple tastes at which worldly 

 courtiers sneered. St. James's Palace they kept 

 as a stage for State functions ; and they made 

 little use of Windsor in the first years of the 

 reign. For the "Queen's House" was bought 

 the Duke of Buckingham's red-brick mansion on 

 the site of what is now Buckingham Palace ; 

 and out of town the King lived a good deal at 



