KEW IN FAVOUR 39 



the naughty boys are said to have turned 

 against one of their severe masters, using upon 

 him the rod he proposed for them. This story 

 may have suggested a scene in Thackeray's 

 Virginians, as it might have been prompted by 

 one in Roderick Random, or a variant in The 

 Fool of Quality, a very long and edifying 

 romance of the Sandford and Merton school, 

 which had a vogue at this period. The Queen 

 held no high opinion of novel-reading ; and if 

 her sons studied the works of Smollett, it would 

 perhaps be on the sly, as must have been a good 

 many doings in that family. 



We know how these carefully educated princes 

 had more of Merton than of Sandford in their 

 disposition ; then they soon found flatterers and 

 courtiers to set them against their strict training, 

 and to curry favour with a future sovereign. 

 Childish mischief may excuse the freak of the 

 boy Prince of Wales saluting his father with 

 the hated cry of " Wilkes and Liberty ! " But 

 it was a serious matter when the second son 

 was precociously found playing the Don Juan 

 with a cottage beauty. That scapegrace Bishop 

 is accused of leading his elder brother into 

 wrong-doings for which he perhaps needed no 



