KEW IN FAVOUR 41 



to this effect : After the concert, which Fischer attended 

 twice a week at Richmond or at Kew, wherever the King 

 and Queen were, he used eagerly to seize upon the supper 

 before he went to London. Upon one occasion, the 

 Prince came in and said, " I have ordered something that 

 I know you like," a dish was brought in, and when the 

 cover was lifted, out jumped a rabbit. Germans have a 

 particular dislike to that animal in every shape and form ; 

 therefore it is easy to conjecture poor Fischer's state of 

 mind. This joke cost him only the loss of his supper, 

 but many nights succeeded before he could be prevailed 

 on to again enter the eating-room. 



Making a butt of a dependent seems no 

 princely pastime ; but this lady has worse to 

 tell us of the "First Gentleman in Europe's" 

 amusements at the age of sixteen. " Much do 

 I lament to add that some of those about the 

 young princes swerved from principle, and in- 

 troduced improper company when their Majesties 

 supposed them to be at rest, and after the 

 divines had closed their day with prayer." 



The first open scandal about the Prince was 

 his intrigue with the unfortunate "Perdita" 

 Robinson, who turned many a head beside his 

 by her acting in The Winters Tale. We know 

 very little about that episode except what the 

 lady thinks fit to tell us in her Memoirs. The 

 boy lover, not yet eighteen, was so closely kept 



