KEW IN FAVOUR 49 



of pay, literature probably lost little by her 

 laying down the pen for a time ; her best work 

 had been done in Evelina ; Cecilia was a falling 

 off; and Camilla, written after her experience of 

 service, did not deserve the pecuniary success 

 won for it, in part, by royal patronage. In her 

 diary, Miss Burney herself makes little serious 

 complaint but of the ill-tempered tyranny of 

 her senior colleague, Mrs. Schwellenberg. Court 

 life soon ceased to be a little heaven below for 

 her ; but she had distractions in royal journeys 

 to Oxford, Cheltenham, Weymouth, seats at the 

 trial of Warren Hastings, glimpses of great folks, 

 and even spells of moral flirtation with at least 

 one gentleman of the household, not to speak of 

 rather troublesome attentions from another who 

 was a married man. She cannot say too much 

 of the kindness of the King and the princesses ; 

 and if her " sweet Queen " proved sometimes 

 an inconsiderate mistress, it was from want of 

 thought rather than a hard heart. The confine- 

 ment upon which Macaulay lays such stress was 

 no stricter than that of most domestic ladies, 

 who had not Windsor Park and Kew Gardens to 

 walk in. Had she been more robust, the novelist 

 might have lived on to become a second Mrs. 



