402
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. NOV. 23, 1007.
was then just forty-eight]. However, I m very
well pleas'd with the Thought that runs thro ; if
she had contracted something of the second and
third Stanza, it had not been the worse. 1 pre-
sume she 's one of the happy few, that write out ot
Pleasure, and not Necessity: By that means its
her own fault, if she publish any thing but what s
good ; for it 's next to impossible to write much and
write well."
Mrs. Manley's version of the Ode corre- sponds with that which Miss Sewurd recorded from memory, and it is therefore plain that : the inept substitution of the " honest Hebraisms " for the " poetical paganism " was one of the unfortunate afterthoughts that so often lead our poets into a quagmire. [ I am not a critic, but I certainly agree with the correspondent of The Gentleman's Maga- \ zine in thinking the earlier version has more poetical beauty than the one which is cur- j rently printed, and I commend it to the industrious anthologist. A slight verbal alteration is needed in the fourth stanza, where move serves doubly as a rime.
W. F. PKIDEAtTX.
THE MYSTERY OF HANNAH
LIGHTFOOT.
(See ante, p. 321.)
THERE are three publications that profess to tell the true story of Hannah Lightfoot's amours with George III., which, as MB. THOMS has suggested in his contributions to these columns, seem to betray the handi- work of the redoubtable Olive Serres. In the first of these, ' An Historical Fragment relative to her late Majesty Queen Caroline,' there is presumptive evidence that the soi- disant princess had begun to influence the legend as early as the year 1824 (see ' Hannah Lightfoot,' &c.,W. J. Thorns, 1867, pp. 12-14). The second of these works, which is called ' An Authentic History of the Court of England for the last Seventy Years,' was published by Phillips, 334, Strand, in March, 1832, and speedily sup- pressed. It was revived, however, a little later under another title, being reissued as ' The Secret History of the Court of Eng- land,' &c., by Lady Anne Hamilton. What ever opinion may be formed of the ' His- torical Fragment,' it is probable that the account of Hannah Lightfoot in the two later works was inspired by Olive Serres; and although some of the statements in these books are corroborated by other authorities, yet since they are all tainted by suspicion, it will be well to reject their evidence altogether.
To this extent the conjectures of MB. THOM&
may be accepted without demur.
Less conclusive are his opinions with regard to the Hannah Lightfoot contro- versy in The Monthly Magazine of 1821 and 1822, for these pages contain no reference to Mrs. Serres, and speak only of an amour, not of a secret marriage with George III. In- deed, the following letter, which appeared in the magazine for October, 1821, p. 197, and was said to have been written by a cousin of the " Fair Quaker," tells a story to which her relatives have always adhered :
" Hannah Lightfoot, when residing with her father and mother, was frequently seen by the King when he drove by going to and from the Parlia- ment House. She eloped in 1754, and was married to Isaac Axford at Keith's Chapel, which my father discovered about three weeks after, and none of her family have seen her since, though her mother had a letter or two from her, but at last died of grief. There were many fabulous stories about her, but my aunt (the mother of H. Lightfoot) coula never trace any to be true." 3 S. xi. 90.
The obvious anachronism, and the am- biguity with regard to Hannah Lightfoot's place of residence, are unfortunate ; but a similar narrative was told in these columns in the year 1856 by others of the " Fair Quaker's " family (2 S. i. 121, 322). More- over, as late as the year 1867, Mr. Jesse received a letter from a descendant of Hannah's uncle in corroboration of this version of the story (see Athenaeum, 15 June,. 1867). All these accounts are given by members of the Wheeler family, whose pedi- gree I have been able to trace in a fairly comprehensive manner from the records of the Society of Friends. It is sufficient to remark that Rebecca Phillips, nee Wheeler, born 31 Dec., 1780, the granddaughter of Hannah Lightfoot's uncJe and host, Henry Wheeler, linendraper, of Market Lane, St. James's (a lady who appears to have been living in 1856), was responsible for the accounts given at 2 S. i. 121, 322.
On the whole, the conclusions of MB. THOMS that the articles in The Monthly Magazine are worthless do not seem to be warranted by the facts, yet all the same it will be safer to follow his methods, and seek for earlier accounts of the suspected amour of George III. There are several of a prior date, which could not have been inspired by the Princess Olive.
I. The Public Advertiser, Friday, 7 Sept.,. 1770, contains the following paragraph :
"The defence of H.R.H. [i.e., Henry Frederick. Duke of Cumberland] so often advertised as written by an M.P. is quite a catch-penny, the writer being Col. L[uttre]ll, who is no member at all. We are-
