Volume I Part 9 (2/2)

FourThe Duke of York has been dangerously ill, and it is still doubtful whether he will recover I ith hi to see Windsor Castle His Majesty has since been very reat deal when he heard how bad he was, and has been twice to see him

The elections have been particularly violent and the contests very nuainst Charles Ellis's peerage[5] (Lord Seaford); he has no property, and is of no fa, when these other Peers were created, asked Canning to name somebody He said he had nobody about who to his elevation, it was all arranged without his knowledge However, it is thought very ridiculous, and that he would have doneht an indirect exertion of Canning's influence

[5] [Charles Rose Ellis, created Baron Seaford in 1826

Lord Seaford was the father of Charles Augustus Ellis, who succeeded to the title of Lord Howard de Walden through his hter of the fourth Earl of Bristol, as the last Baron Howard de Walden, as heir general of Thohter of the fifth Duke of Portland, and was consequently a connection of Mr Canning]

London, December 14th, 1826 {p083}

The Duke of York very ill; has been at the point of death several tiht before last was most brilliant; much more cheered by the Opposition than by his own friends He is thought to have been iues by the concluding sentence of his reply, when he said, '_I_ called into existence the neorld to redress the balance of the old' The _I_ was not relished

Broughanificent, and he was loudly cheered by Peel; altogether it was a fine display

Yesterday the Duke [of York] toldwith him one day at Kew, and his Majesty said, 'The world tells many lies, and here is one instance I am said to have held frequent communication with Lord Bute, and the last time I ever saw or spoke to hi went over to breakfast with his er, and she took him aside and said, 'There is somebody here ishes very much to speak to you' 'Who is it?'

'Lord Bute' 'Good God,him here? It is impossible for me to hold any communication with Lord Bute in this manner' However, he did see hi abandoned and neglected hi replied that he could not, in justice to his Ministers, hold any communication with him unknown to theain The King becary in his turn, and said, 'Then, my Lord, be it so, and reain' And from that day he never beheld Lord Bute or had any coe Head: DEATH OF THE DUKE OF YORK]

Friday night, January 5th, 1827, half-past one {p084}

I a my last look at the poor Duke[6] He expired at twenty ht the physicians never left his rooht that life was extinct, but it was not till that hour that they found it was all over The Duke of Sussex and Stephenson were in the next roo and I were upstairs Ar and I had been there about half an hour when they cahton and called out Taylor Dighton told Torrens and they went out; immediately after Taylor cao downstairs We went directly into the roo exactly as at the rey dressing-gown, his head inclined against the side of the chair, his hands lying before hi as if he were in a deep and quiet sleep

Not a vestige of pain was perceptible on his countenance, which, except being thinner, was exactly such as I have seen it a hundred ti his life In fact, he had not suffered at all, and had expired with all the ease and tranquillity which the serenity of his countenance betokened Nothing about or around him had the semblance of death; it was all like quiet repose, and it was not without a ns of the tranquillity of his last hness the Duke of York, second son of King George III, died on the 5th of January, 1827]

In about a quarter of an hour Taylor and Halford set off to Windsor to infor; the Duke of Sussex went to the Princess Sophia; letters ritten to all the Cabinet Ministers, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and the Speaker of the House of Coreat bell of St Paul's should toll The servants were then admitted to see the Duke as he lay Worley[7] was very ht, and one woman, the wife of Kendal, cried bitterly, and I saw her stoop down and kiss his hand The room was then cleared and surrendered to the Lord Chamberlain's people Thus did I take my last leave of the poor Duke I have been the minister and associate of his pleasures and amusements for some years, I have lived in his intilad that I was present at this last sad occasion to pay my poor tribute of respect and attachrooe Head: ILLNESS OF THE DUKE OF YORK]

After the October ood health At the end of Novereat blow to him, and probably made him worse A short time after her funeral he went to Belvoir, when the Duke of Rutland took him down into the vault, where he stayed an hour and returned excessively chilled Froreorse till the tian, and for those two days he led a quiet life When the party was asse to the races, sitting at table, and playing for hours at whist

He slept wretchedly and seldoht walking about the rooo into his rooenerally found hi harassed and ill He showed s, which were always swelled Still he went on till the last day of the party, and e got to town he was so ill that M'Gregor, who caer From that moment the illness was established which has ended in his death They began by putting hih several courses of mercury, and they sent him to the Greenwoods' villa at Brompton Here he continued to receive everybody who called on hie every day They always said that he was getting better In August he went to Brighton, and soon after his arrival his legs mortified It was then that Taylor went down to hier He received the inforrene, however, was stopped, and he came to town to the Duke of Rutland's house The dropsy continued to ress, and some time in September he was tapped; twenty-two pints of water were drawn

from him This operation was kept secret, for the Duke did not like that his situation should be known He recovered froth; no more water formed in his body, but there was still water in his systes, which occasioned hireat pain andThese wounds again produced gangrene, but they always contrived to stop its progress, and put the legs in a healing condition As often, however, as the legs began to heal the water began to rise, and the ain to the legs, through which itfresh th of his constitution still supporting him, till towards the end of Deceer; his appetite totally failed, and with loss of appetite cath, and in short a complete break-up From that moment it was obvious that his recovery was ile till the 5th of January, although he had tasted no solid food whatever for above a fortnight At all the different periods at which his state was critical it was always made known to him, and he received the intimation with invariable firmness and composure He said that he enjoyed life but was not afraid to die But though perfectly acquainted with his own danger he never could bear that other people should be infor it, he always told his friends that he was better, and his language was invariably that of a man who did not doubt of his recovery He was particularly anxious that nobody should know he had been tapped, and it was not till many weeks after that operation that he talked of it one day to me Up to the last moment that I saw him (the day week before he died) he told me he was better, and he desired me to tell Montrond, who had called upon hih He held the sae to everybody until the day previous to his death, when he sent for Taylor and Stephenson into his room He could then hardly speak, but he took hold of Stephenson's hand, and looking at Taylor, said, 'I a else, but he was unintelligible About a fortnight before his death, soon after his appetite began to fail, Taylor had to announce to hience with the same coolness he had before shown, but it was not without difficulty that he admitted the conviction A few days after he received the Sacrament, which was administered by the Bishop of London, in the presence of Sir H Halford, Taylor, and the Princess Sophia He was then very weak, but cal the ceremony When it was over he shook hands with thesaw hiic state nearly the whole time that he was there For ht that every day th of his constitution that he evinced a tenacity of life and le which astonished them all, and of which they unanimously declared that their practice had never furnished theo, when he was very unwell, M'Gregor told him that unless he was more prudent he would certainly be afflicted with dropsy He had been subject to spasms, and in consequence of them was averse to lie down in bed, and to this pernicious habit and that of sitting for ether at table, or at cards, they attribute the origin, of the complaint which has terminated so fatally Had he been a our of his constitution he s in the course of his illness have been very great, and al could exceed the patience and courage hich he endured theood humour were never disturbed, and he never uttered a word or coth of his confinement He not only saw all the visitors who chose to call upon him, even those hom he was not in habits of intimacy, but he transacted the whole of his public business every day, and every paper was laid before hih as if he had been in perfect health This he continued to within a few days of his death, till his strength was so entirely exhausted that he lay in a state of almost coinning to the end of his illness I never saw hireat deal better, and he never wrote toon as well as possible

[Page Head: FUNERAL OF THE DUKE OF YORK]

February 12th, 1827

The Duke of York was no sooner dead than the public press began to attack him, and while those private virtues were not denied hied in a strain of severe invective against his careless and expensive habits, his addiction to ga; and above all they raked up the old story of Mrs Clark and the investigation of 1809, and publisheddetails of that unfortunate affair, and that in a manner calculated to throw discredit on his character The newspapers, however, soon found they had enial to public feeling, and froyrics upon his public services and his private virtues The King ordered that the funeral should be public and ed by hi kindness in providing for his servants, whoave 6,000 to pay immediate expenses and took many of the old servants into his own service There appeared a few days after the Duke's death an infa to be a letter or declaration written by him a short time before his death (principally upon the subject of the Catholic question), which, however, was disavowed by Taylor, but not till after many thousand copies had been sold I dare say many people believe still that he was the author of this pamphlet All his effects either have been or will be sold by auction The funeral took place a fortnight after his death

Nothing could be ed worse than it was, and except the appearance of the soldiers in the chapel, which was extre; the cold was intense, and it is only marvellous that more persons did not suffer from it As it is the Bishop of Lincoln has died of the effects of it; Canning has been dangerously ill, and is still very unwell; and the Dukes of Wellington and Montrose were both very seriously unwell for sory when he heard how miserably the cere to hear Peelwould have done if he had been here; and it is a pity he was not, for Peel did it very ill: it was poor and jejune, and undistinguished by eloquence or the appearance of deep feeling I was greatly disappointed, for I expected to hear a worthier tribute to hiswas very anxious to have been here to have performed this duty himself The letters which he wrote to the Royal Fa the event of his death were ad