Page:The Queens of England.djvu/566

CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK, QUEEN OF GEORGE THE FOURTH. Of all the royal women in ancient or modern history there can scarcely be found one who has greater claims on the sym- pathy of her own sex than the ill-fated Caroline, consort of George the Fourth. Not that she was herself faultless or merely an injured woman, but because her situation as a wife and as a mother was more trying than any other which has been put on record. Caroline was the second daughter of Charles William Ferdinand, hereditary Prince of Brunswick, who succeeded to that dukedom when she was in the second year of her age. Her mother was the beautiful and accomplished Princess Augusta, sister of George the Third, King of Great Britain. The birth of Caroline took place at Brunswick, May 16th, 1768. As a child her extraordinary health and robust consti- tution led her mother to make the remark, "Caroline is born for adversity, nothing would destroy her." Lady de Bode and Baroness von Minister were successively governesses to the royal child, who passed much of her time in the company of her parents, with whom she always dined, so that at quite an early age she was introduced into the society of the court. The attainments of Caroline when quite young were remark- able ; she acquired a great proficiency in geography, astronomy, and history, in which last study she especially delighted, and spoke with ease the German, English, French and Italian languages. She was a good painter in water colors, and to the delight of her father, with whom she was a favorite child, arrived at great proficiency in music, of which he was remark- ably fond. Thus endowed with the power of pleasing, it is no wonder that the princess should have afterwards cultivated the society of literary people. Yet she was not distinguished by her mental qualities only ; the goodness of her heart was 5M