Her Character described by George II.

Source.—Hervey's Memoirs. Vol. ii., pp. 531-533.

During this time [of the Queen's fatal illness in 1737] the King talked perpetually to Lord Hervey, the physicians and surgeons, and his children, who were the only people he ever saw out of the Queen's room, of the Queen's good qualities, his fondness for her, his anxiety for her welfare, and the irreparable loss her death would be to him; and repeated every day, and many times in the day, all her merits in every capacity with regard to him and every other body she had to do with. He said she was the best wife, the best mother, the best companion, the best friend, the best woman that ever was born; that she was the wisest, the most agreeable, and the most useful body, man or woman, that he had ever been acquainted with; that he firmly believed she never, since he first knew her, ever thought of anything she was to do or say, but with the view of doing or saying it in what manner it would be most agreeable to his pleasure or most serviceable for his interest; that he had never seen her out of humour in his life; that he had passed more hours with her than he believed any other two people in the world had ever passed together, and that he had never been tired in her company one minute; and that he was sure he could have been happy with no other woman upon earth for a wife, and that if she had not been his wife, he had rather have had her for his mistress than any woman he had ever been acquainted with; that he believed she never had had a thought of people or things which she had not communicated to him; that she had the best head, the best heart, and the best temper that God Almighty had ever given to any human creature, man or woman; and that she had not only softened all his leisure hours, but been of more use to him as a minister than any other body had ever been to him or to any other prince; that with a patience which he knew he was not master of, she had listened to the nonsense of all the impertinent fools that wanted to talk to him, and had taken all that trouble off his hands, reporting nothing to him that was unnecessary or that would have been tedious for him to hear, and never forgetting anything that was material, useful, or entertaining for him to know. He said that, joined to all the softness and delicacy of her own sex, she had all the personal as well as political courage of the finest and bravest man; that not only he and her family, but the whole nation, would feel the loss of her if she died, and that, as to all the brillant and enjouement of the Court, there would be an end of it when she was gone; and that there would be no bearing a drawing-room when the only body that ever enlivened it, and one that always enlivened it, was no longer there. "Poor woman, how she always found something obliging, agreeable, and pleasing to say to somebody, and always sent people away from her better satisfied than they came! Comme elle soutenoit sa dignitÉ avec grace, avec politesse, avec douceur!"