portraits are executed by the first artists, and form by far the finest collection of modern portraits that is to be met with in the kingdom. Among the other portraits of his distinguished friends, the Prince of Wales is in possession of an admirable likeness of the late Archbishop of York, which some few years ago was exhibited in the Royal Academy, and was then generally esteemed one of the finest portraits produced by the British school. As soon as his royal highness was informed of the death of the archbishop, he sent for Mr. Heath the engraver, and delivered the portrait of his deceased friend and preceptor into his hands for the purpose of executing an engraving from it in the artist's best style. Those who are acquainted with the merits of Mr. Heath's graver need not be told that the work could not possibly be put into better hands, and

those who rejoice at the patronage which the liberal arts have uniformly received from the Prince of Wales will not be surprised to learn that the artist in this instance has been desired to fix his own price for the remuneration of his labour. When this interesting plate is finished, which, from the well known talents of the artist, and the certain liberality of his reward, promises to be a chef d'œuvre of the British school of engraving, the copies are to be distributed among the relatives of the archbishop and the friends of the Prince of Wales.

CHAPTER II.

CONNECTION WITH MRS. ROBINSON-HER NARRATIVE OF THE AFFAIR THEIR SEPARATION -REMARKS VERSES ADDRESSED BY MRS. ROBINSON TO THE PRINCE.

WE now come to an incident in his royal highness's life which requires some delicacy in the relation, both in regard to the illustrious subject of these memoirs himself, and as far as it respects the fame of one whose beauty, whose talents, and whose misfortunes, cannot fail to interest every susceptible mind in her favour. Our readers will perceive at once that we allude to the connection which, before he had attained his majority, subsisted between the Prince of Wales and the lovely but

unhappy Mary Robinson, at that period better known to the gay world by the name (derived from one of her favourite characters) of the fascinating PERDITA. Mrs. Robinson has left us herself the history of this intercourse, written at a season when the heart deals with sincerity, in a season of sickness and dejection, when the gay prospects of her early life had vanished from her eyes, and nothing remained for her but an existence struggling with personal inconvenience, debility of frame, and unavailing regrets. The narrative which she has left of this connection carries with it indubitable evidence of its veracity, and though some allow ance must be made for one who speaks, or perhaps, to use a more appropriate phrase, who rather pleads in her own behalf, still an air of candour and sincerity so pervades that portion of her memoirs to which we more particularly

allude, that we feel no hesitation in using her materials to give the narrative of the prince's first public introduction into the world of gallantry.

At the period when Mrs. Robinson first attracted the attention of the prince she was in the twenty-first and his royal highness in the nineteenth year of his age. Mrs. Robinson had played for two seasons at the theatre royal, Drury-lane, and the charms of her person and the graces of her acting had established her high in the favour of the town. The part in which she first appeared before his royal highness was the character of Perdita in the play of the Winter's Tale, which was commanded by their majesties. Mrs. Robinson relates, that, previous to the performance of the piece, she was rallied in the green-room on the handsomeness of her appearance, and that it was prognosticated by Mr. Smith, an