'OF THEIR CREDITORS!' "SALES BY AUCTION! OR, PROVIDENT CHILDREN DISPOSING OF THEIR DECEASED MOTHER'S EFFECTS FOR THE BENEFIT

(1819.)

SALE OF QUEEN'S EFFECTS.

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These items bear witness to the Queen's saving qualities, and also to the meanness which prompted the sale of such comparative trifles-only those were sold which were not Current Coin-because it was an offence against the law Her veriest trifles were

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to sell money that was in use. sold. 'Among the articles of vertu in the last sale of her late Majesty's Curiosities, were a number of paper portraits cut in profile of the members of the illustrious Houses of Brunswick and of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, both male and female: the ladies in the costume of 1770, with the head-dresses three stories high, and with elegant flowing lappets. Of the same subjects, the most remarkable was the Lord's Prayer, cut in paper with a pair of scissors, by an artist born without hands." I

A Satirist brought out an Engraving, an Engraving, "SALES by AUCTION! or Provident Children disposing of their deceased Mother's effects for the benefit of their Creditors!" The Regent, gouty as usual, is the Auctioneer, and his remarks upon the lot he has for sale, an Indian Shawl, are: "Here are some genuine Articles, a present from an Indian Prince to the deceased owner, and saved entirely for the Moths, as they were never worn, given away all her MONEY IN CHARITY. So, pray, good people, Bid liberally, or the Children will be destitute." The Princesses are pleading in the same strain, and the Duke of York is sale Clerk. A short time previously he had a fall, caused by

I

Probably Matthew Buchinger, who died 1722.

one of his spurs catching in a carpet, at Windsor, and he broke his arm; he sits comfortably on £10,000 which was the sum paid him annually, for paying a monthly visit to his father, to whom he acted as Custodian, after his mother's death. In January a Bill was brought in, with this provision, but it met with strenuous opposition, as far as the monetary portion went, as it was felt that no son, with any remnant of filial affection left, would, or ought to, take such a sum for occasionally visiting an aged and sorely afflicted parent; but it finally passed into law. Of course, the Duke of York must have expected, and he certainly got, censure for his greed, and we find him. pictorially satirised as using one of the then newly invented, and fashionable "Dandy," or "Hobby" horsesby means of which he could visit his poor old father at Windsor. This engraving is called "MAKING MOST of £10,000 PER AN., by SAVING TRAVELLING EXPENSES. (that is) going on Monthly visits to WINDSOR! as appointed by.... having only the small sum of Ten Thousand Pounds per year, granted for that arduous task, has wisely procured a pedestrian Hobby Horse." The Duke comforts himself by saying, "Every Man has his Hobby Horse, mine is worth Ten Thousand!!!"

This parent of the bi- and tri-cycles was only introduced into England early this year. It is said to have been the invention of the Baron Charles de Drais, Master of Woods and Forests to H. R. H. the Grand Duke of Baden.