Lord Barrymore am Hofe George IV

• Posted by mgr on May 15th, 2009 filed in Berühmte Dandys, HISTORISCHES, Zeitdokumente
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Amongst the young men who shone at this period in the hemisphere of fashion, was the first Lord Barrymore, whose introduction to Carlton House, where he became initiated in all the vices which were exhibited in that royal brothel, joined to a disposition of his own naturally profligate and extravagant, soon rendered him notorious in the annals of gallantry; and as one of the companions of the Prince of Wales, he became acquainted with some of the most distinguished beauties of the day.

The bacchanalian orgies of Carlton House were, at this time, of a most extraordinary description, and might be said to resemble more the interior of a Turkish seraglio, than the abode of a British Prince, in which it might be supposed that some respect ought to have been paid to the customary forms of decency and morality.

The young libertine, with the tide of passion flowing strong upon him, had scenes exhibited to him, which opened at once to him the mysteries of nature, and rendered him on a sudden an adept, ere almost he had become a scholar. The dances which were exhibited for the amusement of the companions of the Prince were performed by females, whose sole aim and study appeared to have been, like the dancing girls of the East, to perfect themselves in voluptuousness of attitude, and in a shameless exposure of their person, to the unrestrained gaze of the libidinous voluptuary.

Lord Barrymore was, at the Opera-house, one of the satellites who were continually moving round the Hillisberg; but the extraordinary reserve which she maintained in her intercourse with the numerous suitors for her favours, especially when she was in the performance of her professional duties, drove many away from her presence in despair, whilst in others it only increased the force of their exertions to carry off so splendid a treasure. It was, however, at Carlton House, that Lord Barrymore saw Hillisberg in her real native beauty, free from the garnish and garniture of her profession, and it was at a time when the Prince began to be sated with her charms, and would willingly have relinquished her to another, if that other could be found on whom she could fix her affections. The assiduities of Lord Barrymore were noticed by the Prince, and he doubted not that he had now found the individual, who would rid him of an object who possessed no longer the charm of novelty for him, and whose very connexion with him, on account of its secresy, was rendered positively irksome to him.

His Royal Highness commenced a negotiation, but he soon discovered, that in regard to any illicit connexion, Hillisberg would not enter into any terms, which might be considered as a compromise of her character, and thereby expel her at once from that station in life which she had hitherto maintained. The Prince of Wales was strenuous in his efforts to obtain a settlement for Hillisberg, and the extreme anxiety which he displayed to transfer her to the arms of another, by no means exalted his Royal Highness in her good opinion. Finding, however, that secondary measures would not avail, Lord Barrymore, at last, was induced to make a formal offer of marriage, which was accompanied with the proprietorship of the house then building in Piccadilly, and since the residence of the Marquess of Hertford, with all the family diamonds then unsold, and the whole of the personal property, which the extravagant habits of this scion of nobility had yet left for him to dispose of. These offers were, however, all rejected. Hillisberg could not give her hand where she could not bestow her affections, and the Prince of Wales finding that he could not emancipate himself from the chains that enthralled him, by throwing her into the arms of another, took the earliest opportunity of excluding her from his society, and leaving her, like many of the victims who had preceded her, to further her own interest in the world according to the ruling bias of her disposition.

Quoted from: Robert Huish: Memoirs of George the Fourth. (1830)

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