streets of Rome--and he loved to join in the scuffles like any
commoner. Pugilism he learnt from Angelo, and he was considered by
some to be a fine performer. On one occasion, too, at an exposition
d'escrime, when he handled the foils against the mai^tre, he `was
highly complimented upon his graceful postures.' In fact, despite all
his accomplishments, he seems to have been a thoroughly manly young
fellow. He was just the kind of figure-head Society had long been in
need of. A certain lack of tone had crept into the amusements of the
haut monde, due, doubtless, to the lack of an acknowledged leader. The
King was not yet mad, but he was always bucolic, and socially out of
the question. So at the coming of his son Society broke into a gallop.
Balls and masquerades were given in his honour night after night. Good
Samaritans must have approved when they found that at these
entertainments great ladies and courtesans brushed beautiful shoulders
in utmost familiarity, but those who delighted in the high charm of
society probably shook their heads. We need not, however, find it a
flaw in George's social bearing that he did not check this kind of
freedom. At the first, as a young man full of life, of course he took
everything as it came, joyfully. No one knew better than he did, in
later life, that there is a time for laughing with great ladies and a
time for laughing with courtesans. But as yet it was not possible for
him to exert influence. How great that influence became I will suggest
hereafter.

I like to think of him as he was at this period, charging about, in
pursuit of pleasure, like a young bull. The splendid taste for
building had not yet come to him. His father would not hear of him
patronising the Turf. But already he was implected with a passion for
dress and seems to have erred somewhat on the side of dressing up, as
is the way of young men. It is fearful to think of him, as Cyrus