DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

point of excellence; Sheridan enriched the drama with brilliant comedies; Oliver Goldsmith and Sir Walter Scott composed their familiar masterpieces of fiction; and, amid a galaxy of poets, Lord Byron poured forth his immortal verse. Some of these illustrious men owed to George III. not a little of the patronage which facilitated their further success. Dr. Johnston, the literary autocrat of the eighteenth century, a man whose praise was not easily commanded, pronounced a high eulogium on George the Third’s manner, and much in the same words used by Pitt’s father, Lord Chatham, who had said of the King, ‘ His Majesty is the greatest courtier in his court.’ In the meantime, during the unceasing struggles with foreign powers and the various changes of his Ministers, the King was laying a strong hold on the affections of his people. His Governments bore the responsibility and blame of his political blunders, which, owing to the scarcity of information and the lack of political education, were unrevealed and ignored. On the other hand, he benefited by the lustre of Pitt’s administration. But it was his geniality and modesty, of which many instances are related, that principally endeared George III. to his subjects. When walking at Weymouth, one day, the King came across a hay-