The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 214: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE 185 and his legitimate daughter, the Princess Charlotte, should thus visit St. James’s Palace! And here we must pause for a little space to describe her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte, who was now just eighteen years of age. Handsome she was, assuredly, yet not endowed with that sweet, nymphlike, and angelic beauty which characterized Florence Eaton; but invested with that peculiar style of loveliness — sleepy, luxuriant, and sensuous — which has already been described in an earlier chapter as distinctive of the females belonging to the family of Guelph. Her figure, even at this early age, was already of a richness merging upon embonpoint, but not sufficiently so to diminish its graces. There was, however, a voluptuous- ness in its contours which was enhanced by the complete exposure of the shoulders and neck, according to the fashion of the time. Short of stature, the princess had little of girl- hood’s suppleness and lightness of movement. Her slow pace and matron-like gait arose not from any idea of main- taining a dignified bearing, but from the circumstance that in her nature she was what Byron has described as ‘‘ some- what languishing and lazy.” Her hair — of a light chestnut, soft as silk and fine in its individual filaments — was far from profuse in quantity, and was worn in frizzly ringlets at the sides, but carelessly gathered up in a knot behind the head. Her complexion was beautifully fair, with an animated bloom upon the cheeks, making them resemble in their healthful plumpness the ripe peach with its mingled damask and vermeil. Her features could not be called regular nor yet classical; and they were also too large and striking for a delicate beauty, — the nose being prominent, the lips full and sensuous, and the chin rounded with the boldness belonging to a profile that indicates strong passions. Her eyes were of a light blue, and looked soft, languishing, and even wanton from beneath their drooping lids; the eyebrows were light, and indeed too delicately pencilled to give a classic finish to the opal of the temples. To judge more minutely still of the character of the Prin- cess Charlotte from the usual physical indications, we may add that benevolence, generosity, and goodness of heart were in her looks; while an occasional bridling up of the head, a quick flashing of the eye from the midst of its languid CoORnnicloooks (C(O)