EDWARD still continued to treat the Princess of Savoy with the most contemptuous neglect and marked indifference; and his name became a jest at that court, which, though gratified that England should seek its alliance, was conscious that it strengthened the throne of Britain, by uniting its force to that kingdom. Vandevilles were sung in ridicule of Edward and his bigoted favourite; for / France had thrown off the supremacy of the pope; and, to ridicule some gross absurdities in the church of Rome, had become fashionable.

Those who had formerly admired Edward for the graces of his youth, and his many accomplishments, to which, they flattered themselves, was subjoined an excellent heart, were grieved at their disappointed hopes; and, though they tolerated the ludicrous songs in ridicule of him, which were often sung in their presence, the relatives of the princess exclaimed, with serious concern, ‘Ah! qu'il soit gueri, ce cœur gatè!’ Ah! may this corrupted heart be made whole!

Since the last short peace with France, English women had adopted a change of manners and appearance, which astonished their countrymen, who still possessed that saturnine distance and gravity so peculiar / to their character; a distance that appears to dread an incroachment on the plenitude of their purse, and a gravity proceeding too often from the low pride of knowing it to be well filled.

The dress of the ladies became more simple, but infinitely more tasteful: it bore a resemblance to the costume of the Roman and Grecian ladies. But Roman virtue and Grecian industry seemed to be little understood by the British dames; who, while they displayed every feminine attraction to the most alluring advantage, coarse and masculine manners, with an impudent nonchalance, that set modesty at defiance, were practised by the greatest part of those who claimed pretensions to rank in the higher circles of fashion.