Note K — VILLA BORGHESE NOW VILLA UMBERTO PRIMO
Reading edition
The “Memoirs of Madame d’Arblay” relate a touching incident in the life of this exiled Stuart.
Daddy Crump, Fanny Burney’s old gossip, while sojourning in Rome attended a carnival ball at a certain palace, where he saw many notables, among them King James III, as he was always called in Rome, and his two young sons—Prince Charles Edward and Henry, Duke of York. There were numbers of English among the guests, and, characteristically, they did not mingle with the other nationalities, but grouped themselves together in a solid mass at one end of the ballroom. Suddenly, while all were watching the dancers, King James, taking advantage of his mask and official incognito, crossed the room and placed himself in the front rank of his fellow countrymen. The moment was psychic, but the “loyal subjects of the House of Hanover” “took not the slightest notice of him” while he stood as his forebears had stood—an English king among his own people. Daddy Crump relates with smug satisfaction that the “English never moved an eyelid” during those few minutes when their hereditary sovereign assuaged the passionate homesickness of his exile heart with a brief and tragic make-believe.