‘His other wife, Princess Caroline, sat in Kensington Palace, trying to pass the time during the Regent’s fête, with her friend Miss Berry. All her ladies had gone to Carlton House, and Miss Berry was hard to put to it to keep the Princess amused while they were away. With perambulatings through the gardens, some punishing work by the Princess on the pianoforte, a long-drawn-out meal, and a great deal of reminiscent talk the hours slowly passed, and at last Lady Glenbervie returned, ready to describe in detail the doings at Carlton House. Gold and silver fish, she said, swam in a stream which ran through mossy banks down the centre of the lengthy table with the Prince at its head, presumably just out of range of the splashing fountain that fed the stream. Some of the fish were dead, but that did not deflect from the artistry of the scene, backed by massed flowers and framed by gorgeous hangings of crimson and gold. huge candelabra hung overhead, lighting up the glitter of the Prince’s diamond aigrette and the Garter star on his breast. He was dressed in the scarlet uniform of a Field-Marshal (one of his first acts, on becoming Regent, had been to promote himself to this rank).
[an extract from ‘Prinny’s Daughter: A Biography of Princess Charlotte of Wales’ by Thea Home]
Princess Charlotte of Wales 