Melusina had been created (for life)
Baroness of Aldborough, county Suffolk, and Countess of Walsingham,
county Norfolk, nine years previous to her marriage.
Her father being George I., as Horace Walpole terms him, 'rather a good
sort of man than a shining king,' and her mother 'being no genius,'
there was probably no great attraction about Lady Walsingham, except her
expected dowry.
During her girlhood Melusina resided in the apartments at St.
James's--opening into the garden; and here Horace Walpole describes his
seeing George I., in the rooms appropriated to the Duchess of Kendal,
next to those of Melusina Schulemberg, or, as she was then called, the
Countess of Walsingham. The Duchess of Kendal was then very 'lean and
ill-favoured.' 'Just before her,' says Horace, 'stood a tall, elderly
man, rather pale, of an aspect rather good-natured than august: in a
dark tie-wig, a plain coat, waistcoat, and breeches of snuff-coloured
cloth, with stockings of the same colour, and a blue riband over all.
That was George I.'
[Illustration: A ROYAL ROBBER.]
The Duchess of Kendal had been maid of honour to the Electress
Sophia, the mother of George I. and the daughter of Elizabeth of
Bohemia.
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