seen among the elms of Saint James's Park chatting with Dryden
about poetry.51 Another day his arm was on Tom Durfey's shoulder;
and his Majesty was taking a second, while his companion sang
"Phillida, Phillida," or "To horse, brave boys, to Newmarket, to
horse."52 James, with much less vivacity and good nature, was
accessible, and, to people who did not cross him, civil. But of
this sociableness William was entirely destitute. He seldom came
forth from his closet; and, when he appeared in the public rooms,
he stood among the crowd of courtiers and ladies, stern and
abstracted, making no jest and smiling at none. His freezing
look, his silence, the dry and concise answers which he uttered
when he could keep silence no longer, disgusted noblemen and
gentlemen who had been accustomed to be slapped on the back by
their royal masters, called Jack or Harry, congratulated about
race cups or rallied about actresses. The women missed the homage
due to their sex. They observed that the King spoke in a somewhat
imperious tone even to the wife to whom he owed so much, and whom
he sincerely loved and esteemed.53 They were amused and shocked
to see him, when the Princess Anne dined with him, and when the
first green peas of the year were put on the table, devour the
whole dish without offering a spoonful to her Royal Highness; and
they pronounced that this great soldier and politician was no
better than a Low Dutch bear.54

One misfortune, which was imputed to him as a crime, was his bad
English. He spoke our language, but not well. His accent was
foreign: his diction was inelegant; and his vocabulary seems to
have been no larger than was necessary for the transaction of
business. To the difficulty which he felt in expressing himself,
and to his consciousness that his pronunciation was bad, must be