All this at this time must have been very distressing to Lady Darlington, for she was very careful of her reputation, as the following amusing incident, given in Lady Cowper’s Diary (February 4, 1716) indicates:  “Madame Kielmansegg had been told that the Prince, afterwards George II, had said that she intrigued with all the men at Hanover.  She came to complain of this to the Princess, who replied, she did not believe the Prince had said so, it not being his custom to speak in that manner.  Madame Kielmansegg cried and said it had made her despised, and that many of her acquaintance had left her upon that story, but that her husband had taken all the care she could to vindicate her reputation, and thereupon she drew forth a certificate under her husband’s hand, in which he certified, in all the due forms, that she had always been a faithful wife to him, and that he had never had any cause to suspect her honesty.  The Princess smiled, and said she did not doubt it at all, and that all the trouble was very unnecessary, and that it was a very bad reputation that wanted such a support.”

In appearance, Lady Darlington was a contrast to the Duchess of Kendal.  She was in her youth a good-looking woman, but as the years passed she became immensely corpulent, and Horace Walpole, who saw her at his mother’s when he was a child, thus described her:  “Two fierce black eyes, large and rolling between two lofty arched eye-brows, two acres of cheeks spread with crimson, an ocean of neck that overflowed, and was not distinguished from the lower part of her body, and no part restrained by stays.”  He christened her “Elephant and Castle.”

For a while, Lady Mary was popular also with the Prince of Wales, who was attracted by her looks and her vivacity.  It is recorded that on one occasion when Lady Mary appeared in a gown more than usually becoming the Prince called his wife from the card table to admire her.  The Princess came, looked, and then said calmly, “Lady Mary always dresses so well,” and went on with her game.

It was impossible, however, even for the most tactful person in the world to be on good terms with the King and the Prince of Wales.  It is said of George I that he was of an affectionate disposition and that throughout his life he hated only three people in the world:  his mother, who was dead, his wife, who was imprisoned at Ahlden, and his son.  It has been said that the trouble began when in his early youth the Prince expressed sympathy with his mother; it may be that it started from the fact that the Prince was the son of a woman who had sullied the honour of the Royal House.  It is, however, unnecessary to look for reasons; to hate the heir-apparent was a tradition with the Georges.

Matters did not improve after the accession of George I to the British throne.  He disliked his daughter-in-law, Caroline, daughter of John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach, and spoke of her as “Cette diablesse Madame la Princesse." The opposition was not slow to take advantage of the rift, and planted itself on the side of his Royal Highness.  It proposed, on the Civil List vote, a separate revenue of L100,000 for the Prince—­which infuriated the King, as it was intended to do.