I cannot leave England without once more returning you my most serious thanks for your great friendship & wonderful kindness towards me, & at the same time beg your indulgence in suffering me to express the sentiments of a heart warmly attached to your service & full of the most anxious & and best wishes for your future happiness & welfare ‑‑ relying upon your goodness, I will endeavour to point out some few things, from which, in my poor opinion you are likely to suffer, in the first place I think your great good nature is liable to be imposed upon by people who have not the matter & pretensions to your civility or attention, & who will presume upon that goodness and become troubles one to you, I mention this as I know it has been thought, your good nature makes you too condescending & trust me it is absolutely necessary to make proper distinctions between men, as the surest way, to gain the esteem & regard of the most desirable & valuable part of mankind ‑ believe me a knowledge of the world & of me is very necessary & and the most difficult to be acquir’d, allow me to [inserted] say it is more so for you, as the retir’d & private education unavoidably chalk’d out for a Prince, has prevented you from knowing so much of them, as young men, who have reap’d the benefit of a publick school, in general do at your age; besides your separation is such as to make people very anxious to be upon the best footing with you, & I am sorry to say that too many these are in this world, who to gain your favour will acquiesce & encourage you in doing things not they himselves would perhaps be the first to condemn, & when they find the world disapproving your conduct, will lay the blame entirely upon yourself ‑ as to Politics, you will know, I have ever except once in the great Park at Windsor, studiously avoided talking about, nor do I, at this time, wish to enter upon the subject farther than to entreat of [inserted] you before you lend yourself to any party, to consider well, what you mean, your one good sense (of which no once has a greater share) if properly employ’d, will prevent your becoming the dupe of those who have no other design than to make use of you, for their own advantage; I mean to speak of no particular set of men, but my great anxiety for your future ease, perhaps leads me to say more than I ought, if you reflect a moment you will see that any engagements of this sort, will lead you into difficulties which it may be impossible for you to extricate yourself from, so long as you live, recollect what a large family yours is & you will see how necessary it is for you all to live well together, & I am thoroughly convinc’d [inserted] that it is for your own interest so to do, & that you will by that means not only enjoy more real comfort, but that you will be more at your ease in every particular. I make no doubt of a most excellent & sensible speech of the Duke of Cumberlands having struck you as forcibly as it did me, it was, let ones family stick by each other & we need not fear the world ‑ I fear you will think me insistent & troublesome for plaguing you [inserted] with this letter, however I must still intrude upon your good nature, by adding one wish more, which is to beg that you will not write any more letters to a certain sort of Ladies I should hope that what you have already suffered will be a sufficient warning ‑ I really believe by what I can learn, that your Lady in my sheet means to behave in every particular with propriety & attention to you, as to myself you well know I am scarcely acquainted with her therefor can say no more, than to wish she may ad so much as to please you & merit your protection ‑ I do most heartily wish you may be pleas’d with the manners &c of your present establishment, which appears to me to be compos’d of good men, tho’ many of them entirely unknown to me ‑ Lord Southampton very call’d in Clarges Street on Friday to Take leave of me, we had of course some conversation about you, & I am clearly convinc’d he not only wishes, but is determin’d to do every--thing in his power that can
afford you pleasure or comfort, & it is My firm opinion that he will be perfectly faithful, & is too much the man of Honor to say or do anything but what is perfectly upright & fair towards you, I know that so much averse is he to tittle tattle, that he is absolutely determin’d should any one person be detected in bearing tales about your family to make a poise of having him dismiss your service, let him be of what sever dash he will ‑ I have taken the liberty of setting down some regulations & recommendations which Col. Stevens is so obliging as to undertake to show to you, & I flatter myself if you have no objection to them, you will order them to be comply’d with, at the same time let me beg of you to alter the whole or any part of them entirely to your satisfaction, as nothing would make me more unhappy than thinking any argument of mine should be in the smallest degree disagreeable to you, for believe me my only wish is to promote the good of your service, & to do all in my power to put everything upon the best footing ‑ Will you permit me, Sir, to trouble you with my duty to the Duke of Cumberland, & return him my best thanks for his great civility & attention to me, & assure him how much I lament not having had it in my power to say my respects in person to both their Royal Highnesses’ Accept my dearest Friend (if you will allow me to call you by that name) my best thanks for your Picture which you are, I flatter myself, well convinc’d in the most valuable present you could have given me, & what I never will [inserted] part with as long as I live ‑ Adieu God bless you & may you enjoy every blessing & happiness in this Life is the real & serious wish of one who begs leave to subscribe himself your most truly attach’d friend & Servt
Colonel Gerard Lake is one of these really interesting people in my opinion. He was a high-ranking General in the British Army and served with known figures such as Prince Frederick, the Duke of York and the Duke of Wellington to name only a few. He was a veteran of the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the Second Anglo-Maratha War. He also served as a member of the British House of Commons from 1790 until 1802. In 1807 he was created Viscount of Lake.
Today, Lake is scarcely remembered for his political or military service, but more for his position as equerry to George, the Prince of Wales and later Prince Regent and eventually George IV. He assumed this post in 1787. Lake was a good deal older then George, being born in 1744 while George was born in 1762 but the two of them had an uncommon close relationship - as you can see in this letter. George valued Lake’s character and accepted his advices - something that he did not necessarily with everybody. Lake was a family man who was prudent and valued family, duty, honour, loyalty and the service.
