Enchantments Lately Seen upon the Mountains of Wales. . .

Playing with the double associations of goats with lechery and the goats as symbols of Welsh culture, Gillray portrays the Prince of Wales (who qualifies in both interpretations) as a huge and awkward looking goat giving a conciliatory kiss to his wife from whom he had been estranged for the previous six months.

Enchantments Lately Seen upon the Mountains of Wales. . .

Enchantments Lately Seen upon the Mountains of Wales. . . [1796]
© National Portrait Gallery, London

The Prince and Princess of Wales had experienced marital difficulties (to put it mildly) since the day the marriage was arranged. The Prince had never seen Princess Caroline before the engagement, and only agreed to the marriage in order to get financial relief from his ever mounting debts. And having (to his mind) performed his duties in begetting a child and heir, he had separated from the Princess as soon as their daughter was born, and began lobbying to have his mistress (the Countess of Jersey) formally recognized at court.

The newspapers and print makers (Gillray among them), sensing the national mood, had a field day shaming the adulterous couple, deploring the treatment of their cuckolded spouses, and hoping that a change of heart was still possible. Already at the end of May, there were efforts underway among family friends to bring about a reconciliation. The London Star of May 30th noted that "Lord Thurlow and other persons. . . have endeavored to bring about a reconciliation," between the feuding pair. But at that point their efforts were unsuccessful.

Then on June 7th, Bell's Weekly Messenger wrote that "Lord and Lady Jersey [had] resigned their several employments at Carlton House" reviving hope for a return to something like normalcy. In the same issue, the marital mediators then listed included Lord Thurlow, his Grace of Leeds, and Lord Moira with additional acknowledgement of the Duke and Duchess of York for having remained true friends of Princess Caroline.

Finally on June 29th, the day before Gillray's print appeared, readers of the Evening Mail for June 27–29, 1796 would have seen the following announcement:

Every sincere friend to the welfare of this country must partake with us in the happiness we feel, in being able to assure the Public that a reconciliation has taken place between the Prince and Princess of Wales. This interesting event has been accomplished by the mediation (and what mediation could be more effectual?) of his Majesty and the Duke of York; the latter of whom finally arranged the business on Friday night at Carlton House. The Prince arrived there yesterday evening [Monday, 6/27], about 7 o"clock, from Oatlands, and dined with her Royal Highness. The happiness of that Palace, and we may justly add that of the Nation, which had been so fatally suspended by the separation of those Illustrious Personages, is again restored.

The Public apprehension, lest there should be any renewal of complaint, must entirely subside, as the causes of the troubles in which the country has so feelingly sympathized, are removed. The Countess of Jersey handed in her resignation on Saturday, which was accepted by the Prince.

Gillray's print combines elements from a number of these sources. To the left of the kissing couple, he shows (from left to right) Lord Moira, former Chancellor Thurlow, and the Duke of York joining hands to celebrate their successful mediation. To the right, Gillray shows the lecherous Earl and Countess being blasted off the mountains of Wales and back to the Isle of Jersey by the King's disapproving "What? What? What?" (It's not unlikely that the pressure to remove the Jerseys from their positions in the Prince's household came from the King.

But though some people may have been encouraged by the removal of the Earl and Countess from Carlton House, Gillray's alternative title "Shon-ap Morgan's Reconcilement to the Fairy Princess" casts the whole scene as a kind of Welsh legend or fairy tale and throws doubt upon its credibility. And whatever enchantment had prevailed in the arrangement of the dinner between the Prince and Princess at Carlton House was soon dispelled. The Prince and Princess quickly returned to their mutual abhorrence.

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