Since Charles the Second the sovereigns of England had, with a single exception, always been unfashionable; and the fact that the exception was George the Fourth seemed to give an added significance to the rule.
What was grave was not the lack of fashion, but the lack of other and more important qualities.

The hostility of the upper classes was symptomatic of an antagonism more profound than one of manners or even of tastes.

The Prince, in a word, was un-English.

What that word precisely meant it was difficult to say; but the fact was patent to every eye.

Lord Palmerston, also, was not fashionable; the great Whig aristocrats looked askance at him, and only tolerated him as an unpleasant necessity thrust upon them by fate.