he visited England on two subsequent occasions. Thus David Hume asserts, in a letter written in 1773, that he was certainly in London in 1753. Hume had the information from Lord Marechal, who had received the particulars from the lady, at whose house the Pretender took up his abode. According to this account, he arrived when the lady had a large party. He walked once through St. James's Park, and also in the Mall. Hume told the story to Lord Holderness, many years after, who was Secretary of State at the time, and who acknowledged that such was the case, and that he had first obtained his information from the King himself. It is further stated, on the authority of Lord Marechal, that he was actually present at the coronation of George III. Hume adds, that some of the Jacobites assured him, that Charles Edward formally renounced Romanism in 1753, at the New Church in the Strand, and that on this account he was ill treated by the Court of Rome.[1]
A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine corrected some portions of Hume's statement. He says, that the Pretender renounced Popery, at the Chapel in Gray's Inn Lane, and not at the Chapel in the Strand; and that he was accustomed to read the Service of the Church of England to his household, when no Clergyman was present.[2]
Various opinions have been expressed respecting Charles Edward's religious views. By some persons he has been represented as a bigot to the Church of Rome: by others, as a Protestant: but probably King's statement, that he was indifferent to all creeds,
