Karoline Bauer was a German actress noted for both comic and tragic roles. Her posthumously published memoirs include accounts of her association with Prince Leopold of Coburg.
Karoline Bauer
Memoirs of Karoline Bauer
Translated from the German. Remington & Co., 1885. 4 vols.
It was growing dark when we arrived in Regent's Park, after having wound our way through endless gloomy, monotonous streets. I examined with curiosity the cottages, villas, and proud houses upon the magnificent terraces that were already partly lighted up, half-hidden under glorious old trees and blooming shrubberies. In the pond on the large grass lawn the first stars were glittering. Nightingales were singing from the bushes...At last we stopped in front of an iron railing, and through the trees we saw a charming little villa, brightly lit up.
The German actress was recalling her arrival on a spring evening in 1829 at the hideaway where she would await her marriage to Prince Leopold of Coburg (later King Leopold I of the Belgians).
Our little villa was charming and neat as a jewel-casket, and nicely and cosily furnished with true English comfort...To this must be added a large parklike garden, with bright-green, velvet-soft turf, and a profusion of flowers...But how quiet it was all around in this remote part of Regent's Park! One saw indeed a few similar gardens and villas, but only rarely a solitary pedestrian or a silent park labourer.
Accustomed to the bright lights, she soon begins to fret in this 'green nook.' There are occasional diversions when she is taken to the Zoo or goes for a drive around the park.
the great number of children... They sported about on the fresh green lawn with their pretty little ponies and goat-carriages, whilst the fashionable world, in the most elegant toilettes, drove or rode on horseback in the "ring" or the surrounding roads
Slowly it dawns on her that while the prince is happy to avail himself of her charms he isn't serious about the betrothal, and the villa ends up becoming 'a charming golden cage.' A.D. Ponsonby's A Prisoner in Regent's Park (Chapman & Hall, 1961) puts the episode in context, and provides a smoother translation than the original (uncredited) version.