In 1745, Bute moved to Westminster, London, where his family rented a house at Twickenham for forty-five pounds per annum. He met Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1747 at the Egham Races and became a close friend. After the Prince's death in 1751, Bute was appointed tutor to Prince George, the new Prince of Wales. Bute arranged for the Prince and his brother Prince Edward to follow a course of lectures on natural philosophy by the itinerant lecturer Stephen Demainbray. This led to an interest in natural philosophy on the part of the young prince and may have led to George III's collection of natural philosophical instruments. Bute furthermore became close to Prince Frederick's widow, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, the Dowager Princess of Wales, and it was rumoured that the couple were having an affair. Indeed, one of the Prince of Wales's associates, John Horne Tooke, published a scandalous pamphlet alluding to the liaison, but the rumours were almost certainly untrue, since Bute held sincere religious beliefs against adultery and, by all indications, appeared happily married.