The Wits and Beaux of Society. Volume 2

Part 1

THE

WITS AND BEAUX OF SOCIETY

GRACE AND PHILIP WHARTON

EDITED

JUSTIN HUNTLY MCCARTHY, M. P.

And the original illustrations by

H. K. BROWNE AND JAMES GODWIN

TWO VOLS.--VOL. II.

1890

CONTENTS VOL. II.

HORACE WALPOLE.

The Commoners of England.--Horace's Regret for the Death of his Mother.-- Little Horace in Arlington Street.--Introduced to George I.-- Characteristic Anecdote of George I.--Walpole's Education.--Schoolboy Days.-- Boyish Friendships.--Companionship of Gray.--A Dreary Doom.-- Walpole's Description of Youthful Delights.--Anecdote of Pope and Frederic of Wales.--The Pomfrets.--Sir Thomas Robinson's Ball.--An Admirable Scene.--Political Squibs.--Sir Robert's Retirement from Office.--The Splendid Mansion of Houghton.--Sir Robert's Love of Gardening.--What we owe to the 'Grandes Tours.'--George Vertue.--Men of One Idea.--The Noble Picture-gallery at Houghton.--The 'Market Pieces.'-- Sir Robert's Death.--The Granville Faction.--A very good Quarrel.-- Twickenham.-- Strawberry Hill.--The Recluse of Strawberry.--Portraits of the Digby Family.--Sacrilege.--Mrs. Darner's Models.--The Long Gallery at Strawberry.-- The Chapel.--'A Dirty Little Thing.'--The Society around Strawberry Hill.--Anne Seymour Conway.--A Man who never Doubted.--Lady Sophia Fermer's Marriage.--Horace in Favour.--Anecdote of Sir William Stanhope.--A Paper House.--Walpole's Habits.--Why did he not Marry?-- 'Dowagers as Plenty as Flounders.'--Catherine Hyde, Duchess of Queensberry.--Anecdote of Lady Granville.--Kitty Clive.--Death of Horatio Walpole.--George, third Earl of Orford.--A Visit to Houghton.--Family Misfortunes.--Poor Chatterton.--Walpole's Concern with Chatterton.-- Walpole in Paris.--Anecdote of Madame Geoffrin.--'Who's that Mr. Walpole?'-- The Miss Berrys.--Horace's two 'Straw Berries.'--Tapping a New Reign.--The Sign of the Gothic Castle.--Growing Old with Dignity.-- Succession to an Earldom.--Walpole's Last Hours.--Let us not be Ungrateful.

GEORGE SELWYN.

A Love of Horrors.--Anecdotes of Selwyn's Mother.--Selwyn's College Days.--Orator Henley.--Selwyn's Blasphemous Freak.--The Profession of a Wit.--The Thirst for Hazard.--Reynolds's Conversation-Piece.--Selwyn's Eccentricities and Witticisms.--A most Important Communication.--An Amateur Headsman.--The Eloquence of Indifference.--Catching a Housebreaker.--The Family of the Selwyns.--The Man of the People.-- Selwyn's Parliamentary Career.--True Wit.--Some of Selwyn's Witty Sayings.--The Sovereignty of the People.--On two kinds of Wit.--Selwyn's Home for Children.--Mie-Mie, the Little Italian.--Selwyn's Little Companion taken from him.--His Later Days and Death.

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.

Sheridan a Dunce.--Boyish Dreams of Literary Fame.--Sheridan in Love.--A Nest of Nightingales.--The 'Maid of Bath.'--Captivated by Genius.-- Sheridan's Elopement with 'Cecilia.'--His Duel with Captain Matthews.-- Standards of Ridicule.--Painful Family Estrangements.--Enters Drury Lane.--Success of the Famous 'School for Scandal.'--Opinions of Sheridan and his Influence.--The Literary Club.--Anecdote of Garrick's Admittance.--Origin of the 'Rejected Addresses.'--New Flights.--Political Ambition.--The Gaming Mania.--Almacks'.--Brookes'.--Black-balled.--Two Versions of the Election Trick.--St. Stephen's Won.--Vocal Difficulties.-- Leads a Double Life.--Pitt's Vulgar Attack.--Sheridan's Happy Retort-- Grattan's Quip.--Sheridan's Sallies.--The Trial of Warren Hastings.-- Wonderful Effect of Sheridan's Eloquence.--The Supreme Effort.--The Star Culminates.--Native Taste for Swindling.--A Shrewd but Graceless Oxonian.--Duns Outwitted.--The Lawyer Jockeyed.--Adventures with Bailiffs.--Sheridan's Powers of Persuasion.--House of Commons Greek.-- Curious Mimicry.--The Royal Boon Company.--Street Frolics at Night.-- An Old Tale.--'All's well that ends well.'--The Fray in St. Giles'.-- Unopened Letters.--An Odd Incident.--Reckless Extravagance,--Sporting Ambition.--Like Father like Son.--A Severe and Witty Rebuke.-- Intemperance.--Convivial Excesses of a Past Day.--Worth wins at last.-- Bitter Pangs.--The Scythe of Death.--Sheridan's Second Wife.--Debts of Honour.--Drury Lane Burnt.--The Owner's Serenity.--Misfortunes never come Singly.--The Whitbread Quarrel.--Ruined.--Undone and almost Forsaken.-- The Dead Man Arrested.--The Stories fixed on Sheridan.--Extempore Wit and Inveterate Talkers.

BEAU BRUMMELL.

Two popular Sciences.--'Buck Brummell' at Eton.--Investing his Capital.-- Young Cornet Brummell.--The Beau's Studio.--The Toilet.--'Creasing Down.'--Devotion to Dress.--A Great Gentleman.--Anecdotes of Brummell.-- 'Don't forget, Brum: Goose at Four'--Offers of Intimacy resented.-- Never in love.--Brummell out Hunting.--Anecdote of Sheridan and Brummell.--The Beau's Poetical Efforts.--The Value of a Crooked Sixpence.--The Breach with the Prince of Wales.--'Who's your Fat Friend?'--The Climax is reached.--The Black-mail of Calais.--George the Greater and George the Less.--An Extraordinary Step.--Down the Hill of Life.--A Miserable Old Age.--In the Hospice Du Bon Sauveur.--O Young Men of this Age, be warned!

THEODORE EDWARD HOOK.

The Greatest of Modern Wits.--What Coleridge said of Hook.--Hook's Family.--Redeeming Points.--Versatility.--Varieties of Hoaxing.--The Black-wafered Horse.--The Berners Street Hoax.--Success of the Scheme.-- The Strop of Hunger.--Kitchen Examinations.--The Wrong House.--Angling for an Invitation.--The Hackney-coach Device.--The Plots of Hook and Mathews.--Hook's Talents as an Improvisatore.--The Gift becomes his Bane.--Hook's Novels.--College Fun.--Baiting a Proctor.--The Punning Faculty.--Official Life Opens.--Troublesome Pleasantry.--Charge of Embezzlement.--Misfortune.--Doubly Disgraced.--No Effort to remove the Stain.--Attacks on the Queen.--An Incongruous Mixture.--Specimen of the Ramsbottom Letters.--Hook's Scurrility.---Fortune and Popularity.-- The End.

SYDNEY SMITH.

The 'Wise Wit.'--Oddities of the Father.--Verse-making at Winchester.-- Curate Life on Salisbury Plain.--Old Edinburgh.--Its Social and Architectural Features.--Making Love Metaphysically.--The Old Scottish Supper.--The Men of Mark passing away.--The Band of Young Spirits.-- Brougham's Early Tenacity.--Fitting up Conversations.--'Old School' Ceremonies.--The Speculative Society.--A Brilliant Set.--Sydney's Opinion of his Friends.--Holland House.--Preacher at the 'Foundling.'--Sydney's 'Grammar of Life.'--The Picture Mania.--A Living Comes at Last.--The Wit's Ministry.--The Parsonage House at Foston-le-Clay.--Country Quiet.-- The Universal Scratcher.--Country Life and Country Prejudice.--The Genial Magistrate.--Glimpse of Edinburgh Society.--Mrs. Grant of Laggan.-- A Pension Difficulty.--Jeffrey and Cockburn.--Craigcrook.--Sydney Smith's Cheerfulness.--His Rheumatic Armour.--No Bishopric.--Becomes Canon of St. Paul's.--Anecdotes of Lord Dudley.--A Sharp Reproof.-- Sydney's Classification of Society.--Last Strokes of Humour.

GEORGE BUBB DODINGTON, LORD MELCOMBE.

A Dinner-giving lordly Poet.--A Misfortune for a Man of Society.-- Brandenburgh House.--'The Diversions of the Morning.'--Johnson's Opinion of Foote.--Churchill and 'The Rosciad.'--Personal Ridicule in its Proper Light.--Wild Specimen of the Poet.--Walpole on Dodington's 'Diary.'-- The best Commentary on a Man's Life.--Leicester House.--Grace Boyle.-- Elegant Modes of passing Time.--A sad Day.--What does Dodington come here for?--The Veteran Wit, Beau, and Politician.--'Defend us from our Executors and Editors.'

SUBJECTS OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume II.

"WHO'S YOUR FAT FRIEND?"

STRAWBERRY HILL FROM THE THAMES

Part 2

SELWYN ACKNOWLEDGES "THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE"

THE FAMOUS "LITERARY CLUB"

A TREASURE FOR A LADY--SHERIDAN AND THE LAWYER

THEODORE HOOK'S ENGINEERING FROLIC

SYDNEY SMITH'S WITTY ANSWER TO THE OLD PARISH CLERK

HORACE WALPOLE.

The Commoners of England.--Horace's Regret for the Death of his Mother.-- 'Little Horace' in Arlington Street.--Introduced to George I.-- Characteristic Anecdote of George I.--Walpole's Education.--Schoolboy Days.--Boyish Friendships.--Companionship of Gray.--A Dreary Doom.-- Walpole's Description of Youthful Delights.--Anecdote of Pope and Frederic of Wales.--The Pomfrets.--Sir Thomas Robinson's Ball.--An Admirable Scene.--Political Squibs.--Sir Robert's Retirement from Office.--The Splendid Mansion of Houghton.--Sir Robert's Love of Gardening.--What we owe to the 'Grandes Tours.'--George Vertue.--Men of One Idea.--The Noble Picture-gallery at Houghton.--The 'Market Pieces.'-- Sir Robert's Death.--The Granville Faction.--A very good Quarrel.-- Twickenham.--Strawberry Hill.--The Recluse of Strawberry.--Portraits of the Digby Family.--Sacrilege.--Mrs. Darner's Models.--The Long Gallery at Strawberry.--The Chapel.--'A Dirty Little Thing.'--The Society around Strawberry Hill.--Anne Seymour Conway.--A Man who never Doubted.--Lady Sophia Fermor's Marriage.--Horace in Favour.--Anecdote of Sir William Stanhope.--A Paper House.--Walpole's Habits.--Why did he not Marry?-- 'Dowagers as Plenty as Flounders.'--Catherine Hyde, Duchess of Queensberry.--Anecdote of Lady Granville.--Kitty Clive.--Death of Horatio Walpole.--George, third Earl of Orford.--A Visit to Houghton.--Family Misfortunes.--Poor Chatterton.--Walpole's Concern with Chatterton.-- Walpole in Paris.--Anecdote of Madame Geoffrin.--'Who's that Mr. Walpole?'--The Miss Berrys.--Horace's two 'Straw Berries.'--Tapping a New Reign.--The Sign of the Gothic Castle.--Growing Old with Dignity.-- Succession to an Earldom.--Walpole's Last Hours.--Let us not be Ungrateful.

Had this elegant writer, remarks the compiler of 'Walpoliana,' composed memoirs of his own life, an example authorized by eminent names, ancient and modern, every other pen must have been dropped in despair, so true was it that 'he united the good sense of Fontenelle with the Attic salt and graces of Count Anthony Hamilton.'

But 'Horace' was a man of great literary modesty, and always undervalued his own efforts. His life was one of little incident: it is his character, his mind, the society around him, the period in which he shone, that give the charm to his correspondence, and the interest to his biography.

Besides, he had the weakness common to several other fine gentlemen who have combined letters and haut ton, of being ashamed of the literary character. The vulgarity of the court, its indifference to all that was not party writing, whether polemical or political, cast a shade over authors in his time.

Never was there, beneath all his assumed Whig principles, a more profound aristocrat than Horace Walpole. He was, by birth, one of those well-descended English gentlemen who have often scorned the title of noble, and who have repudiated the notion of merging their own ancient names in modern titles. The commoners of England hold a proud pre-eminence. When some low-born man entreated James I. to make him a gentleman, the well-known answer was, 'Na, na, I canna! I could mak thee a lord, but none but God Almighty can mak a gentleman.'

Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards minister to George II., and eventually Lord Orford, belonged to an ancient family in Norfolk; he was a third son, and was originally destined for the Church, but the death of his elder brethren having left him heir to the family estate, in 1698, he succeeded to a property which ought to have yielded him £2,000 a year, but which was crippled with various encumbrances. In order to relieve himself of these, Sir Robert married Catherine Shorter, the granddaughter of Sir John Shorter, who had been illegally and arbitrarily appointed Lord Mayor of London by James II.

Horace was her youngest child, and was born in Arlington Street, on the 24th of September, 1717, O.S. Six years afterwards he was inoculated for the small-pox, a precaution which he records as worthy of remark, since the operation had then only recently been introduced by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu from Turkey.

He is silent, however, naturally enough, as to one important point--his real parentage. The character of his mother was by no means such as to disprove an assertion which gained general belief: this was, that Horace was the offspring, not of Sir Robert Walpole, but of Carr, Lord Hervey, the eldest son of the Earl of Bristol, and the elder brother of Lord Hervey, whose 'Memoirs of the Court of George II.' are so generally known.

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