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