Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 1 (of 4)Walpole, Horace
History
Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 1 (of 4)
Walpole, Horace
Great Britain -- History -- 1760-1789; Great Britain -- History -- George III, 1760-1820
[473] Lord Hertford had married Lady Isabella Fitzroy, youngest
daughter of Charles Duke of Grafton, who was succeeded in the title by
his grandson Augustus Henry, of whom much will be said in some of the
following pages.
[474] The Duke subsequently gave the best proof of the sincerity of
this offer by bequeathing General Conway a legacy of 5000_l._--E.
[475] Conway conducted himself less well than Wolfe at Rochfort, but
far better than the other generals. “Though eminently distinguished
for his gallant and indefatigable behaviour,” says Walpole, “he never
had the happiness of achieving any action of remarkable éclât, or
of performing _alone_ any act of singular utility to his country.
However, he had been engaged in six regular battles, besides smaller
affairs.”--(Counter Address to the Public on the Dismissal of a late
General.) He commanded a division with credit in the Seven years’
war. An ill-natured cotemporary critic charges him with being a
“_martinet_,” and with unnecessarily fatiguing his men, but admits that
“he would have made a very good general if he had not been spoilt by
his education under the Duke of Cumberland.” Life of Lord Chatham, Ap.
vol. iii. p. 262.--E.
[476] The Queen’s brother.
[477] Lord Pembroke was again made a Lord of the Bedchamber in 1769,
without applying; and exactly at a time when he was said to have
carried off another woman, a young Venetian bride (he was then at
Venice), the very night of her wedding. [Lord Pembroke had served in
the Seven years’ war, and was popular with the officers under him,
though not much of a soldier. He was dissolute and extravagant, and
notwithstanding his large income, left when he died heavy debts, which
his only son, the late Earl, a very respectable nobleman, honourably
paid.--E.]
[478] Dr. Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol.
[479] Twickenham.
[480] Thomas Worseley, Surveyor of the Board of Works.
[481] Sir Hugh Smithson, of a very recent family, had married Lady
Elizabeth Seymour, only daughter of Algernon Duke of Somerset, whose
mother was heiress of the Percies, Earls of Northumberland; on which
foundation Hugh and Elizabeth were created Earl and Countess of
Northumberland.
[482] Dr. Johnson said, in allusion to it, “that his Grace was only fit
to succeed himself.” Boswell, vol. ii. p. 210.--E.
[483] He had been likewise Secretary to the Earl of Halifax.
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