Prime Ministers and Some Others: A Book of ReminiscencesRussell, George William Erskine
History
Prime Ministers and Some Others: A Book of Reminiscences
Russell, George William Erskine
Great Britain -- Biography
From Brighton, Frederick Leveson was promoted in due course to
Eton, where he played no games and made no friends, had poor health,
and was generally unhappy. One trait of Eton life, and only one,
he was accustomed in old age to recall with approbation, and that
was the complete indifference to social distinctions.
"There is," he wrote, "a well-known story about my friend, the
late Lord Bath, who, on his first arrival at Eton was asked his
name, and answered, 'I am Viscount Weymouth, and I shall be Marquis
of Bath.' Upon which he-received two kicks, one for the Viscount
and the other for the Marquis. This story may not be true, but at
any rate it illustrates the fact that if at Eton a boy boasted
of his social advantages, he would have cause to repent it!"
Leaving Eton at sixteen, Frederick Leveson went to a private tutor
in Nottinghamshire, and there he first developed his interest in
politics. "Reform," he wrote, "is my principal aim." Albany Fonblanque,
whose vivacious articles, reprinted from the _Examiner_, may still
be read in _England under Seven Administrations_, was his political
instructor, and indoctrinated him with certain views, especially
in the domain of Political Economy, which would have been deemed
heretical in the Whiggish atmosphere of Trentham or Chatsworth.
In 1832 he made his appearance in society at Paris, and his mother
wrote: "As to Freddy, he turns all heads, and his own would be if
it was to last more than a week longer. His dancing _fait fureur_."
In October, 1837, he went up to Christ Church, then rather languishing
under Dean Gaisford's mismanagement. Here for three years he enjoyed
himself thoroughly. He rode with the drag, was President of the
Archery Club, played whist, gave and received a great deal of
hospitality, and made some lifelong friendships. Among his
contemporaries was Ruskin, of whom his recollection was certainly
depressing. "He seemed to keep himself aloof from everybody, to
seek no friends, and to have none. I never met him in anyone else's
rooms, or at any social gathering. I see him now, looking rather
crazy, taking his solitary walks."
That Freddy Leveson was "thoroughly idle" was his own confession;
and perhaps, when we consider all the circumstances, it is not
surprising. What is surprising, and what he himself recorded with
surprise, is that neither he nor his contemporaries paid the least
attention to the Oxford Movement, then just at its height, although--and
this makes it stranger still--they used to attend Newman's Sermons
at St. Mary's. They duly admired his unequalled style, but the
substance of his teaching seems to have passed by them like the
idle wind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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