Memoirs of celebrated Etonians, Volume 1 |
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accordingly admiration afterwards amiable Anecdotes antiquary appears appointed Bishop born brother Bute's Cambridge Chancellor Charles Hanbury Williams Chesterfield Church Cole Court daughter death Duke of Grafton Earl edition eloquence eminent England Etonian father favourite Fielding's former fortune genius George Grenville George III George Selwyn Gray Gray's Grenville Papers Halifax Hist honour Horace Walpole House of Commons House of Lords Ibid illustrious instance Judge Hardinge King King's College Lady lastly literary lived London Lord Bute Lord Camden Lord Chatham Lord Lyttelton Lord Temple master Memoirs Minister month mother Nichols's occasion Parliament person Pitt Pitt's Poems poet political Prince Reign of George rendered retire Richard royal closet scarcely scholar schoolfellow Secretary seems Selwyn Sir Charles Sneyd Davies sovereign statesman supra Thomas tion Townshend verse virtues Walpole's Letters Walpole's Reign Whig wife William writes Lord writes Walpole young
Popular passages
Page 79 - Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
Page 257 - Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton ; and the peculiar happiness of my life will ever consist in promoting the welfare of a people, whose loyalty and warm affection to me I consider as the greatest and most permanent security of my throne...
Page 134 - He made an administration so checkered and speckled, he put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed ; a cabinet so variously inlaid; such a piece of diversified mosaic; such a tessellated pavement without cement; here a bit of black stone and there a bit of white...
Page 191 - you shall be my confessor: when I first set out in the world, I had friends who endeavoured to shake my belief in the Christian religion. I saw difficulties which staggered me; but I kept my mind open to conviction. The evidences and doctrines of Christianity, studied with attention, made me a most firm and persuaded believer of the Christiau religion. I have made it the rule of my life, and it is the ground of my future hopes.
Page 77 - Poor Fielding ! I could not help telling his sister, that I was equally surprised at and concerned for his continued lowness. Had your brother, said I, been born in a stable, or been a runner at a sponging-house, we should have thought him a genius, and wished he had had the advantage of a liberal education, and of being admitted into good company...
Page 309 - I think they have done right in giving exemplary damages; to enter a man's house by virtue of a nameless warrant, in order to procure evidence, is worse than the Spanish inquisition; a law under which no Englishman would wish to live an hour...
Page 157 - I rejoice that the grave has not closed upon me ; that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy.
Page 54 - And mariners, though shipwrecked, dread to land. Here reign the blustering North, and blighting East, No tree is heard to whisper, bird to sing; Yet Nature could not furnish out the feast, Art he invokes new horrors still to bring.
Page 82 - On this day the most melancholy sun I had ever beheld arose, and found me awake at my house at Fordhook. By the light of this sun I was, in my own opinion, last to behold and take leave of some of those creatures on whom I doted with a mother-like fondness, guided by nature and passion, and uncured and unhardened by all the doctrine of that philosophical school where I had learned to bear pains and to despise death.
Page 156 - Within his large wig little more was to be seen than his aquiline nose, and his penetrating eye. He looked like a dying man ; yet never was seen a figure of more dignity ; he appeared like a being of a superior species.