CHAPTER LIV.

FOX'S MODE OF LIFE DURING THE SECESSION, 1797-1800.

AFTER his great effort on Parliamentary Reform, Fox, as he had announced, gave nearly his whole time to study and private enjoyment, scarcely any to political discussion.

In coming to this decision, his mind had been much agitated, but his heart beat strongly in favour of retirement. In argument, he was obliged to admit that secession was either, as Pitt described it, a retreat to the Mons Sacer with a view to demand by force what had not been yielded to persuasion, or a voluntary abandonment of the pursuit of the great objects of his public life.

Thus embarrassed, Fox was eager to declare that his secession was not systematic. Already, in the month of August, he writes to his nephew: "Pray, if you have an opportunity of talking about the Secession, say what is the truth, that there was not agreement of opinion enough upon the subject to make it possible to take what one may call a measure upon the subject; but that most of us thought, that, after the proposition for reform, we might fairly enough stay away, considering the preceding events of the Session, and the behaviour of Parliament upon them."*

Yet in the following November on an intimation from Lord Lauderdale that, in the Duke of Bedford's opinion, he ought to attend on the first day of the Session, he says, "My own is so much the other way that I shall scarcely bring myself to give it up. That secession is a measure liable enough to misconstruction I admit, but that was considered, I suppose, before we absented ourselves last Session; and if ever there is a time when secession is like to have any effect upon the public, it is at the beginning of a Session. Absence at other times passes only for less vigour and activity."*

Lord Lansdowne was one of those who most disapproved secession. He said to Lord Holland: "Is your uncle aware of what he is doing? Secession means rebellion, or it is nonsense." Yet in November Fox writes to his nephew :

"I am glad to hear Lansdowne, at last, approves of our secession; whether it will ever produce any effect I know not; but I own I think it has a better chance of doing so than attendance; mind, I mean my attendance, for I think the more any new ones show themselves the better; and I shall be very sorry if Moira makes his motion when you cannot attend it." †

Fox's life during the Secession was spent almost entirely at St. Anne's Hill. He loved that place with a passionate fondness. His house was not large, but comfortable and convenient. The position is beautiful, and he took such interest in the garden that in one of his manuscript volumes he inserted a catalogue of all the flowers cultivated in it. Some fine trees grow in the shrubbery. The * "Correspondence," vol. iii. p. 274.

house stands on an eminence commanding a wide and varied prospect, of which the Thames, flowing beneath the hill, forms a striking and agreeable feature. Shrubs planted with taste and judgment, and bowers and rustic arches of honeysuckle and roses adorned the lawns and walks near the house. About thirty acres of land formed the whole domain, but the part of the hill which rises above the house was left as a common, and with its gorse and heath diversified by its wildness the cultivated scenery of the valley below.

The habits of Fox were simple and studious. In summer, he rose between six and seven; in winter, before eight. He breakfasted between eight and nine in summer; a little after nine in winter. At breakfast, the chief news of the day was read aloud, generally by Fox. He also read out such parts of his private letters as did not require secrecy, and commented with freedom, but without acrimony, on political events. After breakfast, he usually read some Italian poet with Mrs. Fox, and then till dinner-time pursued his own studies. These were generally directed to poetry; of poets he preferred the Greek, and of Greek poets, Homer to all others. Mrs. Fox says, in one of her letters, that he read as much Greek as Dr. Parr, and would get through two or three books of Homer in a morning.

His dinner hour was half-past two or three o'clock in summer, and four in winter. In summer, after a few glasses of wine and a cup of coffee, he walked out, conversing with any friend who happened to be an inmate of the house. After tea, reading in history commenced, chiefly with a view to a work he was projecting on the Revolution of 1688. At ten, a light supper of fruit and pastry was brought in, and at half-past ten the host and his family retired to

rest.*

There can be no doubt that Fox enjoyed this period of retirement and literary study more than any other part of his life. He was a man without malignity, envy, or the sordid parts of ambition; his fame as an orator could hardly be increased; he loved his wife with a devoted affection which was as fondly returned, and his passion for poetry, for flowers, and for a rural life was intense. "A good critic," says Burke, in one of his political pamphlets, "and there is none better than Mr. Fox," &c. If Burke was a fit judge of Fox's qualifications as a critic, I feel sure I shall be excused for giving copious extracts from his letters on the subject of Greek and Latin poets-the great models of Milton and of Tasso, though not of Shakespeare, Dante, and Ariosto.

a

In 1796, the celebrated Greek scholar, Gilbert Wakefield, dedicated to Fox, in very complimentary terms, his edition of Lucretius. This incident gave rise to correspondence between them, in which Fox's opinions on ancient literature are given in a simple and unaffected manner. He writes to Gilbert Wakefield on the 30th January, 1798:“I am at present rather engaged in reading Greek, as it is my wish to recover, at least, if not to improve, my former acquaintance with that language." This is followed by a controversy, in which the tone of Fox is rather one of inquiry than of positive opinions. He had asked Mr. Wakefield, in one of his letters, the following question: "I cannot refuse myself taking the opportunity of asking your opinion relative to the twenty-fourth 'Iliad,' whether it is Homer's or not?" In * These details are taken from Trotter's "Memoirs of Fox."

answer to a paper of observations by Wakefield, he writes as follows:

"St. Anne's Hill, February 23rd, 1798.

"SIR,-Nothing but your stating yourself to be in some degree at leisure now could justify my troubling you with the long and, perhaps, unintelligible scrawl which I send with this. I most probably have shown nuch ignorance, and certainly some presumption, in seeming to dispute with you, upon points of which you know so much, and I so little: all I can say in my defence is, that disputing is sometimes a way of learning.

"I have not said anything yet upon the question which you seem to have thought most upon-whether the Iliad is the work of one or more authors? I have, for the sake of argument, admitted it; but yet, I own, I have great doubts, and even lean to an opinion different from yours. I am sure the inequality of excellence is not greater than in 'Paradise Lost,' and many other poems written confessedly by one author. I will own to you, also, that in one, only, of the instances of inequality which you state, I agree with you. Atè is detestable, but I cannot think as you do of the death of Hector. There are parts of that book, and those closely connected with the death of Hector, which I cannot help thinking equal to anything." *

Fox, having hurt his hand by the bursting of his gun, when out shooting, Mr. Wakefield rates him soundly for indulging in so cruel a pastime. Fox defends himself on the ground of general custom rather than of argument, and finally puts an end to the controversy in a letter of which I will quote only the earlier part.