3 inherited a baronet's title with a large estate, which, though perhaps he did not augment, he was careful to adorn by a house of great elegance and expense, and by much attention to the decoration of his park." : As he continued his activity in parliament, he was gradually advancing his claim to profit and preferment, and accordingly was made in time (1754) cofferer and privy counsellor this place he exchanged next year for the great office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, an office, however, that required some qualifications which he soon perceived himself to want. The year after his curiosity led him into Wales, of which he has given an account, perhaps rather with too much affectation of delight, to Archibald Bower," a man of whom he had conceived an opinion more favourable than he seems to have deserved, and whom, having once espoused his interest and fame, he never was persuaded to disown. Bower, whatever was his moral character, did not want abilities; attacked as he was by an universal outcry, and that outcry, as it seems, the echo of truth, he kept his ground; at last, when his defences began to fail him, he sallied out upon his adversaries, and his adversaries retreated. About this time Lyttelton published his 'Dialogues of the Dead,'" which were very eagerly read, though the production rather, as it seems, of leisure than of study, rather effusions than compositions. The names of his persons too often enable the reader to anticipate their conversation; and when they have met, they too often part without any conclusion. He has copied Fenelon more than Fontenelle. When they were first published, they were kindly commended by 17 16th Sept. 1774-We [Johnson and Mr. and Mrs. Thrale] went to Hagley, where we were disappointed of the respect and kindness that we expected—[from Lord Westcote. The poet, Lord Lyttelton, died the year before]. 17th Sept.-We saw the house and park, which equalled my expectation. The house is one square mass, The offices are below; the rooms of elegance on the first floor, with two stories of bedchambers, very well disposed above it. The bedchambers have low windows, which abates the dignity of the house. The park has one artificial ruin, and wants water; there is, however, one temporary cascade. From the farthest hill there is a very wide prospect.— JOHNSON: Journal of Tour in Wales. (Boswell by Croker,' ed. 1847, p. 424.) 18 Author of the History of the Popes.' London, 1748-66. 4to. 7 vols. 19 First published April, 1760. The 26th, 27th, and 28th Dialogues were written by Mrs. Montagu. the 'Critical Reviewers; and poor Lyttelton, with humble gratitude, returned, in a note which I have read, acknowledgments which can never be proper, since they must be paid either for flattery or for justice. When, in the latter part of the last reign, the inauspicious commencement of the war made the dissolution of the ministry unavoidable, Sir George Lyttelton, losing with the rest his employment, was [19th Nov. 1757] recompensed with a peerage, and rested from political turbulence in the House of Lords." His last literary production was his 'History of Henry the Second,' elaborated by the searches and deliberations of twenty years, and published with such anxiety as only vanity can dictate. The story of this publication is remarkable. The whole work was printed twice over, a great part of it three times, and many sheets four or five times. The booksellers paid for the first impression; but the charges and repeated operations of the press were at the expense of the author, whose ambitious accuracy is known to have cost him at least a thousand pounds. He began to print in 1755. Three volumes appeared in 1764, a second edition of them in 1767, a third edition in 1768, and the conclusion in 1771. Andrew Reid, a man not without considerable abilities, and not unacquainted with letters or with life, undertook to persuade Lyttelton, as he had persuaded himself, that he was master of the secret of punctuation; and, as fear begets credulity, he was employed, I know not at what price, to point the pages of 'Henry the Second.' The book was at last pointed and printed, and sent into the world. Lyttelton took money for his copy, of which, when he had paid the printer, he probably gave the rest away, for he was very liberal to the indigent. When time brought the History to a third edition, Reid was either dead or discarded; and the superintendence of typography 20 Sir George Lyttelton and Legge were as opposite in their manners; the latter concise and pointed, the former diffuse and majestic. Legge's speeches seemed the heads of chapters t Sir George Lyttelton's dissertations.-WALPOLE'S George II. Sir George Lyttelton was an enthusiast both in religion and politics; absent in business, not ready in a debate, and totally ignorant of the world: on the other hand, his studied orations were excellent; he was a man of parts, a scholar, no indifferent writer, and by far the honestest man of the whole society.-LORD WALDEGRAVE's Memoirs, p. 25. and punctuation was committed to a man originally a combmaker, but then known by the style of Doctor." Something uncommon was probably expected, and something uncommon was at last done; for to the Doctor's edition is appended, what the world had hardly seen before, a list of errors in nineteen pages." But to politics and literature there must be an end. Lord Lyttelton had never the appearance of a strong or of a healthy man; he had a slender, uncompacted frame, and a meagre face; he lasted, however, sixty years, and was then seized with his last illuess. Of his death a very affecting and instructive account has been given by his physician," which will spare me the task of his moral cha racter. "On Sunday evening the symptoms of his Lordship's disorder, which for a week past had alarmed us, put on a fatal appearance, and his Lordship believed himself to be a dying man. From this time he suffered by restlessness rather than pain; though his nerves were apparently much fluttered, his mental faculties never seemed stronger when he was thoroughly awake. "His Lordship's bilious and hepatic complaints seemed alone not equal to the expected mournful event; his long want of sleep, whether the consequence of the irritation in the bowels, or, which is more probable, of causes of a different kind, accounts for his loss of strength and for his death very sufficiently. "Though his Lordship wished his approaching dissolution not to be lingering, he waited for it with resignation. He said, 'It is a folly, a keeping me in misery, now to attempt to prolong life;' yet 21 Dr. Saunders. See Nichols's 'Life of Bowyer,' 4to. 1782, p. 427. 22 Our Journal for the year 1767, under the title of Mémoires Littéraires de la Grande Bretagne,' was soon finished and sent to the press. For the first article, 'Lord Lyttleton's History of Henry II.,' I must own myself responsible; but the public has ratified my judg ment of that voluminous work, in which sense and learning are not illuminated by a ray of genius.-GIBBON: Autobiography. Ed. Milman, p. 218. There is a good letter from Lyttelton to Joseph Warton about his History in Wooll's 'Warton,' p. 321, 4to. He [Johnson] talked of Lord Lyttelton's extreme anxiety as an author, observing that "he was thirty years in preparing his History, and that he employed a man to point it for him; as if (laughing) another man could point his sense better than himself" Mr. Murphy said he understood his History was kept back several years for fear of Smollett.—Boswell by Croker, ed. 1847, p. 504. 23 Dr. Johnstone, "a skilful physician of Kidderminster." See the account, dated Aug. 28, 1778, in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for Nov. 1778, p. 604. ne was easily persuaded for the satisfaction of others, to do or take anything thought proper for him. On Saturday he had been remarkably better, and we were not without some hopes of his re covery. "On Sunday, about eleven in the forenoon, his Lordship sent for me, and said he felt a great hurry, and wished to have a little conversation with me, in order to divert it. He then proceeded to open the fountain of that heart from whence goodness had so long flowed, as from a copious spring. 'Doctor,' said he, '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 Christian religion. I have made it the rule of my life, and it is the ground of my future hopes. I have erred and sinned, but have repented, and never indulged any vicious habit. In politics and public life, I have made public good the rule of my conduct. I never gave counsels which I did not at the time think the best. I have seen that I was sometimes in the wrong, but I did not err designedly. I have endeavoured in private life, to do all the good in my power, and never for a moment could indulge malicious or unjust designs upon any person whatsoever.' "At another time he said, 'I must leave my soul in the same state it was in before this illness; I find this a very inconvenient time for solicitude about any thing.' "On the evening, when the symptoms of death came on, he said, 'I shall die, but it will not be your fault.' When Lord and Lady Valentia came to see his Lordship, he gave them his solemn benediction, and said, 'Be good, be virtuous, my Lord; you must come to this.' Thus he continued giving his dying benedictions to all around him. On Monday morning a lucid interval gave some small hopes, but these vanished in the evening, and he continued dying, but with very little uneasiness, till Tuesday morning, August 22, when, between seven and eight o'clock, he expired, almost without a groan." His Lordship was buried at Hagley, and the following inscription is cut on the side of his Lady's monument : "This unadorned stone was placed here By the particular desire and express GEORGE Lord LYTTELTON, Who died August 22, 1773, aged 64." Lord Lyttelton's Poems are the works of a man of literature and judgment devoting part of his time to versification. They have nothing to be despised, and little to be admired. Of his 'Progress of Love,' it is sufficient blame to say that it is pastoral. His blank verse in 'Blenheim' has neither much force nor much elegance. His little performances, whether Songs" or Epigrams, are sometimes sprightly, and sometimes insipid. His epistolary pieces have a smooth equability, which cannot much tire, because they are short, but which seldom elevates or surprises. But from this censure ought to be excepted his Advice to Belinda,' which, though for the most part written when he was very young, contains much truth and much prudence, very elegantly and vigorously expressed, and shows a mind attentive to life, and a power of poetry which cultivation might have raised to excellence." 24 For further particulars of the Life of Lord Lyttelton see 'Memoirs and Correspondence of George, Lord Lyttelton,' by Robert Phillimore, 2 vols. 8vo., 1845, and Mr. Croker's article on the work, in 'Quarterly Rev.,' No. 155. . . The good Lyttelton, as he is called, was succeeded by his only son, commonly called the bad Lord Lyttelton. He had great but misapplied talents, and died childless 27th Nov. 1779, when his father's barony became extinct. The present barony of Lyttelton was revived in 1794 by the creation of the brother of the good Lord Lyttelton to that title. For a full account of the bad Lord Lyttelton see Quar. Rev.' for Dec. 1851, in which it is sought to prove that the bad Lord L. was Junius. Fielding immortalized the personal virtues of Lord Lyttelton in the Dedicatory Letter to 'Tom Jones;' and Smollett in the first edition of 'Peregrine Pickle' held his tall gaunt figure up to ridicule as Gosling Scrag, Esq. 25 Lord Lyttelton's Delia was a Mrs. Boughton. See Walpole to Mann, Sept. 10, 1761. 20 Bolingbroke's idea of a Patriot King was originally written in the form of a letter to Lyttelton. The letter was meant for Frederick Prince of Wales, in whose service Lyttelton then was. The only good portrait of Lyttelton is at Hagley; a Kitcat by Sir Joshua Reynolds. "Have you seen Lyttelton's Monody on his wife's death? There are parts of it too stiff and poetical; but others truly tender and elegiac, as one would wish."-GRAY to Wharton, Nov. 80, 1747. "I am not totally of your mind as to Mr. Lyttelton's Elegy, though I love kids and fawns as little as you do. If it were all like the fourth stanza, I should be excessively pleased.”— GRAY to Walpole (n. d.). In vain I look around O'er all the well-known ground, |