Lord Chatham, His Early Life and Connections

HIS EARLY LIFE AND CONNECTIONS


LONDON ARTHUR L. HUMPHREYS 187 PICCADILLY, W 1910

Second Impression.

To BEVILL FORTESCUE OF DROPMORE AND BOCONNOC, THIS BOOK, WHICH OWES EVERYTHING TO HIM, IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED.


My first words of preface must be of excuse for some apparent lack of gratitude in my dedication. For besides my debt to Mr. Fortescue, I owe my warmest acknowledgments to Mary, Lady Ilchester, and her son, for the permission to examine some of the papers of Henry Fox; a character of great interest, whose life is yet to be written. But I hope that this will soon be presented by Lord Ilchester, whose capacity for such work is already proved. I render my sincere thanks both to him and to his mother; but my dedication, written long before I had access to the Holland House papers, must remain unchanged; for without Mr. Fortescue's family collection of papers at Dropmore this book could never have been begun.