[473] Lord Hertford had married Lady Isabella Fitzroy, youngest daughter of Charles Duke of Grafton, who was succeeded in the title by his grandson Augustus Henry, of whom much will be said in some of the following pages.
[474] The Duke subsequently gave the best proof of the sincerity of this offer by bequeathing General Conway a legacy of 5000l.—E.
[475] Conway conducted himself less well than Wolfe at Rochfort, but far better than the other generals. “Though eminently distinguished for his gallant and indefatigable behaviour,” says Walpole, “he never had the happiness of achieving any action of remarkable éclât, or of performing alone any act of singular utility to his country. However, he had been engaged in six regular battles, besides smaller affairs.”—(Counter Address to the Public on the Dismissal of a late General.) He commanded a division with credit in the Seven years’ war. An ill-natured cotemporary critic charges him with being a “martinet,” and with unnecessarily fatiguing his men, but admits that “he would have made a very good general if he had not been spoilt by his education under the Duke of Cumberland.” Life of Lord Chatham, Ap. vol. iii. p. 262.—E.
[476] The Queen’s brother.
[477] Lord Pembroke was again made a Lord of the Bedchamber in 1769, without applying; and exactly at a time when he was said to have carried off another woman, a young Venetian bride (he was then at Venice), the very night of her wedding. [Lord Pembroke had served in the Seven years’ war, and was popular with the officers under him, though not much of a soldier. He was dissolute and extravagant, and notwithstanding his large income, left when he died heavy debts, which his only son, the late Earl, a very respectable nobleman, honourably paid.—E.]
[478] Dr. Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol.
[479] Twickenham.
[480] Thomas Worseley, Surveyor of the Board of Works.
[481] Sir Hugh Smithson, of a very recent family, had married Lady Elizabeth Seymour, only daughter of Algernon Duke of Somerset, whose mother was heiress of the Percies, Earls of Northumberland; on which foundation Hugh and Elizabeth were created Earl and Countess of Northumberland.
[482] Dr. Johnson said, in allusion to it, “that his Grace was only fit to succeed himself.” Boswell, vol. ii. p. 210.—E.