During the administration of Sir Robert Walpole the practice of duelling was most fashionable, and of course frequently resorted to. In the following letter to Mann, we find an illustration of the manners of the day (1750).
“About ten days ago, at the new Lady Cobham’s assembly, Lord Hervey was leaning over a chair talking to some women, and holding his hat in his hand; Lord Cobham came up and spit in it—yes, spit in it—and then, with a loud laugh, turned to Nugent, and said ‘Pay me my wager.’ In short, he had laid a guinea that he committed this absurd brutality, and that it was not resented. Lord Hervey, with great temper and sense, asked if he had any further occasion for his hat. ‘Oh, I see you are angry.’ ‘Not very well pleased.’ Lord Cobham took the fatal hat and wiped it, and made a thousand foolish apologies, and wanted to pass it off as a joke. Next morning he rose with the sun, and went to visit Lord Hervey: he would not see him, but wrote to the spitter (or, as he is now called. Lord Gob’em), to say that he had grossly insulted him before company, but having involved Nugent in it, he desired to know to which he was to address himself for satisfaction. Lord Cobham made a most submissive answer, and begged pardon both in his own and Nugent’s name. Here it rested for a few days, till, the matter getting wind, Lord Hervey wrote again to insist upon an explicit apology under Lord Cobham’s own hand, with a rehearsal of the excuses that had been made to him. This too was complied with, and the fair conqueror showed all the letters. Nugent’s disgraces have not ended here. The night of his having declaimed so furiously against Lord Sandwich, he was standing by Lady Catherine Pelham at the masquerade, without his mask. She was telling him some history of a mad dog (which I believe she had bit herself). Young Leveson, the Duchess of Bedford’s brother, came up, without his mask too, and looking at Nugent, said, ‘I have seen a mad dog to-day, and a silly dog too.’ ‘I suppose, Mr. Leveson, you have been looking in the glass.’ ‘No, I see him now.’ Upon which they walked off together, but were prevented from fighting (if Nugent would have fought), and were reconciled at the sideboard. The former circumstance gave rise to a vulgar, but for a time, a fashionable saw, ‘We spit in his hat on Thursday, and wipe it off on Friday.’”
Walpole calls Lord Hervey “The fair conqueror,” from his great effeminacy, which induced Lord Cobham, better known as Earl Temple, to insult him in so gross a manner.
As the fashion of wearing swords gradually fell into desuetude, pistols were brought into play, and the fatal duel between Lord Byron and Mr. Chaworth was one of the last that took place with side-arms.
DUEL OF LORD BYRON AND MR. CHAWORTH, 1765.
On the 26th of January, 1765, Lord Byron and several other gentlemen dined together at the Star and Garter Tavern in Pall-mall. The party were chiefly from the county of Nottingham, assembled in a club, about seven in the evening. The conversation turned upon the subject of game; upon this occasion Mr. Chaworth had a warm argument with a gentleman seated next to him about the best manner of preserving game. Lord Byron joined the conversation, and gave as his opinion, that the best method was to take no care of it. Mr. Chaworth differed in opinion, and thought it more advisable to be strict with poachers. This drew on an altercation. Mr. Chaworth asserted that there was not a hare in that part of the county which was not preserved by him, or by Sir Charles Sedley. Upon which Lord Byron offered a bet of 100l. that he had more game on a manor or manors of his, than Mr. Chaworth had on any belonging to him. Mr. Chaworth accepted the wager, and made a memorandum of it. Lord Byron then observed, with some degree of warmth, and in a sarcastic manner, “Sir Charles Sedley’s manors! where are his manors!” To which Mr. Chaworth replied, with equal heat, “The manors of Hucknel and Nuttall.” To which Lord Byron replied, “I know no manors of Sir Charles Sedley.” Mr. Chaworth then observed that the manor of Nuttall was his, and that he had purchased it from his (Chaworth’s) family, and added, “If your Lordship wants any further information about his manors, Sir Charles Sedley lives in Dean-street, and your Lordship knows where to find me in Berkley-square.”
After this altercation the party remained together for about an hour in apparent good humour, and the conversation turned on various subjects. About eight o’clock Mr. Chaworth left the room, and asked a gentleman of the name of Douston, who was quitting it at the same time, whether he had observed the dispute between him and Lord Byron. This person replied, that he had heard part of it. On which Chaworth asked him if he thought he had gone far enough; to which Mr. D. replied that he thought he had gone too far, that it was altogether a silly business, and neither of them should think any more about it.
Shortly after Lord Byron left the room also, and met Mr. Chaworth, when he stated that he wished to speak with him. He then called a waiter, and asked if there were any room disengaged. The waiter then showed them to an unoccupied room, and went in with a candle, which was all the light, except a dull fire, that was in the apartment. Lord Byron asked Mr. Chaworth whether it was to him or to Sir Charles Sedley, that he was to have recourse on the disputed subject. Mr. Chaworth then replied that it was to him, and that if he had any thing further to say in the matter it might be advisable to shut the door, which he immediately did; when turning round, he perceived Lord Byron with his sword half drawn, who instantly exclaimed, “Draw!” Mr. Chaworth immediately complied, and at the first thrust his sword passed through Lord Byron’s waistcoat, and he thought he had wounded him, when Lord Byron shortened his sword, and gave him the fatal wound, observing at the same time that he had as much courage as any man in England. A struggle then took place between the parties, for when the waiter and the landlord entered the room they were grasped in each others arms, Mr. Chaworth holding his sword in his left hand, and Lord Byron having his in his right hand. Chaworth gave up his sword readily, but Lord Byron only surrendered his with reluctance. Hawkrup, the surgeon, was immediately sent for, and pronounced the wound to be mortal. The sword had entered about an inch on the left side of the naval, and passing obliquely upwards, had made its exit about five or six inches higher on the left side of the back, and in its passage had made a large opening in the bottom of the stomach, wounded one of the small intestines, and had passed through the diaphragm.
It appears that when the sword of Mr. Chaworth passed through the waistcoat of his antagonist, he expressed his apprehension that he had seriously wounded him. Now, under such an apprehension, it is probable that he was thrown off his guard, when Lord Byron immediately shortened his sword and ran him through the body, the unfortunate gentleman endeavouring to parry the thrust with his left hand, and seizing the gripe of his sword and struggling for it, still saying that he hoped his Lordship was not seriously hurt; it was then that Lord Byron exclaimed, “That he hoped he would acknowledge that he was as brave a man as any other in the kingdom.”
Writhing under the agonies of his wound, Chaworth several times declared, that although he well knew that he was in immediate danger of death, and pained and distressed as he then was, he had rather be in his present situation, than live under the misfortune of having killed another person; and when questioned on the nature of the quarrel, he expressed his conviction that it might have been easily made up. When asked by one of his relations, Mr. Leveriz, if the business had been fair, he remained silent. He only observed soon after, that when, after closing the door, he turned round, he perceived that Lord Byron’s sword was half drawn; knowing his man, he drew his own as quickly as he could, and had the first pass at him. He further added, that he did not believe that Lord Byron intended fighting him when they entered the room, but seeing him up by the door, with scarcely any light in the room, he believed he thought he had him at advantage.