George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 418 pages of information about George Selwyn.

George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 418 pages of information about George Selwyn.

(97) Sister of Henry Pelham, niece of Duke of Newcastle (1728-1804). died at her estate at Esher, in Surrey, leaving a large fortune.

(98) Thomas Foley, second baron (1742-1793).  He was noted for his sporting proclivities; Fox was his racing partner, and the money they lost, which included a hundred thousand pounds for Lord Foley, and its replenishing, was a never-ending source of gossip.

(99) Anthony Morris Storer (1746-1799), called the Bon ton, and Lord Carlisle, were termed the Pylades and Orestes of Eton, and the intimacy was continued in later life; M.P. for Carlisle 1774-80, and for Morpeth, together with Peter Delime, 1780-4.  In 1781 he succeeded in obtaining the appointment as one of the Commissioners for Trade, in which Selwyn and Carlisle had so deeply interested themselves.  He was with Carlisle on his mission to America in 1778 and 1779.  During their political connection he acted as a medium between Fox and North, in whose family he was intimate.  Fox made him Secretary of Legation at Paris in 1783—­Gibbon competing for the office, and when the Duke of Manchester was called home he was nominated as Minister Plenipotentiary; six days later, however, his friends were no longer in power.  It was in this year that his long friendship with Carlisle was broken; he did not stand for re-election for Morpeth and revoked the bequest of all his property which he had made to him.  Storer never married.  He was universally admired for his versatility and his proficiency in all he undertook; he excelled in conversation, music, and literary attainments; he was the best skater, the best dancer of his time.  He began his valuable and curious collection of books and prints in 1781.  On these and card-playing he spent more money than he could afford, but in 1793, at his father’s death, he received an ample fortune.  He then occupied himself building and adorning a property, Purley, near Reading.  He left his library and prints to Eton College, which also possesses his portrait.

(100) See note (98).

1774, July 23, Chesterfield Street.—­I received yesterday a reprieve from Gloucester, and Harris’s sanction for my staying here a week longer; so that the meeting, and the report of Mr. Guise and Mr. Burrow’s declaring themselves both as candidates upon separate interests, but secretly assisting one another, were, as Richard the 3rd calls it, a weak device of the enemy.  I found myself greatly relieved, and sat down and wrote a letter to the Mayor and Corporation, which I may cite as a modele de vrai persiflage.  I went and dined with Lord Ferrars and Lady Townshend;(101) she has received all her arrears, so we have now the pleasure of continuing our hostilities les pieds chauds.

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George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.