DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1041#0031
History of the Society of 'Dilettanti 19
of art, music, athletics, cricket, tennis, field sports,
theatricals, racing, and gambling, and as a man
of wit and pleasant conversation, he occupies a
peculiar position in the history of his time. His
capacity for work of all sorts was incredible.
Posterity has judged him entirely by his vices.
But the Society of Dilettanti cannot fail to remember
that it was to him and Dashwood—men stamped by
their enemies as
1 Too infamous to have a friend,
Too bad for bad men to commend'—
that it owes the inception and success of the
principal schemes on which its reputation is based.
Sandwich was an intimate friend of John Russell, Bedford,
fourth Duke of Bedford, and exercised a great ^ff^'
influence over the duke. Bedford, born in 171 o,
succeeded his brother as duke in 1732, and was
a leading politician all his life. The Bedford party
was a power in the State. He served also as lord-
lieutenant of Ireland and ambassador to France.
Horace Walpole, who had a private quarrel with
Bedford, describes him as 'a man of inflexible
honesty and goodwill to his country; his foible
being speaking on every subject and imagining he
understood it.' He was a little man with an im-
petuous but refined manner, and very popular—the
very reverse of Sandwich, whose manners were
extravagant and rough. Thomas Brand, of the
Hoo in Hertfordshire, was a member of the Bedford
party in Parliament. He formed an important
collection of classical antiquities. Robert Darcy,
Earl of Holdernesse, born in 1718, did not join
the Society till May, 174^, when he was ambassador
to the Signiory of Venice. He had been a lord
of the bedchamber to George II, and attended the
C 2
of art, music, athletics, cricket, tennis, field sports,
theatricals, racing, and gambling, and as a man
of wit and pleasant conversation, he occupies a
peculiar position in the history of his time. His
capacity for work of all sorts was incredible.
Posterity has judged him entirely by his vices.
But the Society of Dilettanti cannot fail to remember
that it was to him and Dashwood—men stamped by
their enemies as
1 Too infamous to have a friend,
Too bad for bad men to commend'—
that it owes the inception and success of the
principal schemes on which its reputation is based.
Sandwich was an intimate friend of John Russell, Bedford,
fourth Duke of Bedford, and exercised a great ^ff^'
influence over the duke. Bedford, born in 171 o,
succeeded his brother as duke in 1732, and was
a leading politician all his life. The Bedford party
was a power in the State. He served also as lord-
lieutenant of Ireland and ambassador to France.
Horace Walpole, who had a private quarrel with
Bedford, describes him as 'a man of inflexible
honesty and goodwill to his country; his foible
being speaking on every subject and imagining he
understood it.' He was a little man with an im-
petuous but refined manner, and very popular—the
very reverse of Sandwich, whose manners were
extravagant and rough. Thomas Brand, of the
Hoo in Hertfordshire, was a member of the Bedford
party in Parliament. He formed an important
collection of classical antiquities. Robert Darcy,
Earl of Holdernesse, born in 1718, did not join
the Society till May, 174^, when he was ambassador
to the Signiory of Venice. He had been a lord
of the bedchamber to George II, and attended the
C 2