DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1041#0034
History of the Society of Dilettanti xi
ship of Virginia, where he hoped to realize a fortune,
but found instead a childless grave; Welbore Ellis,
afterwards Lord Mendip, a prominent and active
politician; William, Marquess of Hartington, after-
wards Duke of Devonshire and Prime Minister;
Henry Bilson Legge, afterwards Chancellor of the
Exchequer j the notorious political turn-coat and
place-hunter, Bubb Dodington, who was also some-
thing of a Maecenas and patron of art and poetry;
and lastly, Dick Edgcumbe, well known as a wit,
versifier and draughtsman, who was solemnly
appointed 'Bard' to the Society, and who derives
a real title to the gratitude of friends of art from
the fact that he was one of the first to recognize
the powers of Reynolds. Scotland sent Kenneth
Mackenzie, de jure Earl of Seaforth ; Mr. John
Ross Mackye; and the amiable and ill-fated Lord
Deskfoord, heir to the earldom of Findlater and
Seafield. Of the last-named Horace Walpole writes
to Harry Conway in 1740: 'Harry, you saw Lord
Deskfoord at Geneva; don't you like him? He
is a mighty sensible man. There are few young
people have so good understandings. He is mighty
grave, and so are you ; but you can both be pleasant
when you have a mind.' But poor Lord Deskfoord's
gravity and good understandings had no better end
than melancholy and suicide. The fact that military
and naval eminence began at the same time to be
represented at the Society's board by the presence
of heroes such as Granby, Anson, and Rodney,
may be taken as farther illustrating the variety of
the social elements from which the Dilettanti were
from early days, and have ever since continued to
be., recruited.
ship of Virginia, where he hoped to realize a fortune,
but found instead a childless grave; Welbore Ellis,
afterwards Lord Mendip, a prominent and active
politician; William, Marquess of Hartington, after-
wards Duke of Devonshire and Prime Minister;
Henry Bilson Legge, afterwards Chancellor of the
Exchequer j the notorious political turn-coat and
place-hunter, Bubb Dodington, who was also some-
thing of a Maecenas and patron of art and poetry;
and lastly, Dick Edgcumbe, well known as a wit,
versifier and draughtsman, who was solemnly
appointed 'Bard' to the Society, and who derives
a real title to the gratitude of friends of art from
the fact that he was one of the first to recognize
the powers of Reynolds. Scotland sent Kenneth
Mackenzie, de jure Earl of Seaforth ; Mr. John
Ross Mackye; and the amiable and ill-fated Lord
Deskfoord, heir to the earldom of Findlater and
Seafield. Of the last-named Horace Walpole writes
to Harry Conway in 1740: 'Harry, you saw Lord
Deskfoord at Geneva; don't you like him? He
is a mighty sensible man. There are few young
people have so good understandings. He is mighty
grave, and so are you ; but you can both be pleasant
when you have a mind.' But poor Lord Deskfoord's
gravity and good understandings had no better end
than melancholy and suicide. The fact that military
and naval eminence began at the same time to be
represented at the Society's board by the presence
of heroes such as Granby, Anson, and Rodney,
may be taken as farther illustrating the variety of
the social elements from which the Dilettanti were
from early days, and have ever since continued to
be., recruited.