DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.65479#0019
LORD AND LADY HUNTINGTOWER, 1706.
LIONEL LORD HUNTINGTOWER, whose letter has just
been quoted, grandson of the Duchess of Lauderdale, was born in
1682, two years after the marriage of his father, the third Earl of
Dysart, to Grace Wilbraham, “the Cheshire Heiress.”
According to the Memoirs of Mrs. Manley which have already been
mentioned, the third Earl of Dysart “suffered his Daughters, like Roses,
to fade ungathered, because he can’t find in his Heart whilst he lives to
give them a Fortune worthy of their Birth.”1
To his only son, the “ Young Lord ” referred to in Lady Wilbraham’s
letter, Lord Dysart was still more unkind ; Mrs. Manley says1 that “ Lord
Dysart’s Temper was so sordid that he neither gave his Son an Educa-
tion fitted for Good Company nor supplied him with a suitable Expence
to keep it. He was permitted to follow an inglorious Bent with rascally
Footmen and Domesticks, lolling whole Days out of an upper Window
with one of the Former for his Companion, playing Tricks and laughing
for their Diversion at those who passed along. Then his Dress was as
Sordid as his Father’s: the Linnen he wore so Coarse and so seldom
shifted that where it should be visible he used a finer sort of plebeian
Surtout, to cover the Deformity. I question whether ever he was Master
of a Ducat at a time in his whole Life before he was married. Thus
adorn’d in the Habits of both Mind and Body, with Nothing in his Purse
to atone for these Defects, what Genteel Company would suffer him to
consort with them?”
This unfortunate young man did, however, marry for his own happi-
ness. In 1706, when he was twenty-four, Lionel Lord Huntingtower
married Henrietta Cavendish, the lady referred to in Lady Wilbraham’s
letter as “ a Match ” not likely to be approved by his parents.
Henrietta Cavendish was the eldest of the illegitimate children of
1 Secret Memoirs, vol. iii.
73
L
LIONEL LORD HUNTINGTOWER, whose letter has just
been quoted, grandson of the Duchess of Lauderdale, was born in
1682, two years after the marriage of his father, the third Earl of
Dysart, to Grace Wilbraham, “the Cheshire Heiress.”
According to the Memoirs of Mrs. Manley which have already been
mentioned, the third Earl of Dysart “suffered his Daughters, like Roses,
to fade ungathered, because he can’t find in his Heart whilst he lives to
give them a Fortune worthy of their Birth.”1
To his only son, the “ Young Lord ” referred to in Lady Wilbraham’s
letter, Lord Dysart was still more unkind ; Mrs. Manley says1 that “ Lord
Dysart’s Temper was so sordid that he neither gave his Son an Educa-
tion fitted for Good Company nor supplied him with a suitable Expence
to keep it. He was permitted to follow an inglorious Bent with rascally
Footmen and Domesticks, lolling whole Days out of an upper Window
with one of the Former for his Companion, playing Tricks and laughing
for their Diversion at those who passed along. Then his Dress was as
Sordid as his Father’s: the Linnen he wore so Coarse and so seldom
shifted that where it should be visible he used a finer sort of plebeian
Surtout, to cover the Deformity. I question whether ever he was Master
of a Ducat at a time in his whole Life before he was married. Thus
adorn’d in the Habits of both Mind and Body, with Nothing in his Purse
to atone for these Defects, what Genteel Company would suffer him to
consort with them?”
This unfortunate young man did, however, marry for his own happi-
ness. In 1706, when he was twenty-four, Lionel Lord Huntingtower
married Henrietta Cavendish, the lady referred to in Lady Wilbraham’s
letter as “ a Match ” not likely to be approved by his parents.
Henrietta Cavendish was the eldest of the illegitimate children of
1 Secret Memoirs, vol. iii.
73
L