into reputation as a speaker. The Duke of Newcastle had the appearance of a 'hubble-bubble' man as he himself always described the Irish: Lord Shannon, of a calm, sagacious man. The chief thing that struck me was a basket of apples in his room and his not offering me one, but this was before I left Ireland.
"The Westminsters, always the ruling party at Christ Church,[1] have preserved their esprit-de-corps, so far as I have been able to trace, since Queen Elizabeth's reign, more or less powerful according to the individuals which have succeeded. At this time they were at the head of everything. The Duke of Newcastle and the Newcastles were at the head of everything: first as instruments, then as partners of Sir Robert Walpole. Another of the Westminster and Christ Church cabal was Mr. Stone, who was entirely a chamber councillor, and never took any part in public. I take him to have been a very cool-headed, cautious, and wise man. There were two archbishops of York of this set: Drummond and Markham. The first always appeared to me a plain, sensible, strong-minded man, and not an intriguer by nature: his brother, Lord Kinnoul, a drudge, always in the Duke of Newcastle's service. Markham was a darker character. Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, had by far the best talents—public and private—of the set. Lord George Sackville, one of the worst men living, was another Westminster.
"Mr. Hollwell was not without learning, and certainly laid himself out to be serviceable to me in point of reading. I read with him a good deal of natural law and the law of nations, some history, part of Livy, and translated some of the Orations of Demosthenes with tolerable care. I read by myself a great deal of religion. Surely it is natural for a person of the least reflection, if they are taught to believe in the Bible, &c., to be restless till they know the sum of what it contains, and come to some decisive judgment upon a subject so interesting as their future existence and eternal welfare. The certainty of
- ↑ Lord Chesterfield observes, "Westminster School is undoubtedly the seat of illiberal manners and brutal behaviour."—Letters, ed. Bradshaw, i. 313.
