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 and Romilly were numbered among his many friends.

In spite of his political cares, Lansdowne always carefully supervised the administration of his large estates. He told Johnson on one occasion that ‘a man of rank who looks into his own affairs may have all that he ought to have, all that can be of any use, or appear with any advantage, for five thousand pounds a year’ (, Life of Johnson, 1887, iii. 265). He employed Capability Brown in laying out the grounds at Bowood, and added a wing to the house, the chief portion of which had been erected by his father. Lansdowne House, on the south side of Berkeley Square, was built by the Brothers Adam between 1765 and 1767 for the Earl of Bute, who sold it before completion to Lansdowne for 22,000l. As both these ministers were popularly supposed to have largely benefited from the conclusion of a great war, the house was said to have been ‘constructed by one peace, and paid for by another’ (, Historical Memoirs, 1815, ii. 308). Lansdowne sold Wycombe Abbey to Robert, first baron Carrington, in August 1798. The sale of Lansdowne's huge library of printed books by Messrs. Leigh & Sotheby lasted thirty-one days, and realised over 6,700l. His collections of (1) maps, charts, and prints, (2) political and historical tracts and pamphlets, and (3) coins and medals, were sold by the same auctioneers in April and May 1806. His valuable collection of manuscripts, which included the original state papers of Lord Burghley, the correspondence of Sir Julius Cæsar, and the collections of Bishop White Kennett and Le Neve, were purchased for the British Museum in 1807, a parliamentary grant of 4,925l. being voted for that purpose (Cat. Lansd. MSS. 1819). The collection of pictures which he had formed at Bowood was sold in 1809 (, Autobiography, 1850, pt. i. p. 356). Of the art collections made by Lansdowne, the gallery of ancient statuary at Lansdowne House, purchased from Gavin Hamilton, alone remains, though that was also offered for sale in 1810 (see Cat. of Lansdowne Marbles, &c., 1810).

The ‘Letters of Junius’ have been sometimes attributed to Lansdowne, while Britton supposed that Lansdowne and Dunning assisted Barré in writing them (The Authorship of the Letters of Junius Elucidated, 1848). The authorship is, however, said to have been denied by Lansdowne a week before his death, when he told Sir Richard Phillips that he knew Junius ‘and all about the writing and production of those letters’ (Life, vol. i. pp. viii, ix, ii. 199 n.)

Lansdowne left in manuscript portions of an autobiography, an incomplete memoranda of the events of 1762, and several other fragmentary papers, most of which have been printed in his ‘Life.’ An interesting letter on sepulchral decorations, addressed by Lansdowne to the committee appointed for erecting a monument to John Howard's memory, is printed in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for 1791 (pt. i. pp. 395–396).

The portrait of Lansdowne, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the National Portrait Gallery, is a study for the larger picture which belongs to the Marquis of Lansdowne. Another portrait of Lansdowne by Reynolds is the property of the Earl of Morley; this has been engraved by S. W. Reynolds. Another portrait by the same painter, of Lansdowne in company with Dunning and Barré, belongs to Lord Northbrook; this has been engraved by William Ward. There is also an engraving of Lansdowne by Bartolozzi after Gainsborough. A whole-length caricature of Lansdowne was published by Sayer in 1782.

[Besides Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's Life of William, Earl of Shelburne, 1875–6, and the other works quoted in the text, the following books have also been consulted: Walpole's Letters, 1857–9; the Political Memoranda of Francis, fifth Duke of Leeds (Camden Soc. Publ.), 1884; Trevelyan's Early Hist. of Charles James Fox, 1881; Lord John Russell's Life and Times of Charles James Fox, 1859–66; Lord Stanhope's Life of Pitt, 1861–2; Lord Albemarle's Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham, 1852; Duke of Buckingham's Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of George III, 1853, vol. i.; Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, first Earl of Malmesbury, 1844, vols. i. and ii.; Diaries and Correspondence of the Right Hon. George Rose, 1860, i. 23–33; John Nicholls's Recollections and Reflections, &c., 1822, i. 1–61, 209–10, 389; Sir G. C. Lewis's Essays on the Administrations of Great Britain, 1864, pp. 1–84; Jesse's Memoirs of the Life and Reign of George III, 1867; Lecky's Hist. of England, 1st edit., vols. iii. and iv.; Lord Mahon's Hist. of England, 1858, vols. v. vi. vii.; Bancroft's Hist. of the United States of America, 1876, vols. iii. iv. v. vi.; Winsor's Hist. of America, 1888, vol. vii.; Edinburgh Review, cxlv. 170–204; Quarterly Review, cxxxviii. 378–420; Lodge's Portraits, 1850, viii. 171–77; Edwards's Memoirs of Libraries, 1859, i. 468–9, 524–5; Beauties of England and Wales, 1801–18, i. 364, 365, vol. xv. pt. i. pp. 541–51; Wheatley's London Past and Present, 1891, i. 163, ii. 366; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biogr. 1878, pp. 201–3; Doyle's Official Baronage, 1886, ii. 318–9; G. E. C.'s Complete Peerage, v. 17; Foster's Peerage, 1883, pp. 411–12; Gent. Mag. 1765 p. 97, 1771 p. 47,