Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/97

 so portentous an alliance as that between the ‘Edinburgh’ and the ‘Quarterly.’ The contempt expressed by Croker and the other critics was, in fact, largely that of quidnuncs of St. James's Street for gossip collected from sources north of Piccadilly. It would be difficult indeed to distinguish the degrees of authenticity between the anecdotes of Wraxall and those edited by Croker himself (in the ‘Hervey’ and ‘Suffolk’ memoirs), and except in one or two instances, such as those of Whitworth, Alvanley, and Rumbold, where Wraxall was swayed by an easily explicable personal bias, Macaulay's ‘Mendacium Wraxallianum’ can no longer be held to be fairly applicable. His portraits of the minor actors on the political stage between 1772 and 1784 are of real historical value; and, although there must be many blemishes upon the surface of a canvas so vast, his book has signally falsified the prediction of the critics that it would be rapidly forgotten. Wraxall's wide reading in history afforded him a fertile field of illustration; this circumstance and his weakness for ‘travell'd learning’ render him a very discursive writer; but, though diffuse, he is nearly always entertaining.

Practically nothing is known of Wraxall's declining years. He died at Dover on 7 Nov. 1831, ‘on his way to Naples, aged 80’ (Ann. Reg. 1831, p. 258). He was buried in St. James's Church, Dover (, Kent, p. 52). He married, on 30 March 1789, Jane, eldest daughter of Peter Lascelles of Knights in Hertfordshire (Gent. Mag. 1789, i. 371), and left two sons, Lieutenant-colonel William Lascelles, second baronet (b. 5 Sept. 1791, d. 2 May 1863), and Charles Edward (1792–1854), lieutenant royal artillery, and father of Sir Frederic Charles Lascelles Wraxall [q. v.]

A portrait of Wraxall was engraved by T. Cheeseman from an original drawing by J. Wright (published 8 March 1813 in Cadell and Davies's ‘Contemporary Portraits’); another portrait was engraved for the ‘Memoirs’ by Robert Cooper (Brit. Mus. print-room).

Wraxall's chief publications were: 1. ‘Cursory Remarks made in a Tour through some of the Northern Parts of Europe, particularly Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Petersburgh,’ London, 1775, 8vo. A dedication to Viscount Clare is dated Bristol, 1 Feb. The writer candidly avows (p. 267) that his work is based upon hasty observation, but he succeeded in rendering the ‘Letters’ of which it is composed uniformly amusing. ‘You may read him,’ wrote Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale on 22 May 1775. A fourth edition appeared in 1807, under the title ‘A Tour round the Baltic.’ 2. ‘Memoirs of the Kings of France of the Race of Valois, interspersed with interesting anecdotes. To which is added A Tour through the Western, Southern, and Interior Provinces of France, in a series of Letters,’ London, 1777, 2 vols. 8vo. The dedication, addressed to the Earl of Hillsborough, is dated New Bond Street, 22 Nov. 1776. A second edition was less appropriately entitled ‘The History of France under the Kings of the Race of Valois (1364–1574),’ 1785; 3rd edit. 1807. The amusing qualities of this work are appreciated in Smyth's ‘Lectures on Modern History’ (vol. ix.). The ‘Tour’ appended to the first edition was published separately in 1784, and again in 1807. 3. ‘History of France from the Accession of Henry III to the Death of Louis XIV, preceded by A View of the Civil, Military, and Political State of Europe between the Middle and Close of the Sixteenth Century,’ London, 1795, 3 vols. 4to; and 1814, 6 vols. 8vo. The work progressed only as far as the death of Henri IV, and was never finished. It was commended in the ‘Monthly Review’ (1795, ii. 241). 4. ‘Correspondence between a Traveller and a Minister of State in October and November 1792, preceded by Remarks upon the Origin and the Final Object of the Present War, as well as upon the Political Position of Europe in October 1796. Translated from the original French, with a Preface, by N. W. W.,’ London, 1796, 8vo. This pamphlet is dedicated to Pitt and Fox, who are urged to unite for the benefit of their country. 5. ‘Memoirs of the Courts of Berlin, Dresden, Warsaw, and Vienna in the years 1777, 1778, and 1779,’ London, 1779, 2 vols. 8vo; 1799 (Dublin), 1800 and 1806: a book ‘abounding in enlivening anecdote’ (Monthly Review, 1799, iii. 390). 6. ‘Historical Memoirs of my own Time, from 1772 to 1784,’ London, 1815, 2 vols. 8vo; 2nd edit., with omissions, June 1815; 3rd edit., revised and corrected, 1818, 3 vols. 8vo. Prefixed to the third edition are three letters to reviewers and a ‘Second Answer to the Calumnious Attacks of the “Edinburgh;”’ 4th edit., revised with additions, 1836, 4 vols. 8vo (Philadelphia, 1837 and 1845). 7. ‘Posthumous Memoirs of his own Time, by Sir N. W. Wraxall’ (1784–90), London, 1836, 3 vols. 8vo (Philadelphia, 1836); 3rd edit. 1845, 8vo. By way of preface the writer again answers the strictures of his reviewers, and gives an account of his relations with Count Woronzow. In this work, more than in the ‘Historical Memoirs,’ interest is