Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/201

 Rh and circulated without their names. Moving as he did in the highest circles of life, he knew the arcana of authorship which were concealed from others. He kept a pocket book into which he entered all the odes and satires which attracted his notice and the names of those to whom they were assigned. Many of them are introduced into the fifteenth chapter of Jesse's life of the "beau" and among them are several by Townshend. One set by him was put forward as composed by Robert Adair, and was addressed to lady Hunloke, a coquette and a card player, who was reputed to be in love with Adair. The lady's reply to these verses which is given in the same chapter of the biography, was the composition of the duchess of Devonshire. In the following chapter are more verses by Townshend and these were composed as written by a clergyman to the countess of Blessington. If Adair had a share in the composition of the Rolliad (but the evidence is not clear on that point), he far outlived all his colleagues in its production. If he were guiltless of the accusation, the last survivor of these wits was lord John Townshend.

Townshend loved society and lived much in it. With Fox and Sheridan, Hare and Fitzpatrick, he often repaired to Whitbread's country house at Southill, in Bedfordshire. The party used to delight in teasing the leader whom they idolized. Fox, the sweetest-tempered of mankind, bore it all with equanimity but if it became necessary, he put out his paw and crushed them. After his retirement from active life in politics Townshend divided his time between his two houses, that of Ball's Park near Hertford, and his seaside retreat at Brighton. In Hertfordshire he cultivated the friendship of the professors at the East India College. Malthus, the Malthusian, was "my particular and most amiable" friend. When at the seaside, Moore would call upon him and have much talk about Sheridan. Much to