Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/263

Rh weighed greatly with the Pelhams, kept him during his whole life in a continual succession of great places, such as Steward of the Household, twice Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, President of the Council, Warden of the Cinque Ports, &c. He preserved to the last, the good breeding, decency of manners, and dignity of exterior deportment of Queen Anne's time, never departing from his style of gravity and ceremony. He was once at the play, when Mr. Cary, who had been his Secretary in Ireland, a light sort of a man, asked him across two or three benches, loud enough for those between to hear, whether my Lord Middlesex undertook the opera next year. The question at first discomposed the Duke somewhat, but he turned about and replied: 'Upon my word, Mr. Cary, I have not considered what answer to make to such a question.'

"His eldest son Lord Middlesex, I believe was never much heard of in public life. Lady Middlesex was generally understood, after Lady Archibald Hamilton, to have become the subject of the Prince of Wales's attention (which appears more particularly from Lord Melcombe's diary), to which her husband appears to have submitted very quietly, who it may be supposed led a dissipated life on his side. It appears by what Lord Melcombe says that he was early embarrassed in his affairs and considerably involved in debt, which together with other circumstances, made him always ill with his father. His appearance after the death of his father was always that of a proud, disgusted, melancholy, solitary man, and his conduct, particularly towards those who were to succeed to the title, being totally unprovoked on their part, went so far beyond what could have been dictated by his creditors or his wants, as to savour very strongly of madness, a disorder which there was too much reason to suppose, ran in the blood, from the behaviour of Lord John Sackville, the second son, who after marrying a daughter of Lord Gower under some very strange circumstances, behaved still more strangely when he was embarking with his regiment upon some expedition; so that his family thought it most