Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/491

 ii s. vi. NOV. as, Mia] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the books incorporated in the ducal library, but there is among the records a list of those assigned to the military library.

" Shortly before his death Gore presented numerous portfolios and volumes containing views and sketches of ships to the Duke Carl August as a memento. These were afterwards placed in the library (cf. entry in the catalogue, Thurmbibliothek, vol. T.).

" As a memorial of Gore, the Duke Carl August had a bust of him made by the sculptor Weisser, which is now in the library. There is also in the library a small picture showing Gore at breakfast in a farmhouse during the siege of Mainz. It is by his friend the painter Georg Melchior Kraus."

So much for the Gore library at Weimar. The question now arises Who was its owner ? The certificate of his burial "at Weimar states that he was born at South- ampton in Hampshire, and that at the time of his death in January, 1807, he was 80 years old. Goethe in his account of Philipp Hackert gives a memoir of Gore, with the statement that he was born on 5 Dec., 1729, at Horkotow, Yorkshire, and, with the necessary correction of a misprint, this statement seems to be accurate. This should be Horkstow in Lincolnshire, and the parish register of that place records his baptism on 14 Dec. Charles Gore, who died there on 7 Dec., 1754 (vide Gent. Mag., 1754.), and was buried on 8 Dec., was probably his father. Goethe's state- ment as to his birthplace is corroborated by the fact that on his daughter's marriage, in 1775. Gore was described as of " Lincoln- shire."

He is said by Goethe to have been de- scended from a prominent family, one of his ancestors having been Lord Mayor of London presumably Sir William Gore, who obtained that dignity in 1702. His father, Charles Gore, was the youngest of three brothers, the other two being members of Parliament. He was director of the English factory at Hamburg when Marlborough commanded the English troops on the Conti- nent. The Duke showed him marked atten- tion, and, on the Duke's disgrace, Gore quarrelled with his brothers, who were followers of Harley, and settled in York- shire (Lincolnshire), buying an estate, and marrying rather late in life. Seven children were born to him. and Charles Gore, the third child, "was the only son. He was educated, according to Goethe, in West- minster School. This is confirmed by Mr. Barker, who informs me that Gore was admitted in February, 1742/3, and placed in the third form in the under school. For several years he was in the counting-house of his uncle, John Gore, a banker, but

abandoned commerce, which he disliked, on marrying, about 1753, a young heiress, whom he had first met on a visit to his friends in the country. Several of his children were baptized at Horkstow, and he was subsequently described as of Devanner, co. Radnor, and New Burlington Street, London. There were four daughters, the second of whom died young.

Sliipping was Gore's hobby. During his father's lifetime he remained - in the country, devoting himself to ship- building and mechanical construction, and then settled for ten or twelve years at Southampton, where several ships were built from his models. One of them, " The Snail," was admired by all seamen for the beauty of its lines and the celerity of its movements. He took in her the King's brothers, the Dukes of York, Gloucester, and Cumberland, for a trip to Spithead, Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight, and other places in the neighbourhood.

It was Gore's habit to spend the summer in sailing around the coasts of England with the fleet, and in visiting the coasts of France and the Channel Islands. He steered his own boat, and gradually acquired that knowledge of shipbuilding and navigation which makes his drawings so valuable. In 1773 he went to Lisbon for his wife's health, and next year accompanied his friend Capt. Thompson of the "Levant," a frigate of 32 guns, in a voyage to the Mediterranean garrisons. They separated at Leghorn, and Gore continued in Italy for some years.

In 1775 the Gores had been living at Florence for some months, and the youngest daughter, Hannah Anne, " a lady very young and pretty.." was married there on 2 June, 1775, to Earl Cowper, one of the most eccentric of the English residents in Florence (' Mann and Manners,' ed. Doran, ii. 113, 274). The marriage was registered at Leghorn, and Gore was said to be of Horkestowe, Lincolnshire. This Lord Cowper never returned, in spite of his father's ap- peals, to England. He had been sent on the Grand Tour, reached Florence, and stayed there. Their children were sent to England to be educated, but the parents remained in the Tuscan capital. The wife was at that time " distinguished by the attachment of " Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the brother of Joseph II., Emperor of Austria, and through her influence Lord Cowper obtained from the Emperor the title of " Prince of the Holy Roman Empire." Afterwards "her attachment" is said to have been to Robert Merry the poet (G. E. C.,