Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 3.djvu/128

 F GEORGE GRANVILLE|GEORGE GRANVILLE, or as others write Greenville, or Grenville, afterwards lord Landsdown of Biddeford in the county of Devon, less is known than his name and rank might give reason to expect. He was born about 1667, the son of Bernard Greenville, who was entrusted by Monk with the most private transactions of the Restoration, and the grandson of Sir Bevel Greenville, who died in the King’s cause, at the battle of Landsdown.

His early education was superintended by Sir William Ellis; and his progress was such, that before the age of twelve he was sent to Cambridge, where he pronounced a copy of his own verses to the princess Mary d’Estè of Modena, then dutchess of York, when she visited the university.

At the accession of king James, being now at eighteen, he again exerted his poetical Rh