Page:The Story of Nell Gwyn.djvu/221

Rh "The beauties at Windsor," says Walpole, "are the Court of Paphos, and ought to be engraved for the Memoirs of its charming historiographer, Count Hamilton." If the reader is of Walpole's way of thinking, how much more necessary is it that something should be said about "the charming historiographer" himself!

Anthony Hamilton (who never appears himself in any part of his work) was the third son of the Honourable Sir George Hamilton, by Mary Butler, third daughter of Walter, Viscount Thurles, eldest son of Walter, eleventh Earl of Ormond. His father, who died in 1667, leaving six sons and three daughters, was the fourth son of James, first Earl of Abercorn. His mother died in August, 1680, as appears from an interesting and affecting letter of her brother, the great Duke of Ormond, dated Carrick, August 25, in that year.

Of the six sons of the Honourable Sir George Hamilton,, the eldest, was groom of the bed-chamber and colonel of a regiment of foot to Charles II. I can find no earlier mention of him than the