THOMAS,

LORD LYTTELTON,

[ONLY son of the first and celebrated lord, was born in 1744, succeeded his father in 1773, and followed him in 1779; but without leaving any kindred memorial of virtues or accomplishments, his life being marked by incongruity, and his writings by indecorum. He was a meteor, says lord Orford, whose rapid extinction could not be regretted; and as remarkable, adds Dr. Anderson 3, for an early display as for a flagitious prostitution of great abilities. He attained no small consequence as a parliamentary speaker 4, and was appointed chief justice in eyre; a place which his father, with better pretensions, could never procure.

One of his "Speeches" in the house of lords has been printed.

• See the Works of lord Orford, vol. i. p. 540.

• Anderson's British Poets, vol. x. p. 246.

♦ Lord Mulgrave in some forcible lines, which may be seen in his article, gave excellent advice to this heedless character; and stimulated him to emulate the virtues and the senatorial eminence of his father, that he might surpass him in posthumous fame: but folly listens not to the voice of the charmer, charm it never so wisely.

"Poems by a young Nobleman of distinguished Abilities, lately deceased," &c. 1780, 4to. are admitted to be lord Lyttelton's 5.

Two volumes of "Letters" published in 1780 and 1782, though attributed to him, are now considered as spurious; yet as features of an epistolary portrait, they possess much imitative merit.

In the Westminster Magazine for 1773 are some lines he wrote to his wife. The following verses will evince his lordship's capacity for higher exertions:

“ AN INVITATION TO MISS WARB-RT—N.

66

Already wafted from th' impurpled meads

Of blest Arcadia, with soft vernal airs

Zephyr had op'd the tender buds that fear'd
The inclement sky; and now the genial sun
His vivid beams o'er herb, tree, fruit, and flow'r
Effuses, and calls forth the wanton Spring
In all her charms-and shall she spread around
Her honey'd treasures and delicious bloom,
Whilst in dark cities pent, 'mid noxious fumes,
My Amoret wastes the rosy hours, nor heeds
Their nectar'd sweets, unmindful how expand

3 The editor of these poems says, he knew the noble author both in his convivial hours, and those which were more ra tionally employed. The superiority of his abilities, he adds, was always acknowledged, and the goodness of his heart for the last three years of his life became as conspicuous as the excellency of his head: while another friend avers, that the period which marked his lordship's emancipation from the fetters of pleasure and indolence, also marked his dissolution. Prefix to the Poems.

The new-born leaves, or how th' enlivening ray
Paints ev'ry flower with green and native gold?
O! come, thou fairest flower, by Nature's hand
Made not to bloom unseen, where ardent love
Invites; and 'midst the love-inspiring gloom
Of Hagley shades, deign tread the rural haunts
Of universal Pan; for there he dwells,

And those his lov'd retreats, where shadowy woods
Weave leafy arches cross the gushing rills,
That ever and anon from airy heights

Descend, and gurgling through the opening vale
Glide smoothly onward, whilst the Naiads mark
Their calm soft course.-Such was the blissful scene
By fine poetic fancy view'd of old

In Tempe's vale, where the delighted gods
With wood-nymphs danc'd, in chorus to the tune
Of pipes and voices sweet, whose charming sound
The mute herds mov'd, and held their savage hearts
In rapture. But not she who in those plains
With graceful step led on th' eternal Spring,
Fair Flora; nor the nymph whom gloomy Dis
Beheld in Enna's grove and instant lov'd,

With thee could be compar'd; nor could their charms
So touch the heart, or raise so pure a flame."]

• Poems, p. 36,

JOHN DUNNING,

LORD ASHBURTON,

[WAS the second son of an eminent attorney of Ashburton in Devonshire, and born in 1731. He was trained to the bar; but it was not till some time after he put on the gown that his abilities were discovered and countenanced. When they were, his

came on in the court

rise was rapid; and few causes of king's bench in which he was not employed as leading counsel either for the plaintiff or defendant. His industry and zeal for the interest of his clients were equal to his abilities, and he frequently pleaded the causes of the poor and the oppressed without reward. In 1767 he was made solicitor-general. His powers as a speaker introduced him to farther patronage, and a seat in parliament; where he steadily and faithfully adhered to his party, whether in or out of place, till they were enabled to bestow upon him those honours and emoluments he had well earned and justly merited. He was created baron Ashburton in 1782, was entered on the privy-council, and appointed chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. Shortly after these events his health declined, and he was necessitated to

• It is probable that the family had long been settled in that quarter, as I find a tract put forth by Richard Dunning in 1616, showing how the office of overseer to the poor may be managed so as to save £9000 per annum to the county of Devon.

retire from public business to a favourite retreat at Exmouth, where he died August 18, 17833.

His lordship claims introduction here as author of the following professional pamphlets:

"A Letter to the Proprietors of East India Stock, on the Subject of Lord Clive's Jaghire; occasioned by his Lordship's Letter on that Subject." 1764, 8vo. "An Answer to the Dutch Memorials."

Lord Ashburton was also concerned, as I understand from Mr. Reed, in a pamphlet written against the law on libels: and he has had the honour of being considered as the soundest constitutional lawyer of his day 4.]

* Gent. Mag. vol. liii. p. 717; and Debrett's Peerage.

• See Memoir of the Earl of Rosslyn in the Monthly Magazine for Feb. 1805. An earlier writer, however, after admitting his lordship's ingenuity as a pleader, and giving him credit for perspicuous language, for ready wit, and steadiness to his party, expressed a wish that he had been equally steady to the cause of the public, which cause he is stated to have forgot when he accepted the sinecure of the duchy of Lancaster, after standing foremost in painting the abuses of sinecure places, and the inability of the country to support such extravagance. Gent. Mag. ut sup. p. 1006.