f horrors, was the second son of a country gentleman, of Matson,
in Gloucestershire, Colonel John Selwyn, who had been an aide-de-camp of
Marlborough's, and afterwards a frequenter of the courts of the first
two Georges. He inherited his wit chiefly from his mother, Mary, the
daughter of General Farington or Farringdon, of the county of Kent.
Walpole tells us that she figured among the beauties of the court of the
Prince and Princess of Wales, and was bedchamber-woman to Queen
Caroline. Her character was not spotless, for we hear of an intrigue,
which her own mistress imparted in confidence to the Duchess of Orleans
(the mother of the Regent: they wrote on her tomb _Cy gist l'oisivete_,
because idleness is the _mother_ of all vice), and which eventually
found its way into the 'Utrecht Gazette.' It was Mrs. Selwyn, too, who
said to George II., that he was the last person she would ever have an
intrigue with, because she was sure he would tell the queen of it: it
was well known that that very virtuous sovereign made his wife the
confidante of his amours, which was even more shameless than young De
Sevigne's taking advice from his mother on his intrigue with Ninon de
l'Enclos. She seems to have been reputed a wit, for Walpole retails her
_mots_ as if they were worth it, but they are not very remarkable: for
instance, when Miss Pelham lost a pair of diamond earrings, which she
had borrowed, and tried to faint when the loss was discovered, some one
called for lavender-drops as a restorative. 'Pooh!' cries Mrs. Selwyn,
'give her diamond-drops.'

George Augustus was born on the 11th of August, 1719. Walpole says that
he knew him at eight years old, and as the two were at Eton about the
same time, it is presumed that they were contemporaries there. In fact,
a list of the boys there, in 1732, furnished to Eliot Warburton,
contains the names of Walpole, Selwyn, Edgecumbe, and Conway, all in
after-life intimate friends and correspondents. From Eton to Oxford was
the natural course, and George was duly entered at Hertford College. He
did not long grace Alma Mater, for the _grand tour_ had to be made, and
London life to be begun, but he was there long enough to contract the
usual Oxford debts, which his father consented to pay more than once. It
is amusing to find the son getting Dr. Newton to write him a contrite
and respectful letter to the angry parent, to liquidate the 'small
accounts' accumulated in London and Oxford as early as