plenishing, was a never-ending source of gossip.

(99) Anthony Morris Storer (1746-1799), called the Bon ton, and Lord
Carlisle, were termed the Pylades and Orestes of Eton, and the
intimacy was continued in later life; M.P. for Carlisle
1774-80, and for Morpeth, together with Peter Delime, 1780-4. In
1781 he succeeded in obtaining the appointment as one of the
Commissioners for Trade, in which Selwyn and Carlisle had so deeply
interested themselves. He was with Carlisle on his mission to
America in 1778 and 1779. During their political connection he acted
as a medium between Fox and North, in whose family he was intimate.
Fox made him Secretary of Legation at Paris in 1783--Gibbon
competing for the office, and when the Duke of Manchester was called
home he was nominated as Minister Plenipotentiary; six days later,
however, his friends were no longer in power. It was in this year
that his long friendship with Carlisle was broken; he did not stand
for re-election for Morpeth and revoked the bequest of all his
property which he had made to him. Storer never married. He was
universally admired for his versatility and his proficiency in all
he undertook; he excelled in conversation, music, and literary
attainments; he was the best skater, the best dancer of his time. He
began his valuable and curious collection of books and prints in
1781. On these and card-playing he spent more money than he could
afford, but in 1793, at his father's death, he received an ample
fortune. He then occupied himself building and adorning a property,
Purley, near Reading. He left his library and prints to Eton
College, which also possesses his portrait.

(100) See note (98).

1774, July 23, Chesterfield Street.--I received yesterday a reprieve
from Gloucester, and Harris's sanction for my staying here a week
longer; so that the meeting, and the report of Mr. Guise and Mr.
Burrow's declaring themselves both as candidates upon separate
interests, but secretly assisting one another, were, as Richard the
3rd calls it, a weak device of the enemy. I found myself greatly
relieved, and sat down and wrote a letter to the Mayor and
Corporation, which I may cite as a modele de vrai persiflage. I
went and dined with Lord Ferrars and Lady Townshend;(101) she has
received all her arrears, so we have now the pleasure of continuing
our hostilities les pieds chauds.

Poor Lord Thomond died the evening before last of an apoplexy, with
which he was seized