.

** The group of Selwyn, Edgecumbe, and Williams which was painted
for Horace Walpole in 1781, and subsequently became the property of
the late Lord Taunton, now belongs to his daughter, the Hon. Mrs.
Edward Stanley, and is at Quantock Lodge, Bridgwater. It is a
charming and interesting picture. A replica by Sir J. Reynolds, the
property of Lord Cadogan, is at Chelsea House.

The other group was of a younger generation, more brilliant and more
modern. They might not inappropriately be called the Fox group,
since his personality was so conspicuous among them. They talked
politics and gambled at Brooks's, they appreciated each other's
brightness, and lost their money with the indifference of true
friends. There was the gallant and charming soldier Fitzpatrick, the
schoolfellow and friend of Fox, the sagacious and versatile but
place-seeking Storer. Hare, who, less well-born, had risen by his
wit and talents to a place among the cleverest men of the time, "the
Hare with many friends," as he was called by the Duchess of Gordon.
Frederick, Earl of Carlisle and Crawford, the "petit Craufurt" of
Mme. du Deffand; and chief of all was Charles Fox, who to Selwyn was
incomprehensible. Selwyn had been his father's friend, and had known
him from childhood. He loved him and liked his companionship; yet
his unrestrained folly at the gambling-table and on the racecourse,
his loose ideas on money matters, and his political opinions, at
times annoyed, irritated, and puzzled him almost beyond endurance.
With the older and the younger group Selwyn was on the same terms of
intimate friendship: now pleasing by his wit, and now helping by his
kindness and common sense.

Castle Howard was the place, outside London, which most attracted
him. It is even to-day a long way from the metropolis, and one feels
something like surprise that such a lover of the town as Selwyn
could, even to the end of his life, undertake the tiresome journey
to Yorkshire. But in the stately galleries of Vanbrugh's design he
renewed his associations with France. There he was not bored by
country society; in the home circle he had all the company he
needed. He could look out over the rolling uplands and see the
distant wolds, contented to observe and enjoy them from afar amidst
the books and pictures which his host had collected. If he wanted
exercise the spacious gardens were at hand, and the artificial
adornment of temples and statuary pleased a taste highly culti