at home, that his guardians sent him
abroad in the custody of a tutor. To the horror of that unfortunate
person, his charge enrolled himself as an adherent of the Pretender, and
went to pay his respects at Avignon. The Duke had talent beyond the
ordinary. He could write fairly well, make an excellent speech, and had
a keen sense of wit. When he went to Paris, the British Ambassador, Lord
Stair, took it upon himself to give this madcap some sound advice. He
extolled the virtues of the late Marquess of Wharton, and, "I hope," he
said, "you will follow so illustrious an example of fidelity to your
Prince and love to your country." "I thank your Excellency for your good
counsel," replied the visitor courteously, "and as your Excellency had
also a worthy and discerning father, I hope that you will likewise copy
so bright an example, and tread in all his footsteps,"--an effective
though a brutal rejoinder, for the first Lord Stair had betrayed his
Sovereign. Young Wharton, on his return, however, showed by his conduct
that his visit to Avignon had been little more than a prank, for while
he had accepted a dukedom from the Pretender, he, in 1718, being still a
minor, accepted a dukedom from the British Sovereign--the single
instance of such a dignity being conferred upon a minor.

Wharton, who did everything in haste, had in his seventeenth year eloped
with Martha, daughter of Major-General Richard Holmes, and married her
in the Fleet on March 2, 1715. As was only to be expected from a person
so volatile he from the beginning neglected his wife; but, as is put
quaintly in that unreliable work, _Memoirs of a Certain Island adjacent
to the Kingdom of Utopia_, which was concocted by Mrs. Eliza Haywood,
"after some years of continu'd extravagance, the Duke, either through
the natural Inconsistency of his Temper, or the Reflection how much he
had been drawn in by his unworthy Companions to embezel his Estate ...
began to think there were Comforts in Retirement; and falling into the
Conversation of the sober part of Mankind, more than he had done, was
persuaded by them to take home his Dutchess.... He brought her to his
House; but Love had no part in his Resolution. He lived with her indeed
but she is with him as a Housekeeper, as a Nurse." The relations were,
however, more intimate than Mrs. Haywood believed, for in March, 1719, a
son was born to them.

"The Duke of Wharton has brought his Duchess to town, and is fond of her
to