, painted by Van Dyck. Perhaps the artistic
tastes they had in common formed the bond of friendship between them.
Lord Wharton, it appears, admired Van Dyck's portrait work almost as
much as King Charles. On his second marriage, five years later, he
employed the artist to paint a number of family portraits. He prized
these so highly that he built a gallery specially for them in his new
house at Winchendon.

The time soon came when more strenuous questions occupied him. The
contest between the king and the Parliament brought every Englishman
to a parting of the ways. Lord Wharton was a Puritan, and took a
decided stand on the side of Parliament. His personal relations with
the king were outweighed by his sense of patriotic duty.

At the breaking out of the war he entered the Parliamentary army,
serving successively as colonel of a regiment of foot, and as a
captain of a troop of horse. He took part in the battle of Edgehill,
and was brought into considerable prominence at this time. In a famous
speech made soon afterwards, he charged the king's nephew, Prince
Rupert, with gross "inhumanity and barbarousness" during the course of
the battle. Evidently where his mind was made up, Lord Wharton was a
strong partisan.

[Illustration: PHILIP, LORD WHARTON
_Hermitage Gallery, St. Petersburg_]

Of this we should suspect nothing from our portrait. It is hard to
imagine that this beardless young courtier, so suave and amiable in
appearance, will ten years later be fighting sternly against his king.
Here his thoughts seem to be wholly romantic: his eyes have the dreamy
expression of an expectant lover. His is surely a knightly soul
unstained by worldliness. The face is of that perfect oval admired by
artists as the highest standard of beauty. Taste and refinement are
the most striking qualities one reads in it; the mouth is the most
individual feature, small and modelled in delicate curves. Yet with
all its sweetness, those firmly closed lips suggest tenacity of
opinion and strength of will.

As the event proved, Lord Wharton was a man of uncompromising
political opinions. He was at one time committed to the Tower on a
charge of contempt of the House. In his long and active life he saw
England pass through many changes. He was an old man when the last of
the Stuart kings (James II.) fled from England, leaving a vacant
throne. Macaulay tells us of the Whig nobleman's speech in the meeting
of the Lords which resulted in the in