ssed a liberal, honest nature, and an heroic
character.

All the good qualities of these two young noblemen seem to have been
united in Anthony Hamilton, of whom De Grammont gives the following
character:--'The elder of the Hamiltons, their cousin, was the man who,
of all the court, dressed best; he was well made in his person, and
possessed those happy talents which lead to fortune, and procure success
in love: he was a most assiduous courtier, had the most lively wit, the
most polished manners, and the most punctual attention to his master
imaginable; no person danced better, nor was any one a more general
lover--a merit of some account in a court entirely devoted to love and
gallantry. It is not at all surprising that, with these qualities, he
succeeded my Lord Falmouth in the king's favour.'

The fascinating person thus described was born in Ireland: he had
already experienced some vicissitudes, which were renewed at the
Revolution of 1688, when he fled to France--the country in which he had
spent his youth--and died at St. Germains, in 1720, aged seventy-four.
His poetry and his fairy tales are forgotten; but his 'Memoirs of the
Count de Grammont' is a work which combines the vivacity of a French
writer with the truth of an English historian.

Ormond Yard, St. James's Square, was the London residence of the Duke of
Ormond: the garden wall of Ormond House took up the greater part of York
Street: the Hamilton family had a commodious house in the same courtly
neighbourhood; and the cousins mingled continually. Here persons of the
greatest distinction constantly met; and here the 'Chevalier de
Grammont,' as he was still called, was received in a manner suitable to
his rank and style; and soon regretted that he had passed so much time
in other places; for, after he once knew the charming Hamiltons, he
wished for no other friends.

There were three courts at that time in the capital; that at Whitehall,
in the king's apartments; that in the queen's, in the same palace; and
that of Henrietta Maria, the Queen-Mother, as she was styled, at
Somerset House. Charles's was pre-eminent in immorality, and in the
daily outrage of all decency; that of the unworthy widow of Charles I.
was just bordering on impropriety; that of Katherine of Braganza was
still decorous, though not irreproachable. Pepys, in his Diary, has this
passage:--'Visited Mrs. Ferrers, and stayed talking with her a good
while, there being a little, proud, ugl