tter years his mind was weakened, and he died
in 1716 of apoplexy. Walpole calls him 'one of those divine men who,
like a chapel in a palace, remained unprofaned, while all the rest is
tyranny, corruption, and folly.'

A huge stout figure rolls in now to join the toasters in Shire Lane. In
the puffy, once handsome face, there are signs of age, for its owner is
past sixty; yet he is dressed in superb fashion; and in an hour or so,
when the bottle has been diligently circulated, his wit will be brighter
and keener than that of any young man present. I do not say it will be
repeatable, for the talker belongs to a past age, even coarser than that
of the Kit-kat. He is Charles Sackville,[14] famous as a companion of
the merriest and most disreputable of the Stuarts, famous--or, rather,
infamous--for his mistress, Nell Gwynn, famous for his verses, for his
patronage of poets, and for his wild frolics in early life, when Lord
Buckhurst. Rochester called him

'The best good man with the worst-natured muse;'

and Pope says he was

'The scourge of pride, though sanctified or great,
Of fops in learning and of knaves in state.'

Our sailors still sing the ballad which he is said to have written on
the eve of the naval engagement between the Duke of York and Admiral
Opdam, which begins--

'To all you ladies now on land
We men at sea indite.'

With a fine classical taste and a courageous spirit, he had in early
days been guilty of as much iniquity as any of Charles's profligate
court. He was one of a band of young libertines who robbed and murdered
a poor tanner on the high-road, and were acquitted, less on account of
the poor excuse they dished up for this act than of their rank and
fashion. Such fine gentlemen could not be hanged for the sake of a mere
workman in those days--no! no! Yet he does not seem to have repented of
this transaction, for soon after he was engaged with Sedley and Ogle in
a series of most indecent acts at the Cock Tavern in Bow-street, where
Sedley, in 'birthday attire,' made a blasphemous oration from the
balcony of the house. In later years he was the pride of the poets:
Dryden and Prior, Wycherley, Hudibras, and Rymer, were all encouraged by
him, and repaid him with praises. Pope and Dr. King were no less
bountiful in their eulogies of this Maecenas. His conversation was so
much appreciated that gloomy William III. chose him as his companion, as
merry Charles had done before.