d this peer, the
first Earl of Bristol. He aspired especially to the poet's _wit_; and
the ambition to be a wit flew like wildfire among his family, especially
infecting his two sons, Carr, the elder brother of the subject of this
memoir, and Lord Hervey.

It would have been well could the Earl of Bristol have transmitted to
his sons his other qualities. He was pious, moral, affectionate,
sincere; a consistent Whig of the old school, and, as such, disapproving
of Sir Robert Walpole, of the standing army, the corruptions, and that
doctrine of expediency so unblushingly avowed by the ministers.

Created Earl of Bristol in 1714, the heir-apparent to his titles and
estates was the elder brother, by a former marriage, of John, Lord
Hervey; the dissolute, clever, whimsical Carr, Lord Hervey. Pope, in one
of his satirical appeals to the _second_ Lord Hervey, speaks of his
friendship with Carr, 'whose early death deprived the family' (of
Hervey) 'of as much wit and honour as he left behind him in any part of
it.' The _wit_ was a family attribute, but the _honour_ was dubious:
Carr was as deistical as any Maccaroni of the day, and, perhaps, more
dissolute than most: in one respect he has left behind him a celebrity
which may be as questionable as his wit, or his honour; he is reputed to
be the father of Horace Walpole, and if we accept presumptive evidence
of the fact, the statement is clearly borne out, for in his wit, his
indifference to religion, to say the least, his satirical turn, his
love of the world, and his contempt of all that was great and good, he
strongly resembles his reputed son; whilst the levity of Lady Walpole's
character, and Sir Robert's laxity and dissoluteness, do not furnish any
reasonable doubt to the statement made by Lady Louisa Stuart, in the
introduction to Lord Wharncliffe's 'Life of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.'
Carr, Lord Hervey, died early, and his half-brother succeeded him in his
title and expectations.

John, Lord Hervey, was educated first at Westminster School, under Dr.
Freind, the friend of Mrs. Montagu; thence he was removed to Clare Hall,
Cambridge: he graduated as a nobleman, and became M.A. in 1715.

At Cambridge Lord Hervey might have acquired some manly prowess; but he
had a mother who was as strange as the family into which she had
married, and who was passionately devoted to her son: she evinced her
affection by never letting him have a chance of being like other English
boys. Wh